Jason Goode

Curious if anyone has the Bose Amp Connector pin outs. I have a Lc2i and sub and amp going in this week hopefully I want to jack the audio signal before its amplified by the factory unit to add my sub in. Anyone?

kickerfox

Super swamped with work so maybe someone else can post the pinouts but make sure you decouple both phases of the signal if you plan on just connecting it to an amp without a balanced input or you can and most likely will fry the headunit.

Steve Dallas

I posted the pinouts on page 1. Kickerfox is correct. Make sure your LCi2 can handle balanced inputs or decouple the signal lines to remove the DC offset with some capacitors.

Jason Goode

The lc2i is suppose to handle up 400w input signal from the speakers/or amp and covert it to full or low range quality preamp signals. Only way to find out is try so ill def let you know.

naze

I'm looking to upgrade my bose system as well. I want to get a bit more bass in my system but subs take up too much space and i need my trunk space. I was thinking about replacing the door speakers to get some more bass, what would you guys recommend? I am also getting a new kenwood head unit if that changes anything

Jason Goode

First of all I'd like to thank the OP and others for the information provided in this thread. I got exactly what I wanted from this. I bought a 10' shallow sub and the direct fit enclosure for it. Takes up almost no room in my trunk in the top left corner and sounds amazing going off the rear speaker wires and remote wires specified on pg 1 with a LC2i and just a cheap 500w bridgeable BOSS amp. The preamp I'm getting off the LC2i is just amazing quality to me. I still have my fully powered bose system with a deeper bass to it (hits pretty damn good too). I am thinking about swapping the tweeters out next for some alpines that work in that low range someone was discussing earlier (the OP I believe) to see if that will turn things just right! I'm plenty satisfied though and glad I did my homework. Thank you all!

kickerfox

Careful with your tweeter selection. The Bose tweeters are crossed over very low and play well into the midrange. The hole up front is large enough as it is. Aftermarket tweets aren't crossed over low enough.


Adding a tweeter in front of the Bose tweeter, and crossing it over fairly high (1uf) would help a bit.


The whole Bose system is a disaster. I spent weeks trying to get it to sound right and finally gave up and put in a 4-ch amp and new speakers. I'm very happy with it now.

Steve Dallas

It is hard to make a direct recommendation, since there are so many products available. You might start at Crutchfield, where they recommend speakers that fit specific cars according to their hands-on research. Consider which units are in your budget, then look at their specs. You want speakers that go down to 50Hz or lower in their frequency response.

After a very quick glance, these new Kicker units intrigued me in terms of low end extension, although I wish they had soft dome tweeters.

Rear 6x9s

Front 6x8s

Anyway, don't take my word for it. Speaker selection is very personal. Spend a lot of time on research. It is always worth it in the end.

Also, per my earlier posts, consider treating the doors with Damplifier Pro or Dynamat Extreme. Those products really do improve the bass response of car speakers.

Steve Dallas

Pics or it didn't happen!

I like mine OK with the Alpine tweeter replacement. It is advertised to go down to 1000Hz, which is low enough, and it blends decently with the Bose woofer. You might consider replacing one and fading left to right to see which you prefer.

Kickerfox's idea is also sound. Find one of the tiny super tweeters that you like and add it to the sail panel to play along with the Bose tweeter. You would cross it over to handle the ultra high frequencies the Bose tweeters can't. This would essentially be creating a 3 way system. Of course, you need to be able to construct a custom crossover to get the impedance, crossover points, and loudness right for the drivers.

kickerfox

Find some Subaru pillar tweeters. They will fit in front of the Bose tweeter and are suited to the task. Cheap on ebay.

djgiron

Focal Integration ISS 200, it is an 8" and Tweeter component set, however you will need to not use the Bose Amp, then you can replace the rears with Focal Integration ISC 690. Get a 4 channel amp, of if you want a sub a 5 channel amp and drop a 10"/12" in the rear and your system will be stellar . . . of course dynamat helps all this out even more.

naze

I know that dynamat makes the speakers sound better but does it dampen vibrations to the point that I will be able to notice while driving?

djgiron

It will help dampen vibrations and quiet the road noise "effectively" making any stereo "louder" and "cleaner". I used the quotes because it does nothing for the sound of the stereo, but you won't have all the road noise interference to contend with while listening to your system, hence you will hear more of the music and it will seem louder.

naze

Why did you choose the alpine SPS-110TW over the alpine SPR-10TW? Was it just a matter of price or is their something else?

Steve Dallas

IIRC, the tweeter unit itself is basically the same (except for some sort of EQ Ring thingy). The main difference is in the crossover, where the R series has a steeper slope (24dB) and is adjustable for level. I wanted the more gradual slope (12dB), as I felt it would blend better with the Bose woofer. Also, I thought the crossover would be cleaner and easier to mount in the sail panel instead of behind the door panel and was unsure if the R series unit would fit up there. Then there is the fact that I fell into a set of the S series tweeter for nearly nothing...

[I am relying on memory for all the "facts" stated above and could be wrong about any of it.]

Steve Dallas

I still have not gotten around to installing the Alpine component set I bought for the front and the Alpine 4 channel amp I bought to drive it all.

