Sorry if this has been done already but I don't see a search function, so here goes. I recently replaced my front speakers with after market Infinity ones by directly plugging them into the stock BOSE amps. they worked perfectly fine. I went to change the rear speakers, and they also seemed to work fine. However, when I saw the speaker moving, it was distorting a lot. I decided to not use the amps with the after market speakers. I butchered the amp's wires and want to use them with the after market speakers. So basically, I'm using the stock harness and running the stock wires to the speaker. Is this safe? Has anyone else done this? Which is positive, the yellow or purple wire? Thanx in advance...

~Curtis

 

From my understanding the bose amp doenst like aftermarket speakers. As far as the wirign goes splicing speaker wire to speaker wire is fine. As far as what is positive and negitive i have no idea. THere should be a way to figure it out from the stock speakers by seeing how it was wired and which wire corresponds to the positive on the bose speaker. If that makes sense, hope that helps...

 

You need an amp to make the BOSE system work. The signal from the BOSE head unit is flat and has basically no tone adjustment to it. The amps in the BOSE system are also the equalization (tone) and crossovers for the BOSE system.

If you use the low level signal from the BOSE head unit it woun't have any base and trebble. It will be flat as a pancake.

 

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. My head unit is also aftermarket. So basically, I'm just playing with the stock wiring and harnesses. My friend and I tried a rear speaker with a chopped BOSE harness, and it worked fine. Is it safe though?

~Curtis

 

It's not safe. Run new wires from the headunit to the rear speakers. You looked at the speaker and it was distorting? Or it SOUNDED distorted? Those are two totally different things you're talking about.

 

I'm not a techy or anything, but why is it not safe? Can anything happen? Fires? Blown speakers? Everything is after market, so aren't I just basically running wire to the speakers? It didn't really sound distorted, but when I hooked up the clipped harness, it sounded much better, and the cone wasn't moving as much. It had to have been much better for the speaker.

~Curtis

 

ok heres the thing... u cant use the bose amps with new speakers.. this is becasuse the amps are 1 ohm output and the speakers are 4 ohm.. first you arent getting max power transfer. Just gut the whole system, get a new radio and do it that way.. if not i have bose amps and speakers left over from my car if you want them... im or pm me

 

Ok, this is the current situation. NOTHING is stock anymore. I have a new head unit, and 4 new speakers. My question concerns the stock wiring and harness. I connected my head unit with an aftermarket harness which hooked up to the stock Nissan harness. All the wires are colour coded, you know the deal. Now, I chopped a BOSE amp apart and want to use JUST THE WIRES to hook up to the after market speakers. We have a black, orange, yellow, and purple wire on the stock harness. I want to use the yellow and purple wires (one's a positive and one's a negative) to hook up directly to the after market speaker. I already tried it, and it worked fine. Is there any dangers?

~Curtis

 

All you are getting from the wires you clipped is mixed signal that is going through the bypassed bose amps. If I understand correctly how you have it wired, you're better off running new wire because the wire in there is probably old and deteriorated a bit. Also how did you know which wires to connect it to? I'm curious as to exactly which wires you used to connect to the speaker.

 

Ok, it seems as though I've created mass confusion. I've taken some pics with my digicam. Here are the before and after pics of the stock BOSE harness.

Before:


After:


This is the stock BOSE harness modified. The speakers seem to work fine.

 

What is your problem then? If all your parts are aftermarket, it should work fine. Is your only question about the polarity? Well, test it, find a way that works.

The "Danger", well, there is no safety issue, however you might lose sound quality if the wires are too small. If the wires are tiny and only meant to carry the line signal (which is incredibly weak), then playing music at a decent level might be hard.

 

I guess I'm good then. Thanx for the help all...

 

all should be ok with what you have done as long as the wiring is not frayed or split. make sure that where you have joined wiring that theres no bare cable that can short out. ive fitted more systems than ive had hot dinners. the way i fit aftermarket h/units & speakers is : first fit spks with original head unit removed. the wiring colour coding is not relevent at all to the spks from original harness, just join 1 to neg, 1 to poss (all will be explained further on before ppl start saying it does). once spks are fitted its time to go through the wiring. (i use a proper test probe but a multimeter will do). first, find the constant live, switched live & earth. connect these to aftermarket loom as instruction say ( in uk we have standard ISO plugs, const live- red, live- yellow & earth- black, not sure if same in u.s). once these are done check to see if it turns on. once done, use multimeter on ohms setting, find the matching pairs of spkr wires which will read about 3.6-3.8 ohms & tape together so you know they are a pair. once youve found all 4 pairs its time to wire up. the instructions should tell you which wires are for spks. either start with fronts or rears, it does not matter. what i tend to do is e,g :turn h/unit on, put cd or tape in. using one side output wiring test each pair or spkr wires to find out which is front L & R, rear L & R. once done e,g :connect rear left spkr to the rear left h/unit wires (does not matter which colour), with the right one, just try connecting the wires BOTH ways & see which way gives you the best bass sound. you will find that one way sounds tinny with no bass & the other way will sound ok with bass. this is how you can tell if they are wired correctly. once youve found the right way then connect correctly. repeat the same process for the fronts. all is done.

this process on average takes about 45-60 minutes to completely install.

i hope this helps someone. lol. took long enough to type it out.

 

That was a great stereo 101 learning session but the big issue that was touched on earlier by Decker87 is as follows. The question is if the stock wiring is capable of handling the amperage from the aftermarket system(post amplifier) as opposed to the pre-amp/low level amps that the stock wiring harness was originally designed for. Chances are you will be ok, but you will have a higher risk of shorting out or possibly a fire even if the existing wire is in good condition if you pump too much juice through it. I'm not an electronic engineer and don't know what the wiring guidelines are for amps/wire size but it would be something to keep in mind. Anyone out there know?

Brad..

 

brad. the answer to that is quoted in the first line. lmao

all should be ok with what you have done as long as the wiring is not frayed or split.

the stock wiring is more than capable of taking it. its only when you start using big amps you have to review spkr wiring.