Oh yeah. To your trained ears I'm sure his aftermarket system is just "louder" than the terrible stock speakers.

Yes, it is that bad, and no, you have no clue what you are talking about.

edit- I wanted to add that your Harry Potter audiobook isn't a good candidate for sound quality testing.

 

The Z is too small a car to have a system any louder/punchier than the Bose. I personally never had any problems with Bose, not in my Maxima and not in my Z. And this is coming from someone who had a Rainbow + Eclipse setup in his 5th gen, only to be disappointed. After I removed the system, all I did was sound-deaden my rear-deck, and the bass on the Max was flawless. In the FX, on the other hand, the bass doesn't resonate nearly well enough because the cabin is too large.

The Bose in the 1st gen G35 is just garbage, though.

 

I didnt say it was just louder...I said that it sounds BETTER louder. As in crisper and clearer sound at louder volume. If you play the bose at normal levels, it is still decent. I play mine very loud sometimes and people have told that it is pretty loud. Even gotten people saying that it couldnt be the factory stereo. So please dont tell me that I dont know what I'm talking about. I am by no means putting down aftermarket systems but think that if you want to save money for performance parts, bose stereo is just fine.

 

While we have had plenty of aftermarket systems in our previous vehicles -- I don't think the BOSE sucks. It is decent. All of my speakers are working fine in my '04. Nothing has been removed/replaced/warrantied.

We just bought a Mazda CX-7 yesterday, 9 speaker BOSE system -- NO DAMN SUB! *sigh* A sub addition will be that vehicle's first mod. So -- there are other factory installed Bose systems that suck worse.

 

Before I bought my Z i was worried about the stock sound system based on what I read here. When I actually did buy my 05, I was surprised at how well it sounded! Not sure what all the complaints are about - it's not super loud, but its clear and nice.

 

I've had better but the bose in the z has served me fine for 1.5 years. I play MP3 CD and burned CD with no issues.

 

If the stock sounds fine to you, don't change it.

My stock (non-Bose) Z sounded worse than my wifes Bose 2003 Pathfinder, then I replaced it with a simple aftermarket system and now every time I get in the Pathfinder, I wonder if there are pillows over the speakers. It just lacks the dynamic range or depth that my Z now has.

Chris

 

I have an 03. Head unit replaced 4 times. Still doesn't work. Sound system in my Toyota Van blows my Bose away. How sad. How about some recommendations for head unit replacement that would look good in the dash.

 

My first modification was a complete rip-out of the Bose system. I don't have golden ears but do know what good sound sounds like and do have a 1/32 band octave acoustic analyzer and a calibrated lab microphone!

Upon purchase of my '05 Z it wasn't but two months before I tore the old system out and replaced it with a fair replacement stereo. The whole concept of altering the timbre - the psychoacoustic quality or sound color - as the amplitude of the interior's sound volume changes strikes me just short of insane! Bose mounts a microphone under the steering column to sense the loudness of the interior and then ... adjusts the spectrum of the equalization to compensate. Wow.

For the causal listener the experience with the Bose is likely to be fine. Like listening to the tiny buds of your iPod ... your poor ears don't hear the difference after awhile. But in a side-by-side comparison you hear the difference like night-and-day like when I toss out the ear buds and plug in the Senheiser 580's.

I haven't posted these pictures in awhile. Those that have seen this please pardon the bandwidth

Here's the massive four channel Bose amplifier. On the outside it looks pretty good if a bit small.



Cracking open the case I want to look at the rows of power transistors. I can't find any - only one IC chip. Most higher end power chips can put out 10 to 12 watts worth of power ... so where does Bose come up with the claim of hundreds?



Here's the worst - those front speakers are really poor. They seem big but most of what you're looking at is just plastic frame. Note the lack of a crossover ... when technically there is one tiny cap attached to the speaker.



Here's a side view showing how tiny the magnet is on the Bose mid-woofer. My GE SuperRadio am radio has a bigger magnet!



I've saved the "best" for last - the subwoofer system. Let's look at the amplifier first. That tiny Bose subwoofer amplifier is smaller than the Infinity front speaker's crossover! I would estimate the Bose amplifier at 6 watts maximum.



And finally the subwoofer itself. The Bose magnet is missing in action. It's actually under the rear black piece there. That large silver thing sitting between the two speaker motors is the pole piece that allows you to change the Infinity's Qts to match various enclosure volumes. I picked the 0.42 insert to match the Zenclosure's 0.75 volume.



I kept a pretty fair budget and improved the sound quality by leaps and bounds. The difference is amazing. I also wanted a stealth low-key look.



I bought a 2006 Nissan Xterra with the Rockford Fosgate system and found that it's way better than the stock Bose system. I've kept it in place and actually took some measurements using a test CD and the spectrum analyzer. Here's a picture of a clean distortion free 40 Hz test tone at nearly 110 dB worth of volume - pretty good.



But it too has its limits. Here's a 20 Hz tone at just 97 dB - with an amazing amount of distortion! Most music doesn't have true music below about 30 Hz. However the rap and hip-hop stuff has lots of synthetic sounds down there. I listen to older rock-n-roll where a good kick drum ends up at 25 Hz, they used some times used organs (electric) and sang words.



Just like watching standard definition television and then watching high definition it's hard to tell someone what they're missing unless you can put the two experiences side-by-side.

 

THANK YOU!!!!

 

the bose looks pathetic when u comepare side by side hahaha were the hell is the magnet on that sub lol that thing they really consider the amp for the sub are u joking hahahahah i would have never dam the amp for my pc puts out more rms then that hunk of junk

 

New Car=Drive straight from the dealership to the audio shop!

 

I had a 1998 Honda Prelude up until last month, and the stock system in that car ROCKED with just an aftermarket Alpine HU. Naturally, the speakers went out, so I did an overhaul: Mb Quart Components up front, Polk 6x9s in the rear, Alpine amp... needless to say, I cry every time I listen to the stock (non-Bose) stereo in my Z . Aside from the lack of sound quality, I can't listen to MP3s or my iPod anymore, so I have resorted to burning audio cds!

But I didn't buy the car for the luxury appointments: I bought the Z to drive! Stereo comes second. I'll eventually replace the speakers and HU though just so I can listen to more media.

 

I can live with the stock look, but the quality really does suck. I dont know if its speaker placement or more likely the overall quality of the components, but my Toyota Matrix stock system sounds much better than the Nissan (non-bose).
It seems to me personally the simplest thing to do would be to get a 5 channel amp (to save space Vs a sub amp and component amp) with new components and a sub runnin off the stock head unit. Then Id like to get a 7" DVD/CD unit but the speakers and amp are more important for me at this point. Im not looking for concert quality sound, but I have a Roadster and with the top down and moving the stock system just cant get loud enough.