Bose recall

[Roger M. Woodbury]

My '93 V8 quattro has all the symptoms of this failure, and last year, I
disconnected the rear speakers entirely, and have been awaiting
developments.  I also have one front speaker that has died, so I just leave
the radio off for now.  Actually, I have put the car into storage for six
months, as I am not driving it at all and decided to not even reregister it
for this season....

AND, the '94 100CS wagon that we have, had one front speaker die, along with
the on/off knob on the radio head, which I changed to a Nakamichi.  The rear
speakers are fine, however.

Naturally, BOTH of my Audi's are outside of the recall vehicles.

My personal opinion is that the decision to use Bose systems in these cars
was a purely marketing decision, and that the Bose radios and components are
second rate and represent totally unnecessarily expensive add-ons that
diminish an otherwise superbly engineered, technically advanced automobile.

A long time ago, my wife (of the time) and I bought a "new" Audi 5000 Wagon
(1985).  It was a front wheel drive vehicle, and was a really terrific, long
distance vehicle.  Unfortunately, it was used primarily for short haul
driving, and my wife hated it, as it had taken the place of her
RX7....another tale....

Anyway, to try to make it better, I had the radio system reworked.  I used
the same basic head unit, and had a local radio shop add a cross-over and
two sub-woofers in the rear doors along with a separate amplifier.  It
seemed like a pretty expensive change at the time, although it really
wasn't....I just had never spent money for that sort of thing in a car
before....the result was astounding.

When I had the Nakamichi head unit installed in the wagon last November, I
had the front speakers replaced, too, as the right front was dead.  The
resulting sound is really excellent, although I cannot quite balance the
system now.  The "fix" will probably be another crossover, and separate
balancing thingy for the front speakers.  The Naka built-in amp will drive
the front speakers as they do now, but the front volume will be adjustable
separately from the rear, Bose speakers, which get their signal from the
pre-amp out side, only.  Or perhaps, another amplilfier for the front, and
the signal for both front and rears to come from the pre-amp out side.

Roger