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You should ALWAYS bypass the Bose amp....here's why

327K views 721 replies 251 participants last post by  Cstout 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
A while ago, I posted that I was getting some serious static/noise from my JVC KDSH909. The problem was the Bose amp.

I had just hooked it up with the wiring harness and although the sound quality was better, there was noise. I bypassed the amp this weekend by just putting a jumper wire between the correct wires down at the amp's connector. The noise problem has completely gone away. I highly recommend bypassing the Bose amp. :thumbs up:
 
#27 ·
I ended up having to do this also, but not because of any static noise. I have this set up with the basslink getting the signal from the back of the head unit (707). When I turned the volume up to 15 or so, that's as loud as the cabin speakers went without sounding like they were going to blow up. The basslink sounded pretty weak at 15 even with the sub output maxed at 12 and the gain and db maxed on the basslink. :confused: I'm guessing the signal to the cabin speakers was getting amped by the head unit and then again by the bose amp. Once I bypassed the bose amp, everything evened out. Now I can turn up the head unit volume to get a LOT more bass out of the basslink and not fry my cabin speakers. Night and Day difference. :eek:
Thanks for the detailed instructions :thumbsup:
 
#28 ·
Glad I could help :thumbsup:

I had no intentions of bypassing the Bose amp when I got my HU. But now that I did, boy am I glad. It sounds soooo good now. I love it. Now I just need to get some new speakers to make it sound even better...
 
#30 ·
If you have the stock head unit, you do not bypass any amp. It needs the amp under the seat to work properly.
 
G
#31 ·
Well I finally got around to bypassing the bose amp and wow does it make a huge difference. Now there is no constant white noise and I can have the volume at lower levels than before. I used to be able to set it to 1 out of 50 and it was louder than 1 should be but now it's much more evened out and much crisper. I did find an easier way to bypass the bose amp than the method in this thread though. Instead of splicing into each of the wires to join Left Front + to Left front + and so on, I just popped the wires into the end of the gray plug that corresponded to each connection. So instead of cutting into two wires and connecting them with the Male/Female adaptors, I just popped speaker wire into the little holes corresponding with each connection, then taped it all down when I was done so it was a sealed off plug. When I want to go back to stock now all I do is rip off the tape and pull out the speaker wires, no cutting at all! Hope this helps some people. I am now thinking of getting a basslink since the richcrap woofer is now disconnected, how hard is this to install? People mention pulling the signal from the Richcrap woofer but since I've bypassed the bose amp does this mean I can't do this now? How would I go about wiring up a basslink? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
#32 ·
Yep, that way will work too. I thought of that but didn't want the opportunity for the wires to wiggle out of the sockets. With the splice method, you crimp everything down so it ain't going anywhere. In an ideal world, someone could make a plug that mates with that grey plug with the proper wires connected together already. Then all you would have to do is pop on the new connector and you're done.

This does mean you can't tap into the stock "woofer" now. I wired up my woofer and it was a peice of cake. I ran the power line down the drivers side door and the RCA's down the center console and up the carpet under the back seat. There is a whole article somewhere on here that someone did about running power wire. I think it might be in the FAQ. That's what I used and it worked great. Basically, you run the power wire into your wheel well, through a grommet for the hood latch and then down the door rail to the back seat. It really is pretty easy. They have pictures and everything with their guide. Just do a search. As for getting your signal back, running the RCAs down the center console is a peice of cake. You don't even have to take apart the console to do it, the RCAs will just slip underneath it if you push them there.
 
G
#33 ·
I've never installed anything like a sub before so I really don't know what I'm doing. I'm guessing I can figure out the power wire part from the FAQ section but I don't really understand how the RCA's work. So you can use an RCA cable from the headunit (KD-SH707) to send a signal to the Infinity Basslink without having to tap into any speaker wires? How exactly did you get the wire or wires from the back of the headunit to the back hatch? The only thing I have done so far is put my new headunit into my dash (chore and a half) and I'm hoping it's not too much harder to get these RCA's from there to the back. I really dread having to take out that stupid dash piece! That thing REALLY didn't want to come out. Well any help would be appreciated!
 
#34 ·
The RCA's carry the signal from your HU to the subs/basslink. If you remember from when you installed it, the back of it had some RCA cables dangling off of it. One of those bundles had "woofer" written on it. So what you need to do is take it back out (it is a lot easier to come out once the Bose unit is removed) and hook up the RCA's from the HU to the basslink/subs.

The tricky part is running the wire from the front to the back - but it really isn't that tricky.

