[FutureX 2001]

By now, I love the G2. Love it's power, love it's ride. Great car all around. My only real problem now (besides the trunk warning light, hehe). Is the Bose Premium Sound System. It just sucks on my car, no nice way to put it.

It always has distortion, garbled, sound. This is the only way I know how to describe it:

-Have you ever used speakers that don't receive enough power?, that's the kind of distortion i'm getting, the bass isn't working right, the higher the bass, the more garbled it is, specifically the "Rumble" type of Bass. Voice is awful, garbled, lots of distortion.

-Have you ever had two wires touch each other in a sound system? You know the kind of sound it makes? (No, it's not a kaboom or pitch) distortion ...That's what I hear, distortion. Garbled sound.

The distortion is a lot higher at lower volumes... but ALWAYS present in a high amount at all volumes.

I'm really not a fan of ripping out the Stock Sound Systems, my G1's Stock-None bose unit sounds better (That's a pretty scarry thought). I don't know what it could be. I've also posted a question on how to access the speakers, not many replies yet. I have a GS Sedan, I know for the front doors you have to remove the whole door panel for the rear, I'm not quite sure how to take them off, I tried lifting the covers as suggested on the forum, but they wont go, I tried with a philips flat head and the thing felt like it would break! I also know the amp is underneath the whole rear seat...

So I gave up for now, any ideas? I know Bose systems are costly to repair I don't like the fact that an aftermarket wouldn't look right on the Legend (the cut out), and the fact that I would lose the Volume control wouldn't be good. I have an extra 5 1/4 Kicker around here, If I can access the speakers i'll hook it up to see if it's the speakers themselves or something in the system (amp/radio/wire). I love music, can't really enjoy my ride without it!

 

[mushskid]

Garbled???

The only stock item left in my car is the head unit. I don't have that garbling problem. Before I replaced the stock speakers, I had some clarity issues but, not severe. It doesn't sound as good as it could but no real problems with distortion. Don't know what to guess at for you but thought I'd share that much

 

[wallstrum]

hey futurex - my setup is just like mushkid's (i have a '94 gs sedan, and i know *exactly* what you are talking about in terms of the sound). i have the stock headunit (retaining the steering wheel controls, of course ) with an audiolink (http://www.linkmeup.com) line-out convertor feeding an equalizer and some amps, etc. my system sounds a *ton* better than it did stock, but it is nowhere near competition sound. let me know if you have any specific questions about doing this, as i wired the whole thing myself (including installing new speakers all around and running new speaker wire to all of them).

wally

 

[FutureX 2001]

Update...

Okay, here's an upate.

Finally got the rear covers off, after looking at some pictures supplied by LegendGS. I noticed I was attempting to remove the covers incorrectly. In my 90L coupe the whole face comes off, on the GS, it's just the very top portion with the felt. With a small philips flat head, I took off the grille. I faded the sound to the rear speakers and they sound perfect. They hit well, working great. It seems all bad sound is coming from the front two speakers. I took off the front passenger door (was pretty easy actually) I didn't take it all off, but enough room so I can see the speaker from below. I placed my hand lightly on the speaker and the sound cut off. Let it go and it came back with bad quality again. My conclusion is both front speakers have gone bad, they have bad internal contacts. When high bass or "fine" pitch is produced, it fails to properly reproduce it because the internal wire moves and is bad.

Now to replace it with some Polk 6 1/2 as recommended on the board, or replacing it with BOSE originals (that may be costly)

Does anyone know if Fry's Electronics carries the Polk 6 1/2 speakers? I have a $50 gift certificate, with an extra 20-30$ that would be $70-80 to spend on them.

 

[mushskid]

Future
Did you notice any discoloring on the fronts? I understand that some people have had leakage problems with door seals that didn't show themselves in the interior (the water apparently ran inside the door down to the speakers). Assuming that there would be some continuity to the coloration, maybe some staining may be visible and you could address that prior to replacing.
I was kind of surprised when Wally mentioned that he had the same problem. Maybe my system just hadn't been used to much before I bought the car (little old lady owner). Regardless, my system sounded pretty decent for stock before. Now I'm really liking it!

 

[FutureX 2001]

Considering I did not take the whole door panel off, I didn't see light directly hit them. However, from what I did manage to see, they looked fine, the the cone felt a little weak however (thin). Then again the ones in the rear, are powerful, but the cone itself doesn't feel very strong either, how does BOSE do that.. Hmmm...

 

[Bigdaddysan]

To get the best sound you will need to replace everything. But, with that philosophy you will spend a lot. Instead, you want to make your front speakers sound better. I am not that familiar with the bose system. But if the speakers themselves are not amplified (amp part of speaker...BMW is known for their Bose systems with this) you can just replace the speakers. MB Quart are about the best you can get. A hundred bucks and you're through, but if this is too much, the Polk dX series is good as well as the Pioneer Premier series; both of these run about $70. The store you have a gift cert. to isnt around where I live, any good quality mobile audio store should have these or know who in your area does.

