My CD player on the factory radio has quit working. I went in to Car Toys yesterday looking for a new sound system. They said that the Bose speakers each had their own amps, and they would have to either: A. put a special adaptor in so that the new radio would work with the amplified speakers, but this might cause a hum, and it might "pop" when turned on. or B. Replace all the speakers with "better" ones.
Personally, I don't think you get much better than Bose, but has anybody encountered this before? Sounds like a bit of a crock to me. I haven't found anyone who could just repair the current radio. Any ideas along that line would be helpful as well. TIA, Keith
Leave the Bose system in and add a subwoofer. There is an aftermarket gizmo the car stereo shops can put in between your head unit and a new amp (150 watts +/-) and a sub. I did that in my 2000 and it sounded great. Then the cd player went up in the stock head unit so rather than paying 200-300$ to fix it, I replaced it with a high power Alpine mp3 player/cd/radio. At that point, I also replaced the speakers with Infinity's (6.5 inch) all around. The doors took an adapter plate which I fabricated out of MDF since the stock speakers are 8 inch plus a (roughly) 2 inch tweeter. I thought it was going to sound really good and the install looked pretty decent BUT it never sounded as good as the Bose. The weakest link is the speakers. Infinity used to be a really high end brand, but not anymore. They bottom out and the head unit isn't strong enough to power them to Bose quality levels. If you are doing this, be ready for a 4 channel amp and a subwoofer amp as well as high end speakers. $100 per set for Infinity's won't cut it. You will also be taking the door panels off to do this, so be ready for a whole set of issues with that. You will probably end up replacing the plastic clips which hold the door panels on as some of them will probably break on the way out. Oh, also the small cover plate covering the screws behind the door handle on the inside will probably need to be replaced. All in all, $250 for a head unit, $300 for sub and box, $600-700 for amps, and approx. $800 for speakers. $2000 to deBose your car if you do all of this yourself.
Here's a few pics of my install. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the door speakers.
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-Stan
"Spud" wrote in message news:VqCSf.61134$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com...
I have Momo's, each with an external bridge and separated tweeters in the doors, and Pioneer's best 6X9s in the back with a Polk 10" sub woofer in one of the compartments behind the seats. A pioneer head unit tops it off with a simple 200 watt amp for the sub. Didn't need to amp the other speakers, because the head unit carries a true 55 per channel (30 rms). If I give it any volume, I feel like I'm sitting inside a headphone. The clarity is exceptional, and it can only barely be heard on the outside. $650 speakers, $250 head unit, $150 amp, and ten bucks for ear plugs for the dog.
I have never heard of Momo's..but then again I've been out of the loop for a little while. Tell me more. How did you get 6x9 in the back? The stock are what 6 or 6.5 inches if I rememeber right. My sound "problem" might be from the crappy Infinity's. What size are your the fronts? How is the midbass? How do you get your dog to not fall off of the seat? My Rottweiler's (90 lbs) front feet slip off the seat. Can't get him to curl up and lay down. Too much excitement. lol
The Bose speakers in my '04 had no bass and no high end. When I pulled them out, I found they were just full range speakers. They don't even have a tweater. We tried disconnecting the Bose amp at the speakers and running them with the new amp and they still sucked. The Infinity speakers are excellent. Great highs. I might add I used the 6-1/2 separats in the front. They ain't 100 bucks. Not much bass, but what do you expect. The sub takes care of this.
I had mine installed at a dealer and I've got about 2 grand into it. But it is nice.
My dog weighs about 90 pounds, too, and I'll have to admit, she teeters on the edge. She does lay down a lot, though, so that helps. God it is funny though because she comes so close to the top when she's sitting up straight.
Anyway, Momo is a type of speaker that Polk makes. I realize there is also a brand of equipment (I don't know what) named Momo, so I should be careful. But, Polk Momo's are one of their top speakers. The ones I have are 41/2 inch with the tweeter mounted independently in the middle of each one. The tweeter can be aimed. I don't have the spec sheet with me, but the range is pretty awesome. The bridge is external. It's a box about 2 x 4 inches which contains the electronics for splitting the signal range to the tweeter and the midrange speaker (2-way). I built simple boxes for the 6 x 9s and compression fit them in the rear where I am using the hollow body right at the sides of the rear bumper to create the echo chamber. I coated those with expanding foam. The sub is in the jack compartment, and it is covered with a grill I made to keep it from getting damaged. The inside of that box is again built with expanding foam for the echo chamber. I have the little
200 watt amp tucked along side of it.
You know, I just realized I'm yapping along not paying attention to the fact that we have two different model cars. I have a C3. 1977. I don't know if any of this matters now.
I use the equalizer in the Pioneer head unit to cover all the ranges of sound to all the components. In my other car, I have an amp that has RCA out for the front and rear speakers, and also has an RCA out for the sub. I get better balance of tone from that, but then again, I'm trying to fill up a van instead of a Vette.
What I really like is that I can go for the low range sounds without bothering anybody outside the car. And I can talk to a passenger without yelling. To me, that's always been one of the signs of a good sound sytem.
I've found that with some ingenuity, I can fit just about anything into anyplace. Backwards as usual, I just make the best deal I can on the highest end speakers I can find, and make it all go from there.
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