I just purchased an 89 Maxima SE recently and it has a non-functioning bose head unit and speakers of unknown status. The previous owner told me that the headunit itself is the only non working part and I have a Sony CD in DIN size which would appear to fit physically.

I've read various sites of conflicting info on how to upgrade the bose system and I seem to understand that the system basically goes like this:

headunit -> wires(power and signal) -> amp/speaker combo

if I'm correct here, could the amp/speaker combo be left alone and could I splice the preamp line outs on the Sony CD player, along with 12v for the amplifiers into each existing speaker line? If this wouldn't work, what would be a good solution aside from replacing all the speakers which I can't really afford right now? Other sites have stated that the amplifiers can be bypassed but the sound will be quieter due to the lower ohmage of the bose speakers, if this is a working solution I'd be willing to do it in the meantime until I could afford new speakers.

Hopefully I can get a concrete answer on this, no music is a pain, heh.

BTW, I work for a PC mods company and we've developed something which might be of interest to you guys, it's a tachometer which hooks up to your computer to show your CPU utilization, check it out at: http://www.xoxide.com/pctachometer1.html

 

i just replaced my stock bose headunit with a pioneer deh-p6400 headunit and left my bose speakers as is. The only thing you need, if your sure your speakers are not the problem is buy a special harness
called a bose oem adapter (fifty bucks at crutchfield). Like i said i just changed mine and it sounds great.

 

For my Sony HU, I got a harness from PepBoys ($10) and an antenna adapter ($15) from Best Buy. Then I cut the speaker wires before each amp (bypassing the amp) and spliced them directly to the speaker. There are 4 wires in the harness: the smaller two are speaker wires and the larger are to power the amps. I kept my Bose speakers since I didn't have the money to uprgrade the whole system. The sound is fine! Good luck.

 

i would not reccomend doing what ghost max did. the Bose speakers are 1 ohm, and chances are your deck is 4 ohm. this will result in toasting either your speakers or your headunit eventually. be safe, go to circut city or best buy and get the adaptor that lowers your amped 45 watt 4 ohm signal to acceptable signal power for the bose amps. replacing all the speakers isn't that expensive, and most 6x9s will sound better than the paper cone bose ones anyway. for the front, get a 5x7 and some plywood to fix the solution. if you have more questions, you can get me on AIM at GavinFerrer, or search through the Audio and Electronics forum.

 

the adaptor that i bought from pep boys is the same one at best buy. the one from crutchfield is around $50 and is supposedly the best one to get. either way, the unit will work fine and many have done the same as me. eventually it is best if you can change all speakers since the front bose are 1 ohm like sleeper said.

 

Err, what about just hooking a 3-Ohm non-inductive resistor in series with one of the speaker lines? That would bring it up to an effective 4-Ohm resistance... Hrmm, of course, that would drop most of the power on the resistor, huh?
Hrmm, and a shunt woudln't work either, because the 1-Ohm resistance isn't static... But that adaptor has to do something similar to one of those ideas, either shunting off excess current or bringing the resistance up to the rated 4-Ohm...
Anyone know which it does? Because you could prolly do the same thing with about $2 and a trip to Radio Shack

 

GhostMax- sorry, didn't realize we were talking about the same thing, but i could have saved $20 if i had gotten that one

Taegost- you probably could build one yourself, but the ones people have been buying come in a nice little case and are idiot proof if you can see in color. and i know mine even came with adjustable levels so that you can increase gain to each speaker independantly. i'd say go buy one and take it apart... learn how to build it and you may have a product for all of us BOSE victims

 

Hrmmm, sounds interesting, I've been trying to come up with a neat project so my electronics schooling doesn't go to waste
It's been awhile since I've actually made something for a stereo unit, actually, I haven't since a high school project, and I've always wondered at the best way to do something like this...
I actually killed a speaker because of something similar, I had an 8-ohm output and 4-ohm speakers, and I blew the amps in the head unit...
Then there was the speakers I blew up because I forgot how to read the box... 150w x4 does NOT mean 150w/channel... Needless to say, you can blow a speaker as easily, if not easier, by under-powering then you would by overpowering...