finally did it. after doing tons of research on the way the bose system functions on our trucks i found the way to make everything work.
i have read so much and looked at so many electrical schematics i felt m head was going to explode. took me about a month of researching and finally did my first test with great success to far. its been 24hrs since i did this and the system is going strong. no blown fuses or engine noise .
so the people at BOSE are no help at all when it comes to getting info about there system. the dealership has no clue or just doesn't want anyone to upgrade. the other companies that make adapters just want to sell you more electrical components to add to your already complicated Bose system.
ok so i bought my truck brand new back in december of 09 . i have kept it stock this whole time but just hated to Bose sound system it came with. my truck has so many add ons from factory that i did not want to lose any of them also i do not want to cut any factory wires or harnesses off.did that with my last car and 10 years later when i had to put it back to stock it was a pain in the butt. so did not want to do that again.
finally about 2 months ago i just couldn't take that lame system anymore i have tons of cool audio stuff just sitting in my closet so i decided to go ahead and put a nice sound quality "SQ" sound system together.
my goal to have a "great" sounding system that just blends into my truck. keep everything hidden make it look stock. i want everything to work. steering wheel controls,on-star,back up sensors,warning chimes,turn signals,blue tooth,XM radio.
ok what i found out is that "GM" has 2 kind of Bose sound systems.
1. the standard Bose system .its in about all there Bose equipped cars and trucks
![Image]()
the standard amp has the 3 harness plugs you see above.
2.the Bose luxury system. the speakers and sub are the same ones as the standard system but it has a way better amp. feeds more power and sounds better than the standard system. that one comes in GMC denali,Cadillacs,and some top of the line silverados.
that amp has 4 harness plugs.
![Image]()
the amp is also slightly bigger
![Image]()
i came to find out that there is big difference between both systems besides the power.
luxury system has a smart amplifier . there is a bus data line that runs from the head unit to the amp. the amp does all the thinking and crossover points for the system. it takes care of all the chimes , sensors , blue tooth, on and on. so the amp is very important to the system
the standard Bose system has a "DUMB" amp. its nothing more than a slave unit it does nothing more than amplify the signal. it does have a built in crossover that all the settings are set for. when the volume goes up past a certain point the amp turns power down to the sub to protect it . other than that the amp does nothing more.all your chimes , on-star, sensors, on and on (lol) are processed through your head unit.
after finding that out and knowing the bean counters at GM i knew that the standard bose amp was not going to have a signal sensing amp to turn on when it knows there is sound coming in. but the had to be a remote 12volt wire.
guess what? THERE IS
i came to find out that Bose did do some nice things to the head unit.the stock head unit from GM that are Bose the output from the unit to the amp are NOT high level speaker outputs like your regular non-bose head units. instead they are low level rca signals . i removed the cable and stripped back enough electrical tape to find not speaker cable but rca cable.
it also feeds a balanced low level signal. with a ground bleeder. so no engine noise is pick up. now my amps can handle balanced inputs
some amplifiers don't. but thats not a problem audio-control makes signal converters that make a balanced signal to analog so you can still keep your amp. there not too expensive.
the Bose head unit outputs 6.5 volts WOW that blows away a lot of the after market units out there .so after testing out all my research i went ahead and searched for weeks to find a harness i was not going to cut my cables
well this is what i came up with . the stock BOSE head unit sounds incredible . i cant believe the stock head unit can produce such a clean signal to my amps.
best of all EVERYTHING works like factory. my chime , turn signals are not amplified they sound just like before. even though im running some major power and all new speakers.
the factory Bose head unit feeds 4 channels out. front, left , right, and rear , left, right. the stock Bose amp internally separates the signal and gives you front,left , right, rear , left , right , but also sends out a sub output. the sub output is created by the amp not the head unit. the head unit just feeds a clean unfiltered full signal.
so this is what i made . its a straight plug and play. it plugs in at the center console . dont even have to remove the deck. i removed my amp and sub out of the center console . everything works great.
i will keep you posted incase i find any bugs. i have been thinking of maybe selling some if everything works out. to recover some of the cost of the special crimpers i had to buy to crimp the special harness pins i had to buy. those new pins GM is using are so small that the tyco and molex crimpers are too big.
![Image]()
by the way as far as i know this wont work on luxury Bose systems .
i will late do a full post on my set up . once i catch up on some quality time with my family. this project took lots of time just to get a simple easy solution.
