32 kbit/s – MW (AM) quality
96 kbit/s – FM quality
128–160 kbit/s – Standard Bitrate quality - probaby stock 370Z system
192 kbit/s – DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) XM (but not quite. depends on channel and reception)
224–320 kbit/s – Near CD quality

For me CDs do not play anywhere near 300 kbps or CF Card quality for some reason. This is the CF card I bought: Newegg.com - Kingston 4GB Compact Flash (CF) Flash Card Model CF/4GB - Flash Memory
You will also need a card reader and save high quality MP3s to it. Do a lossless rip as theDreamer said from a CD or download on internet. Plug it in and the Bose system becomes alive. The switching between songs is instant, not like with Musicbox or CD or XM where there is a little lag. Full text is available including file name on the screen if you have navigation.

In my opinion BOSE is to stereos what Rolex is to watches. It's the high end brand that the general public thinks is the best, but afficianados know that there is better stuff out there. There is a marketing strategy to Nissan putting Bose systems in their higher end cars. They are assuming (usually correctly) that older customers will be buying the car with no intention on upgrading and they will recognize the BOSE name as being "high end". This is the same reason that they use the Rockford Fosgate systems in the Sentra and Exterra, because those cars are typically bought by younger people, and they tend to be more in to car stereos and to them the Rockford Fosgate name has more street cred.

Having said all that, I tend to just buy the best I can afford that comes with the car. I rarely keep a car longer than 3 years and I'm not going to spend a ton of money on something that I won't get any return on. I have the Nav system and the sound is definitely something I can live with, although I once had a Spec-V Sentra with a Rockford Fosgate and it did sound much better. I do think that Nissan's ipod interface is one of the best in the business for stock radios. If I were 15-20 years younger and I planned on keeping the car for 6 or 7 years, I would have bought a base model with sport package and gone nuts with the stereo and interior.

Let me give Bose props for one thing, the best customer service I have ever seen. About 6 years ago I bought a Mitsubishi big screen and a Bose Lifestyle system at a high end TV store. I live in smaller places and the Bose does get good sound through tiny speakers. I had a ton of trouble with the Bose system and had to send it back 3 times. The third time was out of warranty, but they covered it anyway. Four years after I bought it I went back to the same store to upgrade the TV. I told the salesman about the problems I had with the Bose system and he had the district manager get in touch with me. After hearing of my troubles the guy sent me a brand new version of Bose's latest Lifestyle system and had a guy come out and custom install it. This was like a $3500 value and I only paid like $2000 for the original system. The new system has been trouble free. There is better stuff out there for the money, but they have great customer service.

NO Highs, NO Lows, Must be Bose!

Rolex is the best watch Bose is not the best audio but pretty good

I agree with the Rolex analogy. Rolex is a pretty good watch, but by no means the best. Patek, JLC, IWC... and many other watch houses produce a craftsmanship well beyond Rolex. Rolex is just the leader in marketing -- like Bose.

I bought a Rolex for my wife, so I am not slamming the brand.

Rolex actually has something unique, which is the Swiss motion that very few brands have, and I believe it is the best Swiss motion rated at 7 ticks per second? Basically it ticks in such a way that it appears to be one constant smooth motion.

I would relate Rolex to Apple more than anything else, due to their amount of control over their marketing. Like Apple, they only sell their products through select retailers, and have strict price control. They never go on sale, and retain their value. Dealers are not allowed to undercut prices, and actually cannot advertise the Rolex name online. Only recently have they been allowed to give small discounts due to the economy hurting sales, but it's nothing spectacular.

Like some have said though, they are not the best, just the best marketed high end watch. I am biased towards Paddock, which I guess you could say is the TRUE Bose of watches. 250,000 dollars for a watch face with a LEATHER band. Now there's a rip off for a name.

My Eclipse has a 650 Watt Rockford Fosgate system in it, and it sounds like trash.

I want to see Nissan get Lexicon to work for them. My friend has that new Genesis, and the sound system in that car sounds unreal.

Bose is junk , all it is when you buy it is your buying hype. If you notice when you start turning up the volume the bass starts fading out than other stuff as well. This is not what a normal system should do the only reason they do this is because they know that there speakers can not handle normal audio at higher volumes. I could choose any aftermarket system setup and it would destroy the bose system. There not that good end of story.

Yep, I'm going to have JL's put into my Z. :-)

I'll have someone else do it though, an audio shop. I don't have the exp., nor the time to tinker with that stuff.

what controls that function of fading sound out. is it in the HU or the amp or both? I agree I should be able to even max out the volume on a GOOD system. You should be able to at least feel the bass thumping. At least I could when I put a system with subs in my brother's Saturn and subs were farther away than this car.

