Adding amp to Bose system, how did you do it?
 

There is a lot of confusion on this board about how to add an aftermarket amplifier to the factory Bose system. So I would like to see the number of people who have had successful installations and what route they took. Please post any failures as well.

Does the Audiocontrol 6xs really count as a LOC?

My OPINION: This is a very in depth subject and if people participate will take pages of postings to clarify. If you have read all of the posts already on this site, you will realize that one more thread will probably not clear everything up. Everyone will still have different opinions because everyone is trying to accomplish something different and have different expectations of results. Very few are actually wrong, but some are better than others. Each way has it's benefits and drawbacks. Between everyone on this board, it has been tried (and is being used) in every configuration that you listed. I only remember one HU failure (CactusGeorge), but there are others that have it connected that way and have had no problems.

Having said that, there are a couple of questions that you have to ask yourself since there are many choices available to accomplish what is right (or good enough) for you.

1. What are you trying to accomplish?
a. Will you be completely replacing the Bose system with aftermarket equipment, just adding a Sub Amp, or something in between?
b. What sound quality do you require?

2. How much do you want to spend?

I think that in the big picture, everything boils down to those two questions.

If you are just wanting to add a little low end to compliment your system, it is easy to add a cheap LOC after the Bose amp and hook whatever amp and subs you want to it. Keep in mind, if sound quality is a factor, this will not be the best route since you get what you pay for and the Bose amp has an equalized output that changes w/ volume.

If you are wanting to replace the entire system & cost is not an issue, you would want to use a signal summing device to verify that you have 100% full range ouput through all volume levels. For most, this is not really necessary since mr wigggles has proven that the input to the Bose amp is fairly flat & full range.

I personally started out w/ an AudioControl 6XS (before the Boseamp) that did exactly what I needed. Since I didn't really need the crossover function, I switched to a JL Cleansweep for it's Aux Input. Some may not like it because to use it to it's potential, it requires using it's own volume control knob.

One could really write for hours on this subject, but no need since others will chime in w/ their opinions soon.

Have Fun!!

Yes the AudioControl 6XS is a LOC.