Bose rear deck install on 986.

[Piper]

Hey guys, this will be my first post, though I've been lurking for quite some time.

A couple months ago I picked up a 2001 Boxster S, 57K miles, and I've been loving it ever since. Easily the best car I've ever owned. I've quickly fallen in love with it. The only problem is the sound system leaves something to be desired. The door speakers sound excellent, and the fronts on the dash arent half bad. The previous owner said it was the premium sound package without DSP, so I'm guessing its the harmon kardon set up, driven by the factory headunit and the nokia amp.

So a week ago I ordered a bose enclosure from ebay for the rear deck behind the head rests to replace the rear speaker upgrade the previous owner had done (The speakers had rotted and the driver's side set no longer work).

For the last week I've probably blown up a couple servers at google looking for suggestions on what amp to use to power them. From what I've read on this forum, they are very low impedance; .8 ohm or .5 ohm when wired in parallel depending on who you ask.

I've definately decided I want to run them in parallel, but all the amps that advertise this low impedance seem to be extremely overpowered. I mean good god these things dont need 800-1000 watts do they? At 5.25 inch?

Any suggestions on how to wire this up? What amp to buy? What crossovers to use? My budget is large but I don't want to spend too much if I dont have to. I'll be picking up one of the new Pioneer Premier Avic F90BT navigation systems to replace the factory head unit in a months time; does that have any bearing on any of this.

Thank you for your input, and your time,

Regards,

The Piper

:renntech:

[Piper]

Did I post this in the wrong section? Is my quest to install the bose rear deck on a earlier model futile? Not getting alot of feedback.

[rick3000]

A stereo shop could probably answer your amp questions, but I think the Bose unit uses it's own amp (mounted under the passenger seat?) Good luck with the install!

[juniinc]

they are either 8 /4 OHM depends how U wire them.

all U are pushing is a little 5"? so they can barely handle 25W RMS. so U dont really need a low impedence amp

Of course 2OHM stable is better but any bi-channel amp out there will work for u

somethin to think about, U will prolly need an after market head unit for the amp to work.

Hey guys, this will be my first post, though I've been lurking for quite some time.

A couple months ago I picked up a 2001 Boxster S, 57K miles, and I've been loving it ever since. Easily the best car I've ever owned. I've quickly fallen in love with it. The only problem is the sound system leaves something to be desired. The door speakers sound excellent, and the fronts on the dash arent half bad. The previous owner said it was the premium sound package without DSP, so I'm guessing its the harmon kardon set up, driven by the factory headunit and the nokia amp.

So a week ago I ordered a bose enclosure from ebay for the rear deck behind the head rests to replace the rear speaker upgrade the previous owner had done (The speakers had rotted and the driver's side set no longer work).

For the last week I've probably blown up a couple servers at google looking for suggestions on what amp to use to power them. From what I've read on this forum, they are very low impedance; .8 ohm or .5 ohm when wired in parallel depending on who you ask.

I've definately decided I want to run them in parallel, but all the amps that advertise this low impedance seem to be extremely overpowered. I mean good god these things dont need 800-1000 watts do they? At 5.25 inch?

Any suggestions on how to wire this up? What amp to buy? What crossovers to use? My budget is large but I don't want to spend too much if I dont have to. I'll be picking up one of the new Pioneer Premier Avic F90BT navigation systems to replace the factory head unit in a months time; does that have any bearing on any of this.

Thank you for your input, and your time,

Regards,

The Piper

:renntech:

Edited June 19, 2008 by juniinc

[Cassiebox]

In the factory non-Bose system (basic, M490 and M680 options) the speakers are usually 4 Ohm in Dash, 2 Ohm in door, 4 Ohm in rear. Bose, as you are finding out, does funky things regarding speaker impedance and matches it w/ their amp accordingly. Therefore, it isn't easy to crossover b/w systems due to mismatch. I'm sure you could wire in some resistors, etc. in-line to make these work w/ the rest of your system but not sure how much hassle it'd be nor do I know the details. Sorry.

A 2001 Boxster only has a 4ch (40W per) amp to power the doors and dash. Most often rear speakers are driven off the h/u (at only 18W) unless PO ungraded to a 6ch amp. So..... a simpler solution may be to replace the speakers in the Bose box w/ components that match up (impedance wise) to the doors and dash (either 2 or 4 Ohm). If you have a 6ch amp, then you'll be fine and should just wire them up to the rear channels on amp. Otherwise, you'll want to replace the amp w/ a 6ch (or piggyback on a 2ch just for the rear box) to power system evenly. Or, you could get a Bose amp and replace the door and dash speakers w/ Bose components.

As a side note.... know the factory amp (whether 4ch or 6ch) has a crossover built in. This filters to allow only lows to go to the door speakers. Just thought you'd want to know in case that has any bearing on what you plan to do or where you plan to hook up the unit from.

Good luck :)

[Piper]

Thank you! That was quite helpful. :)

I'll be making a decision as to which was to do it this weekend and I'll let the board know for prosperity.

:renntech:

[Piper]

Well I decided to wait until I have the Pioneer Navigation system and the amplifiers before I try to put this thing in, I will let you all know the outcome as soon as all the materials arrive and the install is complete. Thanks again for your help. :)