I've replaced Bose bass drivers in two of my Audis (2 woofers in an old A4, and 1 "subwoofer" of laughingly low quality in my current Q5) and both were spec'ed at 2 ohms. Just sayin'.

(Photo attached for reference.)

 

That's why the new 4 ohm Focals in the Bose system ROCK!

 

It is very apparent the so called experts I spoke with were not very informed. I am always amazed by the level of expertise , knowledge and information I get from this forum. The search for my system design continues.
Thanks for the edification!

 

While this is a bit off topic, something I never got a good answer to is "why is the car audio "standard" 4 ohm loads and home 8 ohm loads?".

I suspect it has something to do with a car's 12 volt charging system but I don't really understand why. dalancroft noted the presence of 2 ohm speakers.... this baffles me. 2 ohm speakers are very tough for an amp to drive and usually, if the amp is not super expensive and well designed, will suffer sound quality as it tries to drive such a difficult load.

Note I put standard in quotes, as there is no real standard but an accepted standard. These standards exists so you can go to Best Buy and just get another set of speakers and upgrade your home system without having too much knowledge and the commercial market for parts coalesce around interoperability. Audiophiles, however, have to be very careful that their exotic speakers are a match for their amplifiers. This is why many audiophiles buy very expensive and super heavy amps that are designed to handle very difficult loads. You can then swap speakers without too much worry.

Anyone out there shed some light on why car audio has a 4 ohm "standard"?

Peace
Bruce in Philly

 

Actually think gasongasoff addressed this pretty well earlier in the thread. I admit it might take a while to find it in the 45 pages...

 

Did entire budget audio install (except center speaker) and it appears I lost my right rear and left front channel. Checked right rear speaker feed by re-connecting original Bose and still no sound. Did I blow 2 channels in my amp? If so should I upgrade amp? Thanks.

 

Bummer! Were they working before you did the install? Did you disconnect the battery while you were doing the install? You can have bad results if you short out the speaker wires - even though those chances are pretty low if the stereo is off.

Honestly, I would not recommend a new amp. Find an old Bose amp on eBay or somewhere else. The Bose amp is plenty adequate to power the system. I would even try to find a .2 amp because it is noticeably better, but I have no idea what would be required to use a .2 amp in a .1 car.

Good luck and very sorry to hear about the issues.

 

I shorted my amp when I did the install but what I did was disconnected the battery, waited a few minutes and it reset itself.

Try that. Hopefully it's not a blown amp.

 

Pull the speakers and re-check your connections first. Then pull the battery to reset the system as cab83 did. Virtually all amps have a protection circuit to protect against shorted wires hurting anything. If the amp does not have this... then it is truly crap.... but I doubt the amp is damaged. Usually the protection circuit is "global" meaning all channels go silent.

Oh, and make sure your fader isn't all the way forward... just sayin.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

 

I will check all my connections and disconnect the battery to try to re-set. Thanks for all your help. I will keep you posted.

 

Disconnected battery to try to re-set. It did not work. I spoke with Shane at Delrey Customs. He was very helpful and set me up with a Mobridge digital to analog converter and a JL XD800 amplifier. I will do away with the Bose amp altogether but still utilize my stock PCM and full functionality. I am sure this will improve the sound quality over the stock Bose amp as well. I will install next weekend and keep all posted. Thanks Shane for the great help and fantastic service.

 

Wow! I heard this was impossible!

Please describe where and how you tap into the digital stream. So it has the full 5.1 out, or two channel, or what.... gotta give some details. The Bose system interprets many kinds of digital in such as MTS from CD, DVD-A and such. My credit card is about to jump out of my wallet......

Peace
Bruce in Philly

 

The Mobridge converter is fiber-optic in and 8 analog channels out (to feed the aftermarket amplifier). See this link:

http://www.mobridge.us/products/most...analog-pre-amp

See this link for the amp I am using:

http://www.jlaudio.com/xd800-8v2-car...plifiers-98259

 

Should sound good with the speakers. Too bad you didn't get a chance to hear them with the Bose amp. Let us know how it works out.
Really wonder if you're going to get $1000 worth of benefit.

 

I can't determine positive or negative wire on the door woofer. Gray/thin pin or Black/ fat pin?

What is confusing me is the terminal clamps(?) sizing. On the Bose, the thin pin is gray, fat=black. I would assume fat black is neg but... On the Focal Woofer, thin pin =neg and fat = red/pos.

On the Bose harness, the gray line snaps to the bright green on.

Any ideas?