Hello Everyone,

I searched and what I found confused me. I'm good with motors but I know zero about stereos.
My wife's vette is a 93 with the bose system (CD + Cassette up front and four speakers at the corners).

Front speakers are dead. Left rear emitts an unpleasant buzzing. Right rear communicates sound but is very quiet.

I was planning to just replace the whole thing, new head unit, 4 speakers - but... My wife really wants to keep the original head unit. So what are my options to keep the original head unit and get new speakers?

Thank you.

 

The capacitors in the speaker amplifiers need replacement after being 29 years old, they leak over time. Just remove the 4 speakers, open them up and take out the amplifiers to send them away. Label each one so you know where it came from, front and rears are different. You do not need to buy new speakers.
There are numerous places to send them out for rebuild - Bose Central, Don's, CarStereoRemoval, others here mentioned on the forum. Way easier to repair them than to replace the whole system. Look at the videos on carstereoremoval.com. Prices range from $50 a unit to $100 per unit depending on which vendor.
The HU and CDM box (in the right rear under the lid in the rear storage area) might need to be sent out too if the speaker repair doesn't solve your problem, otherwise remove them too and send the whole system out to be checked/repaired. You're lucky the car is a '93, in the earlier cars (90,91) the CDM box is underneath the PS dash and is a real PIA to get out.
Do a search on here or Google, there is a wealth of information on repairing this system but it starts with the speaker amps.

 

Top windshield mounted grills may be an unused space for stereo upgrade.

 

Mrlmd - You say easiest, but I'm looking at the prices on bose central and car stereo removal and it sounds like almost $1000 to just repair the existing system. I can buy 4 new speakers for a lot less than that, am I understanding that new speakers won't work with the existing head unit?

 

You'd need to install a whole separate amplifier as well, since the bose speakers each have their own. Making that work with the existing head unit might be possible - but I think you're going to be happier in the long run either replacing everything, or fixing the original Bose speakers and replacing nothing.

 

Aurora - Thanks for the clarification. That's what I was afraid of. Guess I get to see how married my wife is to the original headunit.

 

You are really exaggerating the cost. It might cost you only $200 to repair the speaker amps and that could be it. You'll never know until you at least do that.
Or, if you're any good at soldering you can replace ALL the capacitors in the 4 amps yourself for about $20 in parts.

 

The carstereoremoval site says, $100 per amp, $275 for the head unit, and another $125 for the CDM. so 400 + 275 + 125 + shipping = pretty close to 1k.

 

In my opinion, it's unlikely that everything is bad. When I acquired my '86 it had one bad speaker amp, and the head was dead. I replaced the head with an aftermarket Alpine unit (which got me bluetooth and usb into my phone) and was able to continue using the factory Bose speakers after replacing the capacitors in the bad amp (it really is pretty simple if you're adventurous enough to try your own soldering). Car sounds great now!

 

Bose Central is $49 per amp, 1/2 the price. $200 for four and that may be all you need. And what do you think you'd pay for an aftermarket stereo, 4 new speakers to match, and installation costs?

 

Take a look at this thread. I know it's for 86-89 Bose systems, but the amps can't be too different. I used this guide on all 4 of my amps along with my head unit, and I must say, it sounds better than it has since I bought my 88 in 94. SLVRSHRK did a fantastic job with the write up and instructions. It also lists all the capacitor part numbers from Digikey and values needed. Good luck whatever you decide, but as we all know, Happy Wife....

David

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...aux-input.html