I went with a radio/cd/usb player I found at Advance Auto parts. The Dash unit turned out to be manufactured and warranted by Kenwood, a long time car and home stereo manufacturer. Advance lied to me when they sold me the unit, they said the adapter cable would work in my car, when I found out it DID NOT WORK I took it back, but they refused to take returns on electronics and wiring. I was stuck with it so, having been a car mechanic all my life I downloaded 98 Vette wiring diagrams for the radio and pulled all the wiring pins out of the plug that came on the radio. The plastic plugs themselves for the car and the new unit actually fit together correctly so it was just a matter of matching car wires to stereo wires.

I started with the power wires, got the face plate lit up, then tuned a radio station and hooked up the speaker wiring one by one until I had the two rear speakers sounding good. The two front door speakers were a different matter, it didn't work with the Bose system. I intended to just bypass the Bose wiring but ended up using existing wires that DID pass sound without distorting it, after replacing the two big Bose door speakers with high power 3 way car speakers from Walmart. It all worked very nicely, actually sounds better than the original Bose system. Other issues were the antenna plug, and the rear mount for the tuner. Instructions recommended sawing the stock aluminum mount off but I wanted to be able to re-install the original radio someday so I cut a notch in the mount that the tuner fit into. There was a size difference between the car antenna plug and the tuner antenna socket, another trip to Walmart found a $10 bag of mounting parts with a 90 degree antenna plug adapter inside. It fit perfectly and I completed the installation listening to the radio.

The recommended dash mount kit worked after sorting out the instructions. The radio is a single din unit needing a mount kit with a faceplate to fill the Vette's larger hole, I think it looks pretty good and the whole project cost around $150. The only mistakes I made were connecting the dimmer wire to the wrong lead, it won't go dim with the dash light control, and the radio is independent of the ignition switch. I discovered these problems after it was all together, minor issues considering the enjoyment I get from this new system. I plan to correct the 2 wiring issues during the next trip into the dash to replace the leaking ac evaporator, which stopped leaking after I installed a can of R-134-A with stop-leak and oil. So I may have to turn the radio on and off manually for a while yet.

I read up on using the USB system to play music files from a PC, bought a thumb drive and loaded it with mp3 music as both albums and individual song files. I thoroughly enjoy playing MY MUSIC through the USB system, not having to carry a big folder full of CDs to fumble with on trips is worth the effort to install this sound system in my favorite ride. Also, the tuner can be set for random play of song files. Later, I discovered that I could have bought a radio tuner/USB/BT unit without the cd drive for less money. I used to sell and install high end stereo systems in rich people's houses so I know what good sounds are, What I am getting is pretty close except that I didn't go for heavy bass in my system, although it could easily be added to what I already have.

On researching the compatibility issue I ran into I found that to use the Bose sound system, An INTERFACE unit is needed to go between the new radio and the Bose System, I found that Best Buy and Walmart can special order an interface unit for $40-100 depending on who you get it from. Since my system was already up and running I didn't bother with that solution. The instructions with the new radio list the wiring pin-outs, all you need is the radio pin-outs for your car and make a pin remover to get the pins out of their sockets without damage(not difficult). Another route is to trust a car stereo installer chain store with YOUR VETTE to put their system in for at least $300-400. I almost went that way but the idea of some greasy mechanic pulling my dash apart didn't sit well.

 

C6 audio sucks just as bad. I did a full stereo in my old C6Z. Doing same in my current C5. Double din HU, sub & amp, component speakers in doors & aftermarket speakers in rear

 

You could go the single din route but in my opinion still has that old time look. To bring the interior into the modern day it really needs a touch screen dual din.
I found a refurbished kenwood ddx on ebay with the metra dual din center console and the plug and play wiring harness to allow factory Bose amp and speakers to work. Sounds as good if not better than stock and has all the modern conveniences with that updated look. One of the best upgrades I have done to date. I dont have any pictures but if you do a search on c5 dual din you will find plenty. Good luck.

 

 

Pioneer will be releasing this in the USA shortly, new single DIN, the SPH-10BT
SPH-10BT

 

I just finished a system with no head unit at all. Cell phone through Bluetooth only. the more I use it the more I like it and wonder why I didn't do this years ago. 'regular' car stereos seem archaic now.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ss-system.html

 

As for the tape deck method with wire. They dont sound good at all. Unless they have really come a long way since I last tried one....which I doubt.

 

If you contact this company I think they will have just what you need - I put one of their products in my 01 C5 so I could listen to IPOD thru the factory sound system and it worked perfectly. If I remeber right the cost was around $90. https://pac-audio.com/

 

You don't have to add nav or such, and still go much more up to date with a double din. Google provides a bunch of images:
https://www.google.com/search?newwin...w=1280&bih=689
The Metra bezel looks good, but is considerably different from the original bezel, the Vette Nuts bezel looks very, very similar to the original, but pretty much everyone has to shim the A/C control out about a 1/8 to 1/4 inch.

 

I had a single DIN Kenwood with Bluetooth and USB in my C5 convertible. I loved it. Even the hands-free phone worked well with the top down. If I had a hardtop I might consider a double DIN with a screen but in a convertible with the top down you will never be able to see it so I would probably just go with a single DIN from Crutchfield and be done with it. They will give you all the harnesses you need and everything to make the auxiliary power work directly with the doors will come in the install kit for a few extra bucks. No cutting of wiring on the car and you're in business.

