Rear Bose Subwoofer Deck

[usaf-lt-g]

Hey guys,

Does anyone the speaker specifications (sizes) that come with the Rear Bose Subwoofer speaker deck? It appears it has 3 speakers, 2 mid-range, and 1 sub-woofer in the middle.

Curious as to what the specifications and sizes are. Thanks!

[demick]

I believe it has two 5" subwoofers facing downward, and two very small (2" perhaps) cone tweeters facing forward.

[juniinc]

It has a total of five speakers, I thought

A Bass-Reflex Sub

Two Mid-Tone Speakers.

Two High-Tone Tweeters

[ericinboca]

It has a total of five speakers, I thought

A Bass-Reflex Sub

Two Mid-Tone Speakers.

Two High-Tone Tweeters

I think juniinc is right - three that "point" out the front - and two other ones that don't have grills or openings.

[atta]

Two 13cm (5") "subs" and two tweeters. The subs are pointing downwards and has a base port in the middle of the unit facing forward.

If you intend to put one into a none-Bose car you will have to replace the speakers and wiring as they are wired op strange and has a very low impedance.

Here's a thread with some more info and pictures:

http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=11577

Atle

[AB986]

My Bose subwoofer has one pair of these :

Edited July 17, 2009 by AB986

[usaf-lt-g]

Interesting...

Yea I just bought the Bose box, and plan to replace the subs (if that's what you can call them) with ACTUAL subs. In my current setup, I'm using 2 aftermarket JL audio amps, with one of them already pre-wired to power subs. All the speakers and wiring has already been run, and I've currently just got the "rear speaker" system back there... but it doesn't do much for me.

Question is, what speakers can I easily swap out that will fit in the factory spots. Sounds like there's some confusion as to wether or not there is 1 sub, or 2 subs, and if they are 13CM (5") or 5.25 inch drivers? What about the other 2 spekars that appear to be in there?

[demick]

In my Bose box the subs were replaced by Focal 13KS subs (5"). They look like they were a drop-in replacement. The tweeters are disconnected.

Even with that, the bass is not as good as what I get from the Bose door subs. In other words, if I had to pick one or the other, I would keep the door subs over the rear Bose box (despite it having high-end drivers installed).

[AB986]

In my Bose box the subs were replaced by Focal 13KS subs (5").

I might be wrong but IIRC the 13KS are better suited in sealed enclosures (I guess all of Focal's subs are designed for sealed, not ported, enclosures). It might not be easy to find a 13cm sub that works well in this Bose box.

[demick]

In my Bose box the subs were replaced by Focal 13KS subs (5").

I might be wrong but IIRC the 13KS are better suited in sealed enclosures (I guess all of Focal's subs are designed for sealed, not ported, enclosures). It might not be easy to find a 13cm sub that works well in this Bose box.

You are probably correct on that one. The box was already retrofitted with those before I bought the car. You are also correct that there probably aren't many options for a sub that would work well in this box.

[usaf-lt-g]

What about the Focal Utopia 13 WS? Says it can be sealed or vented? (Not sure exactly what the "vented" means). It's a 5" subwoofer.

I found the specifications on this subwoofer...

3.52362 inches deep

15.04 cm wide (that's the entire surface area, including the mounting area.

width seems a little wide for the hole.... guess I'll have to wait to get the box, and measure the surface area to find out, unless anyone else has better details?

Edited July 17, 2009 by usaf-lt-g

[juniinc]

vented means ported enclosure,,,U can actually tune port your sub enclosure by venting it

[bilabonic]

vented means ported enclosure,,,U can actually tune port your sub enclosure by venting it

Is it not a wast of time upgrading them if you have the Bose sysytem, something to do with impedances ?

[atta]

Interesting...

Yea I just bought the Bose box, and plan to replace the subs (if that's what you can call them) with ACTUAL subs. In my current setup, I'm using 2 aftermarket JL audio amps, with one of them already pre-wired to power subs. All the speakers and wiring has already been run, and I've currently just got the "rear speaker" system back there... but it doesn't do much for me.

Question is, what speakers can I easily swap out that will fit in the factory spots. Sounds like there's some confusion as to wether or not there is 1 sub, or 2 subs, and if they are 13CM (5") or 5.25 inch drivers? What about the other 2 spekars that appear to be in there?

I'm there as well. Bought a new BOSE shelf a few months ago, but did not get any further than opening the box to inspect it before this project got side tracked. I did test fit a pair of 13cm drivers, and they fit without problems. 13cm = 5 1/4", not 5" that I wrote earlier. Not so used to your strange way of measuring stuff. ;)

Believe the tweeters are 1".

A.

[atta]

In my Bose box the subs were replaced by Focal 13KS subs (5"). They look like they were a drop-in replacement. The tweeters are disconnected.

Even with that, the bass is not as good as what I get from the Bose door subs. In other words, if I had to pick one or the other, I would keep the door subs over the rear Bose box (despite it having high-end drivers installed).

