A long time ago, I think I posted a pic of my 94's dash. the previouse owner did a real hack job on the radio, cut the bezel and "made" a single din Blaupunkt fit. I'm finally tired of looking at it. I found a HU on ebay for a '95 (white buttons)and have had a new bezel in the garage for a couple of years.....at least I'll be able to make the dash look stock! I really don't listen much, I prefer to listen to the engine doin' its thing. I think my My tuner is in the bin behind the passenger seat. They left the connectors plugged in there, so when I crack the dash, I expect to find the old wiring just sitting there. Hacks I tell you, Hacks!!They just ran speaker wire from the Blaupunkt to the Bose speakers in the rear and installed some Blaupunkt speakers up front.
I guess My question is, did I read the FAQs correctly....the bose amp is in the tuner in the '94? or do I need to find some amps?
Sorry for the long post, For some reason, the situation is just bugging me! Thanks guys.

The amps are located at the speakers. Your 94 has the tuner behind the passenger seat in the cubby.

Don is right, but, the reciever module is specific to the Bose. It was the amp for Delco, for the Bose, a low level signal processor.

It sounds like the prior installers had no clue what was what with the Bose - not so surprising.

If it was my car, I would gut the Bose; by the time you get new amps, new speakers, and wire it all in, it will a) still sound like shit and b) cost you a small fortune.

What most don't realize, when Bose engineered the system, the amps came with specific EQ curves for the car; the replacement amps are generic and lose those EQ curves. Guess what that means? The already compromised sound quality goes down into the pits of hell.

Oh, moving this to Audio!

Thanks for moving the post Andy.....its the chemo brain!
What I want to do is get it (the dash) cleaned up so I can maybe put it out there for sale. The rest of the car is in reasonable shape for being 15 years old. Clearcoat is still intact and its not a real common color anymore. I still have the original wheels in the garage as well as the complete original exhaust.I'd love to upgrade to an '96 lt4 in Polo green? The only thing holding me back is I still only have 61k on it and its well behaved, I know what I've got with it behaving and all(no mechanical issues). Its a bit of a garage queen but I "enjoy" it when its out stretching its legs.
What would you suggest for the sound? Not much out there looks terrebly stock for a c4 dash......I know I saw you post a question a long time ago about Nakamichi, I think the 400 model? It looks pretty plain, but then You'd need an amp too I guess. I picked up one of those dash plates that says corvette on the bottom of it from Vroom Vroom years ago and never put it to use. Help !

edit: I just read every post in the section and even found my original question from 2008. Opinions don't seem to have changed much since then and I guess I should apologize for duplicating my original post. Found a Nakamichi cd400 for $289. The display lighting can be changed to amber to"kind of" match the dash better. I'm chewing on this option(again)

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Backwards. The Bose CDM has a flat response, the Delco does not.

I am not sure what you are saying is any different than what I am saying.

The receiver module provided amplification when used in the Delco configuration. When used in the Bose, it was simply a low level signal processor. The amps were at the speakers. The amps were these gnarly little pieces of crap that were 1 ohm stable. The speakers were also 1 ohm. This allowed a tiny amp, that under normal circumstances would only produce 12 watts, to produce 50.

This set up effectively rendered the head unit a dummy that only controled the receiver module.

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You're saying the Bose CDM does signal processing. I'm saying that it doesn't.

You appear to be saying the non-Bose CDM does not do any signal processing. I'm saying it does.

You appear to be saying the Bose CDM is not an amp. I'm saying it is.

The Bose CDM is not an amp. Why would they have that "amp" and another amp at the speaker itself? That makes no sense.

It is a preamp. The signal to the Bose is more or less a low level signal, such as is sent via RCA cables.

The non-Bose is an amp, which by its definition is a signal processor... so we can agree on that.

not to throw gas on the fire, but, does that mean that you could leave the bose hu stock and take a "preamped" signal out of the reciever, send to a decent amp, and replace all of the speakers, therefore getting decent sound? How many volts is the signal?

No... you need line level converters... it's a propriatary signal of some sort.

Personally, I hate the converters...

Just a thought Andy.
I'm beginning to subscribe more and more to your gut and replace theory. I guess I bought it with a shitty stereo and chances are some kid will grab it up anyway when its time to sell, will he care? I'm replacing the set with something better, so, probably not. Its a nice car but not a collector so I'm the only one who cares! I just hit 50 on 12/21 so its officially an old mans toy anyway. LOL!
Thanks for the input guys...keep debating anyway. It always brings up something somebody didn't know! I'll be watching.

Consider some of the oem-looking alternatives out there before you invest in reusing the Bose. My entire interior looks bone stock and the headunit is fairly subtle. You can at least reuse the speaker covers depending on what speakers you use.

Like the Nakamichi I was talking about? or something else you might suggest?

I don't know what to recommend anymore... Alpine used to be the king of all, with Eclipse #2. I am finding Pioneer is actually catching back up in the world of SQ.

However... Alpine QC is in the dumps; not even the local dealers want to sell them. It's that bad.

Eclipse is out of North America, the only thing they are selling is the TomTom.

That leaves Clarion, meh... and Pioneer at the higher ends. Kenwood is supposedly showing some improvement, too. Blaupunkt hasn't done anything for me in 30 years. Don't know what they are like today.

I don't know if Nak still sells their car audio in the states.

If you are simply selling the car, then get one of the Pioneer double din head units, and do 4 basic 2-way coax speakers. Nothing fancy, will sound fine to 90% of the people, and will look right in the dash.

http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-FH-P800 ... r-Bluetooth/dp/B001411BZ2



Looks reasonably plain but has blue backlighting and is a little glossy. I could live with it for a while. little wimpy on the output but pioneer puts out an 600W amp that would bring the output up to 50W or so a channel for cheap.

Really? Double din will fit with minimal trimming?

yea, DD fit with minimal, if any, trimming.

Besides, this is a stopgap, right? Everyone has heard of Pioneer, so when you sell the car, you get to push that and all the "professional audiophiles" (NOT!) will act like it is the Holy Grail.

If you want to keep the car, get the amp... otherwise, the nominal crap in the head unit will suffice.

Yeah, hold me for a season. ( My garage is snowed in and roads full of salt so this is a good winter project)Unless I run across the Polo I want and can get a quick sale(yeah, right) on the 94. That should do. I'll try to get it together before the end of Jan. and post a pic with this thread. Thanks again for the advice on the double din and the other comments guys!

That looks hideous. Too shiny.

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Or even an oem ford radio or something, assuming it has a 4-speaker system. F150 radios had a built in 6-disc changer that did mp3s. Not sure if this is DD.
[img width=300]http://i.ebayimg.com/04/!C!w71V!Bmk~$(KGrHqJ,!mIEz+0E27skBNE,iCZr2g~~0_12.JPG[/img]

I agree with ya CC, but I'm having trouble finding much else.... The link didn't work. I'll dig around. I might just be stuck.