onr by onr the amps went on the bose set up . arguh. what is a decent sounding setup to go with . i dont need anything fancy. justa a good single cd am fm head unit and the best set of speakers i can put in the car without hacking things up too much . i 25 years ago was up on this stuff but guess i am out dated . can someone steer me to a good set up to get inc speakers . thanx

I recommend looking through some of the archives in the audio section. When you replace the head unit and and new speakers, you'll need to run new speaker wire from the head unit to the speakers. Not difficult, just a little time consuming. There are multiple posts with good info in them.

Matthew

Yes this has been a hot topic in the past. Andy knows a ton about it as do many others. It seems to be a lot of work to do it right and there is no end to the money you can spend. Just for fun I priced a setup installed at a shop that does nothing but audio installs and it was 15 to 16 hundred dollars to have one put in.

Brad I got my parts in for the exhaust the other day and am getting started on it. Thanks again for the help.

Quote:

For a decent head unit and speakers you're looking in the $400-500 range to buy new. You can save a lot buying used. $1500-1600 is a lot, but not knowing what they planned on installing it could be a little...does that make sense?

As far as brands, for a good quality medium priced head unit you won't go wrong with pioneer, alpine, etc. Speakers are the same for medium level equipment...polk, higher end alpine and pioneer, etc. Inevitably you will get people telling you to buy focals and boston acoustics to the tune of $600 a set, but that's ridiculous.

Matthew

I told them mid level head unit and speakers but most of it was going to be the labor for taking old system out and doing the new system right. I asked if they had ever done a C4 Corvette and he said yes quite a few.

That was as far as I went with it since I am putting the money elsewhere in the car. Also my Bose is working well at this point and I am half deaf anyway from years and years of loud Harleys and rock and roll.

But I aint getten no damn hearing aids! That's for old guys!

My Bose in the 87 was junk by 1990. Like Marcus my hearing is going south. I priced out a new audio setup for the 87, sure can think of other areas to spend $2,000.00 on. Come to think of it I'm not real impressed with the Bose Wave system either!!

i would do the work myself , dont want to do anything too fancy. i want speakers that would fit in the stk inclosures . what speaker fit will in the stk enclosures . what head unit would be best in the 600 dollar range and speakers in the 500-600 dollar range . i would love your ideas from those who have done this . i really dont mind doing the work but would hate to pay extra for stuff that doesnt work and have to buy again . thanx again

I have a nice Pioneer HU I bought last year and installed. You can find them on eBay for about $300-$400. I really love this unit. It has front USB, Aux in, SD Card slot and Blue Tooth. Add ons for Satellite Radio, or HD Radio and also Navigation. I can't help you with the speakers since I plumbed the HU into the Bose system with a Crutchfield Adapter Harness.

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUS ... DVD-Receivers/AVH-P3300BT

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I did mine about 10 years ago... Initially, I went with a Pioneer full din, and it sucked... however, it wasn't NEARLY as nice as the one that Don has, so no comparison.

I slowly went through a few versions and ended here:

Alpine 7998 head unit, purchased new in 2003, for a whopping $750!

JL Audio 500/5 amp. 100x2, 25x2 and 250x1. IIRC, there wasn't much change out of $700 for that thing. The original died about 5 years ago, the replacement has worked quite well.

The front stage are Canton RS3's. 6" mid-bass, 4" mid range and 1" tweeters - yes, 3-ways! These retailed for $600 a pair in the late 1990's, but I bought them used for like $200! Whoo-hoo! I have the system setup for bi-amplification. The 100x2 feed the 6"/4" pair and the tweets are getting 25x2.

The sub is a JL Audio 10w3v2, in a sealed box.

I really need to revisit the installation... Just need to do some math and build something. I want to update the amp, tho... do it all over the summer, the AC system is more important.

Finally, I did the install myself. To do this right, you need to strip out the interior. And I don't want to pay some chimp to do that.

You will remove all Bose parts... amps, speakers, modules, whatever. Get rid of it all.

If you run an amp, by all means, run the RCA cables down the center console. There are no wires there, and as such, there will be less EMF.

Get a head unit with high voltage from the head unit RCA outs. Alpine does 4v, for example. The higher voltage means that the line is less prone to EMF and the amp won't need the gain up as high.

Do not over equalize. These days, heads, amps, everything has an EQ... get a good amp without... crossovers, that's one thing, EQs? NO WAY!

For headunits:

Pioneer
Alpine
Kenwood

For Amps:

JL Audio
ArcAudio
Alpine
Pioneer
Kenwood

For Speakers:

CDT
Focal
Alpine
Polk
Pioneer
Infinity

None of the above in any specific order.

thanx so much for all the info .now i get to go nuts looking at everything which will be fun . i will find that i am way out of it as far as todays modern set ups . thanx for the idea about stripping out the interior and placement of the cables down the sides of the center tunnel . i guess i will have to add the price of a new carpet kit to the deal . and hoo know maybe i can sell the bose head unit to someone .

Before doing an install, redo the weather strip on the doors up front. They are a harder rubber by the door hinge.
It would suck to put some nice speakers in and have water run onto them.

thanx for the tip