When you turn on the defrost, they heat up.

As for Bose, my wifes Pathfinder has the bose setup and it has squeaky highs and muddy base. No matter what I do to the adjustments it still sounds bad. She does not care so I'll leave it, but if I was driving it every day, I would replace it.

My friend of mine simply said "No Highs, no lows, it must be Bose"

Chris

 

Your friend, as well as many I converse with on the Audi groups, are right. Even the Audi Bose concert head unit/speakers is junk.

Thanks for the info. I guess my dealer was too busy smoking in between documents to explain the heated mirrors. Scumbag.

 

I have an early VIN touring model, and have had the Bose amp switched out twice. System was still NOTHING like what a premium sound system should be. I just replaced everything. Anybody wanna buy a complete Bose System???

 

Bose should stick with that wave radio, as for car stereos, its gotta stop. My old car (00 civic si), minus what bose calls a sub, the civics crappy mids and tweeters sounded much better. I think they where pioneer. Sorry to keep that bose bashing going, but it infuriates me when people who havent heard the stereo in my car and say "wow it came with a bose sub"!!!!!

 

I also disagree with "The Bandwagon Hypothesis".

I have a 2004 Roadster and the Bose stereo was so fatiguing to listen to that I often turned it off. This is really saying something since I always listen to music while I am driving, particularly on my 1 hr commute.

The highs were shrill, and yet it lacked any sense of imaging or focus. The midrange was muddy. The bass was typical cheap one-note boomy bass. I could not belive how bad the frequency response was.

It is true that to some people it was fine. Some people also love eating at McDonalds. To me the problem was that I was charged a bunch of money for a "premium sound system" that sounded worse than the base system in my wife's PT cruiser.

Upon further investigation of the Bose stereo it is obvious why the problem are there. I had the chance to look at all the parts since I pulled it all out and replaced it. This is one seriously cheap piece of junk.

The "sub woofer" is a shallow paper cone with a tiny magnet. Calling it a subwoofer is really an insult to subwoofers everywhere. The front speakers had magents so small they looked like speakers I have pulled out of old $40 boom boxes.

The sub amp lacks adequate dc-to-dc converters (which cost money). Instead Bose went with a very low impedance driver. It's a great way to save money, but the amp really lacks the kick necessary to drive a tight/controlled driver. This, they were forced to go with a boomy free air system with a very obvious resonance. (under damped).

The compaints with the Bose sytem were not a "bandwagon" effect. It really did sound poor to people who are "in to" stereos. It sounded worse than 1998 Durango's stock stereo.

Sadly it does appear that Nissan is married to Bose. I recently test drove the Armada. Although the bose in the Armada sounds a little better than the Z Bose, it is still mediocre at best.

To be fair to Bose... it is possible that they are on an extremely tight budget from Nissan. The real problem might be that Nissan is allocating too little money for the stereo. Maybe Bose could do better if Nissan would increase the budget a little.

 

I guess if I lived in Tennessee I might not either. But living up here in the ice and snow belt of Connecticut I can assure you that heated mirrors ROCK in some conditions.

When you come out from work and find your car encased in frost or ice it sure is nice to push a button and watch it melt off of the mirrors instead of trying to scrape it and scratching the mirror surface. It also help if you end up driving in a freezing sleet or wet snow.

But I agree with your main point. If I had it to do over again I would skip the touring package and just upgrade the seats and heaters myself. The Bose was a total waste of money. (although I do like the feature of a 6-cd in dash changer.)

 

agree. other than 6 cd in dash changer, i don't see any reason spendingm money on bose.
its even not competable with any other aftermarket products.
so i spent big money for bose and i have to spend another big money to replace.

 

Bose is one big marketing machine with no actual quality to back it up. Unfortunately, people see the Bose name and go "oooh". Truthfully, Bose spends most of their money on marketing and research (in what people like to hear, not in speaker quality) and end up using cheap components.....while charging 2x as much as you would expect.

If Bose was good audiophile equipment, why don't magazines such as Stereophile and shops that carry Paradigm, B&W, Krell, Martin Logan, etc. speakers carry Bose as well?

I resent having to pay extra for a Bose system but there is no way to avoid it. The worst part is, as mentioned before, is that is it so integrated you cannot replace it or even add to it without major expense.

In my first drive in my new G, I got listening fatigue after a few minutes and had to adjust my bass & treble to -1. It still sounds hollow, boomy, and tinny. BLAH! =(
It is funny that Nissan may replace the Bose amps, but it will still be a Bose replacement.

BTW, this is my first post on this forum!

 

When I get to replacing the stereo, I will have digital pictures of me and a aluminum bat, getting aquainted with all its components.

 

Wow, I can't believe so many people dislike the bose system! I for one think it sounds great!! Not the best... but for a stock system, its one of the best I've heard!

 

I finally got around to replacing the BLOSE. To the people who say they don't think it sounds too bad I'm glad you're happy with it, but I for one got tired of a CD player that always skipped when cold, a HU with no real sound controls and no bass or treble. I replaced HU with an Alpine,door speakers are Polks and the sub is a MTX 10". 2 80 watt RMS amps give it enough power and the sound is so much clearer than the Blose. My whole system only set me back about $400 and about 10 hours to install thanks to the screwed up wiring for the Blose. The only good thing I can say about the Blose is the radio reception was good.

 

I have one of the early Vins and had the CE400 recall done. I agree the system could be a lot better, but it is not an entire rip off. First of all the stock system on the Z is complete crap...if you think the bose is bad it is 10x worse. Second many cars i've seen offer a 6cd changer as a $400-600 upgrade. You also get a tape deck which would prob run u $100 were it an upgrade. Then there's the sub...which on cars that offer it is usually a $300-400 upgrade as well.

Add it all up and the system is worth $1k more. Nissan is profiting on the other $1k, no doubt...but I think you guys overestimate how bad this system is. Yes the bass is a little muddy and the imaging leaves much to be desired...but the system is pretty loud and has a lot of features (audiopilot, 6cd, cassette, RDS, etc.). Aftermarket will always give you more for your dollar...but it doesn't come preinstalled with a 3 year warranty...and the upgraded trim may have some resale benefit in the future.

NzZ

 

i have the 05 touring the bose system in it doesn't sound that bad i would also give it a 3 out of 4 stars there always room for improvement with anything you get.

maybe im just not hearing the same things you guys hear in the bose.

 

is there a TSB out for the BOSE stereo now? My car does the volume up/down thing and the one of my left speakers (i believe the front) cuts out randomly

i want that crap fixed

ive got a 2005 touring

 

Wow a post from the past.

Bose is all about marketing their science and research. The quality of the sound is very poor. The materials and components are very cheap. You don't have to be a sound engineer to hear these problems and to see the quality of the components.