i fixed it in my post too.

Thanks, I see where confusion could arise from my question, I wasn't too clear. What I meant was how do you know which is neg. and pos. on the RCAs themselves. I got the AUX input pinout earlier and so know where everything goes in the DIN plug, I guess I need to know if the inside of the RCA plug itself is negative or positive. If its negative, the outside is positive, and vice versa.

the middle is ground, the outside is positive.

elwesso wrote:the middle is ground, the outside is positive.

Sweet, thanks!

elwesso wrote:the middle is ground, the outside is positive.

Center positive, outside ground. When you strip the wires back the outside shield is the neg (-) and the insulated wire is the pos (+). For most RCA's the red is right and white is left.
Modified by qsiguy at 12:28 PM 9/17/2006

OK, I have some more prices for these Aux input adapters. I want to check interested in the iPod specific one so I can order some iPod harnesses. I want to make a few but I don't want to get stuck with a bunch of them because they are a little spendy for just a harness.

8 pin DIN adapter w/RCA input + activation button $20 + shipping

8 pin DIN adapter w/iPod harness + activation button + iPod charging capability $65 + shipping

iPod -> RCA w/power + ground adapter $50 + shipping (you could use this with the $20 adapter if you didn't want to be limited to iPod only for your input, or if you want to make your own 8 pin DIN adapter)

I want to figure out how may iPod models to make initially or how many will want the adapters only to make their own DIN adapter. Anyone?

Put me on your list for this one.

8 pin DIN adapter w/iPod harness + activation button + iPod charging capability $65 + shipping

Let me know when you have a working one and I will send a check. Did you make one yet?

Didn't make one yet, I was trying to decide how many harnesses to order. I'll let you know. You have the full size iPod right? not the nano.

qsiguy wrote:You have the full size iPod right? not the nano.

Yes, I have a full size G3 Ipod.

I'm surprised how little interest there is in this cable. Doesn't anyone have an Ipod? I hope the lack of interest doesn't stop you from making one.

louiegz wrote:I'm surprised how little interest there is in this cable. Doesn't anyone have an Ipod? I hope the lack of interest doesn't stop you from making one.

I've got an ipod and I am very interested, but I'm torn between going this route or get rid of EVERYTHING Bose and getting one of these, and start a whole new system.

Clarion MAX675VD, 7” monitor dvd 2 volt pre outs; should be $750, NOT OUT YET. Its’ cousin the VRX765VD (one din) is $610.00 on ebay Pioneer AVIC-D1, 6.5” monitor dvd 2 volt pre outs Kenwood DDX-8017, 6.5” monitor dvd 5 volt pre outs (front,center,rear,sub) hmm…Kenwood DDX-6019Eclipse AVN6600 6.5” monitor dvd 5 volt pre outs very EXPENSIVE

I will absolutely take one of the "8 pin DIN adapter w/RCA input + activation button $20 + shipping". I'll even give you $25 provided you're not on of these guys that charges $20 to ship something like this.

Looks like for starters I will make 2 iPod ones, and I already made a few DIN to RCA models. I use UPS as I have a daily pickup and it's easy for me. If it goes to a business shipping is around $5-6 and if it goes to a residence it's around $8. I just sent one to Rex and shipping was $8.36. I am not making money from the shipping (I do when I sell on e-bay as most do..."handling") I'm just charging whatever the UPS freight calculator says. Give me your address and let me know if it's commercial or residential and I'll give you a cost. You can compare it yourself if you like. It's coming from 85040, commercial, with a daily pickup and box will weigh 1 pound

louiegz, I have two iPod plugs on the way, should have them hopefully by early next week at the latest. Then I can assemble it and get it out in another day. A co-worker has an iPod so if I can borrow it I'll test it before I ship it to make sure it works. When I pull my radio back out to test it, I'll get the wire color for the ignition wire for you.

qsiguy wrote:louiegz, I have two iPod plugs on the way, should have them hopefully by early next week at the latest. Then I can assemble it and get it out in another day. A co-worker has an iPod so if I can borrow it I'll test it before I ship it to make sure it works. When I pull my radio back out to test it, I'll get the wire color for the ignition wire for you.

That sounds great. I can't wait. If you wan't my shipping zip, it is 07093 and it's a business address. When your ready, send me and e-mail and give me an address to mail the check to. [email protected]

ddrumman wrote:
I've got an ipod and I am very interested, but I'm torn between going this route or get rid of EVERYTHING Bose and getting one of these, and start a whole new system.

Get the adapter. Why spend the extra cash when the Bose system sound good and dont look out of place. That's one thing I never like about aftermarket stereos is that they dont match your dash.

