Im having a problem installing my cd player in my 89 it has the bose radio system my questions are what can i do to remove the stock amp in the car ?where is it located?what is the hissing sound from the stock radio? has anybody tried to put in a after market cd player in a 89 vette?

 

The Bose system uses an amp at each speaker. The head unit itself has no amplification. No offense to anyone, but IMHO the Bose system sucks. You can buy a Pioneer CD player at Wal-Mart for $139 that sounds FAR better, has more than ample power for most of us (50wx4), and is 10 times as reliable. I recommend you remove all the Bose stuff and go aftermarket. Your Bose amplified speakers should be replaced with good quality aftermarket stuff (get rid of the whole amp/speaker assembly). The rear chambers will nicely fit 6X9's, and the doors will fit 6 1/2" round speakers. Your Bose setup doesn't have any speakers in the dash openings (unless someone added them later)

The hissing sound you are hearing is most likely a fried amp or two. The cost of repairing it will exceed that of good aftermarket equipment. I went with Pioneer stuff all around and have been very happy with it. Just buy the adapter kit for your dash to accomodate a DIN size receiver, go to Wally World, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc and get the goods. It will fit nicely, sound excellent, and give you no trouble. Have fun.

BTW, welcome to the forum.

:cheers:

 

Oh....one more thing....if you want to keep your Bose speakers, you can wire an aftermarket stereo to them. You will need an interface. They sell them at electronics stores, or here's one from eBay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2417056455

Can't imagine why you would want to keep them, but just in case.

 

As stated, you can't really just replace/upgrade part of the system. At least not without getting raped on prices.

I tore the whole thing out and put in a NORMAL system, with the amp in the stereo, and plain ol infinity speakers, with components up front.

It's not for the faint of heart. If you go this route, you'll end up modifying the front speaker boxes, running new wire, and using an adapter kit to mount a single din stereo in the 1.5 din dash.

But, The way I figured, I'd rather spend $500 replacing the entire thing, then just fixing the headunit and having the same crappy unreliable Bose system.

 

Oh, BTW, jump on over the the "Audio" section to see what some of your fellow Corvette owners did with their Bose. It's called "Blose" for a reason. :lol:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zeroforum?id=20

And welcome to the forum. :seeya

 

Thank you all for the replys im going to be doing a system soon so i need all the help i can get thanks ones again :chevy

 

I changed my 85 over to a Kenwood with Pioneer speakers; wasn't too difficult and didn't have to replace the wires. Just use the wires that went to the Bose speakers and tape off the other two. Good luck with your conversion! Joe :chevy :chevy

 

Why repair 10 year old technology? Buy better new stuff for less. Unless ofcouse you want an an original #'s car.

Repairing a bose is like fixing a 286 computer, it's just not worth it!


[Modified by DESPERADO, 8:59 PM 5/29/2003]

 

Since I wanted both tape/CD I found a unit that is basically the same as the one sold by Mid-America that goes right into the dash. I did have to use the 'adapters' since I kept my Bose speakers. Would I do it again? Probably not. I am thinking about replacing the speakers soon with the same type of speakers that came in my Ford Ranger. The factory sound system in the Ranger will run you out of the truck, but still sounds really good. May not have enought bass for everyone, but I don't do that much bass anyway.

 

 

I agree with what everybody else said ( chuck the Bose ) but I do have one idea to add:
Instead of using a 1 din head in a 1.5 din opening, I got a 1 + .5 dash adapter. Now I have my 1din head unit AND a .5din EQ right on top of it. I love the way it looks and it only cost $15.00 from crutchfield.

 

Really? :skep: Crutchfield gave it to me free when I bought my Alpine stereo from them. They also threw in a factory wire harness adapter (which I didn't use.) They also signed me up for a 12 month subscription to Car and Driver without me knowing! The funny part is, when I ended up returning the Alpine and buying another stereo somewhere else, they said, "keep the adapter and mounting kit."

I'm overwhelmed by their service! I almost feel bad about not buying the other stereo from them! I'll surely deal with them in the future when the time is right. Sales rep was very helpful over the phone and even knew what I was dealing with on the vette.

 

THEY probably feel bad on how much $$ they took off you, and gave you the stuff. :lolg:

 

Well the only other thing on the order was a pair of bass-blockers, so I would not have expected them to throw in a "free" $15.00 item on a $8.00 order.

No suprise there..... Pay extra money and the vendor will be nice to you. I can't remember a time when crutchfield was the best price I could find. They do, however have almost everything I have looked for and when you consider the customer service (I also have had good experiences with them) the price isn't THAT bad. When I bought my subwoofer I found a mom-n-pop opperation selling it 35% less than crutchfield: It took 5 weeks to arrive, and I had to send them 2 e-mails to get them straight.

I usually buy from them when I am buying more than one thing. In those cases the extra shipping you would pay often cancels the benefit of getting each component from the least expensive source. Also, (like in this case) they have a wharehouse near me so I pay for the cheap shipping and I get the item fast anyway. The above mentioned order was on my doorstep less than 36 hours after ordering. For small items like this <$25.00 order, the instant gratification is better than saving $1.83 and waiting a week.
The other place I do a lot of my online business is http://www.buy.com They have great customer service, fast shipping, and they are usually better priced. The only down side is that they are not focused on audio, and in my experience, don't have the selection crutchfield does.

 

I myself also replaced the bose system with an aftermarket from crutchfield, sounds much better than the bose. Stereo, along with a pair of 6x9 with an amp. ??? I had was the removal of thte front speakers, how exactly did you get yours out?? Was it easy or not ??? Thanks.
FRED

 

Thank you all for replying Man I thought it was going to be easy but i was wrong taking apart the doors was a hassel all i need is the speakers now. What size speakers for the front i think the backs are 6/9s but please correct me if I am wrong oh and one other thing what wires do i take to the speakers there is 4 different wires?? :confused:

 

I recently replaced the old stock radio/cassette in my 85 coupe with a new Jensen radio/CD.cassette player. They provided a wiring harness that allowed me to connect it (a non-Bose radio) into the Bose speaker/amp system in the car. It sounded fine except for a slight whistling sound coming from the speakers. I was told by a local shop that it was the old amps connected to the Bose speakers that were "going bad." The options were rip out all of the speakers and amps and install all new speakers. That was going to be an expensive job. The alternative was to simply disconnect the individual speaker amps and reconnect the wires to the Bose speakers w/o the amps connected. I was told it would eliminate the whistling sound and that the overall sound quality would be pretty good. Since I'm not nuts over having a sound system that you can hear coming 5 blocks away (all I want is something that sounds good to me and my passenger), I told them to go ahead and do that. It actually sounds pretty good. No more unnecessary noises and all four speakers give out a good quality sound. The other thing that had to be done was to remove the in-line Bose module between the radio and the car's stock wiring for the speakers, etc. That was no problem to do.
Hope that helsp