[9G-man]

I finally got around to disconnecting my center speaker and I can't tell you how much of a difference this has made in my Premier BOSE system. I encourage anyone who is unhappy with the BOSE system to first unplug the center speaker and give a listen.


I've had my VOLT about 5 days and was very unhappy with the stereo sound quality. i couldn't find a tone setting that was good and could'nt stand to turn it up. I was literally getting headaches, sinus aches and an inner ear pressure feeling. I was wondering what was going on, why my VOLT was affecting me....some kind of electro-magnetic reaction to the battery?

Then I remembered, My Prius had the premium JBL stereo with center speaker, and i couldn't stand it, until I read a post where someone suggested disconnecting the center speaker. I did and enjoyed the audio from then on.

Well, sure enough, the VOLT has a center speaker......and I disconnected it ! Problem solved. No more headaches or discomfort and the stereo sound pretty pretty good now. Appearenty that center channel screws up the stereo imaging.

Easy to do, just pry up the v-shaped center panel behind the infotainment screen and under there is the speaker. i had to remove it to disconnect the wire, which has a latch-tab that you cant get to without removing the speaker.

Hope this helps someone else that may be unhappy with the BOSE system

 

[FI Spyder]

I test drove a Gen 1 without Bose and a Gen 2 with Bose. The Bose was stellarly superior so I made sure to get a Gen 1 with Bose. Some people don't like Bose. My wife who has a hearing side effect due to an auto accident (as a pedestrian) can't understand vocals on the TV be it TV speakers or fed through a 5.1 stereo sound system but she can with the Bose sound bar. It's an individual thing.

 

[Chrisby18951]

I have no problem with my Bose system


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Don M]

It's an individual thing.

I agree - The factory Bose system in my '17 Premier is far and away the best sound system I've ever had in any car - I can listen to it as LOUD as I like and hear no distortion at all. At last, I've bought a car where I don't have to waste time and money upgrading the sound system

Don

 

[Belgin]

What "center" speaker are you talking about. My Gen 1 has Bose- 2 tweeters 1 speaker in each door+ subwoofer- 7 Total

 

[BAZINGA]

This was a "thing" on the Gen 6 vette's. One of the tests devised was to place a mouse pad over the center speaker to test if you liked how it sounded before tearing into the dash. It was much harder on the vette.

I tried it and didn't think it made any significant improvement. But then audio quality is like opinions....and we all know the rest of that saying.

And FTR I love how the BOSE system sounds in my Gen II.

 

[JuneBug]

What "center" speaker are you talking about. My Gen 1 has Bose- 2 tweeters 1 speaker in each door+ subwoofer- 7 Total

You know that little compartment with the pop-up lid in the middle of our dash? In the Gen 2 that has been replaced by a speaker.

 

[KenJo]

I think I have the same unhappiness about the Bose audio quality, and would like to try the speaker disconnect you did. Any photos you can share about this hack?

 

[lscamp]

I had a 2012 Prius with the JBL. It was terrible! I couldn’t hear the music at highway speeds unless it was cranked up! I'm not sure if it was the road noise or just a bad speaker layout. But my 2013 and 2017 Volt Bose systems I can have at reasonable levels and hear clearly at highway speeds.

It must be an individual thing.