[s-cars] Need to replace my radio - Advice Needed

[Djdawson2 at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/14/2005 12:49:09 PM Pacific Standard Time,  
matt.ludwig2 at verizon.net writes:

Thank  you Kevin for bringing this to light. I thought I had read pretty 
clearly  (in both documentation and case studies) where this could not 
be done but  it is great to know one can swap them out!

My apologies Steven if my  post caused any unneeded worry. I thought I 
had this one understood enough  to post about it. Guess the audi gods 
did it to me again  ;)



In the traditional sense, Matt is "right."  You can't just pull the  
headunit, and install a new one.  If you were to use Kevin's approach, you  would not 
be able to simply use the speaker outputs from the new head unit (as  one 
might expect), because the Bose system puts the amplifier element of the  system 
at the speaker.  Likewise, the low level signal going from the Bose  headunit 
to the amps is not setup to plug into the preamp outputs of the  normally 
configured replacement headunit.  You would have to understand the  wiring outputs 
of the Bose headunit (what wires go to what amps), cut them and  install RCA 
ends on them.
 
Bottom line... it ain't exactly plug and play.
 
Next item to consider is the high failure rate of the Bose amps.  Go  through 
all that trouble to replace the headunit while maintaining the Bose  
amps/speakers, and then an amp fails.  Now what?  Considering those  things, and the 
cost of good "normal" audio components, and I'd say do a clean  sweep.
 
.02 from out west,
Dave