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93 Max Bose system question

My 93 Max has the Bose sound system. Do the rear speakers have their own power amplifiers mounted on the speakers? If so, I assume there is a power lead going to the amplifiers -- is there a separate lead for each amp, or is there a single lead that runs to one amp and then the other?

I ask this because my rear speakers have developed a whine that is directly related to engine speed -- likely to be alternator whine. If there are power amplifiers on each of these speakers, I need to put a filter in the DC power lead to the amps. I assume the power lead is part of a bundled cable running to the speakers and I will need to slit the outer jacket, fish out the power lead, cut it and insert the filter.

Thanks for any advice.

Reply to
Joe S.
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Every speaker has it's own amp on the Bose system in the 89-94 maxs.

Reply to
Brian

I would tend to think that your problem lies elsewhere. The amps have always been in the same location and they didn't whine until recently. Something else must have changed in your car. Did you recently do some wiring in your car? engine whine can be the result of a power wire being too close to the audio signal wire. Even near the head unit, if you fiddled with the wire there, it could affect the amps.

hth

cd

Reply to
Codifus

This prolly ain't worth much but,

I remember seeing amps on the rear-deck speakers in my 93SE w/Bose am/fm/cassette. I would expect the the power leads be joined at some point in the trunk, probably within the plastic conduit.

In my case, the system worked perfectly for the first month or so until I had the dealer install a trunk-mounted Sony CD changer.. it was an RF based unit that totally degraded the am/fm reception, and would occasionally give me 'whine' when stations were weak.

Since you said your whine recently developed, I would first see if you can recall anything recently done to the car (alternator, ignition stuff, any other electrical work) and consider whether or not that has something to do with it. Even if it was not directly related to the alternator, it may be possible that some new wiring managed to feed the noise past any existing RF filters(!?)

Failing that, I would follow your original suggestion of putting filters on the positive leads. But you might want to try it at the deck first, and the speakers second.

Is is both speakers? I always heard these amps had a high failure rate, though mine last the life of the car.

Good Luck!

"Joe S." wrote:

Reply to
Pat

This one is easy. Welcome to the Wonderful World of Bose.

Your amps are failing. It is a VERY common problem with the 3rd Gen Max. It starts with the high pitched whine for awhile, then moves on to very loud pops, followed by intermittent failure. Ultimately, the amp fails and you have an un-amped speaker that you can barely hear (if at all). And when I say loud pop, I'm talking gunshot loud. Luckily, it usually gives you a little "build-up" time so you can prepare yourself.

Considering you got 10+ years out of them, consider yourself lucky. My 91 SE's failed years ago.

There are 2 fixes. Buy rebuilt amps and speakers (just amps leaves you with 10 y.o. speakers). Or buy a new head unit and speakers. Replacing only the speakers and removing the amps won't work. The OEM head unit and speakers are

1/2 ohm. Any new speakers will be 4 or 8. IOW, you'll have to crank the radio to max to hear anything.

BTW, if you have an SE, get 4x6's for the front doors (instead of 4"). You can buy the 4x6 GXE housing at a dealer.

Bill G '91 SE Auto

163K miles
Reply to
Bill G

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