Icefire

I just swapped out the stock Navi HU on my 2005 C6 Corvette. I decided to keep the Bose as I'm probably in the minority here, as I really enjoyed the sound. I'm a fan of the boomy sound as I listen to mostly hiphop.

I was tired of burning MP3 CDs on the stock navi and having a bunch of coasters due to all restrictions it has on how CDs need to be burned. I read good reviews on the Sony XAV AX100 and thought it would be good enough upgrade for me. I mainly use Spotify for all my music needs and having the choice of both Android Auto or Apple Carplay was a plus.


Cost (all in Canadian):
Sony XAV AX100 - $640
RP5 GM11 Harness - $160
Installation + Dash Kit - $150
Total - $950

First, I love the HU. It's simple, clean and fast. The screen is bright. Bluetooth worked flawless with my phone. I like how I can crank up the volume of the input level from my phone right from the HU. I had no hiccups with Android Auto when hooked up to my Samsung S7 Edge.

The biggest issue I'm finding is the Bose system sounds worse with this unit. I find when I'm in park the unit sounds just as good as the stock navi unit. But once I start to drive, it loses the punchiness of the bass and the music just sounds flat. It's not very consistent either. Some songs the bass is too much and the music distorts. Other songs the bass is almost it completely missing. So far I've only tested music through Spotify (both through bluetooth and wired through usb).

The one thing I loved about the stock Navi is when I cranked the volume to max, I never had an issue with the speakers distorting. So I'm pretty disappointed with how it's performing. I'm going to test it out some more before thinking of other options (i.e. going back to stock or returning the HU and getting a different one).

Any suggestions?

TorchRedFred

Did you have it professionally installed? If so, I would suggest taking it back and having them look at it. It sounds as if either the wiring harness wasn't hooked up correctly or the harness might be defected. When I was installing my head unit, I noticed the sound was going in and out as I was moving the head unit around. When I applied pressure to the wiring plug that goes into the Pac module it sounded great, but when I let go I lost some of the speakers. I replaced the Pac harness with another identical one and problem solved. You may have a similar issue. Also check to make sure the harness is correctly hooked up. There are 2 plug positions on the module for the wiring harness, one is used for the Bose (amplified) system and the other plug/position is used for the non Bose cars. I would start there, either take it back to the installer and have them troubleshoot or if you did it yourself, try replacing the harness with another one.

racebum

it's not designed nor EQ'd tonally for bose. that's a fun deck and i really like it for what it offers and how it sounds all for 450 dollars. really good value deck for those who need auto android and a decent sounding deck at a reasonable price

get rid of bose, buy a decent amp and some decent speakers. problem will be solved. the pre outs of that deck really aren't half bad.

i mean you broke up a system that was designed to work together. how did you not expect this?

Icefire

Well, from what a lot of people on this forum who had just swapped out the head unit and not the Bose amp, they got the same performance and sometimes better from their speakers. I haven't read too many posts that made the bose sound worse. So yes, I was not expecting it to sound worse.

Like I said, I am probably in the minority that was perfectly fine on how the Bose sounded.

Icefire

Thanks for the advice! I did get it professionally installed and there is a life time warranty on the service, so I'll be taking it back to see if there is an issue with the harness or if he accidentally plugged it into the non amplifier.

I'll keep you guys posted as I really do like this deck and I hope somehow it can work with the Bose amp where I don't have to shell out some extra cash.

TorchRedFred

Hopefully they can easily figure it out, but the head unit should definitely sound better than the stock unit. And the sound should be consistent. So if you are hearing it sound fine one minute and not so great the next, then there is definitely a problem. I have a Pioneer hooked up with the stock Bose system and there is a noticeable improvement in the quality of the sound, so you should notice it also with the Sony. But it should definitely not sound worse. And in regards to the wiring harness, even though the Pac Audio wiring harness is the best possible option, I have noticed that all wiring harnesses seem to be of questionable build quality. So I wouldn't be surprised if the problem lies there, similar to what happened to me. Good luck.

racebum

people are sometimes wowed with new things, however, did you play with the eq and try to tame harsh frequencies and set the time alignment properly? if that deck isn't calibrated it's going to sound terrible right out of the box

Icefire

You're right, I started playing with the deck settings last night and was able to get better sound out of it. Still a little bit muddy when the volume is cranked up.

