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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:
 
#203 ·
godraj said:
hey guys, i just installed my pioneer head unit and there is no sound. when i plug it into my accord it works fine. could this be due to the bose amp, or was i supposed to plug in the power/antenna to something? thanks.
bump for an answer
I have the same prob
 
#204 ·
just got the unit to work. the system remote wire (amp wire) needs to be connected to the blue wire on the harness. if u dont' connect it there is no sound because there is no signal to the built in amp. still alot of background noise and distortion though. good luck.
 
#207 ·
Thats either a torx screw or a star. Go to home depot and find the isle with the electronic stuff where the volt meters and stuff are. I can't really tell from the picture. I will check mine once it stops raining and let you know for sure. Im pretty sure its a torx style screw. They have the torx screw driver for like $4. Or a whole set of different sizes for like $10. Go get one of those otherwise you are totally gonna strip the screws and it will take you forever.
 
#210 ·
So lemme get this straight..Just use this guide here:

7->14
8->1
9->13
10->25
20->15
21->2
22->12
23->26

And I should be set?..Just cap off the other wires?..Take out the Amp and thats it?

and can I use #5 Radio Switch as a Remote for my aftermarket Sub + Amp?
 
#211 ·
Recommanded for Type-S owners with aftermarket decks, especially to those running an aftermarket subwoofer. The BOSE amp bypass will help eliminate your speakers drowning out your subwoofer. I'm not saying the below instructions is the proper way of bypassing the amp, but the easiest I found doing it this way.

Tools needed:
1x Utility Knife
18x Wire Tap in connectors [$2.99 for 7 at Radioshack/Source]
3 feet of 18-22 gauge wire [I took a old computer's power harness and use those wires]
1x Plier
2x Zip Ties

Cost: Under $7 dollars.

Step by Step:
Instead of taking out the seat like some suggest, you can detach the harness from the back of the passenger seat with a pair of small asian hands, then pull the harness out from the front of the seat to work with. If you disconnect the harness for the subwoofer as well, it will give you more length to pull out and work with. I couldn't undo the subwoofer harness, so I just worked with how ever much length i could pull.

Now that the harness is exposed, cut the electrical tape off and pull the black plastic wire hosing about 3 inches and cut it off. This will expose about 4-5 inches of wires to work with, plus afterwards the wires won't be as packed together; therefore, it'll be easier to tap.

Afterwards just follow the instructions below from the bypass guide and tap all 18 wires. You can link the 2 tappers with the 18-22 gauge wire, make sure they're snug afterwards.

Harness Wire Layout:
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

Harness Wire Blueprint:
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 (+)

Wire Tapping Guide
7->14
8->1
9->13
10->25
20->15
21->2
22->12
23->26
Fire up the stereo, use the fade & balance to test if each speaker works after the bypass. I came across some problems where my front passenger and rear driver did not work. But that was due to double tapping a wrong wire, and also the tap in splicer did not cut deep enough through the plastic and into the copper wiring.

If everything works fine, then just zip tie the bundle of wires and tuck it back underneath the seat.

Results
Sweet! The speakers no longer drown out the subwoofer, and volume 1 doesn't sound like volume 10 anymore, and the feedback noise is gone. Sound is now more crisp, but now the speakers will start to distort at about volume 27 on my deck (*May vary on other decks), so maybe a wise choice to upgrade speakers if you want to crank up the stereo louder. Plus, I notice the light start dimming with the bass as volume exceeds over 24. Other than that, it sounds way better than before!

End Notes
Although it took me some troubleshooting to get everything to work, but if all the wires are tapped correctly, it should be done in about 30min or so. I'll post some pictures if you guys have any questions.
I hope this guide helps some of the people here with aftermarket decks still hooked up to their stock typeS BOSE amp. Generally, it's not too bad if you just have a deck, but if you have a subwoofer running, you're best to bypass the BOSE amp so the speakers won't drown out your bass.
 
#212 ·
hmm

i've followed this bypass diagram
7->14
8->1
9->13
10->25
20->15
21->2
22->12
23->26

i have an aftermarket cdplayer/sub/amp once i fire up my system.
the sound is very very low. i have to turn my player to the max just to hear average sound. my amp/sub isnt working, though, but i dont think thats the problem. once i get a smaller power cable ill hook up the amp(previous owner had a HUGE power cable and i cant fit it into my amp).

any insight to why my sound is so low. i hope thats not how its supposed to be.
 
#213 ·
ok i went ahead and fixed up my amp/sub setup. thats all good and working now, but the volume is still a problem. i have to turn my hu to max to get a decent volume.

my hu is a rockford fosgate player so i dont think its lacking power. wiring was doublechecked. front/rear all speakers wired up correctly.
 
#215 ·
Quote:
Harness Wire Layout:
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

Harness Wire Blueprint:
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 (+)

Wire Tapping Guide
7->14
8->1
9->13
10->25
20->15
21->2
22->12
23->26

Ok you guys don't know how much reading I've been doing-but a couple of questions are still unanswerd. Hopefully they're followed by easy, consise, answers.

