Has anyone hooked up an amp and sub to a stock BOSE system for more bass?

 

check out the Audio/Electronics section - lots of ideas and how to

 

I added a 10" sub and amp to my coupe and it has improved the sound so much. I would do it again.

 

i added a 10" JL sub w/amp and all i can say is WOW!!!! def. a major improvement! PM me with any questions

 

i added mine and for a day it worked great! but then it caused severe electrical problems...and i cant defidently srouce the problem other than it happened when i installed the sub/amp, and went away when all the wires were removed....

im contemplating that it was because i hooked up the remote wire to the HVAC fuse in the pass foot well.

Where did everyone else wire the remote wire? i dont feel like taking out the head unit to connect it there.


thanks,


red

 

 

I added the JL Audio Stealth Box (with 10") and an amp. It sounds GREAT.

 

 

I need to take pics of mine... Ive got an FRC and had a box built to fit one of the little storage spaces on the side.

 

I was wondering about this a while back. Where can one find step by step directions... including the cleanest way to run the wires, connections, what needs to be removed, etc... all the little things!

 

uhhh, that kinda depends on what you're doing. Bogus already did a FAQ for audio installs, allthough its more C4 friendly, but its mostly applicable to any other model version with exceptions. Most of the stuff is common sense though. There is just about many wrong ways to do something as there are right ways, so post specific questions on the forum as needed. No one will flame you for a good question.


snoopdan

 

Adding that sub and amp also allows you to take some low end pressure off the Bose so they don't work so hard.......

 

Specifically I wanted to know where the wires would run in a C5 from the battery to the amp, such as how does one get it from the battery to the trunk while keeping the wiring hidden and how exactly does one wire the amp to the stock Bose head unit.

 

I asked pretty much the same question as you a few weeks ago. At first I wasn't sure about the Bazooka tubes, but I was convinced to give one a try.

I got a used Bazooka CS8A5 on eBay and installed it, but there was a problem. The CS8A5 is an 8" tube with an internal 100W amp for the bass and 4 additional 25W amps to connect to your speakers. In theory it sounded perfect! I essentially hooked up the tube the way the instructions said to. I spliced into the wires going to my stock speakers (the 4 twiddlers) for the 'speaker level' inputs to the Bazooka, then connected the Bazooka outputs to the other end of the spliced speaker wires. I did that by running 4-conductor speaker wire from each of the four speakers to the rear part of the trunk. When I fired up the tube the 4x25W amps were wonderful, but the tube didn't put out any bass. I posted on the forum here.

Since the point of my efforts was to add some bass to my car, I did a little experiment. I used some old speaker wire I had laying around to temporarily connect the signal going to the WOOFERS in the doors to the input of two of the CS8A5's four inputs. All I can say is WOW, that thing puts out a lot of bass.

Conclusion:
Even though the schematics in my service manual show that the four twiddler outputs come directly from the head unit, which made be believe that they contained the full audio signal, there is NO BASS SIGNAL PRESENT in the wires going to the four stock twiddlers in a C5.

That meant that my new bass tube wasn't anything more than an oversized 4-channel amp. I removed the tube, left the 4-cond wires installed as they were, and wire nutted the ends in the trunk so my twiddlers were back to working again.

I did a little more research on the forum, and saw that the only guaranteed way to supply the low frequency signal to a sub in a C5 was by using a harness on the back of the HU and a PD-2 from Audiolink. All of that was a little more work (and cash) than I wanted to invest. Besides, I already knew that I could tap into the bass signal in the doors to power the speaker level inputs of a Bazooka tube.

I obtained a Bazooka BTA6100 locally, and ran some 20 gauge speaker wire from the stock door woofers to the trunk. Again, WOW comes to mind. The 6" tube (with it's 100W of power) puts out so much bass it easily overpowers the rest of the music if the gain is turned up too high. I have the tube 'mounted' in the bottom of the rear center tub. For the moment it's just sitting there, but the cover for the tub is installed. FYI, an 8" tube will fit in the center tub with the cover installed, but a 6" tube leaves plenty of room left over.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED Now the only real concern that I still have is that I connected the Bazooka speaker level inputs in parallel to the bass speakers in the doors. Hopefully I won't fry the Bose bass amps, but if I do it will be a good reason to mod something else

FYI, since I already have the 4-cond wire run from each twiddler to the trunk, and the 100W tube is much more than I can really use with the stock HU (one of the older 30W tubes probably would be fine with a stock setup), I decided that I'd get a cheap 4x25W amp on eBay to power the rest of the music. My $40 Kicker IX254 4-channel amp should get here next week. The Bazooka CS8A5 that I have will also be listed on eBay again very soon.

Also FYI, there are some great tips (with pics) posted in this thread for how to run a power wire through the firewall of a C5.

Even more FYI, there are great illustrated instructions for how to take apart just about the entire interior of the car at Vette Essentials, and if you want to run a wire into the doors there is a plastic cover (aprox 3" x 5") under the dash where you can get to the car side of the accordion tube where the wires need to go.

I guess it's time to update the mods list in my sig again