Hey Guys.

I'm thinking I'm going to have to replace my bose system. Because I know there are a fillion posts about this, and since I've looked through hundreds of pages looking (because of no search), I'm going to ask for any advise. I'll try and be concise.

THE PROBLEM:
My Bose system stopped putting sound out. If I leave it on, the sound comes on every 3 weeks, for about 30 seconds. The interval used to be hours, then days, then weeks. But...when it DOES come on, it still sounds awesome. All 4 speakers work, and the volume and quality sound great...it just never comes on.

THE PLAN:
I've been looking at replacements, and am getting more and more confused. I only have a few hundred to spend on this. So...I came up with these products at circuit city (not really planning on buying from there, but just looking up products). Will these provide a solution? Or is there something I'm missing?

Brand/Model: PIO DEHP4600MP (Pioneer 50-Watt XM™ Radio-Ready CD Receiver with MP3 Playback)
Brand/Model: MET 801763 (Metra 1984-94 Nissan Vehicle Wiring Harness)
Brand/Model: MET 40NI10 (Metra Nissan Antenna Adapter-Aftermarket Radio to Factory Antenna)
Brand/Model: MET PR0180 (Metra Pioneer Radio Harness)
Brand/Model: MET 997401 (Metra 1984-97 Nissan Multi-Vehicle Installation Kit)


Do you guys see any problems here? I really don't know much about how the bose vs regular stereo stuff works. The guy at Circuit City was saying something about Ohms, amps on speakers, re-wiring, harnesses not working etc. I'm just confused.

Any advise would be appreciated.

Matt
(93gxe - Bose cd/tape/fm/am)

 

I dont think you'll need the last two pieces. You can get the 'diversity antenna adapter' and wiring harness from ebay for cheap.

check out the links in teh FAQ post at the top
there's good info on some of them (mine too ) about wiring an aftermarket stereo

 

definitly check FAQ

 

alright, well i had the same problem and ill let you kno what i did cause i also like the bose over ripping everything out. The system itself, is fine, its the headunit, all you have to do is buy the head unit you want, an conversion kit and the antenna thingy and then take it home, spend a while and put it in, one hint you do have to hook the amp turn on up and it works best to give power to the conversion and then directly to the system itself, IME, cause the conversion in mine, reduced the amp volts and then it would randomly cut out. once i bypassed the conversion with the amp turn on, have never had any problems since then, you will find, as long as you get a good headunit ( a higher end, pioneer is that i got) it sounds better than before

 

and yes there is an ohm thing, IMO, dont listen to the guy, he wants to sell you more stuff, you can buy the Hu you want with the conversion and your stziaraight. nice fancy model numbers this is what you need to do this

nissan conversion harness for whatever year
antenna thing
a converter, some places call it a premium sound converter, but you can go in and say i have bose and i need the conversion unit. got mine at bestbuy and it was like 40 bucks. the pioneer harness should come with the headunit. the conversion goes inbetween the pioneer and nissan harness, and the instructions alon with good common sense will help make the install easier

 

i have a spare bose radio with the cd player that can hook into it (bose deck sony cd player) 2 different pieces but stock. but i have the headunit and it worked fine when i removed it my rear amps were bad so i replaced everything just throw me and offer plus shipping and if you want the cd deck to let me know djwhiz0001@aol.com

 

Well, newmaxguy, (for once) the Circuit City guy was right about the Bose works on a 1 ohm system, while typical car audio components work on 4 ohms. They don't work correctly together, especially the Bose amps that power your speakers. I don't know about all of those adapters and crap. You just need the wiring harness for more ease in plugging in the power, ground, remote wire, antenna, etc.

You can try to use your new Pioneer HU with what's in there (Bose set up), but the line levels will be wack and you will fry the amps and speakers very quickly. You can buy an adapter (around $50 new) that converts your line levels for the Bose, but that will mess up your amps and speakers, too. Mine took about two years to totally fry three amps and three of four speakers.

The best solution is to put in new speakers along with the HU. 6x9s work for the rear deck with no modification and you can use 4" two ways in the stock bose speaker pod, 4x6s if you take the pod out or (best choice) buy James92SE's speaker pods and put in 6.5s in the front doors. You CAN use the bose wiring (bypassing the amps) but the wires are pretty thin. I used them on the rears, but my fronts have Phoenix Gold wires from the amp in the trunk running to the front.

I think I just made up a scenario for someone not too long ago using Crutchfield pricing (expensive) and all Alpine stuff and it was around $500. You can go cheaper than that if you shop around and you will be happy that you replaced everything, because once Bose starts to go, it is a huge headache.

 

Heck if you want to go cheap you can also build a system for about $150

 

You can also pull out yer Bose HU, open it up, and retouch-up the power supply filtering caps. These are the big metal can looking two terminal devices on the board. Mine used to cut out once in a while, I did the above and that was 7 years ago - still works perfectly. While it's out inspect all the solder joints using a pair of magnifying glasses and touch up any that look suspect. Worth a try if you wanna keep the Bose.

 

Thanks everyone. This info really helps. I've sent a few of you some private messages / pm's.

 

I've done some research. The intermitant sound / ERR cd message etc seem to be a common problem...and there seems to be a fix. I'm sure this is what longjuanfeng is referring to above. I've even found plenty of sites offering this repair for $. But...what I can't find is any details of what needs to be repaired / replaced. Can someone tell me why this may be? I understand why the commercial places wouldn't post the info, but it seems that if so many people know how to do this... why can't pass around a bit more of this info?

longjuanfeng , do you have any more detailed info? I'm not looking for a readme / tutorial.....just a bit more info on what you did to fix yours, or what was really causing the problem. I'm not sure what is meant by "Retouch-up the power supply filtering caps."

If anyone can de-mystify this for me, even just a tiny bit, I'd appreciate it.

Matt