HELP! Got Bose Radio Problems.

RedTn.SSR · 02-29-2004, 03:50 PM

Normally, half-volume is more than loud enough for me. Cruising in the 66 degree weather here today I noticed I had to turn the volume up to about three/fourths to hear the radio. When I got home I started trying to adjust the problem and found that my rear speakers were extremely tinny and weak sounding. Put the "balance" to rear speakers only, turned the "base" way up, and the rear speakers still were weak sounding and no base. The front (door) speakers seem to be okay and sound like they should. It's the 2 rear ones that seem to have "petered out". They have some volume just very weak and tinny. I'm not much of a stereo expert and wondered if this sounds like an amplifier problem or a speaker problem. I don't have a lot of faith in my local Chevrolet Service Dealer, (small country dealer who has yet to receive a SSR for sale) but guess I'll have to let them try to solve the problem. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas as to what my problem might be I'd love to hear from you. Thanks!

02-29-2004, 07:02 PM

Do you have a stereo store in your local area? If so you might want to take it in for a quick diagnostic before you head to the dealership. The warranty should cover any problems you are having. At least if you consult with someone who knows stereos you won't get the run around at the dealership......Good Luck.........Ken

WOW_FCTR · 03-01-2004, 08:51 AM

In case you didn't know, the rear speakers are only 2 small tweeters. There's no midrange or base! That is why I spent $1200 to fix that problem. The problem you will have, if you decide to put midrange/bass/sub speakers in the back is that the steel wall behind the seat only has 2 small holes (a couple of inches) for the sound to travel through. You could put speakers in the cabin behind the seat, but then you limit the amount you can push the seat back. Difficult decision. Good luck.

RedTn.SSR · 03-01-2004, 09:17 AM

looking 4--You seem to be much more knowledgable about sound systems than I am. My question is why did my rear speakers work pretty good for 3 months and then suddenly, all at once, they lose about 75% of their volume and 75% of the base that they once had. Does this sound like an amp problem or a speaker problem? I know they were never really great but now the rears are really, really bad while the fronts are still pretty good.

RedTn.SSR · 03-02-2004, 02:39 PM

Been testing the sound system for 2 days and I've now come to the conclusion that the amplifier isn't working at all. Neither to the front or rear speakers. Fronts sound better simply because they're larger speakers than the rear ones are. Just can't get the volume, base, and sound the system used to have. I checked the 25 amp., amplifier fuse, that's located in the fuse box in the console, and it looks okay, not blown. The amp. itself is located in a box in the convertible top hydraulic area. Not much room to work and sort of difficult to get to. I made an appt. with my local Chevy dealership for this coming Thurs. and hope they can diagnose and rectify the problem. I had to drive it today here in the 70 degree weather in Tn., top down, listening to only that sweet exhaust rumble. I may not need the stereo! I'll post whatever the Chevy Service Dept. does to get the system repaired and working properly.

WOW_FCTR · 03-03-2004, 07:43 AM

RedTN,

I'm not an expert with stereos, but here is what I do know.

1) tweeters don't play bass. The rear speakers are tweeters and have never played bass.

I believe I may know what your problem is though.....
Your stereo has a button called 'Auto Eq', which adjusts the equalizer. It has 3 options, 'normal', 'driver', and 'spacious'.
I have found that the normal setting is quite a bit 'quieter' than the other settings. This button is located on the bottom right of the stereo and the 'Auto Eq' is the left side of the button. Press it once to bring up the current equalizer setting, press it again to rotate through the 3 settings. I like the 'spacious' setting. The other thing that you have to keep in mind is that this equalizer setting is settable for every station (meaning that station #1 could be set as 'normal' while station #2 is 'spacious'). And the other thing that would drive you crazy if you didn't figure it out is that your SSR remembers all the settings for each driver (so if one day you opened the truck with remote #1 and everything sounded great, but the next day you opened it with remote #2 and everything sounded bad, it would be because you did not remember to 'save' the settings, which is done with the seat controls.)

Let me know if this helped.

NCAL-SSR · 03-04-2004, 04:07 AM

Put in Boston or Alpine and an huge amp. Get ready to spend about 10K for a decent sound/video upgrades.

The damn thing needs it. You think for $41K they would have a jamin system and 15" cross drilled brakes from Baer.

RedTn.SSR · 03-04-2004, 10:32 AM

Took my SSR to the dealer today and explained how my stereo had lost most of its volume and oomph. They ran diagnostics on it and no codes showed anything wrong. They called GM Service who told them there had been no problems of this sort reported. Since there were no other SSR's at the dealership, or any in a 50 mile radius that I know of, they couldn't compare the sound systems to see that mine was inferior. Therefore, I got a "could not duplicate" ticket and nothing done. They hope to have a SSR in around the 1st. of April and will let me know when it arrives so they can listen to the two side-by-side and compare them. I really can't badmouth the dealer as they did about all they could and just couldn't find codes but one service guy did say it sure wasn't as good as most BOSE systems in other GM cars are. That exhaust note is sounding better and better!

03-18-2004, 12:18 AM

This stereo system sucks... Bose is good for home but auto stuff sucks.

Alpine, Boston, or even Momo (polk) would be good.

This system flat out sucks for suck a nice car.

The SSR still is cool despite the crappy interior ergonomics and cheap stereo.

Peaches · 03-18-2004, 09:11 AM

Add me to the list of those who say the Bose stereo sucks. I can't even turn the volume up to half without the door speakers vibrating violently, or the Mickey Mouse speakers behind the seats sounding like they are going to destroy themselves with distortion.

I've installed many systems, from Pioneer to several Alpines in other vehicles I've owned. Even the cheapest one sounded better than this factory Bose. I don't care about the lack of power or clear sound at high volume. Just make it sound good at half volume, and we would all be much more satisfied.

These speakers are a major disappointment. Maybe just a speaker upgrade is all it needs. I hate to mess around with the whole system, and possibly decrease the value of my ride. Does anyone have any constructive suggestions for whose speakers to use, or any other ideas for "economical" upgrades?

08-06-2004, 11:32 AM

My stereo is fine as far as volume, but the bass rattles on almost every cd I own. I have to turn the bass down about 3 or 4 notches for it to not rattle---then the music doesn't have enough bass! Any tips for a fix?
Elaine in MS
2004 SSR

Diggs · 08-07-2004, 01:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oelaineo

My stereo is fine as far as volume, but the bass rattles on almost every cd I own. I have to turn the bass down about 3 or 4 notches for it to not rattle---then the music doesn't have enough bass! Any tips for a fix?
Elaine in MS
2004 SSR

Check the mods I did in this other thread.

One bad thing on my install is that the cables to manually put the top up are now under the sub. I hope I never need them.

BTW, the rear speakers are 4" mids. Someone else on the board had subs installed in that space.

Diggs