Want to say first, great site. Have learned much about just by reading through the forums. On my 95 coupe I bought earlier this year I have the Bose system in it, but the front speakers never worked (barely) and the rears sound "ok". I have found that it has plain Delco speakers all around. I understand now why the fronts have no sound, but I would think the rears wouldn't work either. I've since found out by looking at the RPO codes there were Bose stereos sold with a non-bose system.

Regardless, would I be able to just replace them all with Bose speakers? Would any other modifications had to have been done to make it a complete Bose system? I'm hoping to pickup some used working ones at a good price. I was going to replace the whole system, but the decided to keep the original sound system if possible.

The true Bose system would have an amplifier at each speaker location. I've heard, but never done it myself, that using "normal" speakers in a Bose system doesn't sound very well. I have seen, in the past, replacement Bose speakers from places like Mid America, but don't know if they are still available separately or not. 

as joel said there is an amplifier at each speaker for the bose systems. in my 90 the bose system was removed but not the speakers. i think a lot was lost with the different system thru the bose speakers. the only thing that was done to use the speakers was to run a new wire right to the speaker and not use what came with the car. wish it still had the bose system.

My '85 originally came with the Bose system, but the stereo had been replaced by a "regular" GM stereo, so mine don't sound that good, either, but it still sounds OK. The wiring wasn't changed at all on mine...the other stereo plugged right in.
I got to thinking, and I don't know if Delco actually supplied the replacement Bose speakers or not. They may have made them available under the Delco name as over the counter replacements, even tho they may still have actually been made by Bose. Just something I've never ever thought about, but it might be interesting to know.

I've had many an adventure with the Bose system in my '89. A rear speaker went bad, so I replaced it with one from Mid America - it worked perfect but cost was near $150 for 1 speaker and amp. Soon after 2 more speakers went bad, so I tried to order the amps and couldn't find them at any of our favorite suppliers, ecklers, mid America, corvette fever, etc. So I got 2 from the partsladi (now out of business). As soon as I turned on the system they shot out a puff of black smoke and were toast. Since then, the 4th speaker went bad. I then bought 4 Kenwood speakers and the special wiring harness that's supposed to make the Bose radio work with non-Bose speakers. This was thru Best Buy and we couldn't get that to work at all. The tech from Best Buy said to give up on that approach and I think he's right

[quote=redvette89 ]So when I listen to the radio, I have a nice Bose unit with 1 good speaker. My temporary solution is to make pretend I'm 9 yrs old again listening to Casey Casem on the 9v transistor radio in the tree fort - LOL[/quote]



They have always recommended replacing the speaker/amps in car sets...not one/two at a time. Don't know why that is, but it is.

I think I'm leaning towards a complete system change out now as well. I'll let you know how it comes out.
The original system just looks better in the dash then anything aftermarket. I guess the benefits of MP3's, etc will offset that. Will be nice to have a little storage pocket under the radio too as most of the dash kits have.

OK, here goes...

I´m from the Netherlands originally, but live in Sweden nowadays...

That´s one thing... 

I´m also member on a dutch corvette forum and I´ve read about a few guys that actually had great success plugging in regular 4 ohm speakers without problems.

There should be a line-out on the headunit.

That´s were they pluggen in the speakers in some way.

I could try to find the topic (not to long ago), and translate the whole thing... kind off...

Read it again, and must say that  it was a bit the other way arround.

The guy in Holland used the original bose speakers (without the amps in place), in combo with another stereo and plugged the speakers directly to the line-outs of the stereo.

Here´s a link with pics:http://www.heartbeatforum.nl/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=18080

vette0792011-07-18 12:13:20