Esh

How is the project going?

Here are my immediate plans, with a few questions.

I already have these to install:
Alpine 9833 Deck (thinking bout a w205 in the future)
Alpine SPX-177r components for the front
Alpine Type-X 12" Sub
Alpine MRD-M1000 Amplifier
Alpine MRP-F450 Amplifier
Alpine SIR-ALP1 Sirius Tuner

On top of that I have a pair of Alpine 6.5 coaxials, but they will not fit in the rear doors.

My question is this. A very reputable stereo shop said they may be able to fit a 5.25 inch speaker in there. Does anyone know if this is possible? Has anyone done this?

maxwerks

Sorry for the delay posting, got sidetracked with work and I also changed my equipment a bit, so I am waiting for the rest of the components to arrive. Will resume the project shortly.
Best advise I can give anyone, plan ahead and then plan some more if you want to have that OEM look .

Esh

Concerned with OEM look on the interior, trunk will not look OEM. I need to fit the tweeters on the inside of the mirrors where it looks like they would go.

The trunk is not an issue, the sub is big and is in a 1" MDF box. I also have the 2 amps that will be going back there.

Not quite sure if I feel comfortable X-ing the spare tire or not, we'll see. I guess with the sub and amps back there it will make it hard to get to anyways, but at least it will be there.

Still up in the air. I'll be traveling down to my parents place in a couple weeks and will gather up a few buddies that do car audio at one of the local shops to help me get things done quicker.

KC420

Maxwerks,

may not have an AMG, but the 420 V8 mine -purchased Jan- came nearly full option with Bose, but i was sooo disappointed with that system.
no clear sound, no volume possible, and no bass. pfff
luckily, i was not the person having spent mucho dolares when buying it new

so, when i took out the whole (!) bose crap, i came to the same astonishing conclusion as you: the speakers look like some cheap cardboard sh§t, and there are not even separate tweeters behind the mirror cover or in the dash corner. this on top of the fact that they call a tiny 6" speaker in plastic housing a "sub"...

soo... now i have Hifonics speakers (taped tweeters behind mirror housing, as i did not want to have to put a cable to the dash corner), steered by 4channel amp. In the trunk (have T modell) came a Rockford Fosgate sub (bridged with 2channel amp and capacitator).
Now, this was a solution that did not involve mucho dolares mostly, as i shop smart and did all the work myself... oh, btw: have a dvd HU from JVC steering it all, with two 7" tft monitors for my passenger's viewing pleasure.

i guarantee you: a world of difference with the "bose"! clear sounds, also in high volume range. and the bass coming from the back is so strong my rear windshield nearly flies out! which brings me to my last point: I still have to put mats in the inner door housing and trunk lid to absorb the vibrations....

I cannot understand how they'd ask soo much money for such, well, crap in the end!!! it's a disgrace. With that dough even if you go to an audio shop you'll get more recent, higher quality system in there. and professionals can tune and adjust the system specs also in such a way that it is fully "designed to the car's acoustics"....
I hope in the mean time you are enjoying better sound as well, and remember: what you do yourself you do better (and usually cheaper!)

armaniE55

KC420 +1

mrkompressor

I almost take offense to your statement. The whole argument for BOSE lies not in technical specs, but rather in the simplest of places; the human soul. While there will always be those who judge audio systems but their stated output and technical data, the true reason BOSE is such a worldwide sucess can be traced back to the very philosophy of the company's founder, Dr. Bose.

Amar Bose believes that imperfect knowledge of psychoacoustics limits the ability to adequately characterize quantitatively any two arbitrary sounds that are perceived differently, and to adequately characterize and quantify all aspects of perceived quality. He believes, for example, that distortion is much over-rated as a factor in perceived quality in the complex sounds that comprise music, noting that a sine wave and a square wave (a hugely distorted sine wave) are audibly indistinguishable above 7 kHz. Similarly, he does not find measurable relevance to perceived quality in other easily measured parameters of loudspeakers and electronics, and therefore does not publish those specifications for Bose products. The ultimate test, Bose insists, is the listener's perception of audible quality (or lack of it) and his or her own preferences.[23]

Unlike other major speaker manufacturers, Bose does not publish specifications relating to the measured electrical and objective acoustic performance of its products.[24][25] This reluctance to publish information is due to Bose's rejection of these measurements in favour of "more meaningful measurement and evaluation procedures".[26]
-Wikipedia.

I give all you this becuase my 2003 CLK500 had the BOSE System as standard. It was great. Now, I had to pay an additional $800 on TOP of the upgraded Multimedia Package just to get the 'premium' Harmon/Kardon sound. I WANT MY BOSE BACK!!!

The truth is, I've heard BOSE and H/K in many aplications and no matter where, Harmon/Kardon always manages to tecnically reproduce sounds to an acceptable standard but they simply don't understand what it means to move your audience through sound the way BOSE does. I can be in a car or wearing headphones or in a resturaunt or public place or even someone else's home and immediately KNOW when there is a BOSE system nearby. Why, you ask? Not because I can read a small logo, but because I feel connected to the music. Something Harmon/Kardon fails to do at any price.

Speaking of price; I truly believe that the only reason a company as obsessed with engineering would even settle for H/K as a supplier instead of BOSE back in 2005 had to do with H/K being the lowest bider for the premium audio contract.

With that in mind, I'm still a bit sore with MB for taking so long to adress this MAJOR ergonomic flaw. The only glimmer of hope is the fact that the SLS AMG will introduce Bang & Olufesn to the Mercedes fold. Let us pray that B&O becomes what bose once was. A perfect fit for every Mercedes-Benz. Let us hope, while we're at it, that their prices come down

Until then, I maintain that FOR THE MONEY, the only audio systems Mercedes got right were so far the BOSE systems. That's why I drive home quickly everyday to unwind with my BOSE home stereo

MBFLO

man you should be a sales man for bose .. Yea im sure if you spent xxx thousands of dollars it will sound good in no matter what brand you have ... But this bose in the benz sounds like **** compared to the H/K in my old Audi a8.

armaniE55

Eh, it's ok... what I can tell you though my S-Class Bose sounded amazing even better when I added 2 12' Kickers and 500/1 mono sub and Fosgate Cap. I have it my garage and I plan on dropping it off next weekend to be installed without changing the head unit. (same thing I did with the S) tap into the factory radio. Not sure how it will sound but I may need to upgrade everything. Might go with MB-Quarts speakers and Kenwood DVD player. $$$$

MBFLO

Thats what i was thinkin , i was actually gonna go with 10's maybe and some tweeters just to add a little bit more bump to it nothing krazy.. But i'm not too trusting of the places around locally here and last thing i want is electrical gremlins with this beast ..

NORCAL///AMG

I know that sound quality is subjective...people like what they like...but you ever notice that BOSE is probably the only audio manufacturer that does not sell their car audio line in any retail store...hmmmmm....why not...I will leave it at that

MBFLO

Oh im sure they are top of the line .. and even though i dont think my system is loud enough<for me> im sure its just fine and crisp and clean for general population. Have their setup for my comp and love it .but on my car >fail

Esh

I have yet to hear a factory stereo system that I am truly satisfied with, and it's not just bass. I demand certain things for my ears. The only sacrifice I make is that I am brand loyal and like to have one brand of audio for the entire system. The audio setup I have is listed at the top of the page. I added a pair of 4.5" in the rear doors that I wish were better, but they sound great for my needs.

While Bose does sound ok, you pay a lot for the name in the home audio world. You want home audio, go talk to Blacksport350 and let him drop a little knowledge your way (along with sell you $18k speakers, yeah just the speaker).