The CD player part of the Bose system has quit working, but the rest of the system works and sounds great. I'm sure this has been answered here before, but what is the best thing to do? I have found shops online that will fix it for $195, is that a viable option or should I stick with the dealers?

 

Don't bother with a dealer. They'll charge at least $500 to replace your head unit.

You can either get it repaired by a third-party such as carstereohelp.com or you can get an aftermarket head unit.

For the price you'll pay for the repair, you can get an aftermarket head unit that will sound better, look better, and have a ton more features than the stock Bose unit. You'll need the ROEM-NIS2 adaptor from PAC (about $60) in order to integrate it with the Bose amps and speakers.

 

option B: check the "for sale" forums for another stock HU.

 

hey check out www.carstereohelp.com they do repairs.

 

try clarion 125.00 they made it

 

i'll be selling mine in a month...

 

I suggest just replacing the Bose HU with aftermarket. I sold my 1997 Bose head unit for $140 on Ebay. And then I sold the front and rear speakers for like $160 total (separate sales on Ebay). Those more than paid for the Focal front and rear components (new on Ebay, less than half of what Car Toys was selling them for, on sale even). I already had a HU and amp, and seriously even without a sub the aftermarkets sound 100x better than the Bose.

My 2 cents.

But if you need a Bose replacement, they pop up on Ebay regularly. You could also try junk yards.