Need your opinion. Bose "Premium" sounds awful to me

[Chevy529]

Hello,

I'm new to this Forum but I need some opinions and this seems like the place to ask.

Background;

I drove a Ext cab pickup for 20 years with a Alpine head unit, Boston Acoustic 5.25" separates with passive crossovers in doors, Alpine plates in pillars and a 10" Kicker sub in a box behind seat.

Driven by a pair of Nakamichi PA 202's and a Rockford Fosgate Punch 75HD. I loved the sound. Crisp and clean. With the time alignment the sound stage was awesome.

Now;

Just bought my Father's 2004 Yukon Denali with Bose "Premium" UQ7 package and it sounds ... awful to my ears. Muddy and muffled. Loud for sure, just not very good. I should point out that I've never liked the Bose "sound" from my days in home audio so I'm probably biased.

My problem is what to do about it. It's a cavernous space with a lot of speakers. My research finds that the amp puts out weird amp loads and everything is run through it. So ... probably not simple to change anything.

Should I just learn to live with it? What would you do? Or have you done?

I did a search and read some builds but I'm too old (and impatient) to spend the time or to drop the coin to do some monster project.

I know that you don't have to spend huge money to get good sound with the right design.

Hopefully I can learn from you all.

Thanks in advance for your time

 

[Quiet]

Bypass Bose amps and replace the speakers. If possible I wouldn't tie into the factory system at all.

[Chevy529]

Thank you for your reply.

The problem as I understand it is that you lose all chimes, steering wheel controls etc if you bypass it. I'd rather keep those things functional

[WalledSonic]

There should be a plug in module to retain those functions.  Check metraonline.com

[Quiet]

My 03 impala had that issue, but honestly, I never missed the chimes.

You can do the Metra kit, but weigh out if it's worth it. You can put a decent system together for only a couple hundred bucks nowadays. 

[s5300]

This is going to be a dumbass motherfucking question - but I have to ask anyways

 

When everybody talks about their steering wheel controls.. They only mean the media controls, right? It's not like you're losing your cruise control are you?

[Quiet]

Nope. There's a wire that goes to the radio harness that contains the signals. Remote interface kits have you tap into this wire and then you have to program each key to a certain function.

 

I used to have a Sony tape deck with a joystick that works with that jack, would be nice to find one again.

[Chevy529]

Thanks for your opinions. Much appreciated

[Ron36]

I've learned Bose sucks for car audio and is great for home audio. Just like this Rockford fosgate shit they put in nissans there like 35rms speakers not real Rockford.

[Quiet]

No, they suck for home audio, too. They're above par, but no, not close to the audiophile level they think they are.