Now that track season is over for me until it cools down here, I have some time on my hands. Perhaps I'll get around to it now. But it's kinda hot outside and...

kickerfox

I think that's the same amp I recommended to a forum member (who I've been trying to assist on his install). He's quite happy with it. Hopefully it's not the class-d version. Did you catch the Crutchfield sale on it?

Scott, what solution did you choose for decoupling the balanced signal? Are you going to try the capacitor solution or did you find a store-bought solution?

Steve Dallas

It is the Class D version (MRV-F300). Not my favorite, but I doubt I will be able to tell much difference in this car when it is moving down the road. It is cheap, small, and LIGHT and good enough for this car. I bought it using Amazon Prime for about half what Crutchfield charges.

Alpine amps have decoupled inputs, so I should not need to do anything. A quick test with the multimeter seems to confirm this. Also, my subwoofer amp is an Alpine, and it has been working fine with the Bose HU for about a year now.

kickerfox

My Alpine v12 series didn't. Not only did it sound like crap, it would pop when input was connected and pop again when the signal is removed. That's actually how I discovered that there was DC present. The pop indicates there wasn't any DC offset removal on the input of the amp. If there was, the signal with the DC offset may pop when first connected but once the coupling capacitor charged it won't pop again when removed.


I'd still put the 8 capacitors in there. I used 10uf 16v non-polar axial caps and shrink wrapped them in series with every lead. 10uf is probably overkill, considering the input impedance of an amp, but I had them on hand.

kickerfox

Scott, you still watching this thread?

Had an update/opinion/question about the balanced lines from the head unit. What I was doing was adding caps on each of the balanced "hots" (to remove the DC) and connecting balanced (-) to RCA ground and balanced (+) to RCA tip. This worked well but I had this buzz at low levels in 1 second intervals when listening to a CD. I assume I'm hearing a digital clock pulse perhaps on the buffer. The balanced ground (shield) was left disconnected.

What I decided to try was connecting only the balanced (+) to the RCA tip and the balanced shield/ground to RCA ground. This got rid of the noise but what I didn't expect was the increase in stereo imaging. I verified the phase is correct and mono instruments are centered and full sounding so it's not "widened" due to the R/L signals being out of phase. It's strictly a gain in stereo imaging.

Any idea why this is? We know EQ'ing was done in the Bose amplifier but is their a chance the Bose HU still uses a DSP that's making phase corrections?

BTW - Bought a Memphis 16-MC4.75. Decent amp for the $50 I paid for it.

Ian_D

Over here in the UK all S2s are R3s and come with the BOSE stereo as standard. My situation is pretty complicated and I'm over my head even before I think about stereos. I've an R3, an S1 with a single turbo RX7 FD engine that I'm having to completely redo and a winter car (Honda Accord with all the Old Man comforts including a BOSE stereo). The S1 has the built-in sat nav for which I've got a Nexus 7 tablet and a double-din conversion kit but is very noisy. As a legacy from a previous car I've got an Alpine 4-channel 450w peak amp, Focal 3 component 165 speakers with front door panels and self-made mounting boxes, Focal 2 component 165 speakers with 6x9 mount, a Pioneer 500w mono amp with Focal 8" sub in a self-made enclosure replacing the ski hatch. I also have a Focal 2 x 180w RMS per channel amp and an Alpine 12" sub speaker. Alas, I've just lost my garage so any work depends on good weather, something in short supply over the next few months.

I'm thinking of putting the legacy system into my turbo and the Focal amp in my Accord, leaving me with a blank sheet for the R3. I'm short of time and don't want to spend £s only to have to sell her in the spring should the turbo work as hoped. I'm therefore looking at keeping the BOSE and changing the front speakers for now (Dynomat, tweeters, mid/bass). Quality sound deadening and the SPS-110TW tweeters are available over here so they look a good choice, but none of the mids/bass mentioned here are available in the UK.

Can anyone recommend any Japanese or European speakers (eg Alpine, Pioneer, Focal) for the mid/bass or give me specs that I can look for in units available in the UK?

kickerfox

You'll have difficulty getting anything to sound right if you keep the Bose amp. It has an internal DSP and EQ. That was Bose's way to adjust for a poor audio environment, budget components, and limited power. Many OEM systems have this. If you start adding quality components, they'll never sound right.

Steve Dallas

If I had it to do all over again, I would replace the front tweeters, Dynamat the doors, add a sub, and do nothing else.

If you decide to do more than that, you really need to replace the whole system beyond the head unit. As KickerFox said, the Bose amp really screws with the signal and yields very unpredictable results through aftermarket speakers (see the plots I posted on page 2 of this thread). Some music sounds fine through my system, and some music has me pushing the fader nearly all the way to the front to escape the weirdness of the rears. I have a new amp and front component set (with brackets) ready to install to fix these problems, but I am trying to decide if I want to keep the car or buy a Miata and install a turbo, so I haven't done anything more with the car's stereo. As it sits now, if I still had the rear Bose setup, I would put it back in and call it good.

kickerfox

Funny, I sold my Turbo Miata to buy an 8 and do an engine swap. The Miata was impractical for long trips. That was a '94 though. I haven't been in a newer one.

kickerfox

Hey Stvnscott - This