It is the bose amp what it dose is read the incoming signal from the head unit and with a pre fixed program that tells it when the speaker will distort and at what volume determines what it needs to fad out. Our old bose system in the living room did it systems at the store do it when the demo them, and it is the gayest thing I have ever seen.

I'm not familiar at all with CF cards or card readers etc. So you put the CF card in the card reader and then the card reader has plugs on it that plugs into the car just like an MP3 player? Also how are the downloaded songs transferred to the card? I'm guessing the card reader plugs right into a computer as well?

I agree they should :gtfo2: with that!

Ya people think it is a great system because it never distorts I laugh when I hear that. I have went to the bose store and listen to the demo every time and every time I laugh, the scenes when something is blowing up or something like that there is like no bass. The bose system weather it is in your car or home is not as good as you think it is. Sorry but it is just the truth.

We're in the process right now of getting a simply, hopefully not too expensive 5.1 surround sound system and we were thinking about getting the bose until we read the reviews around the web about how it has no base. Instead we're going with a custom B&W set up. Should be nice :)

I would go with a onkyo receiver, a set of polk tower speakers and bookshelf rears on rear in cealing speakers they work great.

LOL I noticed you edited your message about the volume limiter. Anyway have you found your answer yet? Not being a jerk just asking.

I have to highly disagree, apple and the apple ipod have been taking over the market, the ipod is the number one rated mp3 player and has been for over 6 years now. They hold there value tremendously and also run a lot longer than other cheap brands. IMO it is the best one out there I also own a apple powerbook 64 laptop, it is 3 years old had 0 trouble with it and it has been dropped 3 times by myself. My next purchase will be a new one, once you try an apple out and find out how well they are made you will not want to go back and you will see were spending the extra money is well worth it. Just my 0.02

Not sure what recevier we're going to use yet but we have two towers that are really good ones from a few years back (B&W) so we're matching the center speaker to it, then getting two similar ones for the sides that will be in wall.

Even if you upgrade your speakers that bose amp will STILL cut the frequency out when you start turning it up.:shakes head: That is yet another reason I do not recommend spending the extra money for the bose system.

Sorry let's not hijack the thread making a new one in the lounge

good call my bad!

Why - because Bose blows.

Seriously, from an audio perspective, they SUCK. They are as inaccurate as hell. I have a set of $600 Studio Monitors (I do audio mixing / recording for myself and my band, might eventually branch out and do other bands), and I can tell you WITHOUT a doubt, they are the worst sounding systems ever invented.

Way to bassy...and boomy. Treble is rounded off. Mids are grainy...Odd frequency spikes all over...all in the name of making the system sound "bigger".

Anyhow...

I'll hate it until I can come up with something better for my Z, which, given the lack of money I have now, means I'll probably have the bose system for a long time...lol

One thing you didn't mention is that with solid state amplifiers (99.999% of car audio amps, unless you get tube...) can run with higher impedances (ohms), they just don't put out as much power.

So, if you have 8 ohm door speakers, and your amp is rated for 100w @ 4ohm, you'll probably get about 60-70w at 8ohm.

The important thing to remember is to not go BELOW what the amp can handle - run a 2ohm load on a 4ohm amp. That will make your amp unhappy, and could burn it up (overload)...

I have spent over $10,000 in audio equipment from Bose over the years, from a full home theatre system, to a sounddock and a pair of earphones for my iPod. I even have the outdoor speaker system and let me tell you, it makes for one hell of a party.

Those of you who think Bose blows haven't experienced their home electronics, that's all I have to say.

Hang on let me stop laughing first:nutswinger::rofl2:

If you are happy with spend money on overpriced junk be my guest but there is better stuff out there for the same money or less. You just need to go listen to the better stuff, also if you want to start turning your volume up and just be able to hear a few things that's cool. I have a set of cheap polk bookshelf speakers that sound better than bose stuff, the fact is that bose, there in no way good.

True but I am not sure what the bose amp will go to so I am suggesting things to be safe with.

