Possibly the most effective way the improve the BOSE system's highs, mids, and low end all at once is to have sound dampening installed in the doors. I read about this product: http://www.fatmat.com/ as an interesting solution. Should also improve the cabin quiteness to Lexus levels.
How to get great sound quality from the Bose system?
- Thread starter wild west
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Possibly the most effective way the improve the BOSE system's highs, mids, and low end all at once is to have sound dampening installed in the doors. I read about this product: http://www.fatmat.com/ as an interesting solution. Should also improve the cabin quiteness to Lexus levels.
It will take way more than that to make the cabin Lexus (or Buick) quiet. Adding that to the doors will help give them even more of a solid "thunk" sound when they are closed. Although the CX5 sounds pretty good already there. It may reduce some noise while driving but much of the road noise comes through the suspension and the body areas around the tires.
True. And anyone who has ever lifted a roll of that stuff knows how heavy it is. This is weight that will never be removed from your car. If you use 50 lbs. of the stuff, you reduce your load carrying capacity by 50 lbs. and have the added disadvantages of slower acceleration, higher fuel consumption and worse handling.
And as you pointed out, it still won't turn your car into a mobile audio studio.
Having spent a bunch and added a fair amount of weight to prior cars doing that I'd hate to see someone going through the work involved in the doors expecting a noticeable improvement in road noise.
The other issue is the door speakers don't do any highs and really not much in the mids from what I've experienced. Those come from the dash speakers.
What I'm using for reference are two cars from an experience a couple years back. First was my used 2001 BMW 3 series sedan with stock paper speakers hooked up to a stock 200w alpine amp and stock blapaunkt head unit. It was a 10 speaker system. I thought it gave decent deep sound as opposed to a tin cup sound most stock systems of other sub 30 grand cars had.
The other car was a 2007 Toyota Matrix that belonged to my cousin. He wasn't satisfied with the sound so he went out and had Polk aftermarket door speakers, tweeters, and an aftermarket amp installed. Basically a better more powerfull system than mine.
We compared sound systems. He had better highs and clear mids but we both noticed my car had a considerable deeper sound which his car was lacking. The conclusion I came up with is that my BMW had more adequate sound deadening than his Toyota Matrix.
I Looked into DIY sound deadning a few years back. Fatmat sells pretty good quality ones. Weight is 30lbs per 100 Sq feet. I figure 20 sq feet would be adequate per door which roughly equates to 5lbs per door. An added benefit is retain the BOSE system as its components are purposely light weight VS installing heavier aftermaket componenets which will add more weight. Technically a Bose System with said sound deadening installed may be the same weight or lighter than installing a complete aftermarket system.
I think a powered sub would be the way to go. That is the route I'm taking in my 2016 CX-5. Except for the bass, the Bose sounds good to me.
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And? Even if the OP doesn't see it, it's still helpful information to have for other owners.
This is the only forum I've ever been on that encourages reviving dead threads from nearly a decade ago.
For me it's only lack of bass. I'm going to remedy the issue with a powered bass woofer.
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It's not encouraged, but its not looked down on either, as long as the newer posts are still relevant. People are still buying new-to-them 1st gen CX-5s, and those new owners may have the same questions. I'd rather they bump this old thread (which has a good amount of helpful info) instead of creating a brand new thread asking the same question.
Have you seen this resource yet? DIY Bose subwoofer improvement
Depending on your sound preferences, this might help. The DIY should be applicable to CX-5s as well, for the most part at least. The mod tightens up the bass in the lower end.
