How to get great sound quality from the Bose system?

[wild west]

About to buy a new 2014 CX5 Touring AWD

Sound quality is very important to me and the Bose doesnt cut it. I originally planned to replace the entire Bose system (head unit, speakers and all) and replace it with a new head unit (brand model unknown), amp, speakers and sub. If I do that what functionality will I lose besides the rear view camera?

So at the very least I will be adding a sub to the Bose, in addition if I upgrade all the speakers will those two changes be enough to significantly improve the sound quality or do you think I should also plan to install an amp? Does the Bose head unit itself have excellent sound quality?
Thanks for the help.

 

[nXt]

Everything in the Settings menu / Vehicles (adjust your lights, door locks, etc), the Pandora streaming, Bluetooth streaming, and Phone features (unless your new head unit does all that).
But the Vehicle settings menu going away is annoying, if you want to adjust anything you'd have to go to the dealer and have them do it.

 

[MikeM.]

Sound quality is very important to me and the Bose doesn’t cut it.

I've heard a lot of cars with less accurate sound. The Bose is quite good with a balanced spectrum up to moderately loud listening levels. If you want a stereo that can cause hearing loss withot distorting (or play club type music with exaggerated bass) then you will need more watts (a lot more) and big woofers.

Replacing the head unit is not something I would mess with though since it is so integral to the cars functions. You could probably achieve what you want just by adding an amp and sub woofer(s). But you might consider a 2013 (if they are still available) to avoid the user interface issues w/ 2014 model (MP3 starts at same track every time).

 

[SayNoToPistons]

OP, I got a question for you. What traits of the Bose system of our CX-5 makes you think it is lacking quality?

 

[squibcakes]

Considering the amplifier in the Bose system is only 235watts (probably over rated) and is used to drive 9 speakers - after market 4 channel amps usually 600watts an up..... big difference in power so something has got to give in the Bose setup....

 

[mazdadude]

OP, I got a question for you. What traits of the Bose system of our CX-5 makes you think it is lacking quality?

You beat me to it... I love our CX5 Bose... especially playing CD's or HD Radio.

 

[nXt]

OP, I got a question for you. What traits of the Bose system of our CX-5 makes you think it is lacking quality?

The ability to annoy other people at red lights is what's lacking.

 

[wild west]

Sound Qualilty thing

OP, I got a question for you. What traits of the Bose system of our CX-5 makes you think it is lacking quality?

We were doing a demo drive and I was try to get an overall impression of the car in general (haven't purchased it yet) but weak bass is one thing that sticks out without much critical listening.

 

[xtrailman]

If good sound means that much you have bought the wrong car.

To enjoy good sound you need to be looking for the quietest car made, with the best sound system.
And even then the sound would be at its best stationary?

About to buy a new 2014 CX5 Touring AWD

Sound quality is very important to me and the Bose doesn’t cut it. I originally planned to replace the entire Bose system (head unit, speakers and all) and replace it with a new head unit (brand model unknown), amp, speakers and sub. If I do that what functionality will I lose besides the rear view camera?

So at the very least I will be adding a sub to the Bose, in addition if I upgrade all the speakers will those two changes be enough to significantly improve the sound quality or do you think I should also plan to install an amp? Does the Bose head unit itself have excellent sound quality?
Thanks for the help.

 

[MikeM.]

We were doing a demo drive and I was try to get an overall impression of the car in general (haven't purchased it yet) but weak bass is one thing that sticks out without much critical listening.

Did you try adjusting the bass?

The reason I ask is because the Bose system has balanced bass response. And the bass can be turned up to the point that it is obviously bass heavy. But like any stereo there is a volume limit to how much bass can be reproduced. At that point you will need a lot more watts and bigger speakers. Every stereo has a volume limit and it generally happens at the bass end first. The Bose stereo might not go loud enough for your taste but it does not have "weak bass" per say. I've found the most accurate reproduction of over 90% of professionally recorded music to be with the bass control at zero. Some recordings sound better with the bass slightly reduced and a few others sound better with a slight bass boost but I consider this a flaw with the recordings, not the stereo which sounds well balanced from a frequency response perspective.

I'm guessing either you didn't adjust the bass or you simply wanted to play it louder than the amps and speakers were capable of (while maintaining accurate frequency response). The former is easy to fix, the latter requires more watts and more powerful speakers.