What I have:1. Type S system-stock everything; new amp and sub.
What I want to add: 1 2-Channel Fosgate amp and 1-12' enclosed sub.
What I want to do(idealisticly): Keep stock door speakers, HU- due to 6 disc CD changer, bypass stock amp(under pass seat) and bypass stock sub amp and the (so called) stock sub.
What I should do(realisticly)Purchase a decent HU, replace all speakers, bypass all stock amps + stock sub-Clean install.

Lastly, what does this:
5 | BRN | Radio Switch
do for the system? Should it be used for the 'remote' going to the new amplifier?

Thanks guys-I'm stoked about my new ride-any help will do-sorry for any repeated repeated repeated questions!
 
#216 ·
Just bypass the stock bose amp so your stock speakers won't overpower your subwoofer. To get a signal to your Fosgate amp, your can tap into either the speaker wires from the bose amp harness, or from the harness off the stock CD changer. Basically tap it in the signal, and the other end of the wires are RCAs which goes into the amp input.
 
#217 ·
joejoe3 said:
Just bypass the stock bose amp so your stock speakers won't overpower your subwoofer. To get a signal to your Fosgate amp, your can tap into either the speaker wires from the bose amp harness, or from the harness off the stock CD changer. Basically tap it in the signal, and the other end of the wires are RCAs which goes into the amp input.
Ok I got that-so the 'tapping' in for the signal would be which wire? #5???
It'd help if someone could post the stock HU wiring diagram:(
But thanks. I'll knock it out hopefully this weekend:)
 
#218 ·
godraj said:
hey guys, i just installed my pioneer head unit and there is no sound. when i plug it into my accord it works fine. could this be due to the bose amp, or was i supposed to plug in the power/antenna to something? thanks.
I ended up rewireing my whole system after realizing that bose didnt want an aftermarket setup
 
#219 ·
Just a question about the bypass....

I was considering doing the bypass by using small wires connecting from Audio Unit In to Speaker Out right in the plug like others have done. But then I got to see the size of the pin holes in the plug and realized that probably isn't the best solution. The problem isn't the speaker-out but the audio-in. Pushing in wires to the speaker-out is a breeze. But for the audio-in, I'm not sure what guage wire is used for the audio-in but based on those pin sizes, I'm guessing 20 or more guage. I'm not sure telephone wire would plug into these pins.

Would this setup be a problem? To get around the problem of the small pin sizes, run wiring 18G from the new HU, down to the bose amp. Then simply plugging in the wires into the holes (which are bigger since they are speaker-out).

Pros: Gets past the problem of those small pin holes in the Bose plug, No wire splicing, bigger guage wire for HU-Bose plug segment, no door panels to pull off, relatively simple to do, easy to go back to stock.
Cons: Still not as good as running new wires.

Then if you ever want to go back to stock, pull the wires out along with the HU. But Bose back in, you're good to go.
 
#220 ·
well if you follow what ive posted and how to do it, you get better sound out of your speakers as wellas keep the bose sub which now hits like 10x harder than normal.

i dont see how running all this extra wire does anything, as aftermarket decks still arent pushing anywhere near the amount of power required to use bigger wire.
 
#221 ·
ok ive read this whole thread, and i still dont think i get it.. well i am specifically looking for a certain way to wire.. basically i have:

avh-p5700dvd
gm-7150m amp
ts-sw124d 12" sub
(yea, all pioneer, dont hate)

what i want is to power the 6 speakers WITHOUT rewiring each speaker directly to the HU and also just cut out the stock sub altogether..

can i use a metra/scosche to do this?
should i bypass the stock amp and use the HU to power the speakers?
(but i need to find a way to do it so i can go back to stock as some point in time, so no crazy stuff)..

pleeeeeeease help, ive been thinking about how to go about this for a lil bit and im confused, thanks in advance.
 
#223 ·
nitesbane said:
I'd LOVE to DIM, but I have barely a clue on what to do, even after taking some time to read up on a lot of these posts... :/
I just did this today and it is super easy. Go to lowes or homedepot or the like and buy some male and female disconnects in a small size, like 22-18. Pull the seat and just look at it. It might seem hard but once you accually look at it, it is really simple. :thumbsup:
 
#224 ·
Just curious, i recently just ordered the avic-z1. And i was told to also get an OEM PAC2 from crutchfield.... now would i need the wiring harness from them too? THis is the setup i want to do... AVIC-Z1 - HU, stock speakers, aftermarket amp + sub. I have an 06 type s... also anyone know where i can get the doubledin sized panel that can fit the z1? :dontknow:
 
#225 ·
I was wondering if anyone knows if there is a speaker impedance problem with the front/tweeter speakers since they are wired in parallel. My aftermarked head unit can only handle 4 ohms so if the front/tweeters are both 4 ohms and wired in parallel then the amp is seeing 2 ohms.

Has anyone had a problem with this?
 
#226 ·
millerrh said:
Awhile 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. :thumbsup:
I am having "noise" coming from my speakers after I installed my sirius satellite radio.. Could it be the Bose AMP?
We hooked it through the FM Modulator and to try something else, through the tape deck adapter.

If it is, all I need is the Jumper wire?
 
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