It looked like most of the issue with the bass was resolved when I adjusted the low pass filter to 80hz (it was set to 50hz before). Does anyone know what the high pass filter should be set at? Currently it's off but I'm thinking the muddiness at high volume is due to the bass being played through the all speakers. Should I set it to 80hz?

I'll play around some more but things are already looking up!

racebum

low pass would be for a subwoofer. it depends on the sub where that should be set. between 80 and 100hz is common. sometimes muddiness can be EQd or boosted lower frequencies. you have a 32hz and 63hz eq band. play with those two and see if what changes come about. often you set the high pass to wherever the low is. if the low is 80hz and down high is 80hz and up. or 100 and 100hz. on occasion you will get a car with a peak in that range and you set the sub 80hz and down and mids 100hz and up. not common but happens sometimes if you have a trouble area with excessive midbass or mids that can't take the lower frequencies and a sub that doesn't like to play up to 100hz

if you don't have highly trained ears on what frequencies are what, one easy way to learn is to play a repetitive song you are familiar with. one without vocals and one with. push each EQ band to max + and max - listen to the sonic changes. this helps you identify what you're hearing and how to address it

in a car 50hz-125hz are often problem areas with "boomy" or "muddy" bass. 2-3khz is the trouble are with harsh shriek often on "e" sounds in the midrange

Icefire

Thanks man! After playing with EQ band and crossovers I got the sound that I always had with the bose system. The bass started to sound punchy again. Unfortunately, this was all in park with the engine on. When I started to drive, the bass would go flat/missing and everything started dull again. Any ideas?

racebum

i could not help with this without testing.

i would start by making sure you saved your settings and do some trial and error with car movement. sometimes road noise can mask lower frequencies {as well as higher ones} creep the car along at 2mph and see if it changes. if everything is saved, it shouldn't. on the highway road noise really comes into play in the corvette. sound deadening helps a ton and so does amplification

Reggie2006

Was there ever any resolution to this? I'm curious because I have the same setup except I used the Pac OS-2X with my Sony XAV and Bose amp combo and was noticing that my volume is unacceptably lower with the Pac as opposed to the stock setup. I also had a Crux harness for a short period of time which had the proper amp punch but swapped it for the Pac since the Crux didn't retain the beeps of the driver info console, door locking, etc. I had everything installed by a local car audio shop and was wondering if this is worth having them look into or if the harness just lowers the volume output somehow.

Icefire

Are you noticing the bass being lower or just volume in general? My volume can go pretty high where the Bose speakers actually start to distort. But the bass is still missing. I haven't taken it back to the shop yet as I had no time... in the process of moving to a new house. I plan to head over in the next couple of weeks. I'll update this thread and hopefully the issue gets resolved.

stuckMTB

Anybody with the XAV AX100 installed a backup camera with theirs? If so, how did you wire it?

Thanks!

carls2004

Shot in the dark,, but did you turn on high pass filter and set to match the Low ?

Icefire

Sorry guys for the delay in the update, but I've finally figured it out (2 months ago). I was using an older USB drive that seem to suck more power outta the unit. I only noticed this when I pulled out the USB drive to add more music and when inserting it back in it said something about over current and wouldn't run the USB drive. I pulled it out and began playing music through bluetooth and lo and behold, the bass was alive and kicking. So it was user fault and not a fault on the installation.

stuckMTB

Glad you got it sorted out

SoarinVette

I just picked up this head unit. I love AppleCar play and it sounds pretty good too. Does anyone have an issue where the door chimes are unacceptably loud? Something is either wrong with the unit or the unit that allows control of the steering wheel buttons. Thoughts?

TorchRedFred

What wiring harness/interface did you go with? The Pac Audio RP5-GM11 chime module has a volume control on it with multiple settings. If turning it down to the lowest setting is still too loud for you, some people put a piece of tape over the hole in the chime to quiet it down even more.

stuckMTB

I'll second Fred about the tape. I've thought about using double-sided tape to put the chime module far and away from you up by the firewall. Might do that next time I have my center stack apart.