Jump to content

Millenia's Bose System - Faq


///BHRpowered
 Share

Recommended Posts

Originally posted by "milly"

 

 

I had a '95 Mazda Millenia S and now have a '00 Mazda Millenia S. The problem is that the previous owner of my '00 decided to just change the speakers and leave the old head unit thus ensuring the worst of both worlds (i.e. underpowered amp for high-impedance polyurethane speakers). I'm changing out the aftermarket speakers for the original paper-cone Bose since the sound is much more natural for the type of music I listen to regularly.

 

The problem I'm running into is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of information (especially not in one place) about the various revisions of the Bose system in the Mazda Millenia S from '95-'02; this makes finding replacement speakers from someone other than the Mazda dealer (who wants $400-$600/speaker) quite a task. I thought I'd post what I know and maybe a couple of other people can follow-up and correct my assumptions or add detail; maybe this could be the basis for an FAQ?

 

IIRC the '95 Bose had a slightly different setup than my '00, and from what little info I can gather there were three revisions to the system:

 

'95-'96: Bose head unit (watts?) w/o CD player, changer option in trunk. Rear speakers are 6x9" and front speakers are component with ~1" tweeter near the side mirror and either 5.25" or 6.5" mid-range in the front lower door panel.

 

'97-'00: Bose head unit (watts?) w/CD player in dash, (changer option in trunk?) Rear speakers are 6x9" (same speakers as '95-'96?) and front speakers are tweeter in dash (size?) and either 4" or 4.5" in the front lower door panel (AFAIK not the same door speakers as '95-'96).

 

'00-'01: Bose head unit w/6-disc CD player in dash. Rear speakers are 6x9" (same speakers as '97-'00?) and front is some sort of arrangement of 4-6 more speakers. Also, (10"?) subwoofer in the rear deck.

 

Also, as far as I know, all the speakers are 2 ohm and are amplified; not sure if the amplifier is *in* the speaker or contained seperately. As far as replacement is concerned my understanding is that replacement of 2 ohm with aftermarket 4 ohm speakers will cause an ~3dB loss of output. Also, head-unit can be replaced with aftermarket double-DIN models with the use of an adapter.

 

Best way to solve Bose speaker problems is (1) to attempt repair, which can often fix common problems with wiring and (2) to contact salvage yards like mazdarecycling.com and mazmart.com for what you need; assuming the information above gets solidifed this could be the way to go...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

On the 95-96 each speaker has the amp bolted right next to it on the enclosure (front speakers) or in a casing at the end of the magnet (rear speakers). The head unit itself does not put out any wattage. They are 2 ohm and if you are going to go aftermarket you have to change out everything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I didn't use any of it. You could use the stock speaker wire, but it is really small. Each speaker has 4 wires running to it via a harness. A power, ground, and a positive and negative speaker wire. You would also have to splice off the factory harness at the head unit. It is next to impossible to wire it all to the truck if you are running an amp. All of that was a lot more work than it was worth, so I re-ran new smaller gauge wire.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

From my audio work this week, I can speak for the 01's. Oddly enough, my car didn't get the 6 disc indash player but is indeed Bose. I do have loss after adding 4 ohm speakers. There are no individual amps for the front and rear speakers, just an OEM four channel somewhere in the trunk. Everytime I power on the audio, I can hear the relays click in the trunk. The 8" sub had it's own amp attached to the driver, and sounded terrible. Interior speakers were all 2 ohm. 6.5" in door, 1" tweeter in sail panel, 6x9 in rear deck along with that 8" sub. Judging from construction of the door and wiring configuration, this was the premium audio system offered in 01. Only option my car was missing was the 6 disc. Hope this clears up '01. I'll try to confirm the second Bose amp next time I work on my audio.

 

As far as the wiring for my car, factory was great. They ran dual 18 guage all the way from the secondary trunk amp to the black enclosures in the doors. Wiring switched after that to 16 gauge in the attached factory harness connector directly to the mid driver. As far as I can tell, there is no crossover point for any speakers built into the OEM amp. The small wiring to the tweeter won't matter as higher frequencies aren't much affected by resistance in wire size. I was pretty pleased with using the factory wiring, saved me the headache of trying to run aftermarket wire through a Molex plug. Overall, Mazda did a great job on electrical for this car. I had planned on re-running the main wiring of my millenia, but after figuring up voltage drop with my Fluke meter, total voltage drop from the battery to all other major connections was only .1 to .2.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

OK I found this:

 

 

There are 8 outputs from the head unit that i count so they should account for the 8 wires; 4 - 2 positive and 2 negative for the front channel and 4 more - 2 positive and 2 negative for the rear channel. 1J which is probably for the remote turn on. So what about 1K, 1L, 1M, 1N? Now I just need to identify which are for the front and rear.

 

I also found the wiring diagram.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you connect 4ohm speaker to a 2ohm system you may burn the amp, but typically its not true for semiconductor amps.

 

I dont know the output impedance of Bose amps, 3dB power loss, i cant say true or false.

