I am about to purchase a Maxima and all the 5-speed SE's in my region have the Bose upgrade. I plan to upgrade the head unit eventually to something that can receive digital radio and/or has MP3 playback, and I am wondering if anyone has successfully swapped out the Bose head unit. I know in some cars the Bose systems are nearly impossible to upgrade because they have amps and processors strewn all about the car. Crutchfield claims the head unit is an easy swap to any DIN head, but they also said that about my Prelude, conveniently leaving out the dark little secret that the rear speakers are 2 ohm and have their own amp, so you have to upgrade them and the wiring to them as well if you want to upgrade the head unit. Anyhow, is there any kind of weirdness to the Bose system like this? What is the layout of the system? Are there multiple amps and processors? I REALLY don't want to special order a car, as they have told me it takes at least 3 months, but I don't want a stereo that I can't ever upgrade either, and I may keep this car 10 years. Thanks in advance for any knowledge about this anyone can share.

 

I too have heard that the Bose system is difficult to upgrade. I know for a fact that the speakers in the doors are individually amplified. I don't know about the tweeters though. Also, the sub has it's own 80 watt amp that's located to the right side of it (if you're looking from the outside in).

 

Hey there- I have a base SE w/o Bose, I looked into adding the subwoofer, and being a Nissan parts guy, I was able to learn a lot about the two systems. First off, the bose speakers are individually amped, & the sub has it's own amp, as others have said. All the wiring in the car that has anything to do with the audio system is diff on a bose car. I don't know if that means it's less mod-able, it's just different. The bose speakers have built-in brackets, we sell a lot of non-bose brackets for older Maximas to mount aftermarket speakers. Maybe someone on the board has already modded a 2000+ bose car & could help, but from a parts perspective it would seem that a non-bose car would be easier to modify. You're right, base 5-speed SE's are scarce, mine is the only one I've ever seen! They are out there, pehaps your dealer could run a search for you.
Regards, David Burnette, South Point Nissan

 

the speakers in the bose system is 1 ohm.. they each have their own amps... if u will want to put a new head unit in ur car u will have to get the center dash piece from a base GXE that uses a din radio... u will have to put new speakers in aswell.. the head unit will have its own amp built in so u wont have to get additional amps for that... but u cant use the amps that were in the bose..

 

I did a upgrade on my 4th Gen with bose. and I also did a friends 3rd Gen with bose. Guys they are not hard. All U have to do is bypass the amps. crutchfield sells wire adapters to bypass the bose amps. I did it the old fashioned way. I cut the speaker wires going into the amps, then use a 6inch speaker wire and connect it directly to the speaker. I pulled the bose speakers out and put my own stuff in. the tweeter is connected to the front speaker in the door, kinda like a component speaker set. you will need the GXE Dash piece that has the AC Vents on it b/c other wise U can't make the dash look pritty. Also nissan uses a funky looking antina cable so U'll need a antinna adapter its about $10. Dash part from the GXE is about $70.

 

You can actually swap out the bose head unit and add any other cd player, etc, given that it fits in your dash. You don't have to bypass any of the amps to any of the speakers(they all have amps). I know from experience, I've done it. You can even change all of the speakers with aftermarket speakers, you still don't have to bypass any of the amps. I put in kenwood 6X9's with the original factory bose amps. They sounded great. What you can't do, however, is add a subwoofer to a bose system. Doing so wouldn't be smart because of the ineffeciency. The bose head unit puts out very little power, that is why each speaker has an individual amp. We all know that to install a sub, you have to purchase an amp to power it(independent from the factory bose amps). Well, the amp recieves very little power from the bose head unit to amplify. Result... a sub that barely hits. I learned from my mistakes. I swapped the bose with a sony flip down cd player and it pounds. 600 watts RMS is not a problem anymore. The only other problem you can run into is that amplifiers eventually die out. I had two bose amps die on my leaving me with a sub and two fewer speakers in the cabin. I went to an intallation shop and had all of my speakers bypasses for $70 bucks and all is well.

 

You knno a lot more about stereos than I do. I looked into adding an MP3 player to my Bose system. You can get a connection where the MP3 player connects to the audio system through the cassette player, and the MP3 player is then loose on your console, but plays through the stereo.
Is this satisfactory?

 

A cassette adapter with a portable MP3 player would work. The sound quality wouldn't be quiiite as good as a direct connection, but if you're playing 64 or even 128k MP3's, the difference will be nonconsequential. The bigger problem for me is that the first time I go around a corner, the MP3 player will be bouncing off the passenger door, yanking the cord out of the socket. Many a cell phone has gone to electronics heaven after spending time in my car. Fortunately, AT&T offers insurance on the phones. MP3 players are fragile, though, and nobody replaces them when they break. My dad suggested a bracket for one, but that turns me off aesthetically. But it sounds like replacing components in the Bose system, while not as simple as with the regular system, definitely is possible. Thanks for the feedback guys.

Mike Dushane