What if I want to stay with my original Bose unit in my 90? Can I buy new speakers or do I have to send them in and get them repaired. Does Bose have upgraded replacements? I like to keep things as they were, no big changes. I have a lower driver side speaker making bad noises. The rest seem ok at this time. Thanks for the help Ultraman

The one AMP making noise you should disconnect right away! No need for expensive replacements. The work is a little time consuming, but if you are good with a soldering iron or know someone to do the job, it's basically just replacing all the capacitors. Once it starts it's just a matter of a couple of month until the others follow.
It's not "IF" it's rather "when" they start to fail.

The CDM usually is due within a couple of years after the amps fail and the head-unit will follow thereafter.

If you have it done by someone, don't waste the money on the Bose system. You end up paying a lot more than a new set up with better and more modern technology.

If I recall correctly, the 90s even have another problem with the CD unit. The rebuilders don't service that unit and I believe it's replacement only, which is expensive of course.

I had 2 Bose speakers take dump a few years back, soldering iron, flux and capacitors and your back in the tunes. Corvette Central has Pioneer unit CD for $299.00 and a Bose harness that will let you convert higher grade techno speakers. My Bose are working fine could do without the cassette player.

It's not too difficult to repair the speakers yourself if it's just the caps that are bad.

http://www.batee.com/corvette/boserepair/index.shtml

You can also consider an entire upgrade. Look through the audio section and see some of the projects including mine. My car is an 89 so the interior is different, but same general idea.

Good luck,

Matthew

If you're looking for a repair service, a lot of folks seem to be happy with Dr. Don's:

http://www.doctordons.com/

I will interject a lot of thoughts later. Gotta run.

If you have $$$ check out total upgrade...I did a sound system in my 55 Chevy for just under $800.00. Pioneer with CD/MP3,am/fm-45watts rms, 6 pioneer speakers/kicker amp. Problem you may have with your orginal Bose unit is when the main base unit takes a dump.. Corvette Central will rebuild for 349.00 and you still have average system.

Woodstock is correct the 90-94 seem to have difficultly with CD unit performance in the form of not reading binary code of the disk/laser is lazy and will not track ahead..Just a thought!!! I guess you have to ask yourself would I rather listen to whatever or your engine!!!Above 60 I can't hear sound system anyway...which reminds me my 55 I can't hear anything at idle..572 big block and magnaflows are not compatiable with sound system. Ron

CD unit was upgraded or fixed by a previous owner, it works good for now. I will try to fix the speaker myself, I already aimed the headlights myself so I'm on a roll. Ultra

The speaker, depending on the problem, could be as easy as a blown cap. If that's it, replace. There are a number of tech threads on how to do just that.

As for the amps themselves... you see, this gets into a nasty little reality. The C4 amps were tuned specifically for the C4. Replace the amp, loose the tuning! They sound ok, and are at times more powerful, but they end up sucking.

As an aside, the Bose system is very proprietary. It has a 1 ohm stable amp. This is why the amp can be so small... and put out 50 watts. That's only 12.5 watts at 4 ohms.

Personally, I think the early C4 Bose system was better. It had a higher sound stage and just generally had better detail... it just lacked the CD.

The later system has more base, but lacks definition.

My system is an Alpine 7998, Sirius, Aux in's, Canton RS3s, JL Audio 10w3v2, JL Audio 500/5 amp. This does sound pretty good, all in all. I want a better amp, tho.