First impressions of standard audio system (compared to Bose system)

[Clod Reed]

Bose it is then

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[f1eng]

Bose it is then

People will already have ordered, my objective as a music lover was to see if the prejudices were justified and if not IME to allay the fears of anybody sticking with the standard system.

It is fine for enjoying music in a car IMHO, uncoloured with deeper bass than I was expecting but no bass boom which is a massive bonus in a car system IME, they are usually overblown cr*p.

I have never heard the Burmester system and only had a demo of the Bose which was neither better nor worse than I expected for a car system.

 

[tayCanadian]

I also have the base audio system. Did not want the Bose because it reduces the size of the trunk. (the part under the floor).
The base audio system is not bad, but I think you clearly hear it is incomplete. It lacks volume in the lower frequencies.
I installed a 3rd party under seat subwoofer to add more power in the low frequencies without losing space. It is installed under the passenger seat.
It works well now. It confirmed my feeling that the quality is good but it just misses an extra low frequency speaker.

Hi Ben,

I was looking at doing this as well.

Can you share which under seat subwoofer you used?
Why did you only install under the passenger seat and not the driver's seat?

Thanks in advance!

 

[tayCanadian]

Was a straight swap but that's the sub in my Panamera, haven't got the Taycan yet but most likely its the same driver, only the sub housing is different, just check it in the trunk.

Any 8" driver should fit, mine is a RF P3SD4-8 wired for 2ohms that took me two hours to install. With this the bass is strong and refined, not boomy anymore. If you like less bass get the 4ohm version.

The other thing I replaced was the center speaker, it sounds really bad because its louder and low quality driver. Didn't want to bother with adapters and I ordered the Burmester speaker because is a straight swap.

I can say the lows now sound as good as the Burmester subwoofer in a friend's Panamera and overall it sounds better.

I think that's the issue with Bose sound system, its just boomy and lacks deep bass.

For those who are not happy with the standard audio its pretty easy to add an amp and replace the speakers, just find a reputable shop to do it.

Have you gotten around to doing the subwoofer swap in your Taycan yet?

I'm going to have my car in a week or so and would love to do the same!

 

[ben1]

Hi Ben,

I was looking at doing this as well.

Can you share which under seat subwoofer you used?
Why did you only install under the passenger seat and not the driver's seat?

Thanks in advance!

Caliber BC108US.

Because the seat can not go to the full lower position anymore. Which is not a problem for the passenger's seat. But I wanted to keep all the freedom of movement with the driver's seat.

 

[tayCanadian]

Caliber BC108US.

Because the seat can not go to the full lower position anymore. Which is not a problem for the passenger's seat. But I wanted to keep all the freedom of movement with the driver's seat.

Nice. Are you planning on making any other audio changes?

I have the Bose system so I already have a subwoofer in the trunk. I'm wondering if i should try to upgrade that, add the under seat subs, or both.

 

[ben1]

Nice. Are you planning on making any other audio changes?

I have the Bose system so I already have a subwoofer in the trunk. I'm wondering if i should try to upgrade that, add the under seat subs, or both.

In that case I would not do it. It will not add much value.
I did it because I did not want to loose luggage space to the Bose system.

 

[Sebbo]

Listening to music is my main leisure activity since I retired.
Not in a car though, usually so disappointing I mainly listen to spoken word.

We are off on a longer journey later this week, it will be interesting to hear if the Taycan is a better environment for music than all the other disappointing cars for the last 50 years!

Please report back, be interesting to hear your opinion

 

[f1eng]

Please report back, be interesting to hear your opinion

I did somewhere, but in summary the frequency response is even, missing the top octave, of course because of speaker driver location, very few cars don't.
No boomy bass but the bass frequencies are there, this rare in a car too.

There is no digital signal processing producing a spatial effect so the stereo suffers the normal car problem of relative location of listeners and speaker drivers being all wrong for stereo but inevitable in a car.

Human voice is quite natural, a good sign since that is what we are familiar with, I find it entirely satisfactory for listening to both voice and music in my car.

Overall natual voice and instrumental timbre, stereo imaging not that good.

 

[DexD]

I did the same as Jasper in the audio cabling topic. Based on the info provided by tigerbalm:
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/audio-cabling.10907/post-158252

You can get access to the cabling by removing the plastic covers on the middle side of the driver foot area. Then you can feel the audio cables. Using the images in the link above you can determine which cables are for the audio. You can connect the subwoofer signal input in parallel to one of the audio cables. And route the cable under the passenger carpets.

Is your car Left or right hand drive?

 

[ben1]

Is your car Left or right hand drive?

Left. Continental europe.

 

[I888I]

I ended up dropping the Bose sound system option on my CT 4S when I fixed the spec because of the extra delay it would cause.

There has been lots of comment on the audio varying from the standard system is so bad it is a reason not to buy the car to it is perfectly adequate.

I haven’t been on a long journey yet but my first impression is good.

It has clear diction and none of the “chesty” colouration common on systems with exaggerated bass.

It probably lacks the top audio octave from 10kHz to 20kHz but that would be normal given directionality and drive unit location but there are only overtones up there.

The biggest thing I noticed compared to the Bose demo was the paucity of adjustments, basically just bass/treble and forward/lateral balance - no computed surround mode.

That is fine by me, but maybe some people would find that a deal breaker.

I have not decided whether it goes loud enough and only DAB radio source so far - I haven’t found where in the menus one may choose anything else yet…

So sound wise it is uncoloured and fine IMO, I will add to this thread when I get more experience with a wider range of source material.

Interesting subject…

While ordering my GTS, I have carefully considered the audio options against my use-case and the cost of the systems vs. alternative electronics for my budget. I did specify an upgraded sound system on my 911-996, and given the loud engine noise in that car, found it a waste of money for the 25 years I drove that car.,

Use case: For 90% of the time I am alone in the car, traveling to customers about 200km-250km on such a day and mainly on the badly maintained and managed motorways in Belgium.
While driving, the audio system is tuned to one of 2 local contemporary music stations (MNM or Q-Music), and occasionally to BBC News. Of course I spend time on the phone too. I don’t use Spotify, and even though have an Apple Music subscription for my apple HomePods, never used it in a car. Both other cars we have (Audi) have a standard factory audio system.

So, as a consequence and in my market:
- I did not option the passenger display (€1,117)
- for Audio, there is the choice for standard (€0.-), Bose (€1,476) or Burmeister (€6,481)
- the heat- and soundproof windows are €1461

I didn’t consider the €6.5K Burmeister system at all, based on my 911-996 experience.
I really did consider the Bose system, but (and I know that this will not be agreed by most people here), i decided to order the soundproof windows with the standard audio system instead - no Bose nor Burmeister…

I have the expectation that I will continue to enjoy Q-Music as in the 996, and will have better sound on phone calls than before…. Will update this after delivery.

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