Whatup y'all?!!?!

My name is Travis. I'm an Install Manager at a car audio chain in Silverdale, Washington. I've been in car audio since 1997. I do alot of fabrication with customer cars. Lately I've been spending some time on my own riggs. I have a Civic and a TL-S. I'm trying to get the TL audio gear in before our meet in Seattle next Saturday. I stripped the whole interior of the car to put in my goods. I thought I knew what to expect. WRONG.... I have owned a CL before the TL. And have worked on Legends, CL's, TSX's... etc. The TL is a totally different dog.

The deck sends a 2 channel low level signal to a BOSE equalizer module behind the climate control cluster. And a single channel low pass, low level signal to a BOSE amp behind the rear seat. The EQ module in the dash trims up the 2 channel input, splits it into 4 channels and sends it back through the deck to be amplified. From there it powers the front and rear speakers. The signal going to the subwoofer amp is very low. And is crossed over at about 70hz. Whis is too low for my taste. It meets the BOSE 100 watt subwoofer amp, is amplified and sent through 4 meaty conductors to the 9" subwoofer on the rear deck. WHACKO!! It took me hours to track down all of the audio wiring in this car.

I have pictures of the BOSE amps and EQ setup. I also have several pics of the MEATY bits I'm installing. Anybody care to see?

I searched on this site and found that everyone thought the BOSE amp was in the trunk like the CL. I just wanted to fill everyone in that might be installing gear with the factory deck or was may have been curious.

Do I win a cookie?

 

This is the Bose Equalizer Module. Most decks have them but are usually internal. But with a 6 disc changer, cassette player and such all in one piece..... Acura had to put thi outside of the deck.


Soooo..... Really. there is no AMPLIFIER running your front and rear speakers. Just the deck. The only AMPLIFIED speaker is the subwoofer.

 

Hi, Travis. How's Car Toys? Those sales lizards still selliing whatever's spiffed this week? And what are all the sub crews driving lately?

My recollection was that Derrick posted that the amp was behind the rear seat, and exactly how the signal path goes. I'm glad you figured it all out, *and* I think that info was here for ya ; )

THis sysem reminds me of the old Alpine bi-level systems with a preamp in to the HU, so you could subract the LF signal from the IC amp in the HU, and it did help a lot - just like the new HUs have xovers inside that take the bass ot of the internal amp, and it does clean up the sound (it sucks less, anyway...)

So with your new understanding of how the system works, do you have any experience to share on how you interfaced with it? In your testing, was the signal out of the HU or the Bose EQ balanced differential or single-ended?

Next week I plan to try a couple of things with a TL I will have access to - I will try upgrading ONLY the sub amp and sub, and only the sub, and also adding an outboard amp for all the speakers. I think I may have found a sweet replacement for the OEM sub.

 

So are all the speakers powered by the amplifier in the CL-S?

 

 

NOt only that, the amp itself is like 4 times the size of the TSX wimpo amp. Sometime when I have a LOT of time I'll take one apart.

 

Good info, I was getting ready to tear my TL apart to do the same. So you beat me to it. Please continue to advise us on how to do it right.

 

Uncald4 contact me at AZNHYPNOTIQ@COMCAST.NET.. I might need some advice on a custom fiberglass trunk I'm planning to start sometime soon in my IS300.. I might have a few qurstions for you!

 

In layman's terms.. what does this mean regarding the difference in the CL and TL?

 

The CL has an external amp for all 6 speakers, while the TL uses deck power to run the 4 door speakers and an external amp for the 1 sub only.


On a slightly more tech-y level, the Bose EQ module in the TL affects the signal the deck internal amp plays, and can be bypassed, in case you want to upgrade the amp and speakers and retain the OEM indash HU.

 

Really? Interesting, I'll keep that in mind for my '03 TL.

 

I should be bringing a TSX fiberglas box this Saturday to the meet for inspection... : )

 

We should be testing some upgrades in that gen TL later this week... stay tuned : )

 

Excellent.

