Sexyrado327

so many vehicles having bose now.
Is there any direct replacememt amp and speakers that will drop in with some ease of installation rather than ripping everything out? Want to upgrade the door speakers but seems like the factory bose amp is a kaww block lol.

Or having one good amp power everything including a 12' sub. How hard would that be.

All in an 05 tahoe thanks.

00pooterSS

iTrader: (40)

The factory amp is absolute garbage. I did all kinds of testing trying to keep the bose amp and I finally bypassed it after a few years of jacking with it and different speakers and it sounded 10 times better after. The bose amp limits sound and power to the rear speakers, it's internally equalized and the factory bose door speakers have crazy ranges of ohm ratings so it's best to bypass the amp and replace the door speakers with your choice of speaker.

I had 4 coaxial door speakers, the stock tweeters in the pillars, and was running 3k watts to 2 12's in my 2004 sierra and with the door speakers only on headunit power they were extremely loud and clear.

When you replace the door speakers make sure you put a foam ring on the front of the speaker to fill the gap between the speaker and door panel. It makes a huge difference in sound quality and also gets louder. You can do your own foam rings from window seal foam from walmart or buy fast rings.

Sexyrado327

Had a budy bypass with the stock speakers and it sounded kinda dry. If i do it i would be adding aftermarket ones for sure.
Plus the steering wheel controls didnt work. Did yours?

1FastBrick

iTrader: (17)

I believe you need an adapter module from PAC to retain the steering wheel control function.

00pooterSS

iTrader: (40)

If you want steering wheel controls with an aftermarket stereo you have to use an adapter.

Bad idea to use bose speakers with aftermarket stereo also. The bose speakers range all over the place in ohms and they aren't really that great. The front door speakers are some pretty serious woofers but they are midbass speakers only so you'll only get midbass from them. The stock rear speakers are absolute junk. They are full range but very cheap and low quality. You'll get no high or lows from them just mud. The a pillar tweeters are fine.

If you put in some coax speakers in the doors and retain the a pillar tweeters and put rings on the front of the door speakers it'll come alive

Get coaxial door speakers with silk tweeters or you'll be tweetered to death having 6 plastic tweeters in the truck (the bose a pillar tweeters are plastic cone and screech pretty high).

You could also do coaxials in the rear and make the front a component setup retaining the factory bose fronts.

Sexyrado327

Sounds good seems like its just an all out replacement from the bose crapthats in there.

How easy and big of an amp would i need to wire in a 5 channel amp for the 4 door speakers and a 12inch sub.??

00pooterSS

iTrader: (40)

Bypassing the bose amp is easy, if you use a bypass harness it's two plugs you unplug and plug under the cup holder. I cut all the wires and bypassed the amp with butt connectors, so I did it the hard way, but I love doing wiring so I don't consider it hard. Door speakers are also easy. If you're handy with wire cutters and have an aftermarket head unit the amp is easy, if you have the stock stereo the amp is still fairly easy but you'll have to wire in a high/low converter even though the stock unit is already low output, or you can run the stock speaker wires to the high input on the amp if it has a high input.

Doing it right is time consuming, but not hard.

My last setup was just headunit power to the 4 door speakers, I used a pioneer headunit and good door speakers and it was really loud, no need for an amp. I have always had loud and extremely clear systems without amplifying the door speakers. I wish I could give you a demo in my last truck, you wouldn't have believed there was no amp on the door speakers.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm all for amplifying the door speakers, I just never felt the need to with how loud my **** was. My last one was loud enough that it kept up with 2 12's on 3k watts no problem, you could hear all words/voices and instruments over the bass and the bass was loud enough it fucked up my roof in the truck and rattled ceilings at grocery stores and **** on the shelfs.


If you want a recommendation for speakers, polk db651 is last years 6.5" speakers so they are cheap, like $60 a pair now that the 652 is out, and the matching 4x6 is like $50. They are highly efficient so they get loud on low power, and also they have silk tweeters, can't beat that for the price.


Bad *** speakers on a budget. NVX speakers are highly rated, also use silk tweeters, and low cost as well.

Sexyrado327

I hear you loud and clear my old 1999 truck had no bose and I replaced the door speakers with some 4way speakers off of just head unit power and I had no problem with how loud it was being that one 12sub is sufficient for me. it was nice crisp and clear.

Im pretty familiar with wiring and stuff just wanted to avoid cutting the harness and using connectors like you said cuz ive seen a buddy do it and it looked like a mess lol.

Do you have a link to the harness that's needed to bypass?

00pooterSS

iTrader: (40)

I actually can't find a bypass harness. Sorry I could have swore I had seen one a few years back.

Here is a write up on it.

It's not that bad bypassing it with but connectors, you just need a good set of wire strippers and crimpers.


Installing DDIN Units & Bose Amp Bypass | Chevy Truck Forum | GM Truck Club

Sexyrado327

Gotcha thanks anyways. Im organized enough to do it, itll just take me about a day or two too make it clean and organized.

Do you know if the steering wheel controls will still work being that I do the bypass and buy the correct harness?