Ive searched forever and cant find a straight answer to my question. Has anyone here replaced JUST the stock head unit? Keeping all of the factory speakers and amp? I am happy with the "crappy" Bose sound....just want an in dash DVD player. Cant really just bypass the Bose amp and run the aftermarket deck power to the stock speakers because of impedence levels. Will this harness and converter work?
http://www.scosche.com/scosche/electronic/FAINN03.asp



04 6MT, Black, Aero, Prem, Tein Flex's, Cusco sways, 19" SSR Sovereign's, Clears, 350Z Pedals, No front plate!

 

A friend of mine has a coupe with an aftermarket DVD but with the stock speakers. It sounds good to me, he was playing gladiator and you could hear the surround sound working.

03.5 BS, 6MT, premium, 19" Kaizer wheels, Skyline badges, PIAA HID upgrade, Racing pedals, clear lenses, 35% tint, 7-wire ground, TEIN basics, side mirror blinkers

 

check out this site, they have a harness for that purpose..

http://linkmeup.com/

but i think changing the head unit is the hardest part for our car. if you can succefully do that, you should get rid of everything else to make it really good.

2004 Blk/Graphite/6MT/Premium/Nav/Spoiler/XM/Splash/Formula1tint

 

I replaced just the HU on mine. I'm trying to save up $ to add an amp and replace the speakers but for now I'm just running the speakers off of the HU w/o using the Bose amp.

Since the Bose amp uses balanced inputs and most HUs don't have balanced outputs, you cant use the amp w/o some type of interface (like the ones on the site Travan posted). I just wanted to bypass the amp though and use the HU. So I unplugged the harness from the amp in the trunk and added jumper wires (8 total) to connect the speaker outs from the headunit to the wires going to the speakers. I tried finding somewhere that sold a bypass harness but still haven't found any so I added the wires myself.

I can post the wire colors & pin numbers from the esm if you need them. I can also look to see if I snapped a pic of the harness before I taped it all back up.

~John

 

One more thing, I don't think the Scosche harness that you posted will work. The 2 plugs on the one end are the ones that plug into the factory harness, but the other end needs to be specific for your radio. I bought one of the plug-and-play harnesses from Scosche and it made the install that much easier. They are specific for your vehicle-stereo combination (Nissan to Kenwood in my case).

 

808,

I'm assuming that you're from Hawaii with that tag. Go and ask Aaron(the Japanese one) at Mobile Car Audio on Kamehameha Hwy, across from Nevada Bobs and Boston Pizza near Pearlridge about some options. Mobile Car Audio have worked on a bunch of G35's in the past (mine included) and will know how to bypass the stock Bose amp or just replace the HU. They sell the Eclipse DVD screen. Other places in Honolulu that I've checked out don't have as much G35 install experience so I wouldn't want any shop using my G as a guinea pig.

PM if you have any more questions. I was the one who did the DIY guide over at g-owners.com for doubleDIN conversion so I can share some of my experiences, both good AND bad. lol

docron1 aka joe

 

JohnBoy can you please post this wiring diagram up! and possibly some pics??? thanks!!!

 

You can swap out the HU and keep the Bose amp/speakers with an amp interface. Check out http://www.scosche.com/scosche/electronic/FAI3.asp.

I used the FAI3, and it works pretty good.

Joe

 

how much does it run?? i heard that there is no adapter out in the market right now to convert the stock bose speakers to an aftermarket HU... i thought it had to be done manually... did this product just come out?? thanks joe!

 

I picked mine up from Sounddomain for about $35. The adapter doesn't convert the speakers specifically, it allows you to keep the Bose amp. You wire the HU to the input of the FAI-3. The output of the FAI-3 plugs into the harness, which runs to the amp in the trunk.

You need this because the stock HU does not have an amp built-in. You would have an issue if you connected an aftermarket HU, with a built-in amp, to the amp in the trunk directly. Sound quality, etc.

The whole setup allows replacement of the HU, without touching the amp/stock speakers.

 

so you are still using the Bose AMp then correct? How is the sound quality? if you are still using the bose amp are you still getting the same sound after putting in a new HU? i know my Bose sounds like crap...especially the mids and tweets..you cant even hear them... since the headunit that i plan on gettting has a built in amp and EQ i was thinking that if i connected the stock bose speakers directly to the HU it would sound a whole lot better.... please correct me if im wrong.

 

I'm going to warn you that the Bose speakers running on anything other than the Bose amp sound like crap. The Bose speakers were designed with the assumption that they would be receiving the EQ curve the Bose amp outputs to the speakers. When the Bose speakers receive a "flat"/non-EQed signal, they sound worse than they did when connected to the Bose amp.

I was running my stock Bose speakers off of a JL 500/5 for approx. 2 weeks. It was the worst sound experience of my life, well.. short of going to a Jimmy Eat World concert a few years back.

 

Just throwing my $.02 in. I just did an install a couple weeks ago. Replaced my factory Bose with a Pioneer AVIC-D1. I installed the FAI-3 interface adapter, but it sounded like crap. I tried playing with the gains on the adapter, but no matter what, the volume was super low, no bass, and if I turned it up mid-way so I could hear the music, it came out all cracked and distorted. Finally, I decided just to remove the FAI-3 and just directly connect the speaker wires on the harness. Now my sound is just as it was with the factory Bose head unit, which is just fine for me. Not too sure what was going on there. Had all the wires in correctly, and the FAI-3 was set to 'factory amp' mode.

 

I guess it is a matter of opinion. My Kenwood KDC-MP928, the FAI-3, and the Bose amp/speakers doesn't sound too bad, and has good volume.

The sound could be better with a different amp/speakers, but I'm happy for now. My main goal was to control an IPOD from the HU.