On a side note, I'm in Portland nearly every weekend. Maybe I'll pay a visit (I checked your site and know where you're located )

I'm considering upgrading my '97 TL's speakers and headunit.

The issue I have.. there are two 2" midrange speakers between the two sunvisors, they are NOT in use currently because they have their own wiring harness which only connects to the stock HU. They supposedly act as a center channel.

My question for you is.. Is there an aftermarket HU that would use these? I really like the effect they have on some CD's.

 

Good pictures--I've had several people ask me about this unit, and always have to describe it the hard way.

The eq doesn't split into four channels; it eq's two back to the deck (preamp loop), then performs auto-loudness on the sub signal it splits off and sends to the bose amp behind the rear seat. (I only mention it because you cannot get fader control on the preamp signal).

 

all this complicated wiring for substandard sound? what were they thinkin'?

 

 

So which stock system sounds best, the one in the CL-S, the TL-S, or the TSX? Frankly I thought that the Infinity sound system in my old Chrysler LHS beater sounded far better than the Bose system in my CL-S did.

 

I think they all sound like crap, but the CL can be upgraded the most easily, since it has the best amp and it only wants 4 ohm speakers.

THe TSX has the best OEM speaker locations, but needs a new amp.

 

That's weird. Crutchfield told me that the Bose speakers ran off an extremely low impedance amp and that no aftermarket speakers would work with the sytem unless I replaced the head unit and the amp too. I guess it's not the first time some salesman made shit up to sell me a whole new system. I'm glad I didn't buy anything from them.

 

I think their thinking is correct, just severly out of date. This is the case with my buddy's 93 Legend. I dont think this issue carried over to the release of the CL and TL models though.

 

Im interested in this replacement. I definitely want more bass.

 

If I want to install a sub with an external amp in my 00 TL, would it be best to tap off the sub for the inline converter or the rear speakers? If I go with the reear speakers for the wire tap in, would it be best to disconnect the sub alltogether? Thanks for any help in advance.

 

Bumpin an old thread here

I want to replace the stock HU with the Avic D1. If I do it, would it sound really shitty with the stock speakers and sub? Should I replace everything?

 

i'd peronally replace everything, while you are at it. Unless budget is an issue, then ride out on the stock stuff for the time being

 

What is the size of the front speakers? I'm looking on Crutchfield and they're giving two different sizes, 6 1/2 and 5 1/4

 

well 6.5" speakers will fit, but you will most likely need 3/4 in. spacers. Most people here run 6.5's as far as i know

 

you mentioned you may have found a "sweet" replacement for the OEM bose sub. did you ever get a chance try this? if so, what sub did you use? i would love to replace the sub, but would prefer it stay in it's current location. need the trunk space.

thanks for any input!

 

bump

 

It's been a while but I started digging into the BOSE EQ module again. After a 3 hour drive home I realized how poopy the stereo still sounded. Please see my sig below for the stereo mods I've done so far. I tried to find a pinout for the EQ module on older threads but all the links were dead. So I grabbed another installer and we went to town testing all of the leads.

The only think that I was certain about is that the deck supplied a low level signal to the BOSE EQ box through 4 wires. These 4 wires are taped together with black electrical tape. They run from the black plug on the back of the deck up to the green plug at the EQ module.

Black wire = Left/ Right Common (-)
Red wire = Right (+)
White wire = Left (+)
Green wire = Sum Left/ Right (+)

I used an Alpine HIGH to LOW adapter from their digital amps to run the signal through RCA's to my Phoenix Gold XS6600. I had to re-tweak the gains but I was totally surprised by the sound quality and response. We used the AudioControl RTA to meter the improved performance. It showed a virtually flat frequency response across the spectrum. WhenI was still running the BOSE EQ module the spectrum looked like a mountain range. "No HIGH's. No LOW's. Must be BOSE!"

I wish that I had figured this out earlier. It does sound awesome!! I'm way excited to drive the car again.

 

BOSE= psychoaccoustics bose sux