Bad install? I'm very confused.

[orangetang 10+ year member]

Hello everyone, this is my first post here at caraudio.com.

I drive a 2002 Nissan Pathfinder which came with the BOSE Premium 6-disc changer and 6.5" components in the front. The 6-disc was terrible, so I swapped it out with an Alpine CDA-9853 a couple of years ago, and installed the PAC step down converter to make it work better with the BOSE amp... I found that whenever I tried to increase bass or mids etc. with MX or 5/7band EQ with speakers would quiet down, as if the amp had auto-clipping engaged 10 fold... In any case the speakers wouldn't get loud at all with any amount of bass, and when they did, they popped...

I recently bought an Alpine PDX-4.100, type r 6.5" components for the front and type r 6.5" coax for the back, new stinger stereo interconnects, 8 guage stinger wire power wire, used a generic fuse block that i run all my foglamps and winch off of, and used 16 guage monster speaker wire... Everything is hooked up correctly, as far as I know. I would say at this point the speakers are much more powerfull, but just as clear as the bose were (at a lower volume), however the volume still drops dramatically when I turn on MX or increase bass on the eq...

Is this normal? Power-IC is off, everything is via RCA to amp... PDX wouldn't tune stuff down would it?

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[WrenchGuy 10+ year member]

Its stock...lol I dont mess with stock so I dont know but that BOSE is a headache. You bought everything else you might as well buy an amp too...lol

 

[Fiercetimbo17 10+ year member]

i had that same cd player, it has to be a setting in the cd player that is doing it.

You did take you the pac adapter correct?

 

[orangetang 10+ year member]

The PAC is still plugged into the harness, but I'm using only the RCA out, so the BOSE amp and PAC are doing their own thing, unless you think that somehow the BOSE amp is communicating with the head unit, even though those outputs have been disabled in the headunit settings...

Pass filters on the PDX amp are OFF, and they are also off on the headunit. This doesn't make any sence... Unless the amp is being starved of power. Maybe there is a problem with my power wire?!

 

[Thedeadly1 10+ year member]

Wow thats gotta be frustrating. Seriously, i would just scratch all the bose and start fresh, except for the stuff you already bought. Good luck!

 

[Rich B 5,000+ posts]

The PAC is still plugged into the harness, but I'm using only the RCA out, so the BOSE amp and PAC are doing their own thing, unless you think that somehow the BOSE amp is communicating with the head unit, even though those outputs have been disabled in the headunit settings...
Pass filters on the PDX amp are OFF, and they are also off on the headunit. This doesn't make any sence... Unless the amp is being starved of power. Maybe there is a problem with my power wire?!

I may be mistaken, but I believe those Bose amps have a non-defeatable eq circuit built into them.

The "famous" Bose sound is all in their EQ, and it may be that the higher output from your PAC is tripping some sort of anti-clipping built in the amp thats due to the large amount of EQ Bose uses.

 

[orangetang 10+ year member]

OK, I didn't say anything the first time, but three posts all saying I should buy a new amp...

All my speakers (Alpine Type R Components and Coax) are powered by an ALPINE PDX-4.100 (4ch x 100w) amp, connected to the head unit via RCA stereo interconnects.The BOSE amp and harness are still connected to the headunit for power, but they are NOT connected to any speakers, and the BOSE amp is NOT receiving an audio signal from the head unit, since the powered outputs on the head unit are disabled...

Unless the BOSE amp or PAC is somehow manipulating the 12V power to headunit then there should be no conflict whatsover. I would like to know if anyone has an idea as to why my current NON-BOSE installation is behaving in the same fashion as the BOSE system did previously.

The BOSE drivers and tweets and 2-din disc changer are in a cardboard box, not in the vehicle.

 

[maldecido33 10+ year member]

Sounds like something to do with the your headunit. It's the only common factor in both scenarios.

 

[orangetang 10+ year member]

Thats what I was thinking. What other explanation could there be?

 

[WrenchGuy 10+ year member]

I'm wondering why the amp is a concern if your not using it? I'd just get rid of the harness all together.