jontyrees

Just picked up a 2002 Maxima for my teenager as his daily driving get-to-school car, and we'll be doing some work to the stereo. It has the Bose system, but it sounds like the door speakers are shot, and the sub may have been stolen for all the impact it is having. My first of many questions is - what exactly is the stock Bose 2002 Maxima system configuration? I think from reading around here, and looking at what Crutchfield says will fit, that there are tweeters in the A-pillars, 6.5" mids in the front doors, 5.25" mids in the rear doors, and maybe a single 8" sub in the rear deck? I read conflicting info on how these are amp'd - some say the door speakers have small driver specific amps attached to them, some say all the amping is done by an amp in the trunk - can someone confirm?


I have a sealed 10" Infinity Perfect (old) with an Alpine mono amp, and a 4x50w Alpine amp for speakers, and I have a pair of coaxial MTX 6.5" that Crutchfield says will fit in the front doors. I also ordered the PAC NIS2 unit that should hook up to the stock HU, and give me F+R preouts and a remote lead for the amps. Any recommendations on what to do with the sub in the rear deck? I think that's what's there, although I did see mention of 6x9 subs in the rear deck. If that's the case, I'd consider running all four door speakers off the Front channels, get some 6x9s for the rear deck, and let my Infinity sub handle the low end.


I have also had decent luck helping the Bose system in my wife's CX-9, just by switching out the small full range speakers in the dash with Boston Acoustics coax 3.5", and the rear doors with Boston Acoustics 5x7". Made a world of difference, and they are just running off the Bose amplification. I think I'll switch to the alpine amps for this car though.


TIA - just point me to the right threads if this has all been covered before

1996blackmax

iTrader: (2)

My 02 had the Bose system without navigation. I ended up replacing the whole system with aftermarket gear. The speakers did not have amps on them. I installed 6 1/2" components up front & put the tweeters in the OEM location in the A-pillars. In the rear doors I put in 6 1/2" coaxials. I made MDF mounting rings for the 6 1/2's up front & in the back. I used 3M double sided tape to mount the tweeters. I took out the OEM sub so the bass could come through better. I ended up giving the car to my son along with all the gear in it, Rainbow speakers all the way around, JL 10W6v2's, Arc Audio XXK amps, & an Alpine HU & processor. He now has a better system than me .

I also put Boston 3 1/2" coaxials up front in my 7th gen with the Bose system. Like you did in your wife's car. I added a sub & amp too. Doing this made the system sound much better. I eventually went with aftermarket amps, speakers, and a processor, but the first changes were a nice improvement over the stock setup.

jontyrees

Interesting - nice to know 6.5" will fit in the rear doors. I'm guessing the mounting ring was to give a bit more clearance for the aftermarket speakers magnet? So there's room between the interior door panel and the door metal to raise the speaker up a bit? I don't want to bump the tweeter of a coaxial speaker against the back of the door panel.

Thanks for the info. If the door speakers are not powered by their own little amps, (is that just some Bose system urban legend? I never thought it sounded plausible), I wonder how much power they are getting from the Bose amp, wherever it sits. I know the Bose speakers are really low impedance, so any aftermarket replacement would cut the power the amp is supplying, but in the CX-9 at least, the Bose amp does drive the BA speakers fairly well. I'm definitely going to install my alpine amps at some point, but in the meantime, I might just switch out the blown door speakers for replacements and see what happens. The MTX I have are cheap and pretty efficient, so it may be a decent stopgap

1996blackmax

iTrader: (2)

I made the MDF mounts to have a more solid mounting surface than the plastic mounts. I also added sound deadener to the front doors & around the mounts in the rear doors. My coaxial speakers fit behind the rear door panels with no issues.

When I installed the Boston coaxials in my 7th gen they actually worked out fine with the Bose amp, even though they are rated at 4ohms.

jontyrees

Thanks, good info. I'm going to try the MTX 6.5" I have in the front doors, and if they sound ok, I'm going to shift them to the rear doors, and pick up the component set of that same line for the front when I put my Alpine amp in. It's only 4x50w, so should match nicely with a cheaper comp set. Sometimes the cheap line from a decent brand works out in a lower power situation, and the comp set is only $60 at Crutchfield.