Rex wrote:Do you have a 99-ish Pathfinder HU to test it on?

It will NOT work on the pathfinder HU.

louiegz wrote:Looks like a nice setup but does it give power to your MP3 player. That would be cool. I'll give you much more than $20 bucks if you could figure that one out. And I'm sure you could sell more if you did something for the I-pod since more people have them.

HUH? It's just an aux input. it will work with ANY mp3 player, sat radio tuner or video system.it doesn't supply power to anything.
Modified by teamgoon at 10:04 AM 9/17/2006

elwesso wrote:the middle is ground, the outside is positive.

DUDE!!!! That is WRONG! the center of the coax is+ and the shield is -

louiegz wrote:That sounds great. I can't wait. If you wan't my shipping zip, it is 07093 and it's a business address. When your ready, send me and e-mail and give me an address to mail the check to. [email protected]

Get the adapter. Why spend the extra cash when the Bose system sound good and dont look out of place. That's one thing I never like about aftermarket stereos is that they dont match your dash.

You AREN'T SERIOUS? The first thing I noticed when I sat down in a Q was how HORRIBLE and anemic sounding the Bose system is.We have a saying in the car audio business: "No highs, no lows, it must be Bose".

teamgoon wrote:
You AREN'T SERIOUS? The first thing I noticed when I sat down in a Q was how HORRIBLE and anemic sounding the Bose system is.We have a saying in the car audio business: "No highs, no lows, it must be Bose".

I'm not an audio expert, but I do trust my ears. So far the Bose system in my Q is the best OEM system that I've ever herd. Key word being OEM. I don't know what's peoples hang ups with the Bose system. It's a clean sounding system. No, it doesn't give you car shaking bass, but this car wasn't made for the Rap music demagraphic. I listen to Jazz and Rock myself, and it works for me, and I don't need to spend my money to inprove it.

ddrumman wrote:I've got an ipod and I am very interested, but I'm torn between going this route or get rid of EVERYTHING Bose and getting one of these, and start a whole new system.

Clarion MAX675VD, 7” monitor dvd 2 volt pre outs; should be $750, NOT OUT YET. Its’ cousin the VRX765VD (one din) is $610.00 on ebay Pioneer AVIC-D1, 6.5” monitor dvd 2 volt pre outs Kenwood DDX-8017, 6.5” monitor dvd 5 volt pre outs (front,center,rear,sub) hmm…Kenwood DDX-6019Eclipse AVN6600 6.5” monitor dvd 5 volt pre outs very EXPENSIVE

I just updated my cardomain page. check out my new system.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2299831

louiegz wrote:I'm not an audio expert, but I do trust my ears. So far the Bose system in my Q is the best OEM system that I've ever herd. Key word being OEM. I don't know what's peoples hang ups with the Bose system. It's a clean sounding system. No, it doesn't give you car shaking bass, but this car wasn't made for the Rap music demagraphic. I listen to Jazz and Rock myself, and it works for me, and I don't need to spend my money to inprove it.

I don't listen to rap either, and I work in the car audio business.I've seen them all. I've heard better OEM sound systems in Kias and Scions.It's not all about the bass, either. I even rebuilt all 4 of the amps (the capacitors dry out), and and although that made the sound even on all of the speakers, it still sounded muddy and WAY too much midrange.... No highs, no lows....

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2299831

I've always described Bose as sounding better than average for OEM but not bad enough so the customer (my potential customer) wants to go to the expense to upgrade it. Almost all of our Bose upgrades were done after it failed because of the cost involved people can't justify pulling everything when it sounds OK and the cost to repair the Bose is so high.

That said, in my own car, the older I get the less I am concerned about a kick butt stereo. I just wanted to plug in my MP3 player without a cass. adapter or FM modulator. When it dies I'll surely change it out, until then it's good enough for me.

louiegz wrote:I'm not an audio expert, but I do trust my ears. So far the Bose system in my Q is the best OEM system that I've ever herd. Key word being OEM. I don't know what's peoples hang ups with the Bose system. It's a clean sounding system. No, it doesn't give you car shaking bass, but this car wasn't made for the Rap music demagraphic. I listen to Jazz and Rock myself, and it works for me, and I don't need to spend my money to inprove it.

Louie,

I've been a musician for the last 31 years. I've played in venues ranging from recording studios, soccer stadiums to Radio City to the Baked Potato a tiny lil (although legendary) jazz club in Studio City and everything in between. My ears are very sharp and still I would NOT consider myself an audio expert.

