[Emoto]

Originally Posted by wizprocreative

I was not implying that the sound is not colored, ALL car systems are colored in one way or another. The average consumer would not like the sound of a system that is not skewed somewhat. My studio environment is made to be flat and accurate. I was saying that the sound of the Bose system in my car is a very pleasant one and is done pretty tastefully especially for the consumer. Audiophiles have another thing they are looking for altogether. As for me, I do enjoy what the sound of the system sounds like in my car and I think others will too - especially if they heard the sound of the Boston Acoustics system in the Gen5 cars! Yuck!

Thanks for the clarification!

Any thoughts on what to do to get a truly accurate sound out of this system?

[Front Runner]

I think it's pretty good. I won't modify it because I don't see the need too.

[mosaic16]

Only upgraded sound I've owned is a wrangler with the 9 speaker alpine. I think the Alpine is much better due to it having a sub. Which is saying alot given how crazy the acoustics are in a wrangler. My plans are to add a small sub in the trunk if a plug and play system becomes available.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Megahurtz]

I think its pretty darn good. The only thing I miss is a deeper bass frequency. I've thought about adding a single 12inch subwoofer in the trunk but I don't want to give up limited trunk space. I think its good enough to where I'm going to leave it alone. I actually had my dash apart and got a good look at the speakers. They are pretty good actually.

[Steve2150]

How many speakers in the Bose system, window sticker says 7 but Camaro brochure says 9

[out4lox]

the stock camaro 2ss bose stereo IMO is just plain NOT good. i just traded a charger r/t with the "beats" "system" for the camaro. i didn't think much of the beats. but it's way better than what's in the ss. i'm not a bose fan by any means -- "no highs, no lows, must be bose...." (the bose gold in my '92 'vette was, if memory serves even better than what's in the '16 2ss.)

[Steve2150]

Traded in a Challenger which had the upgraded 9 speaker Alpine system. Gotta say the Bose on my Camaro is much better. The Challenger had to turn down bass to almost off and fade to rear because the vibration of the door panels from the speakers. The speaker cover wa the whole door panel and vibrated like crazy. Complained to dealer and reply was they all do that. In fact showed me 3 others and they all did vibrate like crazy and factory has no fix for it, yes it had a sub but the sub was on the rear deck panel and that vibrated also. Poor design so even without a sub the bass on the bose is more even and no vibration.

[out4lox]

Interesting, Steve. I traded a '13 Charger R/T with "Beats" for a '16 2ss. Love the Camaro. Hate the stereo in it.

The Dodge's Beats uses the same speakers as the Alpine setup in the Charger, except for the sub in the trunk with the Beats. While I was no fan of the Beats in the Charger, having spent some time listening to FM and music streamed from Tidal via my smartphone in the Camaro for comparison, I'd have to revise my opinion: The Camaro's Bose setup is demonstrably worse than the Beats. Not at all close. Beats rules it.

Now, at the risk of sounding like a judgmental, snobby jerk (maybe I am!), many people just don't really know or care about sound, but think they do. But EVERY guy has an opinion. I am an audiophile, have a fairly decent home 2 channel system, and in my opinion the Camaro's audio system is awful.

As for the recording engineer who likes the Bose in the Camaro -- one of us is very wrong, maybe crazy. I don't think this is a case where cultivated, hifalutin' sonic preferences could be the difference: We're not talking about a slightly foreshortened soundstage or the very most subtle dip in the mid-treble, or other audiophile quibbles: I'm talking plain english; muddy, lifeless, bad, no treble, awful.

I mean no actual offense to anyone.

[BamBam2SS]

My doors are very rattly when the bass hits, Is that normal?.

[Glen e]

It's not great, but a friend of mine who's a Bose install expert adjusted my system and it sounds much better. here is what he did:
Base slider slightly left of center one notch
Mid range one notch to the right of center, same with treble.
And most important, one tap to the front.

[Steve2150]

Originally Posted by out4lox

Interesting, Steve. I traded a '13 Charger R/T with "Beats" for a '16 2ss. Love the Camaro. Hate the stereo in it.

The Dodge's Beats uses the same speakers as the Alpine setup in the Charger, except for the sub in the trunk with the Beats. While I was no fan of the Beats in the Charger, having spent some time listening to FM and music streamed from Tidal via my smartphone in the Camaro for comparison, I'd have to revise my opinion: The Camaro's Bose setup is demonstrably worse than the Beats. Not at all close. Beats rules it.

Now, at the risk of sounding like a judgmental, snobby jerk (maybe I am!), many people just don't really know or care about sound, but think they do. But EVERY guy has an opinion. I am an audiophile, have a fairly decent home 2 channel system, and in my opinion the Camaro's audio system is awful.