If you have a full Bose system, like it sounds like you do, I'm not surprised the "upgrade" sounds bad. The Bose drivers are weird impedance and wired in a weird way that will only sound good when mated with the Bose amp. If you try to drive "regular" speakers with the Bose amp I'm not surprised it does not sound any good,

A.

[AB986]

What about the Focal Utopia 13 WS? Says it can be sealed or vented? (Not sure exactly what the "vented" means). It's a 5" subwoofer.

I found the specifications on this subwoofer...

3.52362 inches deep

15.04 cm wide (that's the entire surface area, including the mounting area.

width seems a little wide for the hole.... guess I'll have to wait to get the box, and measure the surface area to find out, unless anyone else has better details?

I looked at this speaker's specs, its suitability factor (fs/Qes) is 102.75, which indeed makes it usable in a vented enclosure.

Now, in this Bose enclosure, the front volume of the speaker is almost null (the speakers face the carpet in top of the engine compartment), and I'm not sure if it works as a bandpass or vented box, as I've never been able to find the Thiele small parameters for this Bose woofer.

I'm not an audio engineer, and for me it's impossible to choose a woofer based on the enclosure and its vent dimensions. The process is usually the opposite, with the box designed from the speaker's parameters.

Focal Utopia speakers are top notch but expensive, I personally would not take the risk to buy them just because they fit the hole in the box.

[juniinc]

I belive it is, in my opinion it is best to leave that enclosure alone the way they are supposed to be.

I'm sure that BOSE's high paid engineers spent their time to figured it out at its best performance.

vented means ported enclosure,,,U can actually tune port your sub enclosure by venting it

Is it not a wast of time upgrading them if you have the Bose sysytem, something to do with impedances ?

[demick]

In my Bose box the subs were replaced by Focal 13KS subs (5"). They look like they were a drop-in replacement. The tweeters are disconnected.

Even with that, the bass is not as good as what I get from the Bose door subs. In other words, if I had to pick one or the other, I would keep the door subs over the rear Bose box (despite it having high-end drivers installed).

If you have a full Bose system, like it sounds like you do, I'm not surprised the "upgrade" sounds bad. The Bose drivers are weird impedance and wired in a weird way that will only sound good when mated with the Bose amp. If you try to drive "regular" speakers with the Bose amp I'm not surprised it does not sound any good,

A.

That's not quite the situation. And it does not sound bad. It just doesn't have the bass that I would expect.

The previous owner of the car paid $2300 or whatever for the full Bose system. Then proceeded to replace most of it with aftermarket components. I assume this is because he decided he wanted Satellite radio, bluetooth, Ipod, USB, etc etc. So the head unit was replaced with a unit that provided all of this. And because of the MOST bus, that means replacing the amplifier as well. The aftermarket amplifier works fine with the Bose dash and door speakers, but not with the rear sub (impedance and wiring reasons as you point out). So the sub drivers inside of the enclosure were replaced as well so that they could be driven properly by the amplifier. This was all done before I purchased the car, so I don't know for sure all of the reasons, nor want to imply that it was all for good reasons.

Regardless, after purchasing the car, I again replaced the amplifier with a more compact unit (that fit in the original amp location and did not take up the entire front trunk floor). I also did not like the sound of the Bose dash speakers, so I replaced them with Boston Acoustics separates - this vastly improved the sound. I think the Bose door subwoofers are fantastic, so I left them alone.

[usaf-lt-g]

The real original thought here was as follows:

My audio system is completely overhauled as is. I completely gutted it, re-wired it, and replaced all the speakers.

The original HAES 6 CH. Amp, with Rear Speaker compartment (Just speakers not the bose subwoofer system), was taken out. I replaced it with 2 JL Audio Amps, 1 300 x 4 and 1 300 x 2.

The 300 x 4, drives the front and rear channel speakers, Front (being the dash) were replaced with MB Quartz Premium 4" speakers + 2" tweeters. The rear deck, I took out all 4 OEM speakers, and replaced with JL TR 3.5" speakers. The doors, I completely dynomatted, cut out custom speaker enclosures, and fit 2 JL Audo ZR-650 (6.5") woofers. The front dash is completely isolated on the "FRONT CHANNEL" through a crossover. The doors and Rear speakers are isolated as the "REAR CHANNEL" through a cross-over. Doors play lows, rear deck plays mids and highs.

The Head Unit itself was replaced and custom fitted with the Alpine Audio IVA-W505/P1 with Navigation, bluetooth, XM, etc.

The 300 x 2 amp, I pre-wired for later use with 1 or 2 subwoofers. For the longest time, I couldn't find a practical, factory looking, option that would meet the needs of the system... until I found the BOSE speaker deck.

The outlook as follows:

Analyze the 2 speakers in the far corners of the BOSE deck (not the subwoofers, but the 2 speakers) and check their size, and wether or not I can fit them with the JL TR-3.5" speakers I have already. If not, then I'll find a quality speaker that will fit. I will re-analyze the wiring for these speakers, and run them through the factory harness that is already wired to the speaker deck I already have in place.

Now the subwoofers themself. Those will get replaced (wether or not I do the focal utopia or not, is still yet to be determined). The wires for those, are completely new anyways, and separate from everything else. They will be isolated to the JL Audio 300 x 2 Amp, which already is connected to the Subwoofer Pre-Outs on the head unit. The wiring for all this is for the most part, already in place.

