So i've got an issue with the rear speakers, and i'm working out different senerios in my mind as to how to go about fixing the issue.

I can either order some "open air" 6.5 subs, which i would wire in to replace the existing bose speakers. This would be using the original wiring and bose amps. The woofers cost $75 each before shipping/tax. (they are mentioned in the audiworld articles)

OR

Unplug the rear shelf speakers, wire in a 10" or 12" component sub, wire in a seperate amp, etc, you get the picture. this would obviously cost more, but the SQ of the bass would be far greater.

My question is this. Has anyone done such a thing? Does anyone know the active freqencies being reproduced by the rear-shelf speakers are? How large of a "hole" will i create in terms of frequency responce by outright removing the rear shelf from the sound stage. How much of the lower-mids do the rear shelf speakers produce?

 

the bose system uses a completely different type of amplifier that won't work well with non-bose speakers...i've never tried it but i looked into it and most people told me it would sound like ****

 

I dont run either one of my rear speakers cuz i blew them up but im running a Ed 12' sub on 600w and a Ed 10' sub on 400 and they sound great, actually it will make your eyes jiggle, lol its an interesting feeling.... I say just replace them with a sub...... and the stock back tray speakers are subs they dont really do much of the midbass or anything so you wont notice the difference with the sub in the trunk

 

as for the first person saying most people say don't replace bose speakers, they're not so trickey. They just run at 2ohms, which is different than most speakers out there. Most speakers run at either 8 or 4. However, w/ a dual voice coil 4ohm woofer, one can wire it to run at 2ohms, thus extracting all the power. Even then, if you only run it at 4ohms, you'll just draw less power. So, yes, it is do-able, however, hard to find the proper speakers.

Do you think that 1 quality 10" would suffice? I had a 12" kappa perfect in my old car being driven by a RF amp. It was really nice, however, i don't think i'll need as much bass this time around. I just want a good quality sound, w/ decent low end when listening to hip-hop. I'm thinking a 10" kappa perfect, as i was really happy wiht my 12"

 

Oh yea a good 10 will be more than enough i ran a pos RF 10 with about 360w to it for the longest time and it sounded great, then i blew the voice coil off of it, lol so now im running the two Ed's I think you should really look into elementaldesings subs they are so nice and are a really good price

 

did you wire your amps yourself? or did you take it to a place? What would be the best route through the firewall? I've done a number of car audio installs before, and i plan on doing this one myself as well. usually we just cut into a grommit or existing hole. Ideas?

 

Yea I do everything myself On my a4 I went through the hole thats inside the ecu casem on the drivers sice i had to cut a little plastic away to get through the box but the wire will got right through the gromet into the car with all the other wires

 

does anybody know how many watts power a non-bose head unit to the front and back speakers?

 

Check out the DIYs on Audiworld about wiring up a sub.