gayvettelover

Im not sure what GM was thinking. I dont have bose but the stock unit sounds so bad when its loud like my 2011 crv lol. People paid like 60k for brand new c6 base. Was expecting more of it

Narddog

Your speakers will only sound as good as the signal they are receiving. It's a night and day difference with stock speakers with a good quality head unit.

jarin12ga

My Z51 came with bose. I also put in a nice alpine gps radio, and it sound really sweet. No problems here. Ive heard of people not liking the C5 system but the C6 was improved since. I thought all C6's had bose?

Turbo6TA

Bose is the optional audio system in the C6

zzrider

I'm very pleased with the Bose speakers in my C6, particularly with the new Kenwood head I just installed.

jdinaz

So...can you swap the head unit and keep the Bose speakers?? I thought the Bose amps would interfere?

W27

zzrider

Yes you CAN keep the upgraded Bose speakers/amps with an aftermarket head. You just have to use an interface module between the new head and the car's factory harness. The module knows how to deal with the Bose amps.

I used the PAC RP5-GM11 interface harness kit. My new Kenwood DDX9705S head sounds fantastic with the Bose speakers and this module. Crutchfield can put together a kit that's everything you need.


https://www.crutchfield.com/p_541RP5...Interface.html

chrisharek

I just upgraded the door speakers to a set of Rockford Fosgates, with the Bose head unit. The tweeters sound so much better. The pair of kickers behind the seat don't help much at all though. Crutchfield.com all the way - they are fantastic.

jdinaz

Great info, thanks. I think I should have mentioned that I have the NAV head unit, does that change anything?

chrisharek

If you have the Nav, that should be the Bose head unit (someone correct me here if I'm wrong!)

The big issue I had/have is that the stock speakers are 2 ohm and the retrofits are all 4 ohm, unless you get some off-brand PB that I've never heard of. So, the radio needs to basically be turned up twice as much to send twice the power to the 4 ohm as the original 2 ohm. Because of this, you really need to replace ALL the speakers with 4 ohm, otherwise, you'll have the 2 ohm blaring and not really be able to hear the 4 ohm speakers.

I'm still struggling with the center channel speaker - it's the last remaining 2 ohm and I think it's just muddying the sound. I'm going to unplug it to see if it makes any difference. Trying to find time . . . and then to get those ugly louvers off my car's beautiful butt!

csf

The name on the system is kind of immaterial. We have Bose in our Mazda and Infiniti. Both sound better than the Corvette. In fact, our Infiniti Bose sounds amazing and better than the Harmon Kardon in our BMW and the Bang and Olufsen in our Audi. And I'm also pretty sure the OEM Corvette GPS head unit was made by Denso . . .same company that does Toyota, Lexus and others.

The Corvette system is not my favorite. But after owning in for 6 years, I do appreciate I can hear it fine, of course with too much bass, with roof out doing 80 mph on highway with engine and tires pretty loud. Maybe that's what GM and Bose were going for.

Good luck changing it. After much reading I decided to leave it all stock. It could be worse.

zzrider

I found changing just the head unit to be not that bad. Taking apart the center console and center stack is pretty straightforward. I have no intention of changing any of the original Bose speakers.

I'm going to have to take it all apart again eventually because while I definitely want the backup camera, I was pressed for time and didn't do it when I put the head in.

gpruitt54

I bought a C5 three years ago and the first thing I did was installed a Kenwood head unit in the car. I kept the Bose amp and speakers. Changing the head unit alone improved the sound of the system by a noticeable amount.

Last year, I sold the C5 and bought a C6. Last month, I changed the stock head unit for, you guessed it, a Kenwood head unit. Kept the Bose amp and speakers. Again, a vast improvement in sound quality from the stock speakers. Spent much less money this time around with the same level of audio enhancement along with the typical creature comforts like Blue tooth, front/rear cameras, NAV, hands free calling, crossover tweaking, listening location adjustments, etc.

Did both installs myself. C5 was supported by DD Mods (no longer in business). C6 was supported by Crutchfield. By all means, use their Ready Harness service. This service will wire the radio harness for you, making the installation a plug-and-play project. The Ready Harness service is only $25. Once I had all the elements in my cart, I found that I received several discounts which reduced the price of all the parts by more than $100. Easy weekend project.