nazrat

Maybe after reading this, someone can help me with my part numbers request in the part numbers forum

I recently removed the stock Bose amp in our 95' c280. We had a low volume hissing noise that was hard to diagnose. I had tried replacing the amp, but it tested just fine (in another 95 C280 with Bose, there was no hiss at all). So I bought a Clarion cd player with mp3 playback, aux input, and 2 pre-amp outputs. The plan was to feed the Bose amp with the pre-amp outputs from the Clarion.

That didn't work very well. There wasn't any hiss, but the volume was just too low, and there was a significant popping when changing sources. So I tried feeding it with the speaker outputs. It sounded exactly like the system did when the "factory" headunit was installed. The radio that was in it when we bought it must have been a radio for a non-bose car.

So this past weekend I remove the stock amp and was able to connect the Clarion head unit to the 8 Bose speakers. It sounds VERY nice. The difference between it and the old head unit and Bose amp is remarkable. Now all I want is a "small" subwoofer to give it some decent bass. I might try to make an enclosure to fit into the spare tire.

I did a quicky write-up, and listed the color codes for the wires.

http://www.luddite.net/c280/radio.htm

-Tad

vas2vas

very interesting.... did you consider using an equilizer with build in crossovers?
also what did you do with the 9th BOSE base speaker?

nazrat

It's just hanging out in the rear parcel shelf next to the first aid kit. There wasn't a seperate set of wires feeding it, so maybe it's fed via some combination of the rear speakers. It also could be connected through a crossover behind the rear seats. Truth be told, the wires that leave the factory AMP don't run directly to the rear speakers. They go forward through the bulkhead, then come back. I didn't remove the rear seat to investigate. For all I know the 9th speaker might be producing sound, but I didn't hook it up seperately (since there wasn't a set of wires from the AMP for it).

-Tad

vas2vas

yeah I'm contenplaiting a rewiring project in the near future... last time I did major stuff I rewired my 89 735iL new HU, run new speaker wires to the back, hacked off the 10 channel blaupunkt amp (one chan per speker) and retained the front low mid and tweeter using an alpine crossover and the already updated nacamichi speakers... I replaced rear low and tweeter with boston acoustics coaxial directly wired to the HU....

I'm thinking of going with a simple 4 speaker setup on the w202, what do you think? 2-way component in the front doors/dash, and 2 way coax in the rear directly hooked up to a new blaupunkt MP3 HU...

pcolvin

You didn't have to remove the Bose. Soundgate makes a product called the XR4 for about $100.00 that connects between the speaker outs of a 3rd party hu and the Bse. It is rumoured that the Bose requires either 1v or 4v in (roughly 2 to 8 times the standard pre-out voltage). What is known is that the Bose is a differential in (no common ground on input) and the standard pre-outs are common ground. The XR4 makes sure you have the right voltages and creates the differential inputs for the Bose to use.