I am newbie to car audio an I hoped someone could answer a couple of questions I have before I purchase new speakers. I have a 1993 maxima, but I'm not sure if I have a Bose system. I assume it would say Bose somewhere on the stereo or is it less obvious. I just want to make sure because according to crutchfield different sizes of speakers fit the bose and non-bose systems. I know my car has amps because one of them is blown, which raises my next question. Can I bypass the amp and go directly to the speakers? Im not a car audio pro, I just want a decent sounding system that doesn't sound like crap like my current one does. I want to replace my factory speakers with Infinty Kappa speakers. I will order from Crutchfield so installation will be fine if someone can explain to me what to do with the amp. I assume I just have to find a couple of wires and send them to the speakers instead of the amp. If I lose the amp will the speakers sound bad, or will it be ok for someone like me? Thanks for the help.

 

Can anybody help me?

 

If you have the BOSE system, it will say BOSE everywhere. On the speaker grills, and on the head unit. If they don't have it, they aren't BOSE

 

Yup, if you have a Bose system it will say Bose on the headunit and on teh speaker grilles. If you don't have the Bose system it will say Active Speaker on teh rear speaker grilles. Once we know more about what you have in your car then we can offer suggestions for your upgrade....

 

Sorry about the lack of information I gave, but thanks for your interest in helping me. I do not have the Bose system and have a stock head unit. I have a portable mp3 player I want to use so I'm going to get a moderately priced head unit that I can plug the player into (Im looking at the AIWA CDCX417). The AIWA unit had an auxillary input on the front face so it would be quite handy. I also am going to get Infinity Kappa speakers (4x6 plates speakers in front and 6-3/4" in the rear.) I have amps (I think) because I went into a shop and they said I blew the rear amp (It looks like a small speaker in the top of the trunk - probably a piece of crap anyway). Do I need a new amp or will the power from the head unit suffice for my novice needs? If I don't need the amp how do I get around it? Where can I get a plug to go from the mp3 player to the HU? I am ordering from Crutchfield, and from what I understand they provide you with everything I need to install this stuff including directions, but will I need anything else? The installation seems easy and it seems as if not having a BOSE system is a good thing. Thanks in advance and sorry for the lengthy post.

 

Ordering from Crutchfield they will give you the required harness adapter to install the headunit and probably a dash kit as well. The speakers will probably come with adapters for direct plug in to the factory wiring. However if your rear amplifier is blown I suggest you bypass the signal feeds that will be sent by the Aiwa deck to the rear speaker amplifier. Splice in new wires on the input side of the amplifier and wire them directly to the rear speakers. Your new deck will probably suit you for power and you may not need an amplifier.

Try it and see first though. If it's not loud enough for you then look into getting an aftermarket amplifier for your new speakers.

As for the 1/8" miniplug for connection to your MP3 player and the Aiwa you can get a 6 ft cable from RadioShack for around $3-$5...

 

Sounds easy enough. Thanks so much for your help.

 

Yeah the guys at Crutchfield are very good about customer service, they usually get you everything you need. I have a printoff that tells you the wires you are supposed to connect to bypass the amp. It was posted on the board somewhere but I am not sure of the exact location, the sheet I have is at http://www.ee.utulsa.edu/~mblehm/faq...mp_bypass.txt. Try that and see if it helps, also try installdoctor.com. Also you can sometimes get the factory manuals off of e-bay. E-mail me if you can't find either one of those pages and I will fax the stuff to you. CS

 

Yeah you won't be upset with Crutchfield. They began my car audio experience and now I can saw they do help out. People lately have had problems with Zeb Audio. I got my Infinity Kappas there. Dirt cheap. I have had no problems, ordering or product performance. Just my 2

K

 

Well, I got everything in from Crutchfield and did all the installation. Everything went smoothly for the most part and I bypassed the amp no problem. It really sounds great. Easier then I thought, thanks for all of you who helped me out, you've made the experience a pleasurable one.

 

One more question....does my car also have a front amp and would it sound better if I went around this amp also. The reason I ask this is because the rear speakers where I went around the amp sound better than the front. The front sounds a little fuzzier than the rear. Could this be so, or is just because the 4x6 plates are smaller than the 6.75s?

 

Your front amplifier was located inside the headunit. So that got replaced when you installed the replacement deck....

 

Your 4x6 plates could be being overdriven by the headunit. At what volume level does this occur? Do you have your bass setting all teh way up? Is your loudness feature on? If so you might want to consider adding a capacitor on these speakers to block some of the bass entering them.

 

Yeah you can get bass blockers from crutchfield for like seven bucks, I'm suprised they didn't try to sell you those when you got the speakers.

 

It occurs at about 3/4 of the way up.

 

If you're playing it that high then I'd say you are overdriving those speakers.