I haven't gotten my car yet, but is it possible the foam helps the sound deadening? There have been posts saying that the roaster is more quiet than the coupe because in the roadster the trunk is enclosed. I don't know if the foam you are talking about is in a place where it might help sound deadening. Just a thought.

I think it's just the design of roadster
since there is no open back it hides the noise
better.. Mine is alot quieter than the coupes
I have been in

Thanksn for posting the pic... My wife had just asked me "where is the microphone?" last night...

i did some more investigating yesterday and the "subs" are in the trunk right behind the liner facing the area that houses the tonneau cover...i'm not sure how good this placement is since it has to pass through that entire section and i know for a fact these subs aren't strong enough to do that

just thinking of options to upgrade the sound system of the Roadster

What do the sound waves have to pass through before entering the cabin?

If the seats are all the way back, are they up against the speakers?

it has to pass through the space where the top folds into...i think it might have sounded better had it been placed right behind the seats being that those woofers are 6.5" (i believe), really thin, not sealed, and severely underpowered...with the top down, i'm sure it's impossible to hear

Are their adequate air spaces in the plastic panel behind the seat to let the sound waves through?
Would it help to add more air holes?

Is there room to install a bigger speaker? Which brings up the next question, I assume we get an amp - do they tell us what its watt output is?

I have yet to have a problem hearing mine with the top down. Drove all day with top down today even at 70 mph mine sounds great.. XM sounds the best though, My Ipod does NOT sound good at all though.

Yes the speakers are no subs at all.."subs" = normal poor midrange speakers..

you can check it with your fader 100% in rear position. :mad:

the sound is diffuse without any high fidelity :mad:

may there is a better update speaker or its a problem of the compressed air channel from the rear (seats infront and the mounting location behind)

really? that's strange, my iPod sounds just as good as XM...what bitrate are you getting your MP3s at? i only get 192kbps and higher and they sound great in the car...not quite CD quality but very very close

I'm still waiting for delivery of my car so I can't be of much help, but I think the first step is to figure out how much power the amp Nissan put in there is putting out. If the amp is large enough there may be a simple fix by swapping out the speakers for ones which can handle high output without distortion.

If the amp is weak then its a bigger problem. That would mean replacing the amp and the speakers.

I am driving an '07 Z4 (7 days left on the lease) which also has two subs, mounted directly behind the seats. They are also not large, I think they are probably 6.5", but they will blow you out of the car at half volume with zero distortion. The amp is 440 watts, so if the amp is big enough and the speakers are built to take high output, you can get great bass even with small speakers.

Please let us know anything you find out. Thanks.

well ZeeYouLater is definitely right, i faded the sound to the rears and heard practically nothing in terms of bass...you would assume that you would have the same amount of bass fading all front or all rear because the subs should be a separate channel but nope, nothing if you fade all to the back...i believe most, if not all the bass you hear is actually coming from your front speakers

simply switching out the speakers isn't an option, not with the bose...you also cannot just add an amp as our experts here on the boards (bigaudiofan) have determined that bose systems automatically cut out certain frequencies at high volumes to limit distortion and prevent you from blowing out your speakers...what has been suggested is getting the MTX ReQ5 to take the signal and "clean" the digital processing the bose is doing if you want to install an aftermarket amp

i didn't know it was going to be such a headache getting better sounding system with the "premium" audio but i really wanted the NAV system and i really don't want to lose the integration with it by installing a completely new aftermarket system...at this point i'm going to put the audio on hold and work on other things for the time being

Rasengan,
Any further thoughts on how to improve the audio? Is relocating the "subs" an option?

I feel like I get more bass from the door speakers than the subwoofers, is there any way to test them??

Try switching the fade to rear, that will at least let you hear the difference. From Front fade/rear fade.