 

My factory Bose head unit stopped working. I got an Alpine single DIN CD/Bluetooth head unit professionally installed. They used a special harness to make it compatible with the factory Bose speakers. It's nothing too elaborate, but it sounds better than before. I've had cars with fancy stereos, amp, subwoofers etc. in the past. But I didn't want to put that kind of money into this one. I think the class D amps that come with most head units now have more power than head units from back in the day. After I got the new stereo, I sold my 10 disc changer to someone on the forum. I don't miss it one bit. I stream from my phone to the car stereo using BT, it's like having a 300 disc changer, way more convenient than picking what CDs I would load in the changer.

 

No need to hold back. What you want to do is perfectly feasible: you just need a modern Double-Din touchscreen headunit with the features you want and an adapter to provide the interface with the Bose system.

You will also need a Double-DIN bezel. Vettenuts offers one that is topnotch, but not inexpensive. There's a less expensive option, although not at the same quality level, from Metra. You may want to compare them before making a decision.

Regarding the headunit, these are basically the main options available. If you want to keep the Bose infrastructure, Option 4 is the way to go (although you could just do Option 1):

1. Replace just the headunit, leaving the rest of the system intact, using either one of these adapters:
   • Axxess XSVI-2004
     Axxess XSVI-2004
     (this one preserves the RAP feature)
   • Pac Audio ROEM-VET1
     Pac Audio ROEM-VET1
2. Keep the headunit, but replace everything else adding a multichannel external amp driving new speakers through new wires by using
   • PAC AOEM-VET1
     PAC AOEM-VET1
3. Replace just the 4 twiddlers with 2-way coaxial speakers leaving the rest of the system intact
4. Combine 1 and 3
5. Take everything out and replace all from scratch

That being said, without a doubt, the easiest and least expensive way to upgrade the system with the more bang for your buck is new speakers that can be bolted on in place of the factory ones, keeping the rest of the system intact.

The C5 OEM speakers do not include any real tweeter. Bose used 4 plain-cone (paper) speakers to handle high and mid frequencies and called them "twiddlers". That's why you can make a big improvement by replacing them with a 2-way coaxial design.

OEM C5 Speaker Sizes:

-Front
Twiddler: 3.5"
Subwoofer: 8"

-Rear Twiddler
Coupe: 6.5"
FRC/Z06/Convertible: 5.25"


For bolt-on speaker upgrades, get 3.5" 2-way coaxial speakers to replace the doors' twiddlers and 2-way coaxials of the right size for the rear. Don't touch the OEM subwoofers.

Considering that the OEM Bose twiddlers are 2 ohms, the JBL GX Series @ 2.3 ohms is an excellent replacement. These speakers have a soft dome tweeter, which should deliver a smooth sound with a wide dispersion pattern. Add to that the Harman-Proprietary Tweeter Deflector, that according to JBL "acts as a waveguide, allowing for an angled, rotating speaker, which optimizes the off-axis sound performance. Because all cars are designed differently, this allows impeccable sound to travel throughout all locations in the cabin".

JBL GX Series 2-way car speakers:

• GX302 (3½")
• GX502 (5¼")
• GX602 (6½")

Not only they are from the same manufacturer, but they all belong to the same line. This should reasonably assure you they have the same timbre.

You are going to need as well. One kit will do both rears.


Independent confirmation that upgrading the 4 twiddlers makes a noticeable and worthwhile upgrade.

 

I have the factory system and the cassette adapter. I'm able to plug in my cell and listen to Pandora or You tube it sounds surprisingly decent. Just make sure the volume on the phone is all the way up.

 

I use a $3 cassette adapter which plugs into my iPod or phone and sounds just as good as the stock radio, basically sounds fine to me - no deterioration in sound quality at all. Unless you want to spend lots of money and time to soundproof your car, upgrading the audio system is kind of a waste.

 

After a lot of research, I opted for a quick, easy, and relatively cheap way to add built-in bluetooth music and calling to the OEM system. All plug and play if you have the OEM CD changer. Pieced it together myself for about $65, but you can buy a new kit on Amazon for about $85.

- iSimple PDXP (found a used one on the auction site for $30)
- iSimple PXHGM4 harness ($15 from a couple different sites)
- Any 30 pin bluetooth receiver ($20 from the site where 2 day shipping has turned into 5 day shipping most of the time. you can probably find one cheaper if you don't care about hands-free calling)

Took me about an hour to install and darn near CD quality. If you really don't care about having hands-free calling AND you have an OEM changer in the "trunk", you can just use harness PXHGM2 and install would only take 2 minutes.

The only reason I went the PDXP (30 pin model designed for iPod use) route is because it powers the bluetooth receiver. If you use the PXDX "auxbox", you'll need to find a way to power the bluetooth receiver as well.

 

With the top down, it's gonna be hard to see the display on sunny days so you better look for one that has a very nice display ($$$). I put in a Pioneer ($650) and the display sucks in the sun. I have to stop under the gas stations (in the shade) to really see it, usually when I look to get lost driving the Vert. :-)