Want to leave BOSE Speakers...

**MrGee** · 07-21-2006, 11:46 AM

Hey Everyone,

ok so now I'm getting around to the stereo system part of the installation figuring out how I am going to do this exactly, ran into a little delema... you see my car comes with a factory BOSE sound system I believe it is about 160w... I am satisfied with these speakers for the inside of the car but once I install my computer won't be able to use the factory amp for these any more. It has 8 speakers inside the cabin all together, I was thinking of running a 4 channel amp and powering all these speakers through it, I took some pictures for you all to see how this looks:

In the first picture of the front there are two speakers... there is an SRS airbag sign on the pole coming from the roof with the tweeter in it, not sure if I wanna try to get at this tweeter with the airbag there... (Don't want a broken arm or face for that matter)... but how would I go about connecting all these speakers? or do I have to just rip em out and put new ones in that are more powerful to make up for some that I might have to lose? Or could I just cross connect them by getting a higher rated amp, and running the front Right speakers piggy backed to the tweeter and the speaker in the door panel that way I don't have to mess with the airbag and can use factory wiring...

Also I was thinking about just cutting the terminals off the stock amp and leaving it there to revert the car back to stock if need be... but I want to use the cables in this amp to power the speakers already inside... will save me a lot of time not having to re-wire all of them... So would this in theory work? Or what would you guys recommend as a better solution? I know a lot of people here have a lot of high powered audio systems this is why I ask...

Trying to figure out my options, and these are what I have come up with so far... would like some feedback before I start buying the audio components that will be put in-place... Thanks in Advance to everyone! Really appreciate the help!

**Shadow** · 07-21-2006, 12:16 PM

Dont' cut anything off of anything. Just splice into the wire and unplug everything from the amp. All you need to get that pillar off is a panel removal tool. As long as you don't jab anything sharp in there, you're okay. You can't set the thing off accidentally unless you put power to it. If you want to run all of those speaker locations with aftermarket speakers you'll either need 3 2-channel amps or a 2-channel and a 4-channel. The front will be a component set that comes with a crossover and will act as two speakers, not four.

I'd recommend ditching one of the back sets of speakers. Is your car a 5-spd?

**MrGee** · 07-21-2006, 12:27 PM

Originally Posted by Shadow

Dont' cut anything off of anything. Just splice into the wire and unplug everything from the amp. All you need to get that pillar off is a panel removal tool. As long as you don't jab anything sharp in there, you're okay. You can't set the thing off accidentally unless you put power to it. If you want to run all of those speaker locations with aftermarket speakers you'll either need 3 2-channel amps or a 2-channel and a 4-channel. The front will be a component set that comes with a crossover and will act as two speakers, not four.

I'd recommend ditching one of the back sets of speakers. Is your car a 5-spd?

Thank you for the input... by splicing you mean splice into the terminals? or into the actual wire? Kinda hard getting the rubber off the wire without cutting it... could always re-splice them back together... in any event not cutting them sounds better to me, will look untouched later... So if I get a 4 channel amp I could power the 4 fronts (Two on each side tweeter and door panel) with front left and right... And they would both work, then ditch the one in the rear doors and leave the two in the rear window... Set those to Rear Left and right... and I was planning on dropping a pair of Cerwin Vegas I have lying around into the trunk powered by a crappy 240 Watt RMS orion amp... will do for the time being till I have cash to through into my sound system... But with this setup in theory this will work and give me sufficient sound quality? thx again...

**MrGee** · 07-21-2006, 12:37 PM

Originally Posted by Shadow

I'd recommend ditching one of the back sets of speakers. Is your car a 5-spd?

To be honest this car I bought to be my everyday car to get me around, not sure if you know what traffic in Toronto is like during the day and rush hour but if it were a 5 spd I'd be changing the clutch every few months... lol... all bumper to bumper stop and go on the DVP (literally don't exceed 20km/h which would be like what 10mph?)... This is my cruiser

which is why I want to set it up with the GPS and all the TV's and what not... Like to build things for specific tasks... When I feel old school I have a 76 Monte Carlo that is sitting in my garage (needs work / will also have a comp in it eventually) I don't really care to go to fast to be honest... used to have a 1990 Jetta with a 1997 VR6 engine with a few mods on it... Never dyno'd it before I ended up flipping it on the highway but it was hella fast... fastest car I ever raced and beat was a M5 older model mid 90's... But this Altima is definately no slouch... even with it being auto... if it were 5 spd... I might not be putting in a computer and entertainment systems and what not... if it were 5 spd probably be gutting the interior out of it... lol... dropping in some engine mods and letting it rip...

**scott_fx** · 07-21-2006, 01:55 PM

i don't think it's a good idea to use the speakers but not the amps. bose is kinda of a unique company making unique products. taking crappy speakers and making specialized compoenents and enclosures to make them sound the best that they can sound. This being the case, a lot of the time the speakers have odd impedances. in my case the bose 'sub' in my car is something like 1.4 ohms or something like that and the signals that go to the speakers are somewhat filtered. yada yada yada. if you want to keep your speakers i suggest looking into getting a bose interface. pac audio and soundgate make them for my car and people have had good results with these. You may need a small amp (i'd probably look into the david navone 20 wrms amps) to simulate 'speaker level' outputs from the computer but i could be wrong. you'd have to talk to the salespeople and find out if it could take a line level input. if so, then just hook up your soundcard into it.

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**Shadow** · 07-21-2006, 02:13 PM

I'd think by the title that he wanted to get away from the Bose stuff. Maybe he should change it to say what he's really trying to do.

Scott, 100% true about Bose. They use crap speakers and do so much deisgn of the box that they sound passible.