another audio question

[03Chillinkoot]

Hey everyone, Iam looking at replacing the stock clarion/bose 6 cd deck in my 03 pathfinder. I wanna put in another double din unit but don't have the money for something like that so im just gonna put in a single, i know i need a special adaptor in order to bypass the bose amplifiers, but my question is will the sound be as good as my oem deck? I am pretty happy with the way it sounds now and would hate to put the new unit in and have it sound crappy. Also is it possible to hook up the steering wheel controls as well??

thanks

[03Chillinkoot]

anyone??

[ganesh21]

What is the reason for changing the OEM unit if you are happy with the sound.

I think the sound quality would be the same if not worst (not 100% sure).

You would have to pick up an adapter for the steering wheel control to work. I believe it only work with sony & pioneer deck.

[99QX4]

If you are changing the head unit and keeping the stock speakers you will need a BOSE adapter. I have done this and can tell you that the sound quality definitely takes a hit. I asked this same question (years ago) before i changed mine and the responses varied. Some people liked the sound, others didn't mind it and others hated it. I am among those who hate it. I dealt with it for a little so I could save money to replace all the speakers. I changed the front ones first and wow, what a difference! They were loud enough to overpower the terrible sound coming out of the back ones. When i got the back ones changed it was even better. So if you have the money to change the speakers I honestly wouldn't bother with the BOSE adapter.

[Empty V]

Each front speaker has a dedicated amp and the rears have one for the both of them. They're meant to all work harmoniously (albeit they sound terrible even when used together IMO) and when you disrupt that substandard equilibrium the sound definitely takes a dive.

My personal opinion is if you're going to do it, do it right and bypass the amps with a new head unit and new door speakers. You don't have to buy amps for the speakers unless you're really into putting some cash into your system. The after market head units have enough to power most door speakers(component[with tweater] and composite). Usually when you combine OEM and after market car audio, the audio quality drops significantly. and whenever you go full aftermarket, like I did, you also run into tons of problems. You've got to be creative on how you get around them without cutting corners. Leaving stock amps in and not rewiring systems is cutting corners and little things like that can really destroy a potentially great sounding system. And hey, if it sounds good to you then it's perfect so you may try just replacing the head unit and really like it. That's what I did in my old exploder and it sounded great, but that was also a much better JBL system.

Good luck!

Billy
Modified by Empty V at 12:37 PM 2/26/2008

[03Chillinkoot]

What is the reason for changing the OEM unit if you are happy with the sound.

Well the reason I wanna change it is because im getting sick of the unit, the CD player skips like no other and I now have no display on the unit. Also Empty V.. If I buy new aftermarket speakers do I even need to use amps at all??

thanks

[timmack]

nope you dont, they will run off the amp built into the aftermarket head unit. unlike the bose, if im not mistaken, has no amp whatsoever internal, thus the need for the 3 external. the reason the bose will sound like crap is because the bose amps do not work well with an amplified input, which is what the aftermarket head unit will be trying to do. as 99qx4 and empty v said, best to change the whole thing at once. bypass the bose amps when you put it in. empty had a wicked nice post with good pics not too long ago.

[slickroger]

this is going to be different than the other responses.

I have an 01 pathfinder, aftermarket deck and all the stock speakers still running with there amps. i added 2 subs and it sound amazing. i live in brampton if you really want to hear the difference let me know you can email me, and we can arrange a sound meeting for you to hear it first hand. i was gonna change everything and decided not to after hearing it. if you like the factory deck i have one still, maybe we can just trade it. I only plan to put it back in if i sell it so working or not no big deal to me. ill probably wreck it before i sell it anyway.

let me know

[email protected]


Modified by slickroger at 10:15 AM 2/27/2008

[Empty V]

timmmack is right on, if you install new speaks you definitely want to bypass the amps. I'm guessing that those amps are designed to compensate for a hot signal off of an after market deck, that's how my system was setup before and personally I couldn't stand it, so I decided to add and rewire. But as slickroger said it sounds great to him and that's all that counts. I like to live by the saying "if it sounds good to you, it's perfect!"

Billy

[03Chillinkoot]

Sent you an email. Thanks again

[slickroger]

i dont think i got it

work: [email protected]

Home: [email protected]

[03Chillinkoot]

alright I tried your home email, might of gotten stuck in a spam folder or something