OK,
I bought a Pioneer DEH-P47DH off a member here. It is used.
I have a 1995 Camaro Z28 LT1 with the Premium Bose Sound System.
So, I went and bought a harness and connected the wires as directed by the instructions.
Hooked it up - no sound. Everything works but no sound at all.
So I emailed the guy and asked him, then he mentions about this special harness that I am supposed to have with the Bose system.
I looked around and then went to Wal*mart and found what Crutchfield sells (for $49.95) Scosche FAI-3 for GM (and not only) BOSE and all sorts of stuff. (got it from Wal*Mart for 19.22 including tax).

I hooked up everything as directed by the new harness. Connected to the car. There is sound, however there is a persistent HISSING sound which doesn't change regardless of the volume on the received or the settings on the FAI-3 converter. You can turn up the volume loud enough that it wouldn't be noticeable to someone who doesn't know about it, but if you just turn the sound down, it will be louder than the player at 10-30% of its volume.

It's funny because not all of the speakers hiss the same amount. The most annoying and loud is the front driver side. The others aren't that bad and they're about equal in "hissing" loudness.

So I called Crutchfield, where the headunit originally came from and they suggested to go buy another FAI-3.... I said OK and went and bought another one.
After 1 hour of pain in the butt re-wiring, I get EXACTLY the same thing.

I want this to work bad and I'm about sick of it at this point.
Anybody care to help?

Thanks.

 

I do not know your system, so I can't give you any detailed info. Your new HU has balanced or bridged outputs. There should be a total of 8 speaker wires coming out of the typical HU. NEVER connect any of these outputs to ANY ground.

First thing I would do is try and identify the source of the problem. Disconnect one channel of the the HU and connect it directly to a spare speaker, car or home. See if the "hiss" still exists in that speaker. It should go away or be much lower level. Try to connect one of the Bose amp/speakers up without any input. See if it hisses.

All amplifiers have "hiss" coming out of them. If you connect two amps in cascade, then the hiss gets amplifier by the gain of the second amp and is thus louder.

Since I am not there, it is difficult to guess at your problem. I would guess that you have a wiring error or too much gain in the outout amps.

If the "hiss" is truly NOT hiss, but another type of noise, then you need to identify if you caused a ground loop between the new HU and the Bose amps.


P.S.

If you could post a copy of the original system schematic or point to a link, it would speed up the diagnosis.



[Modified by 99HT, 3:04 PM 5/19/2002]

 

Thanks a lot for trying to help.
I'm posting the pictures right now, then will go and try to attempt the "other" speaker trick.

8 Pictures 1.4MB total, so please be patient.

Picture one: http://forlangs.net/pics/MVC-001X.JPG
shows the FAI-3 (the blue "box") instructions for my car.

Picture two: http://forlangs.net/pics/MVC-002X.JPG
shows the FAI-3 general instructions.

Picture three: http://forlangs.net/pics/MVC-003X.JPG
shows the end-harness (that hooks up to the car) instructions. (not really relevant since colors of the cables are all the same)

Picture four: http://forlangs.net/pics/MVC-004X.JPG
shows my speaker connections coming from the headunit and going to the FAI-3 box. 8 wires and Ground (black). Ignore the "Mute" cable since it is just left out.

Picture five: http://forlangs.net/pics/MVC-005X.JPG
shows my Ignition (ACC RED), 12V+ (BATTERY YELLOW) and the DIMMER (ORANGE/WHITE). These are not going through the FAI-3 box. They are connected directly to the car's harness.

Picture six: http://forlangs.net/pics/MVC-006X.JPG
shows my speaker cable connections coming OUT of the FAI-3 box and going into the car's harness. They are all correctly connected.

Picture seven: http://forlangs.net/pics/MVC-007X.JPG
shows the unused cables coming out of the FAI-3 box. They do not make contact with each other.

Picture eight: http://forlangs.net/pics/MVC-008X.JPG
shows the general mess :D

Thanks!

 

Forgot to mention that picture five, also includes a connection between the "Power Antenna" on the car's side and "System Remote Control" on the headunit side. This is to power up the amps or otherwise there is no sound at all.

 

OK, I happen to have another, BOSE system (exactly the same as in my car) in my basement so I went and grabbed a speaker from there.

First thing I did, is disconnected the front left speaker wires (WHITE and WHITE/BLACK) after they come out of the FAI-3 box.

I connected the BOSE speaker to those wires, and obviously got nothing since the whole purpose of the FAI-3 is to bypass the amp in the headunit.

Note, while the front left speaker was disconnected, it was still hissing somewhat, but once I touched the POSITIVE cable coming out of the FAI-3 box to the positive cable of the FRONT LEFT speaker, the hissing tripled in volume.

I connected these wires back, and then disconnected the same wires but this time, before they go into the FAI-3 box, ie. straight out of the headunit.
The speaker played very nicely, no hissing whatsoever.

So at least I know it is not the headunit that's causing the problem.....

 

Madwolf,
I ordered the exact same setup as the one you got from Walmart. FAI-3 interface adapter and GM02 wire harness. These were recommended by SFXAudio.com to wire up a Pioneer DEH-P77DH to a 2000 Vette. It's virtually the same head unit as yours with extra preouts. I hooked it up according to manufacturer instructions the exact same way you did but instead, I didn't get a hiss, my volume was barely above normal speaking levels with the car turned off.
After being frustrated with it for a couple of days I went to Circuit City and got a unit by Soundgate (GMC-RV1) and hooked it up. Mind you that this is for the Vette. It had the correct harness and adapter in one package but my cost quadrupled to $90. Now I just have to try to get this internet company to take back their crap.
Personally I don't think the Scosche adapters are reliable. They just don't seem to be well made to me.
Good luck with your install. BTW, 99HT sent me to http:/www.go2pac.com for another possible solution. I would have used them but there's no dealer in the Maryland, Washington, Virginia area and I'm alittle sour on buying things I can't touch first.

 

Uh, like so many others have found out, the walmart harness only supplies power. It does not change the speaker output from the deck to become compatible with the bose system. You need the expensive adapter that actually changes the voltage going out of the deck to match the voltage of the bose system. You may have fried your bose stuff or the deck already as it is like plugging in a 110volt computer into a 220volt socket. Bad news. This is why you have "bad" sound. Bose sucks and is totally incompatable with anything aftermarket except an expensive one that allows you to mate it to the crappy bose amps and speakers. Good luck. Best option is to just replace the speakers with decent aftermarket ones that will work with the deck and skip the adapter. Throw the bose crap at any convenient bose engineer you run across.

 

Hi,
thanks for letting me know.
do i want to throw away only the front speakers or all?
I can deal with buying 2 speakers right now, but not all 5.
I know the rear two are aplified by the sub box....

 

Also, would sure appreciate it if you could send me some information about the "more expensive one".
Where do I get it from?
Thanks.