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Bose Subwoofer Upgrade - Retrofit

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[FONT=arial"]Hi,

Just picked up my nearly new 987 Boxster but it did not come with the Bose upgrade.

From the Porsche website you can purchase the sub woofer plus amp, which I am thinking about buyingl.

Does anyone know long this upgrade would take to install and if it is possible? Porsche have indicated it may take day to install speakers, amp, wiring, removal of door panels etc etc... but at £110 per hour will be a very expensive bill!

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
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Thinking about where the speakers are and the amp and the unit, I have to say that I think the upgrade would take some time to acomplish.

I'm just guessing but if I did it ( never done it before but am aware of wiring of this kind of system ) I would guess at probably a day possibly heading for 2 because of cable routing and removal and refit of door panels, carpet, etc, etc.

So if you've been quoted a day then I would think it's up-to a day, hoping that they could deliver within a few hours but who knows.

You could always contact an independent installation team and see if they could do it if you provided all the pieces.
 
I am sure that i've read somewhere that Porsche cannot / will not retrofit the Bose system. Something to do with door units, wiring etc. However nothing is impossible if you have deep enough pockets.
 
I have retro fitted the Bose Subwoofer. But I did not use any other Bose bits such as amp etc. I used an of the shelf Alpine in subwoofer mode.

Its is worth every penny !
 
Depends on what else you put in :

A basic Alpine Amp to drive the subwoofer will need to be installed and connected to the battery and head unit. Then wiring needs to be routed (using the same path as the original Bose) along the door sills to the rear (wiring path can be found on internet). Took me a morning to do - but to do well you will need to remove some trim around sills, door pillar etc.
 
Sorry can't help you with 987 - but if you search on rear speakers Boxster - it will show the wiring for the optional rear speaker option fitted into the rear parcel shelf box for 986. I used this as a guide. (sorry cannot remember the site !)
 
Retro fitting probaly isn't possible unless the head unit was originally intended for BOSE. Certainly the PCM units are specified as different part numbers for those with or without BOSE, so its possible its more than just a recode using the workshop tool. The Bose sub comes with its own driver buit in i beleive , the AMP uses MOST electronics for control and relay of signal from the Head unit to the AMP. You will need to look at the wiring diagrams and also check for compatability of the bose amp and sub with your year of car. The MOST cabling will only be installed from the head unit if you have a Cd changer, you will need to change the current MOST cable to allow the BOSE amp to be connected to the MOST ring. If the MOST wiring is not present in your car , then the use of an alpine amp may be your only option. You need to do a bit of homework on this one to start with , and if you want OEM functionality you will need a helpful specialist or OPC to do some re coding as well.
 
It depends if you want the full surround time alignment Bose sound - then I suppose you need all that other Bose stuff with it.

However the real advantage of the Bose Rear Subwoofer system is the base subwoofer. It is by far the neatest and in my opinion the most cost effective way (if you can get second hand) to achieve decent lower base in the Boxster. Even after market subwoofers in the doors, footwell will find it hard to compete in my experience.

What I did was splice the connector on the Bose unit and connected the subwoofer feeds to an amplifier which was set to only amplify lower base. By "tuning" the volume and cut off frequency of this amplifier I was able to achieve the balance all round sound I wanted - complementing the front. The next step was to connect the other "fill in " rear speakers in the Bose subwoofer normally used for the mid range & treble to give the surround sound, to the rear speaker output on my head unit. This way not only do I get the base, but also rear mid range & treble at ear level - useful with the hood down at 60mph + !
 
Goofy - need some advice if you don't mind... i have a 986 which has the porsche hifi upgrade (so already has an amp at the front i believe)...

Do you think it will be tricky to retrofit the BOSE rear shelf ?
 
Sorry, I have no idea how to integrate the SubWoofer retrospectively into BOSE Hifi as I have no experience of wiring on one. However, it should be possible in theory and also there's no reason why you cannot patch into the head unit using another amp. You may need to see a specialist for further advice.
 
ok thanks... if it makes a difference, my car has the porsche hifi option (rather than the bose package)...?

i have speakers in the doors and dash but nothing behind the driver, which i think would improve the sound a lot.

Design911 are selling the Bose rear shelf but they don't have any info on installation...
 
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