Aftermarket sound systems for Boxsters

[Aus_boxster]

Hi all,

I recently purchased a 2004 Boxster S which I have been very happy with in all aspects except for the sound system

The car came with the upgraded sound package - speakers in the door and amp. However no rear speakers and somewhat dull sound from the existing speakers has left me wanting.

I am looking to upgrade and would love 2 hear everyones experiences and opinion on:

What upgrades people have done to their boxsters and the difference it made?

I am also keen to get rear sound to add some ambience to the current setup and would love to hear peoples opinion on the rear speaker kits available and the difference they make - I have a quote for the porsche kit as $770 (Aus dollars) installed?

Anyone know of people in Australia with experience in installations with Porsches/Boxsters?

Cheers,

Dan

[atmorris]

Hi all,

I recently purchased a 2004 Boxster S which I have been very happy with in all aspects except for the sound system

The car came with the upgraded sound package - speakers in the door and amp. However no rear speakers and somewhat dull sound from the existing speakers has left me wanting.

I am looking to upgrade and would love 2 hear everyones experiences and opinion on:

What upgrades people have done to their boxsters and the difference it made?

I am also keen to get rear sound to add some ambience to the current setup and would love to hear peoples opinion on the rear speaker kits available and the difference they make - I have a quote for the porsche kit as $770 (Aus dollars) installed?

Anyone know of people in Australia with experience in installations with Porsches/Boxsters?

Cheers,

Dan

Depends. What is your budget? How particular about sound quality are you? Do you drive top down often?...at highway speed or around town speed? All affect what you will need/want to do.

A 2004 is MOST bus, and the HU and amp "talk" over a fiber optic buss. So, if you want to replace the HU, you have to replace the amp as well. The stock drivers are paper cone units of fairly cheap construction (remember, the car only cost around 60k new....<smirk>) so their sound quality isn't very high even with a better source. Then there is soundfield to consider. Does your S have the rear storage compartment option? Does it contain the rear speaker option? If not, you will probably want to hunt down a rear storage compartment and buy a PNP rear speaker kit off eBay for it. Adding rear speakers balances out the soundstage in the car so the music comes from AROUND you instead of just in front of you.

What I did was this:

1) I trashed the stock CDR23 for an Alpine CDA-9885 head unit. This plays MP3 disks and has an iPod input as well. Alpine has two cheaper models than this as well, the 9883 and the 9881. Nakamichi is another good choice in a HU.

2) I replaced the stock 6x40w amp with a Swiss Audio 6x100w amp. I got a good deal off eBay for the amp. Profile amps are a pretty good amp as well and very affordable. There are lots of good amps out there: Infinity;Alpine;Profile;Polk;pick your poison. I went with 100 watts per channel because I have the top down a lot - and I don't drive slow. I also like to have a good amount of headroom in an amplifier so that the strong pulses and passages stay clean and tight. I would say that 70W per channel would be the minimum you want for a Boxster.

3) I bought the PNP rear speaker kit and installed it.

4) I replace ALL the drivers in the car (the 4" in the dash, the 5 1/2" in the doors, AND the 3 1/2" in the PNP kit) with Polk Audio db series drivers. I put 6 1/2" in the doors for more bottom end, but you can just replace the 5 1/4" drivers with better ones.

My sound system is loud, clean, and tight. I have plenty of top-down power, and clean tight highs and mid bass. The sound stage is all around you and fills the interior, even top-down. I spent around $1000 and did all the work myself. It was not difficult. It could benifit froma a small powered sub, but I will not trade off the boot space - it sounds just fine as is.

Andy

[nightghost]

I did the following modification in my car and I must say ,the quality of the sound is great

Alpine

Amplifiers MRP-F250

speaker SPR-13S

Head unit CDA-9887 ( the head unit works great with CD and radio but when you integrate your ipod into the headunit you would have a hard time going from one song to another)

Ipod jack

I also don't have the rear speaker and I am happy with my sound system .

[systech]

Cheers fellow Ozzie !

The sky is the limit but as a starting point I would suggest replacing the dash and door speakers with MB Quartz or other high quality speakers.

See: http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=9613 for details.

You could also add the PNP rear speaker kit as I did for a bit more spatial depth. (see http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsche-Box...spagenameZWDVW).

If you can wield basic tools you can probably install the speakers and PNP kit yourself.

However, even if you do these, if you like "Doof doof" music you will be disappointed and you will want to install a sub-woofer ...except there is really not much room for one (some use a low profile unit behind the seat or in the passenger foot-well but I wouldn't bother !).

The existing head unit is OK but you need an adaptor to interface an Ipod if you want this capability. All things considered because of the complexity of the MOST bus used, I would stick with the current head unit and amp.

If you don't feel up to it yourself, any competent audio shop can handle the speaker upgrades.

One other bit more drastic change is to pull out the head-unit and amp and install a 2 DIN DVD/Tuner/Ipod/Bluetooth/Navigation system e.g. Kenwood DDX series units and Navigation option or similar. If you want more details do a search on this site or Boxa.net forum.

Hope this helps.

[Aus_boxster]

Thanks for everyones input.

I think replacing the current speakers with something a bit better - ive noticed a quite a few people on here using MB/Dynaudio/Focal and changing the headunit to an alpine along with installing the rear PNP sounds the go.

Cheers,

Dan

[atmorris]

Thanks for everyones input.

I think replacing the current speakers with something a bit better - ive noticed a quite a few people on here using MB/Dynaudio/Focal and changing the headunit to an alpine along with installing the rear PNP sounds the go.

Cheers,

Dan

FWIW - I installed MB Quarts at first based on the same conclusion you have pointed out. It didn't take long at all for me to rip them out and replace them with the Polk drivers, because I found the Quarts WAY too bright and harsh, and not very "tight" sounding. I know another guy who did the same thing, but changed the Quarts out for Boston Acoustics drivers for the same reason. A lot of people seem to like the Focal drivers, but I have noticed that they are usually talking about the more expensive Focals, not the cheaper ones.

Good luck with your project.

Edited September 27, 2007 by Andy_M

[Aus_boxster]

Thanks for everyones input.

I think replacing the current speakers with something a bit better - ive noticed a quite a few people on here using MB/Dynaudio/Focal and changing the headunit to an alpine along with installing the rear PNP sounds the go.

Cheers,

Dan

FWIW - I installed MB Quarts at first based on the same conclusion you have pointed out. It didn't take long at all for me to rip them out and replace them with the Polk drivers, because I found the Quarts WAY too bright and harsh, and not very "tight" sounding. I know another guy who did the same thing, but changed the Quarts out for Boston Acoustics drivers for the same reason. A lot of people seem to like the Focal drivers, but I have noticed that they are usually talking about the more expensive Focals, not the cheaper ones.

Good luck with your project.

Thanks once again for your input Andy_m.

In regards to speakers I did look at the site where you sourced your MB quarts which seems to be a lot cheaper than if I were to buy it in Aus (taking into consideration shipping etc). Which particular Polk drivers did you stick in? Also wondering what you mean by "tight" and whether from your experience the different speakers you have mentioned are better suited to a particular style of music e.g. Classical Vs Techno Vs R&B/Soul etc?

Cheers