I just picked up my first FD3S and I have a question about the Bose Wave System. The car has a stock radio/cassette deck with a stock CD player. This stock system has the Left/Right Balance control but no Front/Rear Fade control. My issue is that the sound is very much 'front bias' and I am wondering if that is just how the system was designed. If I stick my ear to either of the Bose outlets, I can hear faint and muffled output. Is this normal? I would have expected something that at least matches the amplification of the front speakers (doors and center).

Any help or experience with this is appreciated.

interior picture

 

The Bose tube isnt like a regular subwoofer where you hear it pounding away. I think it's just there to fill the sound but not overpower the front speakers. I have an after market headunit in my FD. When I first installed it, I set the fade control to the rear to hear the Bose tube in action. Its not that loud. It sounds like it mainly covers the lower frequencies that would destort the front door speakers. The center speaker is just for fill. You can barely hear it.

 

Mine is pretty loud. when i put in a different fuel pump and had to take the bose out for room, I forgot to reconnect the cable for it. I could easily tell the difference when they weren't hooked up.

 

there is no fader because there are only 3 speakers for mid/high tones, the bose unit in the back is only for low tones (sub). The only way to really fill out the car is an aftermarket setup with speakers behind the seats (where there are little pockets for storage, base/R1 models have speakers).

 

Thanks for the help with getting me to understanding this.

I went to a local car audio dealer with this issue and a young tech came out to hear what I was experiencing. He found the problem pretty quick. That problem being the driver (me). He told me to stop listening to Nirvana and start listening to techno. He popped in one of his CD's and the bass from the wave system definitely kicked! So if any of you see a mid-thirties male driving around in a Montego Blue 7, with twenty something music turned way up, now you know the rest of the story!

Lesson learned.

 

the biggest improvment I made to my wave system was tightening all the little nuts and bolts that hold it together. It got easily twice as loud once I removed all the air leaks from the system. (twice as loud at low volumes - I have never had it very loud)