Radio power wattage
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https://www.bose.com/prc.jsp?url=/automotive/innovations/energy_efficient.jsp
Have you considered asking Bose directly?
There was a video about this Bose Energy Efficient Series system on the Volt once at the link above but it just errors out for me now.
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Don't forget about the importance of impedance, too! Higher impedance requires more power to drive, but produces 'crisper' sounds while also giving finer control over volume. Low impedance uses less electricity, but can sound/feel 'muddled' a little and has coarser volume control (ex. 8 is too loud, but 7 is not loud enough, and there's no half-step).
Only if the bass is turned up high enough that it is sucking the life out of the high end. Deep bass requires a lot of amplifier power. If it is causing the amplifier to run into distortion, the high frequencies will be the first to notice it. That is one of the reasons for bi-amplified speaker systems, separately powered sub-woofers, etc.
To answer your question though, I am not sure GM has published any specs on the Volts audio system. I have specs for older Delco/Bose systems, but doubt they would be applicable to our Volts.
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Actually, the frequency range of the amplifier together with the tweeter design are what affect the generation of the high frequencies. More wattage will allow more faithful rendition of the low frequencies at volume without distortion - the creation of harmonic frequencies in the upper range that muddy the upper register. Having power to reproduce low frequency transients will allow their reproduction without distortion, thus preventing harmonic distortion in the upper register.
It is my understanding that the Bose system limits output below 40 Hz. I don't know the upper range limit. Bose historically has not published their frequency range, believing that hearing is what it is all about. That allows them to demand a premium price and still compete favorably with sound systems having better "specs". Otherwise, people might say I'm not going to pay that much for a system that can't reproduce sound from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz within 3dB.
Correct.
Speaker impedance, in and of itself, has little bearing on how a speaker sounds. The impedance spec is really a rough approximate value. If you look at a plot of impedance vs frequency, you will see that it varies all over the place - especially in the deep bass. It is really a more useful spec for amplifier matching. Back in the olden days of vacuum tubes, 16 ohm speakers were common. But in those amps, they had to match very high output impedance from the tubes with a relatively low speaker impedance via output transformers. Modern direct coupled solid state amps are a different animal and can easily drive lower impedance speakers. However if you go too low, it is easy to destroy transistors due to excessive current.
Bose has always relied on equalization in order to provide their "sound" - dating back to the original Bose 901s. In the context of cars, their amps have incorporated multi-band equalization that they in theory tweak for each car model. The head unit in the dash, or its respective black box would send low-level audio signals to each of the door and rear hat shelf speaker locations. Then there would be a power amp with EQ and specially tuned speaker enclosure at each location. I have some specs for some of the stuff they did in the 1990s for high end GM cars. But not the more recent systems.
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Oh cool, I'm a professional classical musician too! Cellist in the Nashville Symphony. Pleased to make your acquaintance.
I've seen posts of people changing out the tweeters that are in the A pillars to get better high end, although I've never heard any of these in real life so don't know if it's worth the bother. For me, I have the bass and mid eq settings in the middle, and the high end cranked up 2 notches, and it sounds fine to me. Of course, as in most things, what you feed into the system has a lot to do with what you get out of it. I use an iBasso DX50 (rockboxed) ran from it's line out to the aux input jack of my bose system, which sounds tons better than the cd player or radio or even the usb input. I mostly play flacs.
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My sister was a professional violinist, too, playing in the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra for seven years when Antal Dorati and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski were the conductors. She played in the Kennedy String Quartet in Thailand for a year, was a guest musician at Kyung Hee University in Seoul for a year and created and played in the Long Island String Quartet for many years. I'm very proud of my sister's accomplishments in a vocation replete with egos, jealousies and poor pay. Maybe things have changed....
I chose engineering as my vocation and don’t play a musical instrument (dabbled with the trumpet in my youth), but thoroughly enjoy classical music, modern jazz , New Age, some Big Band music
…. and driving my 2014 Volt 8^)
I chose engineering as my vocation and don’t play a musical instrument (dabbled with the trumpet in my youth), but thoroughly enjoy classical music, modern jazz , New Age, some Big Band music
…. and driving my 2014 Volt 8^)
All I know is I am pleased with the sound in my wife's VW Tiguan and not my 2015 Volt. The high frequency is so clean and crisp and warm. Nice and clean. Each like the difference between AM and FM. To me I don't think it is that the Tiguan has HIGHER frequencies...just less buzz.
At any reasonable volume, you shouldn't hear a 'buzz'. Does it happen in all four locations? (Left front, left rear, right front, right rear? Use the balance and fader adjustments to help determine this.) If you can narrow it down to one location, it is possible that a piece of trim is vibrating. Or possibly a wire or something is mis-routed behind the speaker. Back when my Suburban was new, that happened in one of the doors. I gave the tech at the dealership a CD with test tones on it, and he was able to diagnose it to a wire that wasn't clipped in right. Nowadays you can simply download an app for your cell phone and play it through the AUX input.
As for high frequencies, tweeking the high frequency setting as sduck mentioned is a start.
I also found the highs lacking when I got my 2017 Premier Volt.
I came from a Quattro with tweeters in the A pillars a the amp had a 100 pole DSP filter tuned for the interior.
However after a few months and tweaking controls, I'm satisfied.
I think the speakers were really tight and needed some breaking in. For a few nights leave your phone playing your favourite tune with lots of HF fairly loud.
I came from a Quattro with tweeters in the A pillars a the amp had a 100 pole DSP filter tuned for the interior.
However after a few months and tweaking controls, I'm satisfied.
I think the speakers were really tight and needed some breaking in. For a few nights leave your phone playing your favourite tune with lots of HF fairly loud.
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Perhaps the way to go would be new/better/different tweeters with frequency filters?
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New speakers that aren't designed for 'efficiency' will probably make a huge difference; as they won't have whatever sacrifices were made to reduce power and weight in the OEM ones.
I'm interested to know how it turns out for you!
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