Question regarding Touring (Bose) Sound System

4046 Views 18 Replies 13 Participants Last post by mig, Mar 8, 2002

gsteever

Discussion Starter · Feb 5, 2002

I have a 2002 MDX Touring w/ Navi and have two general questions regardiing the sound system.

1. In reading Acura's web site, my MDX has the Bose setup, 6-disk changer and eight speakers. Regarding the speakers, in the front I have two on each door (next to pocket and by the mirror) one on each second row door and a sub-woofer. I count seven including the sub-woofer. Am I missing something??

2. Being a Bose sound system and having a sub-woofer, I would have expected louder volume potential and much more bass. Don't get me wrong, I do not want people to hear me coming down the street, but their are some CDs that I listen to where I have to turn the volume up all of the way to get it loud enough.

I do not live in my car nor do I spend all of my disposable income on my MDX so please do not respond with a bunch of thousand dollar upgrade solutions for my sound system. $100 suggestions are welcome but I am more curious to hear other such complaints or questions.

Thanks.

1 - 19 of 19 Posts

NaNaLi

· #2 · Feb 5, 2002

Some Replaced their speakers

A lot of members here have upgraded their FRONT & REAR door speakers to either Infintiy 6.52i or Pioneer (?) models. Both of these upgrades are reasonably priced. I believe a pair of either one of them will run you between 60-80 dollars. Do a search on "INFINITY" or "PIONEER".

ghotie

· #3 · Feb 6, 2002

The 8th speaker is in the roof all the way back.

Robyjo

· #4 · Feb 6, 2002

Ghotie is right, and it's called the twiddler.

Gsteever--I agree completely--depending on the cd. Some cd's I get a perfect mix (U2--ATYCLB, POD--Satellite) and some are just flat out--flat (Delirious--Mezzamorphosis, Dave Matthews Band--Lillywhite).

The interesting thing is that when I just turn the stereo on, I can sometimes hear the sub 'kick in' after a few seconds of playing and I get additional bass. Of course that could just be my imagination too...

In any case, if you decide to upgrade with another sub, keep us updated with what you think and if you're pleased with the results.

Rob

TYP

· #5 · Feb 6, 2002

Hi..

The 8th speaker is at right side of the rear panel .. I think you can just turn it on
and go sit in the 3rd row, and you'll hear it ^__^

About the bass... depends on how many people you have in your car, and what
you put in the cargo area..

If you only have like 2 or just you in the car, you can put 65% of the volume to the back,
and only have 35% in the front (since the sub is at the back...) and go to the "bass"
part of your setting, set it all the way up..

For me.. it depends on what cd I listen to.. some is too loud.. some made me turn it
all the way...

One other thing you can try is use iTune (from Apple) and burn your CD with
the bass jacked as high as you wanted, and it would give you what you want in your XXX

^__^

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gsteever

Discussion Starter · #6 · Feb 6, 2002

Thanks for the feedback.

I am curious about the speakers. Being a Bose system, is this purely from a design / acoustic standpoint or are the speakers Bose as well? If they are Bose speakers, is the issue amplification or the quality of the Bose speakers that are being used? If I replace the door speakers with upgrades, does the stereo have enough power to drive them?

When I listen to a good FM radio signal, the sound system sounds great! Maybe I have poor quality CDs and there is nothing wrong with the stereo after all. Does anyone own the XM (digital radio) equipment and if so, how does it sound?

Thanks again.

charlieinnj

· #7 · Feb 7, 2002

Door speakers have gotta go!

I'm with you Gsteever.....I'm under-impressed with this sound system the longer I hear it. I'm going to look into changing out the door speakers. Anything has got to be better, IMO.....

Fireblade6

· #8 · Feb 7, 2002

gsteever said:
Thanks for the feedback.

I am curious about the speakers. Being a Bose system, is this purely from a design / acoustic standpoint or are the speakers Bose as well? If they are Bose speakers, is the issue amplification or the quality of the Bose speakers that are being used? If I replace the door speakers with upgrades, does the stereo have enough power to drive them?

When I listen to a good FM radio signal, the sound system sounds great! Maybe I have poor quality CDs and there is nothing wrong with the stereo after all. Does anyone own the XM (digital radio) equipment and if so, how does it sound?

Thanks again.

GSTEEVER-

The XM from satellite radio will work on your MDX. The antenna that is on the roof of our MDX is the latest generation antenna that receives satellite signals and also AM/FM signals...DONT GET IT STOLEN!! It is very expensive. But to let you know you can receive XM music on it from satellite.

