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Nissan 350Z Audio System Questions
Is the upgraded Bose system worth it? Is it that much better than the standard issue to justify the added cost? Or is it better to buy the Enthusiast and install an after market?
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From just my few days of driving my Touring model, seems like the Bose is well worth it. The sound quality is excellent. Also I've played around a little bit with the feature where you can find any type of program you want. The presets include Rock, Oldies, Classical, Talk, Sports, News, etc. Kinda fun.
Look carefully at the other things you get on the Touring model too, including the Homelink, the leather seats, and so on. Plus think about resale - the dealer claims that the Touring model is the most popular, so it may be that the Enthusiast might suffer at re-sale time.
I am NOT one of those kids who's car goes thumpa,thumpa down the road. I just like clean sound.
With that said, I'll tell you what I had done and then my thuoghts about my system.
I had the head unit replaced. You can get line out convertors and keep the stock look of the car BUT I wanted MP3/WMA capability since my Colorado Truck has that and being DIN sized. I got a nice storage ears under the radio because the stock radio is basically two times the height of a DIN size.
Since this car has awfull acoustics and is very noisy when driving, don't get hung up on the sound quality loss of Mp3's. I love the fact that I can leave 1 CD in the player and have a bunch of songs and not have to use of valuabel storage space for a whole bunch of CD's.
I have a grand total of 3 WMA disk's so I have literally hundreds of songs and I store them in the seat back saddle back.
So, I replaced the head unit with an Alpine and had a 4 channel amp installed.
I put very nice but NOT super nice component speakers in the front. NO point,in my opinion on buying something like ADS for this car cause it is wasted sound quality.
An addeded bonus if you buy the right speakers, is that the silver tweater holder on the door pillar (the stock tweeter is a joke and the aftermarket system will need to be surface mount because they are bigger) is a perfect match for the color of the door handle and other nearby metal stuff.
When I tell people that this is not a stock system, they always remark how nice it looks because they thought Nissan was clever in matching the tweeter color to the rest of the gun metal color.
So, the front speaker are amped.
The rear speakers were not touched and the fader is set to front only because if you ever saw what that area looked like in the back you would understand.
That is not to say that you could not put a killer set of speaker back there but be prepared for some serious body mods - best left for the audio competition types.
The 4 channel speaker is mounted in the passengers side 'glove' compartment and still leaves enough rooom to satisfy me - think of giving up 4" of hieght in the there.
I went with 4 channel because they bridged the rear speaker channels to get double wattage to drive a sub and not turn my car into an amplifier store.
They mounted a JL Audio 10" free air sub in the location where the stock Bose sub would go (behind the driver's seat) and dynamatted the heck out of that area.
This was an area that I did go top of the line (my opinion on the top Jl Audio line) and it is not boomy.
I wish we could have gone sealed sub as they are really tight and quick but there is no way to get an airtight seal back there.
The competition audio people put the the sub in the trunk but recall that I wanted a stock looking system.
So how does it sound?
When you are not moving or driving at slow speeds like in a mall, it is a great sounding sound system.
Get up to highway speeds and you have to turn it up rather loud to har it because the Z is a noisy car. Most of that comes from riding in summer high performance tires whcih are noisy as heck.
I am very pleased that I have a really great sounding sound system but did not have spend a fortune,kept the stock look (well almost except for the radio),the tweeter's really make the car look like Nissan 'finished' the car (I hear that a lot from other Z owner's) but be prepared for some serious volume on the highway.
I can barely hear my radar detector when on the highway and the system is on at a volume where I can hear it properly.
Summary:
Replace radio - make sure it can do mp3/wma(I think the 2006 models do)
put good component's in the front
forget the rear's
use a 4 channel amp
put a sub in the bose location and use the other 2 channels of the amp for power
Enjoy
Just curious.
I love the fact that I can leave 1 CD in the player and have a bunch of songs and not have to use of valuabel storage space for a whole bunch of CD's.
FWIW - and maybe not much, if you do most of your listening via MP3 players - the Touring has a 6 CD changer.
IF you don't want any of the other extras in the Touring model (power, leather, heated seats and VDC), then, no, the upgrade is not worth it.
I notice on Nissan's website, however, that the '06 Bose system can play MP3 CD-Roms. I don't believe my '04 could do that, but I'm not sure I ever tried. Biancar, can your '05 do that?
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '08 Charger R/T Daytona; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '08 Maser QP; '11 Mini Cooper S
I guess I'd agree that the Bose isn't mind-blowing. It certainly doesn't compare to the outstanding Dynaudio in the Volvo, for instance. But it's fine for my purposes.
What did it cost? Sounds great!
http://liljerk.morpheus.net/350Z/dash_removal/
Just bought a 2007 350Z Roadster with the BOSE audio system - but without the instruction manual. Have figured out everything except what the AUDP function is! I thought that it might adjust the audio volume to match the engine noise but it doesn't seem to... what's it for?
I guess what I am trying to ask is:
How/What can I buy so I get a decent audio system and navigation system while avoiding changing the stock look of the front of the stereo. Also, I'm trying to put the nav system where it would go if I had an upgraded model.
Thank you!