Very quickly--my bonafides: Pro-musician and audio professional--yes I make 100% of my living doing these two. Part of one of my degrees is live and studio sound reinforcement. I've also recorded/mixed & mastered numerous projects in my own home studio. I can't even begin to remember how many car stereos I've improved since my first car.

I've read of a number of complaints about the Bose system.
It is very good but can be improved immensely for a very small investment.

Some complain about the bottom end of the audio spectrum being muddy. I'm pretty sure the folks who are complaining about this have their bass turned up to "6." With my two little modifications below you'll never have to turn Bass or Treble past "2."

1] replace the tweets with titanium models Ebay Link Deleted
2] disable the center speaker under the windshield
3] set both the bass and treble at "2." Keeping Bass at 2 or less keeps it clean and defined.
4] enjoy!

Mod Comment: If you are a dealer or have a business, you have to sign-up to be a site vendor.

 

With subs. Without subs. Regardless, replacing the tweeters for improvement has been covered.

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-interior-audio-electronics-24/jedis-bose-stereo-upgrade-103771/

 

w000t, firebirdude linked my thread. I feel honored.

 

Yeah, the door tweet/mids are most important. Hard to believe the 'professional' status of the OP though, as bass is certainly lacking in the std Bose form. Skinning the doors helps a lot though, even without subs.

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-interior-audio-electronics-24/cheapest-audio-upgrade-ever-%3D-%2450-215671/

 

Yes, I have read thru that entire thread. I didn't say anything about not being able to find other modification ideas.

My goal here was to offer up what I believe to be the least expensive, biggest bang-for-the-buck mod...as opposed to adding to the last page of that link.

 

Regarding my credentials, if you must feel free to Google me, my first name is Jeff and my last is part of my s/n. It is all about what you are used to listening to, I'm not talking about bumping and ringing down the street with a ridiculously overpowered system, just talking about clarity. Most folks have never had a professional acoustic bassist or saxophonist standing right next to them, or for that matter, spent any time in a recording studio. I've performed professionally in all styles from classical up thru hip hop and mic'd same for recordings and live sound. I'm used to hearing the real thing...real live musicians. This Bose system is capable of very clean sound based on my tests using my reference recordings and 1/3 Octave sine waves...after swapping the tweets for titanium and deleting the center speaker.

 

Not into booming either. While not a pro, I know my way around, home system starts with tubes, but haven't been next to live sax for, um a couple weeks ... . If you have a weekend, try the door trick, and get back to me. Not many pro speaker systems have boxes made from tin foil (like stock rx-8 doors). Just doing the mids/tweets doesn't cut it, not even close, cause there's no low-mid/bass. Tuning sound systems with pure sine waves is occasionally useful, but about as useful as tuning a suspension using pure sine wave bumps. Oh well, YMMV.

 

My doors may have already been done (I'm second-owner) because I'm getting a really flat response when listening to the 1/3 octave waves and then also the entire spectrum sweeps from 20hz-20khz. (This BTW is when those waves come in handy--troubleshooting a system...and when tuning a sound system to an auditorium) There is only one frequency which drops down in db compared to the entire spectrum and that frequency is 160hz. For your statement regarding "no low-mid/bass" to be true I'd need to be hearing a drop in all the frequencies from 200hz and below but that just isn't the case. 100hz and 200hz are strong as are all frequencies down to 31.5hz. 25 is almost gone and 20 is nonexistant, but this is not problematic as those two are really more felt than heard and in a vehicle, just moving down the road would wipe them out anyway. Only 160hz is weak...to illustrate, effectively this would mean that 4 to 5 adjacent notes on a piano would be slightly less loud than the rest of the entire audio spectrum (starting at C an octave below middle C on the piano and going up thru Eb or E). Definitely plenty of low-mid/bass.

 

So, which tweeters on eBay? There's currently 9 of them listed sourced from different manufacturers....

 

Would be interesting to know if that is the case. Do your outside mirrors vibrate all over the place when volume is raised? If not, the doors have been skinned.

 

I haven't put them up yet. Will do so later today...probably list rx8 in the title.

 

no vibration, yay...lucky me eh? LOL!

 

Oops. I stand corrected. Really cranked it with a bass heavy track in the cd player and I did see vibration on side mirrors. :-(

 

Likewise, using a titanium tweeter doesn't automatically mean it's high quality. Titanium does happen to be one of the most efficient materials to use for tweeter domes. However, many people feel they sound harsh and screechy compared to, say, their silk counterparts. To each their own.

 

Oh and btw, 30 second method for disabling that center speaker is to lift the cover then reach in and tear the cone out of it's housing and then replace the cover. Otherwise you'll be disassembling your dash for days.

 

Yeah - love the (silk) Image-Dynamics XS-28's up front, the (titanium) Alpine SPS-1005's in back, not so much. YMMV.

 

What is 'door skinning'? Is it dynomatting the inside sheet metal or ... ?

 

Yeah, though in my case, Second Skin. You know the link : https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=215671

 

Funny! The only types of tweet material I can stand are aluminum, ceramic and titanium. Other materials just lack clarity to my ears.

 

So why do people remove the front center speaker?

 

Center spkr ruins stereo image

 

Okay, so I did some reading but I'm still a little confused....

Your removing the center speaker so you can better hear where the sound is coming from? (left vs right)? I feel like I'm way off base here...

 

If you love stereo sound then having a center speaker which has both L&R signal coming to it should drive you out of your mind. Sitting the Driver's seat you are hearing L on your L, and L+R+R on your right. Disable the center and you will then only hear L on your L, and R on your R. I'm pretty sure the center channel was placed mainly for 8's with Nav but it is not disabled for the rest of the audio system as it should have been. Take the plunge, reach up there and rip out the cone. You'll thank me later.

 

I have installed a few sound systems, none with a center speaker though. This is in fact the first car I've owned with a center speaker. I've actually replaced that speaker when I bought a used Bose system on here (I had blown door amps and speakers), was pretty easy. I'm gonna give it a shot and disconnect the center speaker tomorrow... might even give that tweeter suggestion a shot.

Thanks

 

I'm quite happy keeping the center speaker; NPR or BBC news sounds pretty weird without it. Might be worth giving it an on/off switch, dunno. Older stereos came with a mono/stereo button, but "progress" seems to have eliminated those.