 

[FutureX 2001]

I haven't seen the dX series. This is the way I feel about sound:

Quality. Don't care if the person in the car next to me can hear it. All I want is quality inside the car. Some nice non-irritating pitch, a good punch of bass inside the car is enough (Doesn't have to hit me on the chest when it punches). The Polk EX602a was recommended to me. Partly because they don't use require too much input, and sound good. (I don't want to replace the BOSE amp.

Each speaker on the G2 does not have the amp as part of it. It has a 4 Channel Amp I believe. Seperate.

The G1 Bose system did have Bose Mini-Amp as part of each speaker.

 

[silko82ny]

throw em out!!

let me put my 2 sense in. please!! the best thing you can do to your car, is get rid of those bose sh*$!!!! i will guarantee you will never be happier spending the extra $2-400 and invest in some interior speakers (6/9 rears and i believe 6 1/4 fronts)!! i have two alpine 12's powered by a sony 400 amp. i payed $375 for 4 kenwood Xcellons interiors. installation took about 2 hours, but is well worth it! the only thing im not sure about is that annoying bose amp. i have been holding off on getting a 4 channel amp for the interiors because of laziness, and also because the speakers are sufficiently loud with the stock amp, only the amp blows and turns offf after prolonged loud playing. i could just wire the speakers to the deck (kenwood X) which puts out 50 watts x 4, just too lazy. but if you can deal with the speakers getting really low after the amp shuts (pretty rare occasion as of late), then this setup is pretty nice. and it sounds really good if setup right and you got nice interiors! amazing sound

 

[silko82ny]

also...

sorry, 375 is alot, but you can get very descent speakers for less. but do get all four, its well worth it. i blew all 4 of the bose speeakers with that kenwood deck, and after the new kenwoods and the nice "bump" in the trunk, the system is too sweet. definitely not tooo loud, but can ring your eardrums, if you want to turn it up. crystal sound is beautiful and cant even be touched by those garbage paper coned bose speakers. take my advice, you will never even worry about the sound in your legend ever again...
oh, and my kenwood interiors are gauranteed for like 5 years or something, so i dont have to worry about wasting $375 if they blow. just bring em in and get new ones.

 

[FutureX 2001]

Re: throw em out!!

Silko,

I Don't like excessive sound, I don't want tweeters that the people in the car next to me can hear, I don't want BASS that rattles the car next to me, to me high quality music is, music that has a good amount of pitch and bass in harmony, that properly reproduce sound spectrum, without being excessively loud. Music with highquality INSIDE the car, I care less about what people outside hear.

I like systems in which you can hear the Violins in Vivaldi's music without making your ears bleed, or listen to the stylings of Blink182 without headaches. I am pretty satisfied with the bass being produced by the rear speakers....

I like the sound of BOSE speakers. While the ones' in the G2 are not the best BOSE speakers on the market, I truly believe BOSE makes some of the best speakers in the industry.

Many people that I know load up on AMPS, big 10+" subs, tweeters hooked up at full pitch, etc... I hate that, no harmonic sound in my opinion. Then again, some people really like that. I also will not change the headunit, I don't like the way it looks afterward, and like the remote volume controls.

I'll probably get the 2 front Polks. If the balance is too far off, I will also replace the rear 6x9s with Polks of the same line.

 

[silko82ny]

gotcha

i hear ya on that one. i kinda miss the volume control on the wheel man. but, you know us kids... anyway, two 12s is not alot for me... some friends have 15's, one friend has an 18 in his truck. so two 12's for me is straight, ya know? and even though bose does make good quality s***, ya gotta look at the speaker itself. unless your boses are different than mine were, the things are literally paper, and the quality of sound can only go so far. if anything, just browse around for some ints. you wont be let down. with no bass in the trunk, and at least a new set of 6/9's in the rear, the bass and sound from a good set of 6/9's will surprise the s*** out of you. trusted

 

[FutureX 2001]

Well, hehe, I am familiar with good sound...

This is my room setup to my computer/stereo receiver.