1) Take your HU out.

2) From the passenger's side, take the end of your RCA cables and stick it up under the dash (by your feet). Reach through the opening left by your stereo and grab the RCAs. Pull it out a little so you have room to work.

3) Hook up the RCA's to the RCA jacks labeled "woofer" on your stereo.

4) Now put back your HU, making sure to take out some of the slack in the RCA cable by pulling on the wire by your feet.

5) Unscrew the 2 screws at the end (by the back seat) of the center console. This allows it to move around a bit so you can hide the wire.

6) Go to your back seat and pull up on the front lip pretty hard. It should lift up. Now notice how the carpet is tacked on. Undo the tacks and pull up on the carpet to make it loose.

7) Run the RCA cable underneath the carpet. Start running underneath the end of the center console and reach under the carpet from the back seat to grab it. Now pull it all the way up so it ends up in the back seat.

8) You can feed it from the bottom of the back seat to the hatch area pretty easily. I'm sure you can figure this out.

9) Now the only thing left is to tuck the cable that is lying next to the center console (it is running from your feet in the passengers side to the spot where you made it go under the carpet. Just start pushing it under the plastic of the console. Once all the wire is hidden, just screw back in those two screws and you're done.
 
G
#36 ·
Sounds good, I'll try that when the sub arrives. I'm probably going to try to install it a week from Sunday and hopefully I won't have any problems. What did you do about grounding the sub? Some people say you can do it to a bolt on the back seat. I guess I'll try that. You've been a huge help and I'm sure I'll be back with more questions after I attempt to install the sub. Thanks.
 
#37 ·
If you need hand with that I might be up in bburg for a weekend in December before Christmas. I have a digital camera if you or anyone else wants to see detailed pics of the installation
 
#38 ·
I tried just using a wire plugged into the female end of the harness, going from speaker in to speaker out, but it didn't work out. The way you wired it is much better.
I just suffered through bose until I had the time to take the bose equipment completely out of the equation. Now I don't have a single piece of the original stereo in use (except the HU power, ground, antenna, etc. from the harness). :spin:
 
#39 ·
Anyone find a connector harness anwhere yet? That would be soooo much easier!

I'm an EE so it's not hard to do, just time consuming and messy. It'd be nice if Bose used some easier plastic harness shapes and then you could just make it yourself.....but......anyone find anything premade?

-UVstyle
 
#41 ·
sorry to bring this post up from the dead, but I installed the JVC KDSH-707 this past weekend and DIDN'T bypass the TYPE S amp and I get a very faint hissing noise. I only hear it when the volume is low because its very faint.

Is this the same thing you guys are complaining about?

If so, What wires do I need to buy to bypass the amp?

Do i need to buy wires that go from HU to 2 front and 2 rear speakers (meaning 2 pairs of wires)?

If so, What kind (RCA?)???
 
#42 ·
Yes, this hissing noise is what the problem is. If you bypass the amp, it will not only take away the hissing, but in my opinion, it sounds clearer.

I just responded to your other thread, but the wires you need are just any stranded wire that's about 18 gauge. Follow the directions on this thread. You can either splice into the existing wires like I did (so you can reverse it) or you can simply cut them and bridge them that way. Basically what is happening is a signal comes into the plug (which goes into the Bose amp) and then comes out to the speakers. By splicing the wires, you are bridging or bypassing the amp, so the signal comes up to the plug, but instead of going into the plug and into the amp, it jumps over your bridge that you made and goes straight to the speakers.

Your last question seems like you are talking about running wire from the HU to each speaker. This would basically do the same thing as just bypassing the amp will do, but you'll have better wire. (The factory stuff is really small).

Hope this helps:thumbsup:
 
#43 · (Edited)
what are the rca's in the back of the HU for then? Are those if I want to connect them to an AMP?

Also, once I bypass the bose amp, Do i still plug in the grey plug into the bose amp or do i leave it disconnected so that no signal goes to the amp?

Does that mean that once i do this, the BOSE sub in the back won't work anymore?
 
#44 ·
RCA's are used to send power to an external amp. Since you aren't using an external amp, you don't need them.

I left my grey plug out, just hanging there. The Bose sub won't work after you do this. I had a seperate sub and amp though, so I didn't care.

I'm not 100% positive what will happen if you bridge the wires and then plug the thing back in. The sub might still work if you do this...it looks like it has a seperate signal from the other speakers.
 
#45 ·
I just saw your sig. Looks like you have an amp and subs already. In that case, you won't want to just bypass the Bose amp like this, you'll want to run all new wire from your external amps.
 
