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Stock Bose Myth/Fact Please Read

2913 Views 17 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  joeman, 
K
All right guys, we all herd the stories on the Legendary Bose system nightmare. I've gone through it myself, but found out some interesting facts this weekend.

First off, I used to own a '91 LS coupe and changed out my amp and head unit before the speakers and the result I got was what we all know already, it sounds like ****. Doesn't sound right...everything sounds distorted. So I went ahead and changed out the whole system. Now I kept my old speakers thinking one day I'm going to put it back in for God knows why.

Well Turns out a friend with a '90 G1 LS Sedan needed a speaker replacement so I gave him one of my old ones, Switched the amp to the new one and he's set. The system sounds normal as expected. So I'm left with one Bose Speaker right?

Well little I know a couple years later I totaled that car and get a '95 LS coupe, but this time with the Bose "Premium" system. Thinking wow this system actually sounds real decent. For Two weeks I'm having the knob 3/4 ways most of the time, then I start hearing thumpin from one of the speakers thinking, damn I knew I shouldn't have played that rap and trance to loud 24/7. Any way, so I pull out one of my old Bose speakers thinking OEM direct swap no problem. Well as soon as I turned the radio on it sounded like when I changed the amp and head unit with my old LS Coupe!! I'm thinking WTF?? Well, I just put the speaker away and repaired my old ones (by the way, I got a good fix for the rear deck speakers) . So another week passes, I'm thinking Damn now my right left speaker starts making a scratching noise when the bass hits at low volumes (sorry no fix for this one) and I'm like I can't take this no more.....So I head out to best buy and buy a set of 6.5 speakers (which by the way, are not the right size despite what every one says and every catalog says) and just decide to pop them in to see what happens. Well guess what they sound normal! To my surprise I was like WHAT?! It isn't supposed to work this way. So I get brave and swap out all the speakers before I change the amp to see how it sounds. Well I got a pair of JBLs into the back and Pioneers in he front. The result, it sounds normal to me. The bass doesn't hit as hard as it used to, but to my friends, they think it sounds normal, and the highs are a bit higher, but I think it's because I got a set of 8 tweeters going :D (stock tweeters with 3 way speakers) So with the adjustment of the treble a bit lower then the half way mark, and the bass to the max, it sounds good to me!

So I'm sitting here baffled because Chris has always lectured us about 2ohm and 4 ohm and I know what happens when you cross the lines with them, really distorted sound. Now my question is did the Bose system change the Ohm measurement on the speakers? I mean did they go from 2 Ohm to 4 Ohm? Then why does 4 Ohm speakers work with the Bose "premium" system and not the old Bose system?

Okay guys you tell me, but as far as I know it, if you got a Bose Premium system, you can just change out your speakers and go a bit longer before you change out the whole thing. Hehehe I'm getting everything changed to my alpine CVA,DVD, Nav system in a couple weeks. Just thought I drop the FYI on you guys and sorry about the lengty post. Check out the post I'll be putting up in the DIY area on how to repair the Bose speakers and about speakers sizes..... --=Keith :)
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WhiteLegend
No, they didn't change the resistance on the premium system. It's 2ohms. I think the reason it sounded fine was because in your 95 LS premium system, the amp is 200watts instead of the 80watts in your 91 LS.

Also I don't think ChrisK said it would be distorded, more like you'll have to turn the volume up more to hear the music at the same level as before. Because your new 4ohm speakers are now running at 1/2 power. Now since the audio band is not a linear curve, the music might sound distorted at certain volumes. This also depends on what speakers you put in. When I was changing my whole premuim system out, I put in some Sony speakers with my bose amp, they sounded like sh*t. Then I changed to infinity speakers, and they sounded just fine. That was before I added a RF power 400.4

But to conclude, IMO the Bose Premium is complete crap. I've never had a worse factory audio system than the Legend Bose Premium. The factory bose system in my Maxima was awesome, I even think the stock system in my gf's civic sounds better than Legend premium, I don't know why the Legend got such a POS of a audio system.
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K
Hmm make sense...But I used the same speakers in my old one when messing around witht he old amp, sound bad....With this one sounds normal. I guess....

At any rate, it's all about opionions, I mean I listen to Trance and Rap andthe bass and trebble was there with the Premium system, I thought it sound good. Why did you think it sound so bad? --=Keith
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C
Yea, I never said it wouldn't work. Unless you are talking about another Chris. Actually, I have been one of the more outpspoken person about being able to mix aftermarket components with the BOSE components, and I always have stated that I myself have done various OEM BOSE and aftermarket equipement combinations.

However, I did always say that because of the impedence curve (not nominal impedence of the speaker) of the speaker and also because of the BOSE equalization, that the aftermarket speakers in the stock BOSE system would be a hit and miss. I've said that it may sound good, or it may sound a little off, but it was nothing an EQ couldn/'t fix. In your case, your EQ fix was using the stock trebble and bass controls.

I also stated that the increase to 4 ohm nominal from the 2 ohm nominal BOSE speakers would cause no damage and could be used, only you might find that you need to turn the volume knob up a few notches to match the same perceived sound level as before. I also said that one of the most common things that you might find about the sound when using aftermarket speakers is that the bass seems to be less than what it used to be, but I personally believed that it was due to the over infalted midbass that BOSE tunes into their systems to give you the illusion of low bass, and that the afermarket speaker probably does not have that charachtoristis, so it will not have that heavy midbass and sound like it has less bass, but in actuality, it probably sounds a bit more natural.