Also here is some insight into your "great" bose systems. The receiver if you have one the dvd player is take from a computer they do not even make it themselves it is from toshiba. The casings of the speakers are made in china with some cheap weather striping foam inside and some cheap looking paper woofers, the speaker wire is not bigger than a 20 gauge piece out of a toy car.. Oh ya there rely top of the line. Believe me we had one not very good it went in the trash as you can tell from the speakers and all.
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Actually, yes/no.
The iPod has taken over the market but not because of it being good or "better" than others. It is because of iTunes and the ease of use for the average consumers. The iPod was very close to dieing just like a few previous MP3 players before it, but it brought iTunes and the music industry to the table and everything changed. They were the earliest to centralize the control of buying/syncing music, and controlled it so well that people thought it was perfect.

Yet now people can buy music from many online retailers, just drag and drop music onto an MP3 player with no thought of format. The idea of iTunes will continue because of the iPhone & the applications, but when I am only able to sync my music with one computer I will pass. I can take my Archos to any computer, drag the music on or off and add anything else I want very quickly, and all without having to install any extra software to do so.

Edit:
On the comment about spending 10k on a BOSE system years ago, that would have been money well spent then. They sold out in the past few years and have gone down hill, quickly. Now I am not saying they are horrible, but for the price per dollar you can purchase much better sound systems. Bose quality has fallen over the past years while the industry has moved forward to better technology and higher standards. Bose took a new turn with size, and found that people like small out of the way sound systems, but can lack the ear for quality.

Well that is good and all but also illegal, copying and pasting to other computers and sharing and all is just as bad as downloading the song from the internet. It is easily able to be done all you have to do is select let me manualy manage my library and ipod. But me I want quality not quantity and all my music is categorized in itunes it simply can not be beat.. It is the best program for organizing and finding your music I can have a song looked up in as little as 5 seconds. When you do not care about how many songs and start worrying about what format is the music in and what bit rate than you will not want to just grab any song from just any computer.

The real question is have you experienced real high end audio from other companies? While most of them are small and niche, Martin Logan has come into the mainstream lately, and is now sold by Best Buy, even if it is their cheap stuff.

My pair of Martin Logans that cost less than a Bose system shake the room, and not because they're loud. They hit the extreme lows perfectly, resulting in bass you can feel as well as hear, and with a sharp punch, rather than the muddy groan of a Bose sub.

Bose simply cannot compete on the level it tries to be at. With the proper research, you can get components that are miles ahead of them for the same money, which is the real reason they have such a bad image amongst high end audiophiles. If they were priced to compete with Sony, no one would probably say what they say now.

:iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree:

I'm not appreciating the bashing by bigaudiofanat, to say the least. I purchased Bose sound systems because they were small and for their size delivered an impressive punch. Room is of the essence as I live in a 3-unit condominium. It's decent in size, but what irritates me the most is that the kitchen shares space with the living room. It's annoying, so I definitely needed something small. Others were either too large or too expensive, so out of what was available here in Canada, Bose stood out.

I bought them out of convenience and because, at least to my ears, the sound was absolutely awesome.

Ummm...never said I want quantity.
I only buy CDs for the best quality, use only WMA Loseless. Also, I have probably four computers and being able to drag and drop my music for my needs is perfect. Also, iTunes is actually the slowest in media management. It has the bigger foot print of an install and usage, it has the slowest interface. Your best programs are Foobar2000 & Media Monkey (a few others but require user work).

LOL K not the newer versions but enjoy your whatever program.

Yes, even the newer program.
I have to use it at my office to maintain office phones and it is a very slow program still. Maybe if I use it under OS X it will be quicker, which I have read reports of being true, but I have to use Windows.

"Whatever program," I hate to break it to you, but do some research on computer audio and you will learn quickly what is the best recommended software. Foobar200 and Media Monkey are the top tier, Foobar200 for its complex but unlimited resources in fine tuning your music, Media Monkey is the best catalog storage of your music if you have a large library.

Also, how can you talk about audio quality and iTunes in the same topic? Apple loseless is an "ok format" for digital audio in a loseless form and iTunes/Ipods do not support WMA loseless or WAV or even FLAC which are the top tier digital audio codecs.

Don't know what your budget is, but I'd look seriously at Denon, Marantz and Harman Kardon receivers. JMO

You could have spent less than 50% of that and gotten twice the quality of sound.

But, hey, it it makes you happy knowing that, good for you.

They've been horrible for at least the past 20 years...

Polk Audio is a better brand, as is Infinity Reference (really good), Cerwin Vega...and that's just the stuff you'll find in stores (somewhat)...that's not even mentioning some of the REALLY high end stuff. Crap where you spend around 15K/speaker.

Do yourself and your ears a favor, sell the Bose stuff on ebay, and use the money to restock your apartment with whatever you can get at Best Buy...that isn't bose.