[M-006]

I recall that in other Bose car audio setups, Bose has used proprietary type wiring of the speakers.
Meaning that if you want to add an amp and use different speakers then you have to run new wiring to the speakers.
Is this true of the M6 setup?

I want to keep the stock head unit as I did in my Eclipse GT. In the Eclipse Infinity system I made my own breakout box using existing wiring from the stock HU to the Infinity amp. I created a box which gave me RCA line level outputs.
Then I simply ran my power wires and audio RCA interconnects to the new amp and then ran the speaker wire to the stock system wiring. Then I put in a 10" sub and new components with a new crossover. I didn't use the rear speakers as I like a better sound stage.

That setup took some work but was relatively easy if you've done audio setups before. Now, is this possible with the Bose setup? Can I create my own breakouts BEFORE the stock amp? Where is the stock amp?
Is the stock wiring to the speakers standard stuff? IOW, is it simply negative and positive to each speaker or does the wiring interconnect somewhere to that some speakers are connected?

What is the difference between the Bose 6 disc and the standard 6 disc in terms of amp and connections?
Is the standard 6 disc the same unit, whereas the Bose has better OEM speakers and a sub?

I'm going to design a setup where I can turn the rear speakers on or off as I need them. As I said, I prefer the soundstage with components in front only with a sub in the rear, no fills. However, when having passengers I'd like to be able to turn on the rear door speakers so that they can have some better sound. I may simply run a separate amp for those and use a splitter before the rear sub to feed a line signal to that amp.

Thanks for any input on the Bose wiring. Picts are very welcome if you have them. I won't have my 6 till after March, maybe the middle of April, but I'd like to get things before hand.

Tome

 

[Entropism]

Reading Topic: Bose 6 disc stereo modified, question.

Bose USUALLY uses 1 Ohm speakers, so if you replace the just speakers, you're going to have a TREMENDOUS loss of power. I havent opened up the 6 yet, so I can't tell if they've done it with our cars or not. Rockford is another company that uses 1 ohm speakers in their OEM installs for Nissan.

 

[M-006]

Reading Topic: Bose 6 disc stereo modified, question.

From what I understand they acheive this by wiring in parallel? Meaning the wiring is not standard.
I'm not aware of raw drivers, even in the raw driver market, that sell 1 ohm speakers that are not woofers or subs and even then, 1 ohm drivers are rare.

It doesn't matter to me if they use 1 or 8 ohm really, cause my intention is to change the amp and build a line level break out, thus negating the stock speakers and amp. I want the stock headunit and I'll go from there. I'm just wondering if the wiring is such that it's using standard + and -, 2 wires per speaker. If so, then I can use the existing wiring for the new amp and speakers.

Thanks for the input.

I wasn't aware that Rockford did any OEM installs for Nissan.

Tome

 

[Entropism]

Reading Topic: Bose 6 disc stereo modified, question.

Tome, wiring them in parallel wouldn't be possible. It would achieve a 1 ohm load, sure, but you'd only have one channel of music. Kind of hard to get stereo out of that, or fade from front/back or right/left. No, Bose is a major distributor, and they order their speakers in 1 ohm loads. Keep in mind, for $10,000, I can order $750 higher end OEM speakers in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or even 50 ohm loads. An OEM doesn't care, they take the specs and the money and build whatever the customer wants. Simple as that.

 

[Rainchild]

Reading Topic: Bose 6 disc stereo modified, question.

What's an ohm for anyway?

Is the lower the better, or the higher the better, or is it all dependent on stuff?

 

[Entropism]

Reading Topic: Bose 6 disc stereo modified, question.

Ohms are the resistance of the speaker. Lower or higher doesn't mean it's "better" or "worse", it's just the resistance that the amp sees.

Basically Ohms law states that as the resistance halves, the power pushed out doubles. So a 4 ohm speaker on (for example) a Rockford amp, would push 50w of power. A 2 ohm speaker would halve the resistance, so the amp would push 100w. Another example would be subwoofers on a class D amp.

For this example, say an amp is 1 ohm stable. That means it can go as low as 1 ohm, before frying it's circuits. At 1 ohm, the power output would be 1000w. At 2 ohms, it would be 500w, and at 4 ohms, it would be 250w.

Now, you also have 4 ohm subs you want to hook up to this amp. If you hook a single 4 ohm sub to the amp, you'll push out 250w. If you add a SECOND 4 ohm sub wired in parallel, you'll send out 500w total, or 250w per sub. Now, let's say you want that full 1000w output. You're going to have to add TWO 4 ohm subs to it again, totalling 4 subs, to get a 1 ohm load.

1 sub = 4 ohms
2 subs = 2 ohms
4 subs = 1 ohm
8 subs = 1/2 ohm (unstable for this amp, amp goes *poof*)

BOSE (and Rockford's OEM stuff) uses 1 ohm speakers to get the most out of a weak amp. It's to save money, in every essence of the way. Keep in mind, when the ohms get lower, distortion rises. BOSE and Rockford don't care, because OEM speakers are inherantly distortion plagued, so the extra, say, 2% THD (total harmonic distortion) is barely noticable. Oh, and the human ear can't detect less than 1% THD, just so you know.

 

[kshiddy]

Ohms are the resistance of the speaker. Lower or higher doesn't mean it's "better" or "worse", it's just the resistance that the amp sees.

Basically Ohms law states that as the resistance halves, the power pushed out doubles. So a 4 ohm speaker on (for example) a Rockford amp, would push 50w of power. A 2 ohm speaker would halve the resistance, so the amp would push 100w. Another example would be subwoofers on a class D amp.

For this example, say an amp is 1 ohm stable. That means it can go as low as 1 ohm, before frying it's circuits. At 1 ohm, the power output would be 1000w. At 2 ohms, it would be 500w, and at 4 ohms, it would be 250w.

Now, you also have 4 ohm subs you want to hook up to this amp. If you hook a single 4 ohm sub to the amp, you'll push out 250w. If you add a SECOND 4 ohm sub wired in parallel, you'll send out 500w total, or 250w per sub. Now, let's say you want that full 1000w output. You're going to have to add TWO 4 ohm subs to it again, totalling 4 subs, to get a 1 ohm load.

1 sub = 4 ohms
2 subs = 2 ohms
4 subs = 1 ohm
8 subs = 1/2 ohm (unstable for this amp, amp goes *poof*)

BOSE (and Rockford's OEM stuff) uses 1 ohm speakers to get the most out of a weak amp. It's to save money, in every essence of the way. Keep in mind, when the ohms get lower, distortion rises. BOSE and Rockford don't care, because OEM speakers are inherantly distortion plagued, so the extra, say, 2% THD (total harmonic distortion) is barely noticable. Oh, and the human ear can't detect less than 1% THD, just so you know.

best explanation of ohms law ever!