In an earlier post I talked about how to fix this aging Bose system. The colloquial wisdom was that spending a lot of money to get a 15 year old, out of date cassette system fixed was nuts. I'm beginning to come around to that opinion (not that I'm nuts but that fixing the system would be expensive).
I wanted to know what people replaced their Bose system with (head unit, speakers amps)? And what really sounds good, from an audiophile point of view. I know there's an audio section, but I wanted to know what works, SPECIFICALLY in our 3rd generation cars.

 

The last one I did I put an Alpine head unit in with 4" Rockford Fosgate speakers in the front doors and Pioneer 3 way speakers in the rear. Sounds pretty nice. Some people modify the front to put in 4x6's.

 

Here is my setup...Not high end by any means,but much better than the bose...

Head unit....Pioneer DEH-6700MP
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pn...552873,00.html

Rear speakers...Pioneer TS-A695 150w 6x9's
Front speakers...Still bose..[still sound ok]

Amp...Pioneer GM-3000T http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_g...sterid=2701798

Sub...Rockford Fosgate P110S4 10"

Total spent...Approx/$500

 

When I bought My Max, the Bose was already removed by previous owner and he installed some cheap audio Parts, Jensen CD player (forgot the model) and 4-Performance teknique 6.5" (2 front - 2 rear) I didnt like the way they sound so I upgrade it:
HU Pionner DEH-7700MP
http://cgi.ebay.com/Pioneer-DEH-7700...QQcmdZViewItem

Rear Speakers: Pionner 5-way
http://cgi.ebay.com/PIONEER-TS-A6991...QQcmdZViewItem

Front Speakers are still the performance teknique (will upgrade soon)
2-12" Kicker CVR - AMP Performance teknique 1100w
4 Channel Amp 1200w audiofonics enough to power up front and rear speakers pretty good

These are not High end either but pretty good if you just want some decent sound without breaking the bank, I think I spend around $600 and that was a while ago, about a year or so.

I like my sound now, never listen to the original Bose, but IMHO I don't think a 13-18 year old sound system will sound better than my current setup.

 

Pioneer Premier TEH-P760MP
Rear - Some old JBL 6x9's from like '97
Front - Nothing
Trunk - 10" Premier DVC with some low powered (200W@4ohms) Premier amp powering the DVC speaker @ 8 ohms. So i'm getting about half the effeciency, but still sounds good!

All you need to get started is some 6x9's and a deck. Decent decks are pretty cheap nowdays, i'm sure you could get some nice used 6x9's off ebay for $20-$30. Get a deck off ebay as well and you could have a solid start for easially under $100.

 

I've got an Alpine headunit I put in two years ago. It started to give a soft, high-pitched buzz recently even with volume all the way down. It's not specific to radio or CD, so it's probably just dust inside it, I'm just too lazy to have it cleaned. If I had it to do over I would get a deck with a flip-up-and-load face rather than the open-load style I have. They don't cost much (if any) more and would probably prevent the buzz I talked about earlier.

Since you have the Bose system that means you'll need 4" speakers up front. I have Rockford Fosgate 2-ways up there, but I had to replace one of them TWICE due to a buzz. Thankfully, it was under warrantee, but just barely. Eventually Best Buy told me to put in bass blockers since my deck couldn't send bass away to the rear. So far, that has prevented any more blown speakers, knock on wood. I'd say they're a good idea on such a small speaker whether you run with subs or not.

Out back I have Alpine 3-way 6x9s. After the bass blockers up front I was worried I'd need to put out the extra money for subs (in addition to adding extra weight to my car), but the back puts out plenty of bass for my taste.

Tidbit of info (you might already know this): You'll need to have the bose speaker amps bypassed or removed before you can put ANYTHING new in. The Bose headunit gives out a low signal (hence specific speaker amps everywhere). The amps are what actually failed on my car and you won't need them with a new headunit.

Overall, it was a pain in my car. The chumps at our local Best Buy couldn't differentiate between the regular or Bose system until I told them the 4x6s wouldn't fit, so it was a circus trying to find something that would. They originally told me 4x6 up front because that's what the computer told them. I believed them until I took off the door panel and saw a 4" speaker there. That was even before I knew what speaker amps or bass blockers were. I'm glad you're doing your homework beforehand. It will save you a lot of time and hassle

 

Just about any deck and speakers (6.5" upfront, and 6x9" in the rear) will work. The 6x9 will bolt right up to the back. The front, you will need a bracket to make them work (I just cut out a piece of plywood). Just make sure you connect the new speakers to the speaker wires, and not the power lines to the amps from the previous speakers. I make my installation as professional as possible, and it took ~6 hours from never having experience doing anything of the sort. Granted, I had a LOT of wires that were bit through so I had to fix that, but I doubt you will have that problem.

 

+1 for plywood mounts for front speakers. Not only is it cheap and easy wood has better acoustics then metal or plastic. nForce gave me his old mounts with 4x6's in them, and they sound great. My JVC HU isnt the best, but its good enough for now.

My setup is JVC HU, 4x6's and rear 6x9 4 ways. It sounds like a mini-sub depending on the song and has great mids and highs. I really want a better HU that has a built in equalizer and maybe a 2 or 4 ch amp to drive all my speakers.

But nForces Clarion hu just drives the speakers directly and it sounds awesome. Hes got a sub but I dont care about that. Too much weight and room taken up.

~Alex

 

I would also say that if you want good sound go bigger in the front! I've got 5 1/4 inchers but I should have gone 6 1/2. They still sound pretty great but I would have liked the added bass up front. If you don't want to go the route of a subwoofer get 6x9's for the back, in my setup they primarily play low notes.

I went with JVC KD-HDR1 as my headunit [HD radio tuner, I added a Sirius tuner]
Polk db5250's up front
Polk db690's in the back
Infinity Refrence 7541a 4 channel amp

Crutchfield has some pretty good deals on speakers so check them out every once in a while, I got the 690's for half off plus 30 off on both sets of speakers so it was a pretty good deal.