Installed a powered Alpine sub (low profile 8") in the vette this weekend and have some questions. I tapped into the front 3.5 speaker leads BEFORE the bose amp and was able to get a signal, but it was VERY quiet. I figure the output from the NAV radio is next to none..... I then tapped into the front 3.5 speaker leads AFTER the bose amp and now I have sound. Is this the only way to get the signal WITHOUT having to use the PAC adapter?? I read that you are supposed to get the signal BEFORE the bose amp, but it is so low, it is not worth it. Do not want any gremlins to show up because I tapped in AFTER the bose amp.

I am also tapped into the heated seats for the remote wire..... Is there another option in that fuse panel under the passenger side???

Was hoping for a wow factor, but I give the sound a 5 out of 10.... Want to keep the OEM HU, so I must learn to live with mediocre sound in the vette.

Thanks

 

Why would you want to keep such an outdated HU? Keep it in a box in the closet if you ever want to put it back to stock, but I can tell you the best mod I did was updating my HU.

 

I like the OEM flow on the dash with the stock unit....... I replaced the 3.5s and 5.25s with MB Quarts, unplugged the center speaker and left the 10s alone. Added the little sub and it sounds decent. I have my Titan's sound on point and I know it will not sound like that set up, but would like a clean sound out of the vette.

 

Sound and functionality wise, you'd be so much better off with an aftermarket system, plus you can personalize the screens on an aftermarket system to give them a stock looking feel. Here's a photo showing my Pioneer system screen.

 

powered sub takes speaker level output so yes, tap in after the bose amp.

If you drop the bose setup, you can get a sweet 2 channel 60~ish W RMS mini amp to fit in that footwell and you can tap preexisting wires to go to the 10" speakers which you can use an adapter to change to 6.5" (for more selection). That along with the sub you have + component tweeter in the 3.5" location would be decent.

BTW, if you do decide to do the bose amp removal keep in mind one thing: the bose amp output (therefore speaker wires) is set up as a 4.2 HOWEVER... the channels are FR, FL, Mono Center, Mono Rear, Sub L, Sub R. So, if you want to run LR, RR, you will have to find where they split and rerun wires to the head unit. Also, pinouts for the BOSE system changes halfway through the C6 run around 2009ish? so if you get the FSM from ebay all the pinouts are wrong since they use a 2007 C6 fsm. I had to guess and check my way to rewiring my setup.

 

If I go this route, will I lose my HUD?? Nav is useless for me, so I am not worried about that.... Do you have a list of harness' that were used to make it a cut free install??? What adapter did you use because that looks very clean.

Trying not to go down the rabbit hole, but here I am staring down it.

 

You won't lose the functionality of the HUD other than Nav and radio station. All other functions of the HUD still work. Mine does so I know.
I never used the nav in mine for the last 10 years so I upgraded to a HU without it, but now have bluetooth for my phone and streaming. I can also use Nav from my phone on my HU.
Love it.

 

You only lose Nav in your HUD. Everything else is fine. Someone else can help w/ the rest. I'm reading up trying to figure out what to do w/ my set up. I put in a Pioneer HU but the sound is tinny. I came from a '13 GT with the Shaker 1000 and 3 subwoofers (1 in the trunk, 1 in each door). Right now my F-150 with Sync 3 sounds a ton better stock.

 

Stock speakers through the bose amp? the 3.5" fronts are the only ones playing sound from the front. The 10"s are subout only (high freq cut). Therefore, swapping out only speakers without removing the bose amp will mean you only get mids and highs from the 3.5. If you swapped out the 10" speakers without doing the bose amp delete its even worse because the bose amp will push lows only (high cut) and the speakers generally will have a low cut (if you have a crossover - even if you dont, most speakers are so inefficient below certain freqs it'll be very low power) so you have a very narrow band, if any, of sound output from the 6.5 doors.

My recommendation is always going to be:

Good head unit, preout via RCA to a good 2 or 4 channel amp. run two good front component or coax (i regret going coax, id go component now) into the main door speaker, tweeters in the 3.5 position, and a subwoofer with the bridged 2nd channel. I dont miss my lack of rear speakers.

 

I think the rear speakers are necessary otherwise it sounds like all the sound is coming from forward. I like more balanced theater like sound. I have a similar setup to you, but just with Alpine Type R 5.25"s in the rear. Sounds great.

