I've already replaced the rear speakers (used some old Polk 2 way 6x9s) and the front tweeters (cannibalized the tweeters from a pair of Infinity coaxials that had bad woofers) and the sound is significantly improved...so much so that I'd keep the existing unit, except that I purchased a head unit with MP3 and HD-radio.

I haven't removed the old unit yet, and I don't want to do the job twice. The new unit has front and rear preamp outs in addition to speaker level outputs. Since I don't need to do speaker to line level conversion, what adapter(s) do I need to connect the new unit to the old system/amps? Will this do the trick? What sort of inputs do the Bose amps use, and how do I adapt them to standard RCAs?

Thanks,

Steve

 

Sorry to say, but your going to have to bypass that amp bro. Rewire the speakers directly to the HU. Search for some threads on this and you can get more info on this such as the color coded wires. Just search. There are many old threads on this.

 

There are lots of threads, but also lots of conflicting advice. Some people say you need to replace the amps, others say you don't.

I can't see why you wouldn't be able to use the existing Blose amps; assuming they're capable of driving my new speakers (and they are), they should also work with my new head unit.

According to Crutchfield, they can be connected with the standard Honda radio harness adapter, and they'll take either a speaker or line level input. I'm a little suspicious of the second point, but I'll try it with speaker inputs first. If the sound is no good, I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron, and can make adapter cables if necessary.

Steve

 

you know what bro? just rip out the bose system. i mean its cool for some basic audio but i mean if your trying to do some hardcore audio stuff and then maybe going to some video later, your gonna have to do all the wiring anyway.

but then if your happy with just a basic setup, be prepared to spend a few hours. if you dont have a wiring diagram then add a few more hours to that

 

don't listen to anyone who says you need a 'special bose adapter line converter'....you dont have to buy any converter at all to use an aftermarket headunit with the factory bose amp

just simply wire up your schosche factory adapter plug (regular 10 dollar plug for all 94-97 accords) to the corresponding wires for your aftermarket headunit (using the speaker inputs from the harness) and splice in the blue/white and blue wires to the blue wire for the schosche plug. That'll turn on the bose amp just like an aftermarket amp (remote wire) whenever your bose system is powered up.

I've done this for awhile to power my bose system/speakers with an aftermarket headunit no problem whatsoever. You're not going to get optimal sound, but if you wanna save money it's fine.

 

When Chris gets a sec to see this he'll let you know what all he did to mine but we had to splice all the wires and rewire them. We tried using the amp at first with what people said worked on here, and it didnt so we had to bypass it.

 

^^ did you make sure to splice the two blue wires into the accord harness? If you didn't then the amp would have never remotely turned on and you wouldn't have gotten sound.

 

I did all that on his 98 and my 97 but had so much conflicting info that never got either to work, so I bypassed the amps in both whips.

 

and theres your answer..

 

And still inconclusive.

I removed the original HU last night, and discovered it's made by Matsushita [Panasonic]. A label on it also makes mention of 4 ohm speakers, which would imply that it has speaker level outputs (another confirmation of this is that there are no shielded connections to the unit except for the antenna). This would suggest that the Bose amps will work fine with the speaker outputs of my new HU.

I'm not looking to set up a hardcore system, I just want HD Radio, MP3 capability, and decent sound.

Steve

 

It will work, I've just never gotten it to work with the sketchy directions that were on here 5 years ago. But like flip said it's possible and I gurantee the amp will work I just never used it

 

It will work fine. Just get a honda harness. Metra 70-1720. Wire up all speaker and power wires, and make sure the blue white wire is connected to the blue wire in the metra harness. The blue white from your aftermarket radio will turn on the bose amp. The only thing you have to be carefull with is the aftermarket radio will have a much greater input to the bose amp and I suggest not using the entire radio volume, maybe 1/2 to 3/4 max because you can overdrive the amp and speakers destroy either or both. I have done this many times because I am an installation mgr at Circuit City for 11 years. I did this to my car for a while til I did a total system and then I didnt use any existing wiring.

 

yeah, it will work, definitely. there's no way it'll work on some but not others...not to knock on anyone, but it's probably just forgetting to connect certain wires. just wire up all your speaker leads to the Schosche harness and like above stated, the blue/white wire to the blue wire and you'll be good to go

 

Just a follow-up...this advice was almost spot on. The only thing that is incorrect is that my radio did not have a blue/white wire; it's the blue wire that does the amp turn-on/power antenna (which apparently have gone out of favor lately). There is a blue/white wire on the original Acura wiring harness (not included in the adapter) which is for the steering wheel controls, and I am working on getting those working as well. And you are right about the input level, I may have to add some resistors in series.

So essentially I did a 1:1 connection of every wire coming out of my new head unit to every wire in the wiring harness adapter (the colors were even the same), and everything worked fine the first time.

 

Dose it sound better or worse? Some say it messes up the BOSE EQ and some say it makes it sound better.

 

Listening to CD I'd say it sounds about the same (for the old HU vs. the new). I did consider that the bose amps included EQ, but if they do it doesn't appear to be over the top (it wasn't very effective at any rate; the old speakers had no highs whatsoever, typical of Bose). The new speakers definitely sounded better than the Bose (although I need to reduce the output of the front tweeters as they're a bit more efficient than the Bose woofers).