Bose Sound System

[Iceman10129]

So I have the Bose system in my car, and wanted to do a little upgrading of the head unit to make things look a little snazzier. Now my father is telling me, that with the Bose system an aftermarket head unit just wont work becuase of the amplifier in the back/hatch speaker.

Should I go by what he says or is there a way, and has anyone else done it. It doesnt seem like it would be that comlicated to do.

[Jeff_in_Atl]

The Bose head unit has line level outputs. The amps are remote mounted.

I have a Kenwood head unit in mine and I use the stock amps and speakers. Some one else on here has a stock Head unit and uses an aftermarket amp and speakers. So yes it can be done and it's really pretty easy.

What I did was buy a wiring harness adapter. I went to radio shack and bought some RCA jacks. I soldered the jacks on the wiring harness to the speaker leads. I plugged the RCA jacks into the line level outputs on the back of the head unit. I wired the power as normal. It works perfect. It sounds better too. More highs and lows. That's the easiest and quickest way to do it.

A better sounding way would be to bypass the remote amps and take the speaker level outputs from the radio right into the speakers. Obviously the Bose speakers suck so replacing them helps too. However if you do this you will loose your sub unless you wire it separately to the sub output from the head unit. (The crossover for the sub is built into the rear channel amp.)

I tired to replace my speakers with 4 ohm speakers while still using the factory amps and it's not quite as loud. I measured the stock speakers and they measured 3.2 ohms so the stock speakers need less power to drive them. So I just left them as stock. Some day I may change it but my head unit does not have amps in it so I would have to add an aftermarket amp which I have but there is no good place to put it that is out of the way.

I hope this helps.

[TraceZ]

The Bose head unit has line level outputs. The amps are remote mounted.

I have a Kenwood head unit in mine and I use the stock amps and speakers. Some one else on here has a stock Head unit and uses an aftermarket amp and speakers. So yes it can be done and it's really pretty easy.

What I did was buy a wiring harness adapter. I went to radio shack and bought some RCA jacks. I soldered the jacks on the wiring harness to the speaker leads. I plugged the RCA jacks into the line level outputs on the back of the head unit. I wired the power as normal. It works perfect. It sounds better too. More highs and lows. That's the easiest and quickest way to do it.

A better sounding way would be to bypass the remote amps and take the speaker level outputs from the radio right into the speakers. Obviously the Bose speakers suck so replacing them helps too. However if you do this you will loose your sub unless you wire it separately to the sub output from the head unit. (The crossover for the sub is built into the rear channel amp.)

I tired to replace my speakers with 4 ohm speakers while still using the factory amps and it's not quite as loud. I measured the stock speakers and they measured 3.2 ohms so the stock speakers need less power to drive them. So I just left them as stock. Some day I may change it but my head unit does not have amps in it so I would have to add an aftermarket amp which I have but there is no good place to put it that is out of the way.

I hope this helps.

I have the stock Bose head and aftermarket amp / speakers. I also went to radio shack anb bought a harness adapter, then I went to the salvage yard and got a radio pigtail. I used the two along with some RCA jacks from Radio Shack to make an adapter that allowed use of my equipment.

It works perfectly, looks stock and sounds awsome.