Boston Acoustics Premium Audio System
 

Just wondering if people spent the $$$ to get the Premium audio system or decided to build your own with aftermarket gear.

I thought the Boston system sounded great at the dealership, but I was a little disappointed once I lived with it for a few days and had to start my own upgrade.

I must admit, I was impressed by the amount of sound deadening Chrysler put in the Sebring touring. But once I opened the door panels and saw what the speakers looked like...:eek:

The PT came with the Boston Accoustics Premium Sound system which is a 368 watt amp,6 speaker and sub system.I like the sound of the speaker system but do not like the Head Unit.I believe Infinity amps are Harmon in the end. Be interesting to see who manufactured the amp that comes in the Patriot.Boston Acoustics are too beautiful.The magnet is pretty big though.

The Sebring didn't come with a sub, but the Boston package did come with the 6 speakers (3.5" tweeters, 6x9s in the front doors and 6x9s in the rear deck) and the amp mounted under the dash near the glove compartment. If i had to do it over again, I would not have spent the $$$ on the Boston package.

At low volume, it was OK, but when I turned it up I noticed the 6x9s made the doors and rear deck rattle like crazy trying to reproduce low bass that 6x9s can't reproduce. I like to drive with the windows and sunroof open, and I could turn the head unit up to "max volume" without blowing anything up, but without crossovers and a sub I didn't really want to. I found out the Boston package includes dash speakers crossed over to 120 Hz high pass (good), but the door speakers were crossed over to 120 Hz low pass (not good) and the rear deck speakers were full range (really not good).

Another thing -- the Boston package speakers were all 2 ohm, meaning if you buy normal 4 ohm aftermarket speakers, you lose a lot of power if you just swap them out. I needed more power just to get back to reasonable volume again with better quality speakers.

So...I started poking around to see what it would take to upgrade the system. I did get it done, but I had to deal with two major issues:

1) You cannot send the speaker signal straight to a new amp, the head unit sends a signal through the CAN-BUS, not through typical speaker wires. And you cannot take the original amp out of the loop. So you would be amplifying an already amplified signal if you spliced into the speaker wires - not good.

2) You can't swap the head unit with another brand like you can in older Chryslers, it's integrated into the factory system to the point that you will lose a lot of functionality (Bluetooth, steering-wheel volume controls, etc.)

I ended up buying an "amplifier integration interface adapter" from a company called PAC that makes these specifically for newer vehicles. The Sebring takes a PAC-CHY3, but there are other models out there depending on your vehicle make/model. The adapter plugs in nicely between the head unit and the factory amplifier and I didn't have to cut any wires, so when I sell the car I can take it right back out. It splits the audio signal off of the CAN-BUS and gives a remote turn-on and 2 RCA 5V pre-outs for my new 5-channel amp (a Soundstream RUB5.800). I ended up getting a great deal on Soundstream gear from my local audio shop, so the new amp and all the speakers are Soundstream and the blue/gray subs match the car now. :D

The car originally came with a factory AM/FM/SIRIUS/CD/Bluetooth head unit. I went on eBay and found another factory head unit with AM/FM/SIRIUS/DVD/MyGIG/Bluetooth for my car, it turns out that the REN head unit I bought was interchangeable with my original unit and everything worked -- simple plug and play upgrade, plus it would sound much better with the 5V pre-outs to the amp.

I ran new speaker wire from the doors and the rear deck to my new amp to handle the extra power. The original factory wires are still in the door, ready to be hooked back up to the original amp when I sell the car.

I put better 3.5" speakers (Soundstream Picassos) in the dash, but left them hooked up to the original amp since they don't distort and they have a 120 Hz high pass crossover from the factory. These are 3 ohm speakers, but since they are reproducing high notes they will be OK with less power, plus I made up for it in the door speakers.

I added much better 6x9s (Soundstream SST6.9) in the front doors with more sound deadener; the new amp has crossovers, so I set these at 70 Hz high-pass and the rattling is stopped. Because these 6x9s have a separate tweeter and can handle a lot of power, they more than make up for the lost highs from the 3.5" speakers being driven by the factory amp. My front stage is even better now.

In the rear deck, I added another pair of SST6.9s and used the rear bandpass feature on my new amp to only allow signal between 70-120 Hz to the speakers (keeps the vocals in front of you).

And I added two 10" subs in a sealed box in the trunk for added thump, powered by the 5th channel of the new amp.

So now I have two amps: the factory amp only powers two 3.5" speakers, but I added a 5 channel amp to power two 6x9s in the doors, two 6x9s in the rear deck, and two 10" subs. I learned a lot about my car in the process, and now it sounds great with the windows up OR down.

If anyone is thinking about upgrading the audio system, be very careful to buy the right adapters for your car and don't cut any factory wires, you may do serious damage! I am not a "techie", but I was able to do everything in about 5 hours and the car does not look modified (unless you open the trunk :cool:).

Good luck!

I just put in 6x9 infinity references in the rear deck and some sr60 boston acoustic components in the front and have an amp putting about 75w rms into each one and they sound great so far. I now have to buy a dynamat door kit to help dampin the vibrations some.

My wife has the Infinity system in her Pacifica, I may put some Reference speakers in there for her to make it sound better.

You may need to tweak the crossovers on your amp to help with the vibration, the sound was much better when I used a subwoofer for the lows and a high-pass crossover for the doors and rear deck.

I plan on getting a door kit of dynamat in order to kill the vibrations and what not.

The Boston system has great sound. This is some times creates problem while any one start their own up gradation. The other option for the enjoy good sound is to use door panels. This is the very good for the good quality sound.