As for the recording engineer who likes the Bose in the Camaro -- one of us is very wrong, maybe crazy. I don't think this is a case where cultivated, hifalutin' sonic preferences could be the difference: We're not talking about a slightly foreshortened soundstage or the very most subtle dip in the mid-treble, or other audiophile quibbles: I'm talking plain english; muddy, lifeless, bad, no treble, awful.

I mean no actual offense to anyone.

Not so much the speakers but the way they are installed, not sure if front door panels of Charger same as Challenger as it was the whole door panel that vibrated with any bass, turned mine all the way down. It is common talk on the challenger forum, the dealer let me hear 3 challengers and all the same but the charger I tried did not vibrate. Also putting the sub on the rear deck caused vibration, trunk would have been better.

[JonGSA]

I harped on this months ago, but I'm still not happy with the sound on my 2SS Bose 7 months later.

My last car, and now business car/winter beater, 08 Audi A4 sounds better than my 2SS. And the Audi just has a plain stock Symphony II stereo with a Kenwood GPS receiver in it. Of course the receiver helps a bit, but even with the stock headunit in there, it still sounded better. It sounds like a normal stereo and it sounds good at low volumes and high volumes.

The Bose on the other hand I cannot get it to sound linear for the life of me. I tried every setting imaginable. Faded the sound to the front, then the rear, then center, then offset right a bit. Either way it still results in poor imaging. Slide it to the front, all the sound comes from the dash and the trebles are cutting, even when reduced a bit on the tone settings. Move it backwards, and its sounds a little more normal, but like everyone said, the rear speakers are gutless. I think someone here took apart the rear panels and found nothing but a tiny pair of 3" or so speakers under the holes?

I'm not a fan of the volume too. At low volumes, its sounds like its barely on, other than some trebles coming through the fronts. I feel like i have to crank it up to make it sound "full", but at that volume....the bass and trebles are unbearable, cut or not. It seems like all Bose systems, they come preprogammed in a way to boost the bass and trebles. So even when you cut the bass to reduce the "mud", its still boosted in a way. You never get a flat response. The same goes for the trebles.

What also kinda grinds my gears too, is you get more EQ options on a non-bose mylink than a Bose mylink. When my camaro was getting worked on for a bad injector a few months ago, Chevy gave me the keys to a decently equipped Silverado 1500. It had the smaller screen myLink in it, but it had like 7 EQ settings for music type, along with tone control. We get what???......talk (completely useless other than for calls) and "custom".

I really hate bashing on the Bose system, I paid for it and all, but it just angers me since I'm a music junkie and I pretty much don't listen to music anymore in the camaro because of this. But I do listen to the stainless works catback.

[Emoto]

Originally Posted by JonGSA

I harped on this months ago, but I'm still not happy with the sound on my 2SS Bose 7 months later.

My last car, and now business car/winter beater, 08 Audi A4 sounds better than my 2SS. And the Audi just has a plain stock Symphony II stereo with a Kenwood GPS receiver in it. Of course the receiver helps a bit, but even with the stock headunit in there, it still sounded better. It sounds like a normal stereo and it sounds good at low volumes and high volumes.

The Bose on the other hand I cannot get it to sound linear for the life of me. I tried every setting imaginable. Faded the sound to the front, then the rear, then center, then offset right a bit. Either way it still results in poor imaging. Slide it to the front, all the sound comes from the dash and the trebles are cutting, even when reduced a bit on the tone settings. Move it backwards, and its sounds a little more normal, but like everyone said, the rear speakers are gutless. I think someone here took apart the rear panels and found nothing but a tiny pair of 3" or so speakers under the holes?

I'm not a fan of the volume too. At low volumes, its sounds like its barely on, other than some trebles coming through the fronts. I feel like i have to crank it up to make it sound "full", but at that volume....the bass and trebles are unbearable, cut or not. It seems like all Bose systems, they come preprogammed in a way to boost the bass and trebles. So even when you cut the bass to reduce the "mud", its still boosted in a way. You never get a flat response. The same goes for the trebles.

What also kinda grinds my gears too, is you get more EQ options on a non-bose mylink than a Bose mylink. When my camaro was getting worked on for a bad injector a few months ago, Chevy gave me the keys to a decently equipped Silverado 1500. It had the smaller screen myLink in it, but it had like 7 EQ settings for music type, along with tone control. We get what???......talk (completely useless other than for calls) and "custom".