 

Like others have mentioned, you only lose the NAV and radio displays on the HUD, everything else works just fine. To interface the cars wiring to the new aftermarket system, you'd need to get an interface module, the most popular one that's used by most on this forum is the PAC RP5-GM11 which you can find here. https://www.crutchfield.com/p_541RP5...Interface.html Crutchfield has a service where they'll connect the interface to the head unit wiring for you if you're not comfortable doing it yourself for a small fee, otherwise its just matching wires color for color. Once you have the interface wired to the head unit harness, everything is just plug and play, no need to cut any of the factory wiring. You'll also need a install kit such as this one. https://www.crutchfield.com/p_120953...t.html?tp=3121 Then if you want a backup camera, you'll need one of those also, there're a lot of different ones out there to chose from. Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

If you have a sub in back, you won't really miss the rear speakers, I designed and built a custom sub for my vert, and because of the placement of it I had to remove the rears, and I don't miss them at all, the sub helps fill that void, plus getting the added deep bass makes it well worth losing them. Here's a few pictures of the sub I built. The amp I use to power it is mounted under the water fall, I removed the stock XM tuner that was mounted there, and mounted the amp in its place.

 

that sub box looks great. I was actually thinking of building a partition eventually myself... It'd help me not get nailed in the back of the head by all the things I toss back there too, lol.

D-dub, I was in the "I like surround" camp for a long time too. Then, I tried it without the rears and noticed that the sound was clearer without the rear speakers. If your head unit doesnt have time alignment, its even more obvious. Your ears get hit by the 5.25 rears first, then the front speakers so theres interference within the sound waves and it does strange things. I initially had it set up where i had the mono rear sound but i didnt care for it since it messes with the Left/Right channel sound so i just ditched it and noticed a huge improvement.

 

Here is an old thread discussing some these same topics with some real-world experiences.

It includes my post about the frequency response of the 10" Bose speaker in the doors of my 2006 C6. It's not a 'true' subwoofer.

Hope it helps with your decisions.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...my-0-02-a.html

 

Great reading here........ After learning that the 10" speakers have their own amp, I am leaning towards adding a 4 channel amp in place of the BOSE amp. I already have t crimps on the front signal wires before the amp..... I would add t crimps to the rear wires on the same harness (HU output). I read somewhere that new wires might have to be ran to the rear speakers for them to act correctly to the new amp. But if I do go this route, how do I run the little Alpine sub now?? Cannot use level outputs from the HU and that leaves me running it BEHIND the 4 channel amp... I feel that is not good.

I guess I could remove the little sub if the sound quality goes up a good bit.....

What is your input on this??

Appreciate all of the help I am getting with this!!!!!

 

That's beautiful! Nice work!

I do have a 12" Fosgate sub in the rear, but I still think it needs rear speakers for balance. Subs don't replace mids/highs, but also mine is a coupe so my sub is positioned farther rear so that probably changes things up a bit. I turn my sub off sometimes and 4 speakers is the way to go then.

 

Just a side note for future readers. I used this service. The wires came crimped and very poorly crimped at that - a couple of the wires basically fell out. However it did save time when I decided to solder/tape them properly since they were all matched up. I never complained to Crutchfield since it wasn't worth the time & they've been excellent other than that one time.

 

Well that's the first I've heard of someone having that issue, not to say it couldn't happen. But I agree, if your skill level affords you to be able to wire it up yourself, by far it's the best option. I wired all mine up myself, soldering, and heat shrink tubing all connections, I personally prefer this over those crimp connectors anyway.

 

Thanks, yeah it's personal preference, I personally would much rather have the added bass from the subs, than I would the rear speakers.

 

If you are going to run a 4channel amp + new head unit, your head unit should have RCA outputs that you can use for your amp. If it doesnt, you can get an amp that takes speaker level signal and just wire the speaker wires from your headunit directly to the amp, then wire the amp to your speakers. If you want the rear fill, you will have to run totally new wires to the rears to get stereo rear. Fronts you can maybe get away with using the 10" speaker wires (out of the old bose amp) so you dont have to run new wires. Depends on your amp RMS rating, etc. Mine is a true 60W RMS and it runs fine even when turned to where I feel like I'll lose my hearing. I've read its easy to run new wires into the door though so if you want to be safe with a large output, definitely do that. Theres also a little area where you can mount crossovers if you get a component system (highly recommend component setup + a couple aluminum bar brackets to hold the tweeter in the 3.5" speaker position - better direct line to your ear). Right now, I have 6.5 and 3.5 coaxials and they interfere with each other a bit. I have the 3.5s acting basically as tweeters with my HPF set as high as possible. Whenever I end up redoing it, I will do components + crossover but I'm satisfied with it for now.

If you are keeping the stock head unit, I'm not sure if you can delete the bose amp. I dont know the wire output/voltage out of the stock headunit but I assume its signal level? If so, you may be able to just chop them up and connect them to the RCA input of the amps. Someone may have more info.