The first time I got “front separates”, subs, power amps, HU, EQ etc was in 1982 up in Seattle. Since then I’ve tried to always have something decent in the car. I always felt that OEM systems suck although things changed a lot in the mid 90s and have kept improving over the years. The Bose system in the Q is alright to average and nothing more. It lacks a lot of the important characteristics of what one would consider Good Quality Sound like depth, warmth, ambience etc. The mocking remarks that we’ve all heard “Bose blows, No highs no lows”, bla bla bla unfortunately are true.

However I too am in a position like qsiguy, that a kick a$$ stereo in my ride is becoming less important as time goes on. I don’t know….I say that and two minutes later I get the urge to gut the whole car and sound deaden it to death and then get a master installer to put in 1. An Eclipse AVN6600, Zapco amps, Morel Elate 9 components, JL W7 sub or 2. A Clarion MAX675VD or an Alpine IVA-W200, JL amps, Dynaudio components, IDMax sub and still have enough room for my gear.

System 1 would be more expensive than system 2 but both would be so expensive that they would easily exceed the value of the car. So then I get back to thinking just stay with the Bose and get qsiguy’s lil deal and call it a day.

So basically I feel all of you guys, teamgoon, qsiguy, and everyone else that is in “stuckville” when it comes to the Bose thing.

Yea Dimitri, I'm a musician too. Not as experienced as you, but I know a thing or two. I just haven't herd a better OEM system than in my Q. Teamgoon says that there are Kias and Scions with better systems than the Q, but I can't imagine that those have better systems than my wife's BMW 330i with the Harmon Kardon. I was driving it this weekend with my Ipod and a line in connection and it doesn't sound as good as in my Q with a cassette adapter. I think the only other OEM system that sounds better than mine was my friends 04 Acura TL, and that's a Bose system. I guess I just don't hear what others are hearing. I'm not saying it's the best, but it's darn good enough for me. I had an 86 Porsche 944 Turbo with an aftermarket system. A Kenwood HU that was a pull out, (What a PITA) and some nice 6x9s in the back and some new door speakers. Cost me about $800.00 back then and it sounded good. I didn't have to sacrifice any space in the hatchback to build a box for subs. There I had no choice because the OEM system was crap.

Sure, if money was no object, I'd put one of those aftermarket HUs that are a screen with GPS and change all the speakers, but no subs in the trunk. I like my trunk space. I realy dont see the sence in getting a system that's cost more than what my car is worth. Just my 2 cents.

I was enjoying my mp3 player last night in the Q with my "QSI custom Auxiliary input adapter" jamming to some Oingo Boingo and the dang thing just wouldn't get loud enough. Had the mp3 player all the way up and the Bose all the way up Just got done saying it wasn't as important as it used to be and what do ya know, it wasn't loud enough! Maybe I can re-rip my Oingo Boingo CD at a higher gain...

Anyway Lou, I had a local G50 guy come by yesterday and installed one of the iPod units in his car and it worked great and charged the iPod. I tied the power wire into a blue ignition switched lead on the main radio harness. Only thing it didn't do that I had hoped is turn on/off the iPod with the ignition. Maybe there is a setting in the iPod menus to activate this feature. I don't have an iPod so I haven't had a chance to mess with it. I am picking up the momentary switches today and will have your iPod unit ready to go.

Anyone else who was waiting for one, I'll be shipping today or tomorrow. I'll send out e-mails, you know who you are.

I'm gonna throw in my two cents as a former audio expert. We had a similar discussion about the Q45 Bose system awhile back and I was a firm defender of Bose. Since then, I've listened more intently to my 10 year old system (which probably had degraded capacitors) and I think I know where its fault lies. I said as much in the other thread.

The Q45 Bose system just doesn't have anywhere near as much power as it needs. Period. That's the "problem" with it.

It doesn't have the power to overcome the ambient noise level in the car. When I listen at idle, it has a very good sound AND it has a level frequency response, which I (and others of my age group) value more than crispy highs and thumpy lows. (However, I also do agree that the 4 inch speakers used in the system are too large to properly reproduce the highest frequencies.) Unfortunately, on the highway, it doesn't have the power to overcome the wind and road noise. That's when it's reduced to honky midrange with no highs and distant lows.

So, since the Q45 has one of the quietest cabins available, that means the amps simply can't keep up. When that happens, the power required by the low frequencies overdrives the amp, which causes distortion to rise dramatically, and that blurs out the highs and muddies the midrange. My guess is that the system needs anywhere from 4 to 8 times the power it has. That would allow another 6 to 9 decibels before distortion set in, easily overcoming any ambient cabin noise.