 

[atitus]

The system has decent bass. Even increasing the bass just 1 tick in the settings will make a difference. Since you mentioned that you have only heard the system in a test drive, it may have had the "centerpoint" feature turned on. You would want to turn this off, and try again. That feature is supposed to make it seem like surround sound, but it has a side effect of reducing the overall fidelity of the sound. Finally if you are streaming audio from a bluetooth source, you should know that its not streaming the MP3 file, it streams the sound AFTER its processed by the phone -- this means that the volume control, equalizer, etc in the phone will all affect the sound. In particular if you have a phone like HTC with beats audio you need to turn that off when using it will the car -- beats is made for headphones and it doesn't work well when paired with an external amplifier. Also make sure the equilizer in the phone is set to off, etc. Adjust the sound with the head unit in the car.

 

[SayNoToPistons]

We were doing a demo drive and I was try to get an overall impression of the car in general (haven't purchased it yet) but weak bass is one thing that sticks out without much critical listening.

Weak bass? Are you looking for body tingling, window shaking bass?

Sorry, but that is unreasonable. The Bose in the CX-5 is SURPRISINGLY good. I also have a 9 speaker center point Bose package in my RX8 with a very similar set up. It is no where near as clear for its highs and mids. The lows are uncontrolled and loose. The 9 speaker Bose is one of the BEST I have heard from a system that does not include a dedicated subwoofer. The highs have a decent amount of sparkle and are very clear. Mids are accurate with very little roll off. Lows are more than acceptable for a component system and low frequencies are extremely tight. A VERY balanced system.

From what I heard, is it as good as Mark Levinsons from Lexus', Bang Olufsens in Audi's and BMW's, or the Lexicon in the Genesis? No. It is no where near as expensive either. The Bose in the CX-5 is far better at delivering "quality" sound than the 10 speaker Bose in the CX-9 with a dedicated sub, or the 8 speaker system in the G35's. The system in the CX-5 is surprisingly good because Bose usually does not crank out a quality system, especially for such a low package price. In honesty, I have not been a fan of Bose, and still not due to their mostly mediocre systems (which throws the bias card out the window).

Perhaps you need to redefine your statement, as the Bose isn't lacking in quality, but lacking in the over exaggerated "thump unce unce unce" that you crave for. The headunit is not the problem either because OEM "Bose Package" equipped Mazda head units' internal hardware cannot be matched by the (lack of) quality in an aftermarket unit unless you are going into the >$300 range. Bose does not make head units, so our head units are another manufacturer.

 

[wild west]

Weak bass? Are you looking for body tingling, window shaking bass?

Sorry, but that is unreasonable. The Bose in the CX-5 is SURPRISINGLY good. I also have a 9 speaker center point Bose package in my RX8 with a very similar set up. It is no where near as clear for its highs and mids. The lows are uncontrolled and loose. The 9 speaker Bose is one of the BEST I have heard from a system that does not include a dedicated subwoofer. The highs have a decent amount of sparkle and are very clear. Mids are accurate with very little roll off. Lows are more than acceptable for a component system and low frequencies are extremely tight. A VERY balanced system.

From what I heard, is it as good as Mark Levinsons from Lexus', Bang Olufsens in Audi's and BMW's, or the Lexicon in the Genesis? No. It is no where near as expensive either. The Bose in the CX-5 is far better at delivering "quality" sound than the 10 speaker Bose in the CX-9 with a dedicated sub, or the 8 speaker system in the G35's. The system in the CX-5 is surprisingly good because Bose usually does not crank out a quality system, especially for such a low package price. In honesty, I have not been a fan of Bose, and still not due to their mostly mediocre systems (which throws the bias card out the window).

Perhaps you need to redefine your statement, as the Bose isn't lacking in quality, but lacking in the over exaggerated "thump unce unce unce" that you crave for. The headunit is not the problem either because OEM "Bose Package" equipped Mazda head units' internal hardware cannot be matched by the (lack of) quality in an aftermarket unit unless you are going into the >$300 range. Bose does not make head units, so our head units are another manufacturer.

 

[wild west]

Thanks to all of you for your input and analysis. I brought along a few CD's as source material. I don't want loud thumping bass that annoys people in cars around you, just tight controlled bass. I normally don't turn up bass or treble controls, I just listened to it flat. I also didn't check to see if the Centerpoint system was on or off. Funny that you mention Lexicon because that is what I have at home along with Martin Logan and Apogee speakers. I have also heard many others in these forums complain about the Bose system as well. I will have to try it again and try boosting the bass a little. if that doesn't do it I'll have to first try adding a small subwoofer and see how that sounds.
Thanks again and I'd like to hear more from you guys and others who have read these posts but haven't commented as well.