#46 ·
I already have my new wire to my external amp and connected it to the RCA SUB out on the back of the HU.

Since your STOCK SUB doesnt' work anymore, does the quality and loudness of your aftermarket SUB, after bypassing the Bose amp, make up for the loss in STOCK SUB base? In other words, Does your bass sound way better,cleaner, and louder after bypassing bose amp?
 
#47 ·
The stock sub sucks man. That's the whole point of going with aftermarket. Your aftermarket sub will be so much better than the stock Bose sub it isn't even funny. So yes, you are much better off getting rid of every Bose component and going with aftermarket to replace it. I also replaced my front component speakers with new ones, got an external amp to power them, and ran new wires to them as well. So the only thing running off my head unit now are my back speakers. Sounds so much better than stock now.
 
#48 ·
millerrh said:
Step 2: Using this wiring diagram as a guide, start splicing the Audio Unit +/- and Speaker +/- wires with a small piece of wire.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13
14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26

1 | GRY/RED | Passenger's Door Speaker (-), Right tweeter (-)
2 | GRN/YEL | Passenger's Door Speaker (+), Right weeter (+)
3 | BLU/RED | Constant power
4 | ------- | Not Used
5 | BRN | Radio Switch
6 | LT GRN | Rear stereo amplifier - bass signal (+)
7 | RED | Audio unit - Right Rear (-)
8 | GRN | Audio unit - Right Front (-)
9 | BLK | Audio unit - Left Rear (-)
10 | BRN | Audio unit - Left Front (-)
11 | ------- | Not Used
12 | BLU/ WHT | Left Rear Speaker (+)
13 | BLU/BLK | Left Rear Speaker (-)

14 | BLU/YEL | Right Rear Speaker (-)
15 | PNK | Right Rear Speaker (+)
16 | BLK | Ground (G502)
17 | WHT/BLU | Shielding
18 | ------- | Not Used
19 | GRN/WHT | Rear Amplifier - bass signal (-)
20 | YEL | Audio Unit - Right Rear (+)
21 | ORN | Audio unit - Right Front (+)
22 | WHT | Audio unit - Left Rear (+)
23 | BLU | Audio unit - Left Front (+)
24 | ------- | Not Used
25 | LT GRN | Left Tweeter (-) drivers door speaker (-)
26 | GRN/BLK | Driver's Door Speaker (+), Left Tweeter (+)



Here is what it looks like with one speaker done.




if i want to keep the bose woofer when i get my headunit, please correct me if im wrong...

i would leave those harnesses plugged into the amp, removing almost all wires but the imput wires, ie 7,8,9,10, 20,21,22,23 stays in the harness.

then you remove wires 1,2,12,13,14,15,25,26 from the harness.

now splice the wires you just removed into the wires still in the harness, making sure they match up with the chart above.


this way your aftermarket HU is connected directly to the speakers, then the bose sub still gets its signal from the 8 imput wires that we spliced into.


is there anything wrong with doing this? like will my headunit blow up or something.
 
#320 ·
damn I never saw that post.. O well.. I unhooked my bose amp all together, and spliced the wires directly to each other.. I then got a set of speaker wire from radio shack that plugged into my subwoofer pre-outs.. I spliced the speaker level inputs pos pos neg neg, and then connected them to the correct anp singnal wires... (think it was like light green, and white and green wires off the top of my head) then I took my amp signal wire, and ran it to the brown wire on the harness.. works like a champ (have a little noise when the signal gets sent to the rear sub on start up.. but other then that cant complain)

Still think I am going to miss my 6 disk changer, but considering it shit the bed, I guess I'll enjoy the better sound of my new amp, and live with HD radio, and Mp3s
 
#49 ·
Removing the wires is harder than you think. I had to just splice into both wires while they were still plugged into the harness and bridge them with a new wire. But if you can get them out, and don't mind not being able to go back to factory settings then it is fine.
 
#50 ·
you can always go back to factory settings.....

now if im thinking correctly, there should be little "hooks" inside the harness. once pressed, each individual pin should come out easily. thats usually how a lot of the harnesses are that ive seen. push something then it slides out.


ok suppose i do succeed, or end up cutting off the wires or whatever, will my plan work?
 
#51 ·
I have an Alpine 7894 HU and after it was installed i get a static noise.. however the static noise doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes it's crystal clear, sometimes i get static. is my problem the fact that it's hooked up to the bose amp (atleat i think it's hooked up - i had a shop install it)??
 
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