PS. One possibly reason why your same speakers sound better in the 95 than in the 91 is because the 91 has an 80W amp. If you just use the impedence of the speakers for calculations, you can see that the 80W amp is actually 4 mono amps rated at 20W. That 20W is more than likely a 20W peak rating. Add 4 ohm speakers to that and you have a 10W peak amp for each speaker. Take the RMS value which for simple calculation purpose we will just say it is roughly half, and you have a 5W RMS.

Now, take the 200W peak Premium amp. That would be 50W peak to each speaker. Half that because of the 4 ohm speakers, and you have 25W peak. RMS is about 12.5W. As you can see, you have a lot more headroom with the 200W amp over the 80W amp. Using those same speakers on your 91 LS probably resulted in you having to turn up the volume way pass the amps linear output, so distortion rose quickly. In the 200W amp, you probably have just enough headroom to keep distortion at lower levels where they are not as audible.

But again, that is just one possible reason that I can think of :)
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K
Chris, thanks for clerifying!! One question though, why is it that the old Bose speaker from the '91 wouldn't work with the '95? As I said I wouldn't result to this setup as a perminant setup, just as a temp fix untill you get a new setup. Good hearing from you again --=Keith
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J
Can't you just wire a couple speakers in parallel
to get the 2 ohm load for each output on the bose unit???
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WhiteLegend
joeman said:
Can't you just wire a couple speakers in parallel
to get the 2 ohm load for each output on the bose unit???
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I suppose you could....but then you'll be putting 8 4ohm speakers up to the bose 4 channel amp. And each speaker will still get 1/2 of it what it would if there were 4 2 ohm speakers.
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B+O
with all that being said. can i switch form my stock 80watt bose to the 200W bose amp from a 93-95 using aftermarket infinity speakers. my knob has to be 5/8 to 3/4 of the way up to to hear the tape deck but it has to be about half way up to hear the radio. maybe 3/8
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C
Bang&Olufsen DK said:
with all that being said. can i switch form my stock 80watt bose to the 200W bose amp from a 93-95 using aftermarket infinity speakers. my knob has to be 5/8 to 3/4 of the way up to to hear the tape deck but it has to be about half way up to hear the radio. maybe 3/8
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The 200W amp from the 93+ LS/GS will be a direct replacement for the 91-92 LS 80W amp. Same size and same connectors located in the same location.
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H
brining this back to life, i am thinking of doing the same swapping out the 80 watt with the 200 watt, woudl this make the cound any better then now?
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P
there's an 80 watt amp? i could have sworn the 80 watt bose systems have built in amps into the HU
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Johnny Kim
PerzianKabob said:
there's an 80 watt amp? i could have sworn the 80 watt bose systems have built in amps into the HU
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no, there isnt an 80 watts amp. its built in.
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WhiteLegend
smartjay28 said:
no, there isnt an 80 watts amp. its built in.
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Yes, there is a 80 watt amp too. The 91-92 LS came with an 80 watt amp behind the rear seats.

Only the 91-95 L models and 95 SE models have headunit with the built in amp.
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Johnny Kim
WhiteLegend said:
Yes, there is a 80 watt amp too. The 91-92 LS came with an 80 watt amp behind the rear seats.

Only the 91-95 L models and 95 SE models have headunit with the built in amp.
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ma bad. learned something new today!
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C
hotstartup said:
brining this back to life, i am thinking of doing the same swapping out the 80 watt with the 200 watt, woudl this make the cound any better then now?
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Sure you can if you want to. The amps are interchangeable. I think it will sound a little bit better in terms of loudness, but over all I think it would be basically the same. I just don't think it would be a dramatic worthwhile change. But, it is easy to do and if you can get a 200W amp cheap it could be worth your time.
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K
Watch out though, if you do keep me posted, the speakers may or may not work with the system. Again when i put the '91 6x9 on my Premium system it didn't sound right. Oh yea and one other update... I threw the old Bose speakers in a '00 Civic that was a loaner to me when my car was in the shop and it sounded normal... I dunno... The Bose systems are werid... Good luck --=Keith
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C
I'll just through in my experience. I did test out a 80W BOSE amp in my 200W Premium sysem for a friend who was buying the said amp. It worked and sounded normal and I really couldn't hear any significant different. So, I know the 80W amp will work and sound okay in the 200W amp system. I have never tried the 200W amp in the 80W system though, but I can't see any reason why it would work one way and not the other. As for the speakers I can see why they may not work well since the 80W system does not use separate tweeters like the 200W system does, so the 6X9 speakers are not the same and not expected to sound the same since the 200W systems 6X9 needs the tweeter to complete itself.
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J
Wow, this thread is OLD. FYI, I put the 200W prem amp and speakers on my originally 80w system quite some time ago, and it still works fine. It seems quite a bit louder and bassier, 1/2 volume is like 5/8 volume before. It is kind of hard to compare, since 2 of my speakers were buzzing and another one was blown.
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