Well after reading that I was not the only one who thought the Bose system was flatter than it should have been; I took the plunge and had a local audio shop replace the speakers for me.
Through the board research the most common theme I found and agree with is summed up in the phrase "No Highs, No Lows, Must be Bose." I didn't want to go way overboard on my setup, so I would say I went pretty conservatively based on what else I've seen here. So after conversations with the audio shop guys and researching the board, I finally went with the following set of hardware:
Pioneer 6X9 3 ways in the rear deck and front doors
2 boxed JL 6inch subwoofers in the trunk ( 1 mounted on each side)
2 Kenwood tweeters (custom fitted in door corners)
In addition:
Replaced the stock battery with a good battery
Power inverter installed (with switch custom fitter in center consol)
Sony Vaio Pocket MP3 player custom fitted in center console
Radar remote button custom installed in center console
Pictures will follow in subsequent posts.

With all this installed, the highs are now slapping me in the face and the subs give it just the right amount of a thump for my tastes. Not to mention the upgrade speakers provide a great amount of clarity (allowing for the variety of sounds in my music collection).

 

Radar detector mute button and Power Inevrter on/off switch:
Radar detector is an Escort 8500 and generic brick power inverter which is velcroed under the front passanger seat. The Vaio Pocket MP3 player is currently plugged into it.

 

Custom mounting of the Sony Pocket MP3 player. This is Sony's answer to the I-Pod even though they haven't advertised it nearly enough or really even at all. I just happened to stumble across it at the SonyStyle store in Orlando. It's 40 Gig drive, a 2.2 inch color display, and plays MP3s, ATRACs, and WMA(I think). Most important is that it plays MP3s without having to convert them to a propietary format. I liked the controls and I already had the line input hack done to the CD Player.

 

More Pics

 

Swivel surface mount Kenwood tweeters. Mounted in the same position as the Bose but with the swivel mount I can point them anywhere. I also had the shop scrape off the word Bose, smooth down the panel, and paint it sunlight silver. I had planned to do this myself, but the shop took the initiative and did this for me, and doing a much better job than I could have. (Like I said above find yourself a good audio shop and they will go the extra mile for your car)

 

2 6in JL subs, boxed and mounted behind each wheel well. The amp is located under the carpeted panel taking up half the recessed part of the trunk.

 

I was only able to get pics of the back sides on the read deck since from the other side the speakers are hidden behind the existing grill panels of the RX8.

 

nice install

hmm... i'm wondering if there would be a way to mount a small carputer screen where you put the mp3 player

 

how much was everything?

 

did you swap out the factory bose amp? i would imagine so and i was wondering what amp you replaced it with. nice install. i like painted door piece where the tweeters are.

 

The factory rear amp is still powering the rear decks. The new amp(pioneer 300 Watt) feeds the front speakers and subs. I believe the new amp was tapped from the inputs of the existing rear amp.

 

it was more than I hoped, but less than I expected.
Rather not spout the dollar figures.

 

You put 6x9's in the doors? I thought they were 8 or 9 inch subs?

 

They were 8 or 9 in coax speakers(possibly subs). I'll emasure to see what size tonight. But the 6X9's fit with a small spacer the audio guys made.

 

I'm interested in doing about the same thing with my Bose system. (LOL at the "no highs, no lows, must be Bose" thing - any speaker manufacturer with a flagship 1-way home speaker system deserves what they get.) Anyway, I heard (on this forum) that you can have trouble with level control when tapping into the Bose system to add an aftermarket amp. Did you have any trouble with connecting the "front" amp to the inputs of the factory rear amp? Do you still have fader/balance control? If not, do you care? Did your audio guys have to add any line level stabilizers/etc.?

I'd love to come up with a cheap ($500-700) temporary setup to replace my speakers without having to rewire things and add amps, but I don't think that's possible with the Bose system. Makes me wish I had the base stereo so I could just R&R the speakers.

 

I still have the fade, balance, treble, base,etc level setting abilty thriough the head unit. The audio guys didn't mention anything about prblems tapping into the rear amp. They did have practive an another RX-8 previous to mine. But that RX-8 only had the rear amp tapped for an amp to power subs in the trunk.
Maybe they tapped the front amp for the new front amp to allow the continue control of the head unit levels. I'll have to check the enxt time I'm in there.

 

From what I remember, they have modules they plug in to the Bose amplifiers to get RCA outputs for aftermarket amplifiers.

As a general rule, I try to stay away from Bose (or for that matter, ANY 'premium' audio) car systems. It can be a pain in the butt to work around those little amps they use - sometimes they have a seperate amp for EACH speaker.

Bose audio is the only thing stopping me from getting the Grand Touring package.