Again, I have to wait to actually get the bose compartment to really take a look at it, but I don't see this being an incedibly difficult procedure to complete the way I want it to. The original design back when I replacing all the speakers and head unit looked like the following, minus the subwoofer. But now that I'm adding the subwoofer, the design remains somewhat similar other than the fact I won't be briding to 1 subwoofer, but running stereo for 2 on it's own amp.

[AB986]

Now the subwoofers themself. Those will get replaced (wether or not I do the focal utopia or not, is still yet to be determined).

I've made several subwoofer enclosures for home setups and other cars. Sealed enclosures are easy. Vented or passband enclosures are way more difficult to design (even when knowing all the speaker T/S parameters). I found that changing a small thing in the enclosure parameters, like say the vent flare size/shape, and the enclosure behaves differently. Also, sometimes the T/S parameters are way off compared to what the manufacturer's specs say.

From my humble experience, I can tell you that changing the Bose woofers for "better" speakers may or may not work, it all depends on how close the parameters of your new speakers will be to the Bose ones. Without knowing the Qts, Qes, Vas and Fs of the Bose speakers to find a close replacement, only luck will give you a better sound. Also, when wiring them, the phase might be reversed as the Bose box is designed to use the rear wave of the speakers.

I still have a stock setup in my Boxster, but I will later this year try to improve it. I will probably ditch the stock amp for something better, change the dash speakers, and rewire the Bose box with the two original woofers in series so that I can drive them from my new amp (with active LP filter), and see then how they sound.

Until someone finds or actually measures the T/S parameters of these woofers, it's probably better to keep them in the box.

I replaced it with 2 JL Audio Amps, 1 300 x 4 and 1 300 x 2.

I'd be interested to see pictures of your setup. I don't want to give up too much space in the front trunk.

[usaf-lt-g]

Well the polarity of the woofers should be easily to figure out if necessary, I can just swap the + / - to give it a reverse wave. Below are some pictures of my setup:

Stripped the front out to run the new wires to the front trunk.

Doors

Finished Front

Console

All the original Crap I had to pull out that was poorly done by someone else...

The Nokia DSP Module that needed to be removed to make way for the re-located HVAC unit (The DSP controls the factory amp that was removed)

[demick]

rewire the Bose box with the two original woofers in series so that I can drive them from my new amp (with active LP filter), and see then how they sound.

From what I have gathered, it is possible that the original bose subs are ~2 ohms each, but are wired in parallel (as a single channel), giving ~1 ohm impedance for the pair, which would be too low of impedance for most any aftermarket amplifier.

But if this is true, you could simply rewire the subs inside the enclosure from parallel to serial, then giving a total impedance of ~4 ohms. Perfect to be driven by an aftermarket amplifier (mono subwoofer channel), without having to do any speaker rewiring inside the car.

If you wanted to rewire the car, then you could run them in stereo, each off of their own channel, at 2 ohms each.

However, since I've never had the stock bose rear speakers, I am unable to verify the wiring or impedance of the original speakers. This is just speculation on what I have been able to gather.

[usaf-lt-g]

rewire the Bose box with the two original woofers in series so that I can drive them from my new amp (with active LP filter), and see then how they sound.

From what I have gathered, it is possible that the original bose subs are ~2 ohms each, but are wired in parallel (as a single channel), giving ~1 ohm impedance for the pair, which would be too low of impedance for most any aftermarket amplifier.

But if this is true, you could simply rewire the subs inside the enclosure from parallel to serial, then giving a total impedance of ~4 ohms. Perfect to be driven by an aftermarket amplifier (mono subwoofer channel), without having to do any speaker rewiring inside the car.

If you wanted to rewire the car, then you could run them in stereo, each off of their own channel, at 2 ohms each.

However, since I've never had the stock bose rear speakers, I am unable to verify the wiring or impedance of the original speakers. This is just speculation on what I have been able to gather.

Yea I have no idea what the impedenance is on the subwoofers. But I'm more than 90% on replacing these anyways with something aftermarket, ensuring ~4ohms. There's no WAY I plan on frying my high-end amps.

[usaf-lt-g]

Believe it or not... the JL ZR650 6.5" woofers I have in the doors, actually put out some "decent" bass. However, in my opinion, it's still not as full of a sound as it should be. I don't plan to "blast off the moon" with bass, but the goal is to make a well-balanaced high-end system capable of producing a full sound even with the top down.

Right now the highs and mids are crystal clear with the top down at highway speeds. But the lower sounds are still much to be wanted from the system. I've tuned, re-tuned, and re-tuned some more to get the most out of the speakers I have already, but again... there's still a gap missing in the sound spectrum and I want it to maintain the "factory look" but with the high-end audio.

[juniinc]

there are many after market amps out there stable at as low as 1/2 ohm,,,,,phoenix gold,PPI,Orion+

especially running a pair of subs, U don't really want them to be 4ohm load, usually they are bridged mono in 2ohm load.