I've read a few posts mentioning that replacing the Bose amp causes problems with Blue tooth and nav. What functionality do you lose exactly (bluetooth, nav voice?) and has anyone figured a way around this?

Assuming I "need" to live with the Bose amp for functionality reasons, can I replace the door speakers in my '06 coupe (Bose Premium) with 4 vs 2 ohms speakers? I have existing Boston Pro 6.4 speakers I'd like to keep instead of going with Infinity Kappa's. If I do this with the stock amp, will volume suffer terribly? The BP's are 4 ohms but are pretty sensitive (95db) so I'm thinking I might be alright, I just don't want to go through the whole excercise to find out!

Ideally, I'd like to at least swap in the BP's and eventually replace the amp too (so I could change the rear fill speakers with my Boston Rallys + better overall SQ) but I'm not exactly sure what functionality I would lose. Does anyone know?

 

I don't have any personal experience with the OEM Bluetooth and navi voice, but I think if you keep the OEM Bose HU and replace the Bose amp, you will retain both the Bluetooth and navi voice. Maybe someone that has done that can chime in.

If you use 4 ohm speakers with your Bose system, the sound output will be greatly diminished. Plus, the Bostons are not really efficience speakers and the colume will likely be even lower for the same amount of volume on the display.

Since you mentioned rear fill, if you don't know, the Bose 6x9's are bass only. I don't even think rear fill is necessary with the coupe.

 

If you still have the factory radio, and replace the amp, you will still have both BT and NAV voice. If you change the factory radio, it is a little more work, but it is possible with a AUX input AMP.

 

Thanks for the reply guys. If I go the amp swap route, are you aware of any which will actually squeeze into the Bose amp location easily (or minor mod)?Ideally a differential-balanced amp would most convenient but that's probably being too hopeful....

I also have XM, I assume that since NAV and BT functionality are retained, so is XM (less critical since I am not currently subscribed but curious)

Gilley, yeah the Bostons would likely not be a great choice if keeping the Bose amp, thanks for sobering me up! They sounded great in my S14 (with full stereo upgrade) so I've gotten attached to them over the years.