Want to put a nice CD player in my car and put in an amp and 1 sub. I was told by local shop had to replace all the bose stuff or nothing?

Any suggestions on what to do and what works well. Just want a little bump and better sound!

Thanks

 

You can add a CD changer, sub, amp for it and replace the two speakers right behind the driver and not have to touch the acutal head unit or the speakers in teh doors. If you want to replace the head unit then your talking about a complete rewire.

 

If you want to perk up the stock stereo, you can add a subwoofer and new 3.5" speakers in the doors to replace the "twiddlers." I added a sub by using a PAC-OEM1 adapter. Plug-and-play, very simple. Do a search in the audio/elcectronics section and you'll find a bunch of people doing some amazing things with sound!

 

sub and amp makes big difference to the bose system. but yes, if u wanna start replacing the rest of the speakers your in for a gut and rewire.

 

I had the same questions. On another thread I found, after doing a search for threads only, using keyword audio, I found alot of info.

Almost all said that upgrading speakers alone wouldn't do anything. Some said upgrade the whole system. But many said that's not neccessary. Most suggested either an upgrade with amp & subs, or just changing out the head unit (which needs a special way to do the hook-up), for significant improvement in sound quality. Apparently, the problem is not the speakers, even though that's what it seems like. Also, someone suggested keeping the audio mode preset on "Jazz" - boosted lows & highs.

I'll look for other posts, since I'm also interested in an inexpensive upgrade.

David

 

I ditched the whole factory system and I'm glad I did.

I went with an Alpine head unit that also plays WMA/MP3s, four 6.5inch 3 way Boston Acoustics, a 12inch sub in a custom box one of our members here builds (1200Watts worth) and two autobahn amps. One is a four channel amp I'm running single mode to drive the sub and another four channel amp that is running the four 6.5 inch speakers. The system is crystal clear, and the head unit is built with such features that you can tune the system to perfectly reproduce pretty much anything accurately. I'm very happy with the setup and I have less than $1000 in all wiring, speakers, sub, amps and head unit.

The reason I did it was because the BOSE module loses its clarity and range after a while... Most guys who are really into audio will understand this well. The mid range in my system was very flat, and the step from lower (below 150HZ) to about 900HZ was just gone. I tried speakers first and it was a waste. I then just added a powered sub box which helped a little, but still didn't fill in the void.

Once I finally decided to replace the whole system and found that you had to pretty much rewire all but the clock and ground wires from the Schroth adapter, I just removed the interior and did it cirrectly. Took me about 6-7 hours to complete, once I had all parts in house.

You can do the whole thing in a weekend day. It really improves on the whole Vette experience!

Mike

 

Thanks alot

learning more daily!

 

Hey

I put a Kenwood HU in with a soundgate adaptor to keep the Bose speakers only because I dont have the time right now to replace it all I then added a JL Audio amp 500/1 and a JL audio stealth box. Believe it or not this is a really good combo and less work then gutting the system and wires it sounds real good however I am sure I could further improve it with new compoants in the doors

anyway hope that helps

 

i basically did the same thing, used the soundgate adapter so i was able to keep all the stock bose speakers, went with an alpine HU, and a thubsump box, infinity perfect 10" sub and a phoenix gold amp. mounted the amp on the cover that hides the sub..also used vrumvrum's hu cover.

 

here's my head unit...which i still have to adjust up to center it between the rungs...it'll take an hour or so i've just been lazy.

 

That is what I want to do put in a HU and sub and amp so I can do this with adaptor.

That is great news the stereo place did not want to tell me that trying to make a bigger sale I am sure.

Thanks

 

Here's pics of my Sub/Amps!


Mike

 

If I were you I wouldn't let those guys work on my car! I did exactly what you have in mind! Most of my music were MP3's, so I put in a new HU and the soundgate adaptor. Didn't really like the speakers, so after a few months pulled those too and put in components.

Here is the adapter and a link for it too.



Click for Soundgate GMCRV1



TJ

 

Mike that looks great!

Thanks TJ for the links!!

 

Thanks man!
I wasn't a big fan of Audiobahn components until I had a chance to sit in a guys Escalade with twin 10s and 8 component speakers with two four channel amps like mine. We played everything from classical, jazz, country and heavy metal, to rap and industrial stuff and the clarity was crystal from down low to brain hurt volume.

Now with my setup my wife hears me from almost a mile away coming through our subdivision when I want to "get" attention. Most of the time I listen at reasonable levels and don't try to get attention. But it's there if you want it!

Just the clarity of going with class A stuff is worth the expense!

Mike

 

Dang! Some real nice advice in audio improvements here. Thanks for sharing, guys!

 

Hey Mike, glad to see some pics of your system. Looks great! So how is the Farenheit sub doing? Here's a couple I alternate with:







-Jason

 

That Farenheit Sub and box was the best $225 I've spend... I keep telling guys, my total cost on my complete system with four 6.5 inch 3ways, the box/sub, my Alpine MP3/WMA/CD Head unit, and BOTH AMPS (God bless Al Gore's EBAY! ) and all wiring/fuses/ connectors came in at under $900.

Best part about it is that except for the amps being exposed and the sub (Which is protected by a clear blaupunkt 12 inch cover), it all looks pretty much stock. I guess I should take pics of the head unit, but it looks factory!

Lovin' it man!
Mike