01 With Bose, getting new deck, bypass or integrate Bose amp?
 

I see lots of posts on how to wire stuff with Bose and different adapters, to bypass it and integrate it.

But my question is, for someone who is only going to run the factory speakers and just upgrade deck for features - which would sound the best?

I'm worried that if I bypass it, the sound would be tinny. (had that happen in an Explorer years ago)

I don't have a CD changer, it just says Bose on my headunit - not on any of the speaker grills.

no one hey?

I would imagine that when you bypassed the factory amp in that Exploder that at least one (likely more) speaker was wired out of phase which caused cancellation and therefore the tinny sound that resulted.

You'll likely not even hear any difference really. I helped a guy with a Nissan Frontier that had the Blose factory system. He had originally had the stereo installed by a shop that took the time (and did it right surprisingly enough) to hook the aftermarket unit up to the factory amps by making adapter wires that plugged into the RCA's on the aftermarket HU. It worked okay until the factory amp finally took a crap. I helped the guy wire around the Blose amp and with the HU powering the speakers it was just about as loud as it was before with only the slightest change in the sound. Highs were a little more crisp and the bass played lower. I attributed that to the filters that Blose put into the amp to protect their speakers.

He's not thought about that factory amp once and has since dropped in an aftermarket amp to run his highs on, which would be the best recommendation I can make to you. Forget the factory crap, even if it is Blose, and get some decent aftermarket equipment. Your ears will thank you in the long run.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks the stock blows audio sucks. :)

I have never been a fan of bose.. over priced.

Fair enough, don't think it was wired out of phase - it was a harness I got from crutchfield, I didn't re-wire anything myself. Although I found first gen explorer speakers terrible anyways.

Either way when I go through the crutchfield page it suggests I get this:

Scosche SLC4 Line Output Converter

***EDIT: actually I shouldn't need this since the Pioneer I'm looking at will have 6 preamp outputs.... right?

But if there's a simple bypass harness I'll go that route. Usually just an aftermarket deck running to factory speakers sounds much better than factory deck/factory speakers.

There's no tiny sub around anywhere I should worry about?

Their suggestion for that item isn't necessarily incorrect. The amplifier has to be fed a low voltage/power signal or it will burn up the inputs. That can be done one of two ways. Either buy or build a harness that connects an aftermarket units RCA preouts to the factory input wires or use a converter like this one to lower the HU amps outputs down to a voltage that won't burn up the factory amp inputs.

With the higher preamp output voltages of a lot of today's aftermarket HU's it's more feasible to connect them than it used to be. Back in the good 'ol days the preamps weren't strong enough to drive the factory amps which made the converters more favorable. Today it's not nearly as big an issue.

Yes, if they have a bypass harness available to bypass the factory Blose amp then I would suggest it. As for the factory sub, I'm not sure what all these trucks had in them with the factory Blose system. I know there isn't one in the standard radio/speaker systems but that doesn't mean much in your case. Hopefully someone else with experience with the Blose systems in these 2nd Gen platforms would know for sure. These are probably the only GM vehicles with the Blose option I've not ever played with.

Awesome, thanks for the help man!