Computer Seperates Signals

Front:
Altec Lansing Home Theatre Center with (4) Speakers in it,+ (2) Kicker Tweeters,+ (2)Kicker Midranges

Rear:
(2) 3-Way Pioneer Hi-Fi Towers (with 8" Woofers on them)
(2) Kicker Mid-Bass Speakers
(2) Kicker Tweeters


The amount of bass produced by the 2 paper-like rear BOSE 6x9s is amazing, in my opinion. For such a small paper speaker. The fronts are bad so I don't know how well they were originally. I will be replacing them with the Polk series like I said. If it sounds unbalanced I'll switch the rear to Polk 6x9s as well. Sooner or later I'll have two custom tweeters hooked up on the side door panel. BTW, I'm 18, I'm still young too

 

[WhiteLegend]

hey Future X
just replacing the front speakers on your system might not work. The bose premium system on our cars uses 1-2ohm speakers, most of aftermarket speakers are 4ohms. If you just replace the front, that means the front speakers will play at half power when the rears are playing at full power. You will get very unbalanced sound biasing toward the rear.
2 years ago when I first got my legend and the premium sound system was [email protected] up, I was like you, I didn't want to change everything. But I finally replaced the whole system this past summer and WOW what a world of difference, I couldn't believe I lived with that bose crap for almost 2 years.
I know Bose makes quality audio components, I really liked the factory bose system that came with my old maxima. But the fact is that the system they made for our legend is absolutely crap, almost everyone had some trouble with it whether it's the speakers or the amp, etc.

 

[mushskid]

Nice Sound

I want everything crystal clear AND my ears bleeding...

 

[cdndvl]

I get a kick out of listening to the people talk about the Bose CRAP.... They were a great speaker IN THEIR DAY !!! Technology, however does not just stop, so the best speakers of today will also be "crap" in a few years too!!! Just think about the 486 computers of only 8 years ago... They hardly even function now, but they were state of the art back then !!!!

My $.02...

 

[wallstrum]

future - there is one more thing that you may want to check into in terms of what speakers to use. i think that soundstream makes some 2 ohm speakers in both 6.5 and 6x9 sizes (yep - found them here: <http://www.soundstream.com/spl_loudspeakers.html>). i don't know how much they run in terms of cost, but i am sure that other people on the forums have used them as direct replacements for the stock bose speakers. you should post a question for the people who are using them and ask what they think of them. i think that using these and replacing all of the bose speakers at the same time (or just getting yourself 2 new bose front speakers) will make you happier in the end, as i think that mixing the impedances of the front/back speakers will just sound weird. just my 2¢.

wally

 

[FutureX 2001]

Good point, speakers will always evolve, I still say the rear 6x9 bose speakers sound pretty good, and they're of a cheap like material.. hehe

I will change all 4 speakers with some polks in due time. I wont remove the amp.. too much trouble, wiring, and it's not like I need more output, and there's no way I will take off the head unit.. If the head unit fails, I'll probably buy it off someone else.

 

[silko82ny]

good way

Good point, speakers will always evolve, I still say the rear 6x9 bose speakers sound pretty good, and they're of a cheap like material.. hehe

I will change all 4 speakers with some polks in due time. I wont remove the amp.. too much trouble, wiring, and it's not like I need more output, and there's no way I will take off the head unit.. If the head unit fails, I'll probably buy it off someone else.

okay now, thats a good way to go. youll be good with those interiors... dont even worry about the bose amp, cuz it should do just enough of what your looking for...

 

[Guest]

Holy ****, I can't believe that you are still talking about this. Okay NOW LISTEN TO WHAT I HAVE TO SAY!!!!

The Bose speakers that come in the GS are powered by a external 2ohm amp. If you stick 4ohm speakers infront it is going to be really messed up because instead of getting the 50W out of the 200Wx4 Bose amp that your Bose ones were getting before, they are only going to be receiving 25W. Because of this they will be much quiter than your rear speakers and clipping will also start to occur as your turn up the volume because you will have to turn the volume up massively high to get any volume out of them. Even if you fade the sound up to the front you will get this problem.

Here is my suggestion to you... There is a company that makes a little unit that somehow does something at line level so that you can plug in a new amp and run 4 ohm speakers off of it. In this case you would need to get a new amp, I would suggest like a Rockford Fosgate 400.4 (cheap and tons of power, look at www.ikesound.com). Then you could put in any speakers that you want but you would need to replace the rear speakers too.

The other option is to buy some 2 ohm speakers to go up front, but these are usually pretty expensive and in the long run isn't worth it because you'll most likely end up replacing them anyways.

To finish off what I was suggesting before. The unit that you have to buy though that comes out of the deck is like $50-75 so I would suggest that you just take that money and put it towards a new deck like the one that I have. I don't know why you would think that it would look bad, I think that it looks much better, and the one that I have is the only one that you can even buy anymore that works with the Alpine CD Changers that you can buy for our cars.... if you have the motorola one that came with the car then you can buy an adapter to put it in the phase and if you have the alpine one then you need to remove the adapter.

Here is the deck in my car:

You will be much happier in the long run if you just replace the speakers and the deck all at the same time and it will be much easier for whoever is installing it (believe me, I'm telling you all this from experience)

Good luck, and let me know what you decide or if you just have any more questions.