Redwing

· #9 · Feb 8, 2002

OT X Radio

Curious as to how you know this. Have you hooked up an X radio? If so, curious as to how/where it has been installed. (I might be in trouble with posting this here vs one on "x" radio.)
TIA!

Fireblade6

· #10 · Feb 9, 2002

Redwing-

Since the antenna is used to receive satellite GPS signals for your Navi..the signal is also the same as that of the Xradio signals. As for the X radio...You may in for a major customization of the X RADIO head unit in the MDX dash...Am sure that audio/video professional can do it...and to make it look clean you have to pay a price for it. I just know that the antenna can be used for X RAdio signals.

panday209

· #11 · Feb 10, 2002

8TH SPEAKER

The 8th speaker is above the third row seats. Its a little dark gray rectangle.

bbsilver

· #12 · Feb 12, 2002

TYP said:
Hi..

The 8th speaker is at right side of the rear panel .. I think you can just turn it on
and go sit in the 3rd row, and you'll hear it ^__^

That's the sub. There is a center channel in the third row as well. Look up.

Also, check out the XMradio before you install it. The frequencies are similar, but not identical. In the astrospace industry we tune our antennas for a finite range to limit interference. Don't know how they speced the XMradio.

http://www.garmin.com/products/dgps53/spec.html
http://www.xmradio.com/corporate_info/fast_facts.html

robonk

· #13 · Mar 1, 2002

I would highly advise against removing an audio system that was specifically tuned for this vehicle with a home-made hack job!

If you have such a strong desire to tinker with your new vehicle, change the oil or something.

bbsilver

· #14 · Mar 1, 2002

robonk said:
I would highly advise against removing an audio system that was specifically tuned for this vehicle with a home-made hack job!

If you have such a strong desire to tinker with your new vehicle, change the oil or something.

Ah. One of those.

mig

· #15 · Mar 8, 2002

Fireblade6 said:
Redwing-

Since the antenna is used to receive satellite GPS signals for your Navi..the signal is also the same as that of the Xradio signals. As for the X radio...You may in for a major customization of the X RADIO head unit in the MDX dash...Am sure that audio/video professional can do it...and to make it look clean you have to pay a price for it. I just know that the antenna can be used for X RAdio signals.

Fireblade6,
I need more info here. I have XM and a seperate Ant mounted on the roof. Where did you get the information that the Ant will work for XM? I woudl liek to try that if I can verify that it will work.

I am pulling my headliner to add sound deadining material next weekend ad woudl love to tap into it while I hav ethe headliner out.

BTW XM is great. The sound is not as good as a CD due to the compression but real close. More like a high bit rate MP3 or directv music channels (lacks a bit of bass).

mig

· #16 · Mar 8, 2002

robonk said:
I would highly advise against removing an audio system that was specifically tuned for this vehicle with a home-made hack job!

If you have such a strong desire to tinker with your new vehicle, change the oil or something.

Whatever.

I love my custom sound system and I say go ahead and put a new one in there if you want to. If you truely love good music the cheap factory or bose profit maker stuff just will not do.

Tuned to the car what a laugh. The marketing folks at Bose really hit a home run with that one.

BTW I had a 98 Corvette with a "tuned" to the car Bose system. That came out right away.

Sorry for the rant I just find Bose products to be overpriced markting-hyped products.

DaleB

· #17 · Mar 8, 2002

Right on! And if you don't want to tinker, there are shops out there that will put a dynamite system into any vehicle. And they will make it look good too.
They will blow the Bose back to it's world of mediocrity.

gsteever

Discussion Starter · #18 · Mar 8, 2002

mig,

Regarding your XM.....did you connect it to your existing stereo via the cassette adapter or via FM reception?

If via cassette, how does it look? If via FM, how was it done. Where did you mount the receiver and what kind did you go with? Do you have any pictures?

Thanks.

mig

· #19 · Mar 8, 2002

The first thing I did was have the factory sound system ripped out of my MDX and replaced with a custom system.

I have an Alpine XM head unit and XM module so I am not using any FM modulaton or cassette type stuff.

Do a search on my posts or XM and you should find a posting that has pics of my system.

If you want to add the FM modulated setup all you will see is a small controller that you can have placed just about anywhere similar to adding an FM modulated CD changer to a factory stereo.

1 - 19 of 19 Posts

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