AudioPilot - does it work?

[clandestine]

my colleagues, also auto enthusiasts, joke that Bose is "good at marketing." I think the quality of the audio is great, but this may be a case in point:

http://www.bose.com/controller?even...NT&url=/automotive/innovations/audiopilot.jsp

the idea sounds great, but when I enabled it in the audio options it doesn't seem to do anything. I open the moonroof or enter the freeway and I can no longer make out what is being said on talk radio. invariably I end up cranking up the volume 10 notches. Bose claims this is better than speed sensitive volume which forces passengers to speak over the stereo, but I'd take the SSV from my wife's Civic over this stuff any day. the Civic's SSV on the medium setting is usually not noticeable, but I'm rarely toying with the volume.

am I missing something? has anyone had any positive experience with AudioPilot?

 

[vikefan7]

I think it's on by default, but I haven't heard it work. I just end up turning up the volume as well.

 

[CX9 SportOwner]

I find the regular ALC to be quite effective. Because of our rack, I have it set on 3, and it works great without over compensating. You don't even notice it adjusting most of the time.

I've had a lot of problems with Bose over engineering things, and they end up not working. Their stuff definitely isn't worth the 2 or 3 times more you pay for it.

I did an automation setup for a clients home, with a custom remote that does their A/V, lights, ceiling fan, etc. I have had nothing but problems integrating their Bose system, because Bose doesn't use the same standards as everyone else. I also just had to make another service call because my remote stopped controlling their Bose receiver/controller altogether. Turns out the software sucks, and according the the Bose tech, I shouldn't even have been able to make it work in the first place, it's so bad. I told my clients to buy Yamaha receivers from now on.

Not surprised that their hype over Audiopilot is just that...hype.

 

[sjg]

I like the idea of AuidoPilot but I have a hard time believing it's actually doing anything. I still spend a lot of time adjusting the volume. Which Bose feature is more useless, AudioPilot or Illumination Effect?

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

"Illumination effect" is not a Bose feature. It's a feature of the headunit which is specified by Mazda and supplied by a different manufacturer.

 

[Bruiser2117]

I've noticed volume change with the audiopilot, but nothing compared to other manufacturers' volume control systems.

 

[jbedoya]

How close is this audiopilot to the Noise Cancelling feature that Acura have in most of its car (and some Honda) ot that Toyota has begun to integrate to theirs?

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

I believe Bose noise cancelling is dealing with ambient noise common to the automotive envionment (road noise, wind noise etc), whereas the newer Acura systems actually deal with cancelling out engine harmonics as well. Not a 100% sure of course. Like most of these systems their performance may vary greatly depending on environment and the relative experience of a consumer. IOW if you owned a car that had a ton of isolation and a softly sprung suspension your idea of "low noise" would be different than someone who moved from a sportscar.

I know that I do hear a difference between Audiopilot being on and off in my 6. But subjectively my 6 is more noisy than my 9. I don't use Audiopilot in my CX-9 becasue it's disabled with BT streaming. Still the CX-9 interior is quiet enough where I don't find the road noise intrudes on my music listening at all. Of course the CX-9's Bose system also has a different sonic footprint compared to my 6. The 9's frequency response favors a beefier bass region, while the high frequencies are rolled off. The 6 has a more open sound with tighter bass and more detail. This calibration is largely due to the type of bass repoduction system used (CX-9 uses a waveguide enclosure in the rear storage compartment whereas the 6 utilizes the trunk and a large woofer to produce bass. Both offer benefits and compromises as well as the need to be tweaked to get the best frequency response from their respective car's interiors.

My point is that is pretty hard to make blanket statements about how a particular feature works when there are a ton of variables, the most of which is the tolerance of human hearing across different people and ages. Ultimately the feature is offered because it's a marketing differentiator and it's of relative low cost. Whether it actually offers a benefit for every user is really up to the user. IMO

 

[ceric]

I thought that AudioPilot is just raising volume when ambient noise level is higher.
Noise canceling, on the other hand, reactively generates 180 phase shifted noises to cancel
out noises perceived by the paasengers (mainly the drivers).
The former is, of course, a much cheaper feature to have.

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

Sorry Noise cancellation was probably the wrong term. They call it noise "compensation". Here is the link to the Bose explanation:

http://www.bose.com/controller?even...NT&url=/automotive/innovations/audiopilot.jsp