hooking up an aftermarket radio to the original door speaker units?

[710]

This is probably a dumb question but
I am taking my radio out and putting another one (aftermarket) in.
Can I connect the “speakers out” from the new radio directly to the stock Bose door speaker wires (so my amplified signal from the new radio will be going into the old signal wires on the door amplifiers)?

Or will that blow out the stock Bose door amplifiers/speakers?
Thanks
Peter

 

[D'Ecosse]

It's not a dumb question, Peter - it's a safe question and good that you asked.
No, you can't use the amplified speaker out signals directly into the Bose amps.
However you still have two more options:
You can either
a) (preferred) use the RCA outputs and feed these via an adapter harness to the Bose inputs. You can find how to make an adapter harness if you search in this forum
b) If you have no RCA outs on your new head (be surprised if this was the case!) then you can use a signal conditioner such as the PAC Audio OEM-1 to attnuate your amplified speaker outputs down to line levels.

 

[710]

Thanks Scotty, :smile:

I thought there might be something like that.
I have 3 RCA line-outs but I get no sound from the (stock Bose) speakers when I connect them.
I connected the stock Bose radio back up and the stock Bose door speakers work fine.
I connected the normal wires up to some regular speakers and I get sound.
So maybe the radio is broken. Or something. I'll find another radio to test.
Thanks for your help.
Peter

 

[D'Ecosse]

If your head unit has three line outs that would suggest to me right, left & sub out - you don't want to use the sub out in this case (the footwell seaker is NOT a sub, although often incorrectly referred as such), so connect the right & lefts via a pair of Y-splitters to the 4 input feeds.
Here's the part of the stereo diagram you're interested in - you need to connect some RCA male jacks to the following pins of the head unit harness plug:
Right door - A1/A9
Drivers door - A2/A10
Footwell - A7/A15 & A8/A16
(In each case "+" or centre signal to the first pin, "-" or ground to the second)
I know you don't have radio shack over there but the splitters you need are like this or this

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