I really hate bashing on the Bose system, I paid for it and all, but it just angers me since I'm a music junkie and I pretty much don't listen to music anymore in the camaro because of this. But I do listen to the stainless works catback.

If you ever find a way to get a nice flat frequency response out of it, please post how here! This stereo was not designed for people who want real audio.

[PWPhoto]

As someone who has been very involved in music since I was very young and has also been a big car audio buff, I will give my 2 cent here, for what it's worth. I sat in a 2SS and listened to the system for about 30 minutes one day prior to buying my 50th Anni 2SS. I listened to the system with my eyes closed so I could pay close attention to all the details of the music. I have owned many GM cars/trucks over the years as well as Fords and even a Scion FRS. The GM cars include a '87 Gran Am, '89 4x4 S10 Blazer, '94 Z28, '98 Z28, "01 WS6 Trans Am, '07 LTZ crew cab Silverado, '09 crew cab Colorado and now my '17 50th Anni 2SS. Fords were a '79 Mustang hatchback, '92 Mustang 5.0 LX vert, and my '14 Edge limited. Also as i stated, a '14 Scion FRS. Almost everything I have owned have all had what ever was the top sound system for that model at that time. they have all had their good points and their bad. I eventually replaced the stock system in all but my 2 trucks, the Edge, the FRS and my 50th SS and put full aftermarket systems in them. Some were professionally installed, others I installed as I learned more about the techniques and learned how to do it properly. I even went so far as to build the '01 WS6 Trans Am as an IASCA Sound Q competition car. Anyone who knows what that involves will know how I am used to hearing my music. I bring that up because the soundstage for me is a huge part of the sound of s system in a car or truck. It goes much further than the ability to adjust treble, mids and bass.

When I listen to the systems in my previous cars after knowing what a true sound Q system is supposed to sound, I cam tell you what GM got right and what they seriously need to work on on the Gen 6 Camaro's. I will say that they did a good job and trying to reproduce the correct soundstage placement in the car. However, they did a lousy job of giving the soundstage the proper width and depth. They made the soundstage too narrow and focused. None of the tracks from any of my IASCA comp CD's converted to ALS files have the proper width or depth. Also the mids are too brassy and the highs or not as defined as they should be. I didn't say they weren't loud enough, but rather they lack the detail and crispness they should have. The system also lacks a certain range of mid bass that is important for proper balance of the mids to lows in the tone curve. I set my bass, mid and treble as best I could using my trained ear, and I just get it to satisfy me. My bass is set at one to two stops below middle (track dependent), mids are all the way down and treble is about 3 stops above middle. That is as close as I can get to proper tone curve. Balance/fader wise, I have balance centered and fader one to two stops to front depending on what I'm listening to.

I really wish Bose would step up their game on car audio. They do a fairly good job on home audio, but totally suck in car audio. I know it is hard or unfair to judge this car to my '01 WS6 which had over $12k worth of audio components and about $3k worth of installation hardware, but that is what I am used to hearing now and every system I listen to is judged by that system. That was a true sound quality set up and they way a system should sound so as unfair as the comparisons might be, they are still judged by that system. I will say though, that although I bash the new Camaro's system fairly hard by the comparison, GM did try to do what they haven't done in any other Camaro and that is give it a proper sound stage. It is not easy to do when they speakers are placed where they are own these cars and they used the types they did. So my hat is off to them for attempting it. For people who have never heard a true sound quality system, it takes quite a bit of getting used to. Once you do, it is always your frame of reference for the judging of any other automotive audio system you listen to. A true sound quality system needs a true 4 way speaker set up to achieve the proper sound curve. These cars only use a 3 way set up. They have a half range tweeter, full range mid bass and a sub. The distance and split between the highs/mids and mids/midbass make it hard to get the tone curve right which in turn impedes the proper sound stage from being achieved. However, the sound stage is also dependent on speaker placement and projection and they bombed that on the cars. Mids and highs should never be bounced off the windshield and that's exactly what they do in these cars. That's why the soundstage is so narrow. I have the starting of a true sound Q system that I could put in my Camaro, but I would lose my navigation and all the other controls on the factory head unit if I changed it. I'm not sure I want to do that. But I do still have the Pioneer DEX/DEQ P9 head unit and hide away DSP units I could use. I also had bought a Pioneer Stage 4 DEX-P99RS that replaced that set up that I could use instead. Also have Stage 4 components speakers, JL Audio amps and a good bit of the install wiring needed for the install. Just need a JL Audio 10" W6 sub and a JL Audio XD 600.1 amp to drive it and i have a full new system for it. All there new stuff i have I bought with the intention of doing a sound Q set up in my FRS but never did the install.