Jesda did something really smart. He simply wired in a powered add-on subwoofer and set it behind his seat. That lets him turn down the bass on the head unit, which reduces the power drag on the Bose amps, allowing higher volume in the midrange and highs before distorting. I bet he gets another 6 decibels out of his Bose system before it mushes out.

For reference, the smallest difference in volume most people can detect is 3 decibels, which requires a doubling of power. And bass requires LOTS MORE power than midrange and highs. So, if you want a simple upgrade to the Bose system, think in terms of a powered subwoofer.

qsiguy wrote:Only thing it didn't do that I had hoped is turn on/off the iPod with the ignition. Maybe there is a setting in the iPod menus to activate this feature.

Yea, I'll tell you what happens when it's connected to the lighter power adapter. When I turn on the car, the Ipod turns on in pause. When I turn off the car and the Ipod is playing, it pauses the Ipod and it auto shuts in like 30 seconds, or whatever you set it to. No problem, I can turn it off myself. So jamming to the Oingo Boingo. I have a lot of 80's music on my Ipod too. It's the music of my youth. Good to see that you have it working. I'll give you my e-mail and you can tell me where to send the check and for how much.

[email protected]

Done many simple sub add-ons and I think it's the best single upgrade you can do in an OEM system. Pretty much every one I've done it made the whole system sound better high, and of course lows. Like 96Q said, you can turn down the bass on the headunit and independently turn it up on the bass amp and it cleans up the whole system.

I have been dreaming up a simple design for my trunk for a while but it's low on the priority list. I plan to make a write up on how to do it cheap and easy. It will be clean and professional looking, I'm tired of seeing all the square boxes sliding around in the trunks with amps mounted on the side of them. Haven't seen too many custom trunk setups on Q's. Maybe all this audio talk will motivate me to get it done. Second thing I will change is the pillar tweeters to a better set, I think this will liven up the highs a bit as well.

96Qowner wrote:I'm gonna throw in my two cents as a former audio expert. We had a similar discussion about the Q45 Bose system awhile back and I was a firm defender of Bose. Since then, I've listened more intently to my 10 year old system (which probably had degraded capacitors) and I think I know where its fault lies. I said as much in the other thread.

The Q45 Bose system just doesn't have anywhere near as much power as it needs. Period. That's the "problem" with it.

It doesn't have the power to overcome the ambient noise level in the car. When I listen at idle, it has a very good sound AND it has a level frequency response, which I (and others of my age group) value more than crispy highs and thumpy lows. (However, I also do agree that the 4 inch speakers used in the system are too large to properly reproduce the highest frequencies.) Unfortunately, on the highway, it doesn't have the power to overcome the wind and road noise. That's when it's reduced to honky midrange with no highs and distant lows.

So, since the Q45 has one of the quietest cabins available, that means the amps simply can't keep up. When that happens, the power required by the low frequencies overdrives the amp, which causes distortion to rise dramatically, and that blurs out the highs and muddies the midrange. My guess is that the system needs anywhere from 4 to 8 times the power it has. That would allow another 6 to 9 decibels before distortion set in, easily overcoming any ambient cabin noise.

Jesda did something really smart. He simply wired in a powered add-on subwoofer and set it behind his seat. That lets him turn down the bass on the head unit, which reduces the power drag on the Bose amps, allowing higher volume in the midrange and highs before distorting. I bet he gets another 6 decibels out of his Bose system before it mushes out.

For reference, the smallest difference in volume most people can detect is 3 decibels, which requires a doubling of power. And bass requires LOTS MORE power than midrange and highs. So, if you want a simple upgrade to the Bose system, think in terms of a powered subwoofer.

You do have a point that with the Bose in the Q, the louder the volume is, the more the bass cuts out. I thought it was a bit of a safety so you wouldn't blow out the speakers. I usually have the HU set at bass halfway and treble full. If I'm listening loud, I just dial up a bit more bass to compensate. Jesda's powered sub idea sounds like a good one, especially if it doesn't take up any trunk room.

qsiguy wrote:Second thing I will change is the pillar tweeters to a better set, I think this will liven up the highs a bit as well.

Darned good idea, as well. If you could get some small 2-ways in there with a 3/4" dome tweeter, it'll be ideal. But you'd have to be very careful not to destroy the tuned frequency response in the car, since they wouldn't be individually controllable.

And for a sub, I'd like to see a compact folded-port box that fit in the trunk under the rear shelf. You could drive it with something as small as a large-magnet 6 incher, and it wouldn't ruin the trunk space.