 

[Evan55]

Clarity, detail, sound quality and musical depth is all terrible in the Bose system, as is very typical of Bose brand systems. Its worse than the base stereos in my 2006 nissan titan and 2012 Ford Focus. Jumping to the conclusion that this is an issue of wanting blasting out ear drums is ignorant.

What Id like to know is, does it use funky impedance speakers that make it harder to upgrade the speakers themselves. Id like to keep the factory head unit (and amps) and just replace the speakers.

 

[HandA]

I was actually wondering the other day about what a pair of good surface mount tweeters would do for the sound. Something with a crossover that would free the regular dash speaker from trying to recreate the highs and let the dedicated tweeters do a crisper job of it. However most of the tweeters I've seen that come with crossovers they just filter the lows from the tweeters and don't filter the highs from the other speaker. I'm not sure if it would be worse that way or not. Plus it would probably take someone with more install skill than I have to make them look like they belonged.

 

[wild west]

Clarity, detail, sound quality and musical depth is all terrible in the Bose system, as is very typical of Bose brand systems. Its worse than the base stereos in my 2006 nissan titan and 2012 Ford Focus. Jumping to the conclusion that this is an issue of wanting blasting out ear drums is ignorant.

What Id like to know is, does it use funky impedance speakers that make it harder to upgrade the speakers themselves. Id like to keep the factory head unit (and amps) and just replace the speakers.

Excellent question, I have heard it is not possible to use the Bose amp and upgrade to after market speakers but I don't know for sure why. Sounds like you are on to something.
Thanks

 

[SayNoToPistons]

I guess this post means nothing as well. Go ahead and upgrade as your heart desires.

As a sound engineer, I'd like to chime in on the quality of the CX5 Bose system. I took an extended listen at the dealer with "Off the Wall" by Michael Jackson and "Ten Summoner's Tales" by Sting. From my past experience, Infinity, Polk, and Alpine have the edge. I have a custom Infinity Reference system in my current car, and it sounds tight, transparent, and balanced. I was skeptical of Bose, because they notoriously use their name to overvalue the actual quality of their product.

This was not exactly the case with the CX5 Bose system. It sounded good, with a sound that really filled the cabin evenly and was well articulated. In my mind, it scored something like a "B-". I believe that for the meager price increase ($600 or so), the system is definitely worth it. You could easily spend $600 on a (marginally) better aftermarket install, but only if you bought speakers on eBay and did the install yourself. When you factor in the time, effort, margin for error, and decreased resale value, it really makes sense to go with the the factory Bose system - especially if you're also in the market for a moonroof.

The audio controls were not very robust. Basically, you get volume, pan (left to right), fade (front to rear), bass, treble, and Centerpoint. From my understanding, the Centerpoint system essentially adds short digital time delays and small volume adjustments to each speaker, resulting in the sound from all 9 (?) speakers arriving at the driver's ears simultaneously, thus "centering" the perceived sound at the driver position. This seemed to work fairly well, but aftermarket headunits allow for greater fine-tuning in this department.

I don't believe the CX5 has the trunk-mounted subwoofer that is included with the Mazda 3. At least I couldn't hear anything that sounded like a sub or had as much bass as the Mazda 3 Bose system did. I was also disappointed at the lack of a "mid" EQ adjustment, as I found it difficult to use only treble and bass to adjust.

All in all however, I'm sure that even critical listeners would be impressed enough to find value in the Bose package. The treble was distinctly clear - something you would expect from a good custom system. The sub frequencies lacked, and the high-mids were a bit prevalent and thus harsh. The speakers sounded tight, hinting that the speaker cones are at least not made of paper.

 

[wild west]

I guess this post means nothing as well. Go ahead and upgrade as your heart desires.

Thank you for your evaluation and to all others that did as well. You can all be sure that I will do much critical listening before I come to any decisions about changing the system

 

[xtrailman]

Bose systems a few years ago were only fitted to the prestige cars in the UK, I had a year 2000 Audi with Bose, it did sound better than my previous cars systems, but maybe the CX5 has a "cheaper system", I don't know as I haven't had my car delivered yet.

But at any rate I find the standard system in my xtrail is good enough, but my hearing is impaired, so any quality system would be wasted on me, as I wouldn't be able to hear all the frequencies, it makes a satisfactory noise, and that's good enough for me, I play the 6CD player every time I drive.