 

As I did some research to build a custom amp with best components (not the cheapest as most inexpensive does), I can say that speaker doesnt matter that much, if it is above certain quality. What matters is the amp. For me most important aspects are power, noise (hiss sound), and linearity (how corrupted at high volumes). Bose amps are very good for the latter two. For power, i hardly turn the knob to the end. If you wanna just rock the car dont care about what sound is coming out, linearity and noise may not be important to you. You have to equalize the sound in the cabin. Because of the shape and materials of the cabin, not all frequencies will be heard the same amount if all amplified flat. Some heads have equalizer but Bose did this for milly at design, so we dont have it.. You can hardly do this manually with a custom design, have to use software adjustment, which will hurt the quality (if not digital). If you dont like to hear a flat frequency band like me, adjust EQ when you burn the CD (this is digital).

 

OK I found this:

 

 

There are 8 outputs from the head unit that i count so they should account for the 8 wires; 4 - 2 positive and 2 negative for the front channel and 4 more - 2 positive and 2 negative for the rear channel. 1J which is probably for the remote turn on. So what about 1K, 1L, 1M, 1N? Now I just need to identify which are for the front and rear.

 

I also found the wiring diagram.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is why I want to tap into the speakers output between the HU and the amp. That way the Bose system is unchanged. My 'tap' will just add some need BOOM or THUMP to the system.

 

And if that cannot be done then I record the CD with preset EQ. It is just not as good as my iPod has the same and it helps but does not BOOM or THUMP.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok i have a 95 millenia s with the panasonic head unit/system. im gonna run a new head unit but keep the stock wires. but i also wanna add a 8 inch sub (with an amp for it). any suggestions or things i should do to run a successful system? ( i know ill need a stronger battery as well. and if i dont, i wanna do it anyway jic)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK

 

I ran some tests and here is what I discovered.

 

There are 9 outputs from the head unit (WITHOUT A CD changer in the trunk); - 2 positive and 2 negative for the front channel and 4 more - 2 positive and 2 negative for the rear channel and 1 which is for the remote turn on.

 

[attachmentid=540]

 

So what about 2A, 2B, 2F, 2H, 1J, 1K, 1L, 1M, & 1N? The "( )" color is what plugs into the amp. The other is coming out the HU (radio).

 

 

2A = BLK (OR BLU) ~Rear channel with same polarity as 2B +4V

2B = RED (OR GRN) ~Rear channel with same polarity as 2A +4V

2F = WHT (OR GRN/ORG) ~Rear channel with same polarity as 2H +4V

2H = GRN (OR GRN/BLK) ~Rear channel with same polarity as 2F +4V

 

1K = YEL (OR LT GRN) ~Front channel with same polarity as 1L +4V

1L = ORG (OR LT GRN/BLK) ~Front channel with same polarity as 1K +4V

1M = RED (OR YEL/RED) ~Front channel with same polarity as 1N +4V

1N = WHT (YEL/BLK) ~Front channel with same polarity as 1M +4V

 

1J = LT GRN/RED ~Remote turn on +12V

U = RED/WHT ~Constant power +12V

 

2A or 2B will work with 2H or 2F or 1N or 1M

1K or 1L will work with 1N or 1M or 2H or 2F

 

The voltage given is the with the negative grounded to the car, and the harness UNPLUGGED from the BOSE amp.

 

I could not figure out which is positive or negative or which is right or left. Fading the radio to the rear (channel 2) or front (channel 1) makes the other channel (1 or 2) not put out speaker sound (but still has voltage). But balance to right or left makes no changes to sound or voltage.

 

Any ideas as to what to try next or how to determine which is positive or negative and left or right?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...

The 01-02 headunit had a 6 disc BOSE changer some are non-bose...I do not have bose sound in my car but I want the BOSE headunit with the 6 disc changer... Is this an easy swap? Are the hookups in the back of the non bose single cd player the same as the BOSE headunit with the changer? I've also learned that the BOSE headunit had an amplifier, even if i dont have BOSE will this still amplify my speakers???

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The 01-02 headunit had a 6 disc BOSE changer some are non-bose...I do not have bose sound in my car but I want the BOSE headunit with the 6 disc changer... Is this an easy swap? Are the hookups in the back of the non bose single cd player the same as the BOSE headunit with the changer? I've also learned that the BOSE headunit had an amplifier, even if i dont have BOSE will this still amplify my speakers???

 

 

 

Not sure about the 01-02, but I do know that the 00 model year this did not work. The Bose unit does not have an amplifier, it had amplifiers at each speaker. No problem hooking it up, but you will get very little volume, unless you get the amplifiers also. I tried this when I got my car, was disappointed to find out the hard way. :(

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the 01-02, it's built similar to an aftermarket system. 4 channel amp for the interior 6 speakers, and dedicated amp attached to the 8 inch sub.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's a problem of a high voltage signal going into a low level reciever (bose amp). Eventually the caps in the amp will overheat and fail. It's either replace the speakers, bypass the Bose and use power from the headunit, or keep the entire Bose system with a Bose adapter and aftermarket headunit. In my experience, the adapters don't always do a good job of matching the voltage correctly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My second system design will weigh approximately 40 more pounds than stock with no decrease in current audio performance. I'm currently devising a plan to offset the 40 pound difference.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...