mhpellerin

I have a2001 CL and a 2010 tsx premium. I drive both cars about 8k mi per yr and have been. Dry disappointed withe the tsx sound system. The Bose in the CL sounds great all the time with every kind of music at all volume levels and actually sounds live and I hear things in the music that are muddied out in other systems...... And the Bose doesn't distort.

The tsx on the other hand is boomy, muddy, distorted and a lot of the presence is just dead. No matter what I do with the eq, it sounds like crap and at best has to be rated mediocre , the kind of thing I'd expect in a corolla s. I just hate the tsx audio. Every time I drive the CL I Find the audio so enjoyable I never want to get rid of the car. Every time I drive the tsx I'm annoyed an disgusted Acura put such a low grade system in it an I want to trade up to an rl to get the Bose audio back. I'll never by another car without Bose again.

Boulder TSX

Speakers. There have been many threads here about the TSX benefitting greatly from replacement speakers -- particularly those in the doors. I used to install car stereos to put myself through college, (still do some on my own cars today), and having looked at many high end systems and OEM units, compared to most factory systems, the head unit actually has decent power at 350 watts. But the speakers have small magnets and lower quality drivers...the number one fidelity killer. If you upgrade the speakers in the doors, (everywhere will help), you'll notice a big difference. Also, play a CD, (rather than the lower quality music from XM or the typical low bit rate of an iPod), and it sound even better on those upgraded speakers.

I'm guessing the same applies to the 2G TSX, (I had one as a loaner and agree with you about the sound quality.)

mhpellerin

The following explains part of the reason the Bose systems are so much better than the tsx 2nd gen systems

I am an EE so I scoped the outputs of tsx & Bose systems & found both systems will drive to +/- 12V.

- The Bose speakers are 1 ohm which provides about 80W/ channel for a total of 360w.
- the tsx speakers are 4 ohms which provides about 20 w/channel for a system total of 80w proving the 360w rating is simply untrue.

- the Bose speakers are larger and have larger magnets

The more I listen and look at the details, the more I understand how crappy the 2nd gen tsx audio is and how good the Bose systems are.

The only system better than Bose is the mark levinson upgrade you can get in a Lexus