Just installed a Alpine CD player today, and I get no audio, no hiss, nothing. I used a GM 21 pin harness adapter, and soldered all the connections to the correct wires(verified three times) the unit turns on and plays discs...but no sound. I made sure that the "Power ON" was set for the built in amp, I am using the stock Bose speakers. Now I heard from someone that the stock bose speakers don't work with aftermarket HU's because they are actually signal wires coming out of the factory deck going to a factory amp, not plain speaker wires...anybody got some idea's. I have done at least 10 stereo installs before and never had this problem, so I'm pretty confident that I know what I am doing.

 

Did some research on some audio forums, and found out that with the Bose system you need to use a special adapter or replace all the speakers due to those speakers running on a 2ohm integral amplifier.

 

Ok, here's the deal. Since all the speakers are amplified individually, getting new speakers is almost a must. I have a new head unit I just put in and had the same problem, BUT I found a trick to get around it.

The reason there's no sound is because with that GM harness you lose the connection that turns on the relay for the Bose amps. Take the power antenna/remote turn on lead from your Alpine HU and connect it to the system power control wire found here: Shoebox's Bose Schematic I believe this wire is the pink one on the original harness.

Doing this will allow the amplifiers to power on, but there is one small problem: you are now doubling the amplification to the speakers (HU amp and the individual amps). This means you have very small control over volume (my alpine right now runs around at like volume level 3 out of like 25 i think) and it is over powering the crap out of your speakers. Once I get the time I'm installing the new speakers I've had sitting for two months.

Hope this helps. If anyone has any more info please feel free to input it.

Kyle


EDIT: I forgot to mention that on my HU I first hooked it up to the antenna lead and it worked during AM/FM mode, but when I switched to the CD player the HU shut off the power to the antenna, so the relay in turn shut off and there was no sound. If you have a separate remote turn on and antenna power, use the remote lead!

 

The reason you're getting full volume at 3 out of 25 on the dial has nothing to do with going from 4 ohm to 2 ohm drivers.

The reason is you're sending a higher output voltage to the Bose amps, so the Bose amps then amplify that to an even higher voltage. The factor Bose deck basically sends a line level output to the Bose amps, or at least a voltage that they are compatible with.

 

My deck has the ability to turn off the internal amp, I already bought the adapter today, but I will try it the other way first just for testing and information reasons. Maybe with my HU I can turn off the amp and just use the bose and retain volume control.

 

if you turn off that internal amp you will get no sound... the internal amp sends the signals through the wires in the harness, with it off you only get signals through the rca cables which you wont be using

 

Ok - scratch that idea lol, I was thinking that it would act like a low level output, kinda like internal amped home subs, you can hear them while unplugged, but it's very muffled, that's the idea, control the volume somehow.

 

Buy a short set of RCA cables, cut them in half, and strip back the insulation. You will find that each RCA plug will have a power and a ground wire. Wire the four RCA plugs into your four speakers and plug them into the front and rear preouts on your deck. You will then have an unamplified signal coming from the deck to the speakers.

 

Using the REM wire will get you sound. I keep hearing about these special adapters you can buy and it's BS. You just need to wire it so it turns on the amp just like if you had an external amp. It needs the signal to turn on when the deck is on. If you use the PWR ANT wire, like one of the postings mentioned, you will only have audio when in tuner mode because that wire is only sending the signal for the pwr antena.

True, you should upgrade the other speakers as well, but for the time being you will have audio. I still have not upgraded my speakers and am even still powering the BOSE woof. Been about a year but the car has been down for a few months anyhow. I'm sure it will sound better when I replace the stock speakers.

 

If you don't want to mess with wiring rca cables to speaker wires you can go to Walmart and buy the Scosche blue adaptor for a whopping $17. Set the thing for factory amp and put it between the radio harness and the car harness. Then you just have to adjust the levels to you liking. Not hard at all and not much money. It has more output than the rca method as well.