07 G35 coupe with Bose. Is it true that I can only use 2 ohm speakers throughout the car? Keeping stock HU and was keeping the stock Bose amp (for now) if this is the case, what are the best/cleanest sounding 6 1/2 or 6 3/4 separates anyone would recommend? Also do I need to buy some spacer or something? Does it make a difference if I go with 6.5 or 6 3/4 components? Thanks - Tim

 

From my learning in the past 2 to 3 weeks.. the Bose system uses 2 ohm speakers.. I think that is based on the amp that is in your trunk. U might be able to buy a 4 ohm speaker, but u will need to wire it up to be 2 ohms. U are limited to the bose amp. Also the car has 6.5 in the front and rear and 5x9 in the rear window. What I ended up getting based on recommendations were 6.5 component speakers for the front doors, which comes with crossover, tweeter and mid woofer type speaker.

I think if you change the size u will need to mod something (the mounting holes) to get them to fit.. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

The bose speakers are more like 3 ohms, so any 3 or 4 ohm speaker will work fine on the amp. The bose amp has fair reliability, but I wouldn't trust it to run for a very long time with the added load of 2 ohm speakers on it.

Recommendations on speakers depends entirely on your budget.

Unless you cut up and modify the (rather poor) speaker mount built onto the factory speakers, you'll need to buy or make your own speaker spacer.

Front and rear sides are both 6.5", with the rear deck in the bose-equipped coupes being 6x9" (not 5x9).

 

Thanks for catching that Wrathernut. I meant to say 6x9

 

Thanks for the help

 

The tweeters out of my 03 and 04 coupes were clearly marked 4 ohm. In my 08 G37, they weren't marked, but they appear to be the same thing (replacing them with 4 ohm tweeters, system sounded significantly better but was still balanced).

 

The tweeters in 05-07 (and I assume 03-04) are identical whether you've got the bose or non-bose system, and are clearly marked as 4 ohm.

From my bose-equipped 05 on the left, and my wife's base system on the right (housing removed for re-use).


The speakers in the bose system are the same in the front and rear doors of the sedan (and I'd assume the same in the coupe as well), but are not marked.
The base system speakers (left) are made by Panasonic, and are clearly marked as 4 ohm, 40w, while the bose system speakers are not marked with any specifications, probably because that would have cost them a few extra pennies to produce, and if it isn't obvious from the photos, bose definitely had these produced for as cheap as possible... they look straight out of a 1981 Ford Ranger to me.

So as for their specs, since they are run in parallel to the tweeters, if they are 4 ohm, the resulting load would be a pretty-common 2 ohm load, so I would assume that the bose speaker is also 4 ohm.

Comparison Shots:

Again, Panasonic (base system) on the left, bose ("premium") on the right:

Panasonic (base):

Bose ("premium"):


Oh, and since I'm on the subject of how bad the bose system sucks, here's their 8" subwoofer:

 

Lmao but thanks for the pics and info helps a lot

 

Just about any 2 ohm amp can drive 4 ohm speakers. Since the load increases, the output power (Ohms Law) of the amp will decrease because of the increased resistance/load, but you will most likely not notice the difference if you locate a really efficient speaker as a replacement.

Where you can run into trouble is using amps rated at 4 ohms to drive 2 ohm loads. A good amp can handle this kind of load all day, but a marginal created with lower cost components will overheat as a result of the increased current.

Also recall that two 4 ohm speakers wired in parallel exhibit a load of 2 ohms to the amp.

If you merely have a blow speaker, I would replace it with one from the Bose system (I've seen these used on the forum, eBay and Craigslist). This may be the safest bet.

 

Thanks. I'm actually upgrading the whole system a little at a time. Just got married and the wife will **** if I spend 2k on a system lol. I basically wanted to replace the front components first and run them off of the stock Amp with and keep stock HU. I sold my JL 4ch amp before I bought this car, I honestly thought the Bose system would sound better.. It sounds flat to me especially if I don't have a cd in. My brother gave me his 4 x 600 Planet Audio amp but I don't know if they are any good or not. Ive always used JL amps.

 

I've been in this scenario several times myself.

The head unit makes sense to upgrade first, but the barrier to entry is much higher due to all the ancillary costs associated with JDM DD adapter, wiring harness, antenna adapter, etc.

You are in to it for $500 before you even purchase the head unit.

Speakers are tough in the beginning because the head unit does not have much power. I was planning on starting with some nice tweeters, but the install group at Best Buy advised against it and said each time they've changed just the tweeters out, the customer brought the car back and said they sounded too 'tinny'.

 

It's a shame you still don't have that JL amp, it'd work well as a first step towards upgrading.

I'd go with this order, assuming your headunit still works fine:
1) JL amp (or another amp which takes differential-balanced inputs) to replace the bose amp. ($300)
2) New front components - I'm really impressed with the price/performance of Image Dynamics CTX65-CS's at well under $200.
3) New headunit.

 

Each speaker may be 4 ohm, but if you wire in "parallel" the amp will see a 2 ohm load. So a four ohm tweet and a four ohm mid wired in parallel, give +/- 2 ohm.

 

hey guys, so i have been reading through this and Im a bit lost.
I need to replace one of my rear deck speakers on a bose system.

I am looking at some kickers that are the following spec:
Speaker Type (Car Speakers) 2-way
Power Handling (Car Speakers) 360W Peak / 80W RMS
Frequency Response (Car Speakers) 30Hz - 20kHz
Impedance (Car Speakers) 4 Ω
Woofer Size (Car Speakers) 6 x 9 inch

Will these work? with the stock amp.

They are 4 ohms and it seems like ppl are claiming that this will run on the amp.

Just making sure that they will work before i purchase them.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

It won't hurt the amp, but the sensitivity rating on those is low enough that they may be quieter than stock.