UPDATED:
bose upgrade with no adapter
i have read so much and looked at so many electrical schematics i felt m head was going to explode. took me about a month of researching and finally did my first test with great success to far. its been 24hrs since i did this and the system is going strong. no blown fuses or engine noise .
so the people at BOSE are no help at all when it comes to getting info about there system. the dealership has no clue or just doesn't want anyone to upgrade. the other companies that make adapters just want to sell you more electrical components to add to your already complicated Bose system.
ok so i bought my truck brand new back in december of 09 . i have kept it stock this whole time but just hated to Bose sound system it came with. my truck has so many add ons from factory that i did not want to lose any of them also i do not want to cut any factory wires or harnesses off.did that with my last car and 10 years later when i had to put it back to stock it was a pain in the butt. so did not want to do that again.
finally about 2 months ago i just couldn't take that lame system anymore i have tons of cool audio stuff just sitting in my closet so i decided to go ahead and put a nice sound quality "SQ" sound system together.
my goal to have a "great" sounding system that just blends into my truck. keep everything hidden make it look stock. i want everything to work. steering wheel controls,on-star,back up sensors,warning chimes,turn signals,blue tooth,XM radio.
ok what i found out is that "GM" has 2 kind of Bose sound systems.
1. the standard Bose system .its in about all there Bose equipped cars and trucks
the standard amp has the 3 harness plugs you see above.
2.the Bose luxury system. the speakers and sub are the same ones as the standard system but it has a way better amp. feeds more power and sounds better than the standard system. that one comes in GMC denali,Cadillacs,and some top of the line silverados.
that amp has 4 harness plugs.
the amp is also slightly bigger
i came to find out that there is big difference between both systems besides the power.
luxury system has a smart amplifier . there is a bus data line that runs from the head unit to the amp. the amp does all the thinking and crossover points for the system. it takes care of all the chimes , sensors , blue tooth, on and on. so the amp is very important to the system
the standard Bose system has a "DUMB" amp. its nothing more than a slave unit it does nothing more than amplify the signal. it does have a built in crossover that all the settings are set for. when the volume goes up past a certain point the amp turns power down to the sub to protect it . other than that the amp does nothing more.all your chimes , on-star, sensors, on and on (lol) are processed through your head unit.
after finding that out and knowing the bean counters at GM i knew that the standard bose amp was not going to have a signal sensing amp to turn on when it knows there is sound coming in. but the had to be a remote 12volt wire.
guess what? THERE IS
i came to find out that Bose did do some nice things to the head unit.the stock head unit from GM that are Bose the output from the unit to the amp are NOT high level speaker outputs like your regular non-bose head units. instead they are low level rca signals . i removed the cable and stripped back enough electrical tape to find not speaker cable but rca cable.
it also feeds a balanced low level signal. with a ground bleeder. so no engine noise is pick up. now my amps can handle balanced inputs
some amplifiers don't. but thats not a problem audio-control makes signal converters that make a balanced signal to analog so you can still keep your amp. there not too expensive.
the Bose head unit outputs 6.5 volts WOW that blows away a lot of the after market units out there .so after testing out all my research i went ahead and searched for weeks to find a harness i was not going to cut my cables
well this is what i came up with . the stock BOSE head unit sounds incredible . i cant believe the stock head unit can produce such a clean signal to my amps.
best of all EVERYTHING works like factory. my chime , turn signals are not amplified they sound just like before. even though im running some major power and all new speakers.
the factory Bose head unit feeds 4 channels out. front, left , right, and rear , left, right. the stock Bose amp internally separates the signal and gives you front,left , right, rear , left , right , but also sends out a sub output. the sub output is created by the amp not the head unit. the head unit just feeds a clean unfiltered full signal.
so this is what i made . its a straight plug and play. it plugs in at the center console . dont even have to remove the deck. i removed my amp and sub out of the center console . everything works great.
i will keep you posted incase i find any bugs. i have been thinking of maybe selling some if everything works out. to recover some of the cost of the special crimpers i had to buy to crimp the special harness pins i had to buy. those new pins GM is using are so small that the tyco and molex crimpers are too big.
by the way as far as i know this wont work on luxury Bose systems .
i will late do a full post on my set up . once i catch up on some quality time with my family. this project took lots of time just to get a simple easy solution.
UPDATED:
bose upgrade with no adapter
