Best Buy Audio Install is Killing My Free Time

[NCQx497]

I did some research online including here.I have a 97 QX4. I think the speakers don't sound that bad.I wanted to add a 9883 or 9885 Alpine for the FullSpeed Ipod connection and hopefully improvement in Sound Quality.

Try #1) I got to Crutchfield and get it. The harness they supply sucks and the Scorsche adapter fell apart when I turned the gain dial. Returned.No Crutchfield for me, despite how easy this install is.

Ordered a Metra 70-7551, b/c it has RCA to Bose Amp connections.

Try #2) I went and got the 9885. It's 4v out, the 9883 is 2v out. Does this matter for this car? The Best Buy guy installed it and it has a start-up thump and everytime I change source or tracks or do anything on the head unit it makes a thump/pop noise. Not good, turning off the Power IC's did not work. Besides the thumping it sounded good and the volume was right. They say it's the Metra harnesses fault, b/c I did not buy it there. I point out they have Metra harnesses up in their shop... exactly. The guy rewires it and runs the HU amplified signal directly to the bose amp. Now I can't go over 5 out of 35 and there is a pronounced hiss.

Is there really something wrong w/ the Metra harness? The Metra guys said it was a classic grounding problem or maybe the 9885 has too much Voltage from the preamp out for the Bose amp. The BB installer just stares at me . This free install is costing me some of my sanity.

Any rec's? I know some of you guys have done this and would not put up w/ thumps or hiss from your aftermarket headunits.

Also, I would like to avoid running the amplified speaker outs into a line output converter and then into a Bose Amp after that. It seems redundant and would probably cause audible distortion. Also, I have a BUDGET imposed by my need to eat this month.

Thanks to the genius who answers this.

[fueler]

All I can tell you is that I did a lot of research myself, and my conclusion was that Bose is meant to be run by itself. The quote I kept reading was "Keep Bose with Bose". I read nothing but bad reviews about people trying to keep the Bose speakers and just run a harness - everybody had poor sound quality After reading this, when the time came for a stereo upgrade, I pulled out EVERYTHING Bose and replaced EVERYTHING. I now have a Pioneer deck, 4 channel amp, 4 JBL speakers, and another small amp pushing a JL sub. I did it all at once so I can not tell you if mixing Bose with aftermarket truly indeed does suck, but i'm happy knowing that I probably saved myself a headache! PS: Your hiss sound, does the pitch vary with the RPM of your engine or is the noise the same tone no matter how fast you are driving? here is a great article I used to diagnose my ground loop problem when I first did my install http://www.termpro.com/articles/noise.html I experienced ground loop noise after my install, which I learned was becuase I had all the audio parts grounded at different parts of the car. I had the deck neg running the stock harness ground wire (which is a no-no on that list) and I had my 2 amps grounded seperately as well. A little research solved all my problems. For you though, I recommend buying some speakers and bypassing the Bose Amp. You can sell the Bose stuff on ebay and get some of your money back if you need to eat.

[fueler]

another great message board is http://www.caraudio.com

[fueler]

And I wouldn't accept a system that thumped when power on/off and change songs. That is just crappy and no respectable audio shop would let a customer hear something like that!

[NCQx497]

The hiss and thump were the same volume no matter what volume or driving condition was going on. It was not alternator whine. I actually read one of your links, the list of 10 while oding my initial research.

[yakabod]

Another great car audio forum i found is called: http://www.caraudiojunkyard.com

Bunch of great guys that know their stuff.