I have a '90 Max with the factory BOSE. It has a 10 cd changer installed. I am on a budget right now. I aquired a free Alpine. I want to get rid of the cd changer, get some cup holders where the CD changer controls are and put the Alpine in. I am on a budget due to an upcoming move and the MAx isn't my main car anyways. I searched for the threads about the Scosche adapter to work the factory amps and speakers from an aftermaket unit.

What I want to know is has anyone done this and can tell me what kind of sound quality they got. I will eventually run wires and new speakers but would like to put the Alpine in.

The only threads I found stated they had used the adapter but nothing about quality or tuning it.

 

the quality is good with the BOSE speakers and amps, i ran my aftermarket deck into it and still havent run new wires or speakers, just subs in the trunk, i think the stock speakers sound better than the speakers in my brothers 03 cavalier, only when my subs are cranked up do i wish i had slightly better speakers all around so they could keep up better, i believe those old bose systems run 2 ohm speakers, good quality for sure, with an alpine deck im sure you'll be happy with the quality

 

cool thanks. anyone else have an opinion?

 

i dont know how much i can help but i got a 00se with a jvc hu and all the bose speakers n sub using the scosche adaptor and the quality is good its louder than it was with the bose hu i still may end up running new wires along side the bose ones and get aftermarket speakers to better match my 2 12''s in the trunk and just leave the old wires an bose amp there and return it to the bose when i get a new car. as for tuning it u have 4 gain controls 1 for each speaker it does take some time to dial it in and all 4 gains have to be in the same spot. the fronts are a little tricky due to the tweeters being on the same channel as the front doors wich are mids in my car. the best way to tune it is to turn the hu up 3/4s of the way and dial it in to ur preferences there and match them all up

 

Have you considered just bypassing the bose amps and using an alpine HU with the bose speakers (no adapter needed)? That's what many org members do and the bose speakers work great, especially when their amps are bypassed so as to avoid any confusion between the HU amp and the individual bose amps.

 

I used the adapter on my 96 Maxima. It sounded good. I was happy with it until I had the money to upgrade them.

 

if you keep the original speakers, you will want to use the amps that are built for them.
you will also have to wire the preamp (sub) outs to the existing speaker wires.

 

i am using a panasonic HU with my stock BOSE speakers. i didn't rewire anything. sounds great too. have had it like this since 2000.

 

When I bought my car, it had a Peripheral adapter which converted the line signals on an Alpine CD player to use with the stock Bose amps and speakers.

I bought the car from my brother, who had that installed.

After about 2-3 years, it messed up I think 3 of the 4 amps and both rear speakers. It did sound better when it was first installed. I think the line levels might have been too high for the amps and they were working too hard (just a theory). If the levels are low, it might work out fine for a while.

I was definitely not happy with the Bose stuff in any Nissan product I have had, but it does sound decent for a stock stereo. Currently, I have an FX35 and the stock stereo is very loud and very clear. The freaking CD player skips whenever it is kind of cold or humid. Very annoying.

 

Off topic but made me think of new vehicles where you can't remove the damn stock headunit because it either is tied in with the computer or the shape of it pretty much makes it impossible to upgrade. New stock systems have come a long way, but when the manufacturers force you to use the stock unit it's really irritating.

 

well now I am debating to go amp or no amp. If I go no amp I just cut the power wires at the amps right and run the H/U with just a normal harness?

 

IIRC, it involves cutting the wires at the speaker and cutting the wires from the HU (which go through the harness from the HU and into the speaker pod, which is where you cut them, right before they plug into the amp) and connecting them (thus bypassing the amp). It's quick and easy, there a lot of writeups etc on this, just search. I think the issue has something to do with 2 ohms speakers and 4 ohms HUs or something and there being reliability issues. I'm not a speaker pro, so I don't really understand it. I just know that my bose amps blew out after a year or so with my HU, so I had to bypass them (they could have blown out due to a inconsistency of ohms maybe?). I don't notice any difference between bypassing them or using them, it's just as loud, and my basic alpine HU has plenty of power to blast the speakers into pieces if I wanted to. I don't see why you wouldn't bypass them. Like I said, do a search on "bypass amp" or similar for more info.