Hi guys,

Gonna change out my speakers and headunit in the next couple of days. Any tips on what i do have to look out for? Gonna change my door speakers to 6.5 inch cadence speakers. I drive a 2000 C4.

Cheers

 

I had my entire system replaced this year. I went with Focal speakers all around, including 6.5 inch speakers in the doors. The difference in sound quality is amazing. You'll be happy you decided to make the change. Good luck!

 

Are you just changing out the door speakers or the dash and rear speakers as well? Adding a sub to the system? I've heard that makes a bigger difference right off the bat.

Were you able to simply unscrew the existing speakers and pop in some new ones or was it more involved? Do you need a new amp and wiring as well?

FYI I've got an '03, which if I have learned correctly, is the MOST fiber optic based system, but for some reason I thought that was only from the amp to the head unit and back, and traditional speaker wiring for the rest of the system.

Is it easy enough to plug in a powered sub to the existing CD-23 BOSE system? I was looking into this last week and the audio store made it sound as if the BOSE system was completely proprietary and would need to be either entirely replaced or entirely left in place.

 

Dennis, did you go DIY and is this an easy one? Along with (other post) nav system, iPod I'd consider new speakers/upgrade from Bose, which I've not loved.

 

This weekend i threw in an old set of Boston 6.5 midwoofers in the doors, and matching Boston 4" in the rear, huge improvement

 

I m just replacing my door speakers to 6.5 inch and my head unit to pioneer. I doubt the 2000 models have much fibre optics in them, more traditional wiring.

 

Peter,

I lack the skills for that kind of DIY. I had all the OEM Bose speakers replaced with Focal speakers. Custom boxes had to be built for the larger door speakers and for the new 10" sub behind the rear seats. The rear cargo area was re-carpeted with Porsche carpet to conceal the new sub. I had a Kenwood head unit installed with a custom iPod dock, and a Focal amp installed in the frunk where the OEM CD changer was located. The job took the installer 3 days to complete, but it looks great.

 

Wow; outstanding. I must look into this. PM pics, or useless to do so?

 

I'll send you some pics.

 

I just replaced the headunit on my 03. I believe that the only use of the MOST bus is for connecting the other components, like the amp and the CD changer. My car had the base sound system so I had neither. As a result, there was nothing plugged into the MOST port on the back on my CDR-23. Since the CDR-23 I had also powered the speakers, there was a simple harness with normal wires running to the speakers.

I had my speakers replaced by a shop before buying my car. It worked fine. I don't think MOST gets into this at all. As I understand it, if you have Bose, then the impedence of the speakers can be an issue.

There is a lot of info out there on this, participarly at renntech.org. Unfortunately, a lot of it is confusing and incomplete.

 

Concur on all accounts regarding incomplete and confusing....I don't have the CD changer just the CDR23 head unit and bose speakers.....not entirely positive on the rest of the car.

 

If I understand this right, and please understand that I may not, you would have to replace your amp because your current amp requires a MOST connection and then either get an amp that can work with the lower impedence Bose speakers or replace the speakers too. You can contact the guy at Euro Motorspeed, which sells install kits. He would likely know and is very helpful.

 

Hi,
If you already have the BOSE setup, then you already have a powered subwoofer - it sits behind the rear seats, uses a ported enclosure with two down firing 5.25 drivers.
Not sure why you want to add an additional subwoofer to the factory cdr23 BOSE
Setup.
-Sanjeev

 

Hi all,
I've been down the path of figuring out the 2003 cdr23-MOST-BOSE system,
And made some headway in replacing the stock components. Briefly, it's possible, but gets pretty involved if you want to replace the HU because of the MOST bus. See my post on rem tech for how I tackled this using an Autoleads harness connector that plugs into the factory wiring harness.

http://www.renntech.org/forums/topic...31#entry198731

It is possible to re-use the factory speakers, but quite frankly, good aftermarket speakers are much better, and are the most bang for the buck upgrade IMHO.
Hope this helps cut thru the confusion.
- Sanjeev

 

I figured this out yesterday while digging around.

I also found the amp in the front of the trunk. If I'm going to upgrade this it sounds like I'd need an amp/speakers to start and then go from there.

I might hold off for a bit and just enjoy what's in there for a while, you never get money back from audio improvements anyways....

Thanks for all the information though!