I've got a '86 Factory plain Jane deck in the car and I'm thinking of using the speaker outputs into an amp, maybe two.

The goal is to keep the interior low-profile to avoid break-ins. I'm not crazy about using the speaker level outputs, but it's better than nothing.

Anyone doing this and what kinds of results are you getting? Should I be keeping an eye out for a certain kind of factory deck like the Bose?

 

The Bose is the one you DON'T want to use. IIRC, it has seperate amps at each speaker. At least the one in my 4th gen did.

I've done that many times to my second cars, by boat, etc. I usually did it just to add a sub, then replaced the factory speakers with some better ones like Pioneer or something like that.

Unless you have an amp with that feature, you'll need one of these.....
<--- Click here

The sound is as good as you can expect from something like this. It sounds better than it does without it, I can at least say that.

AJ

 

This one I have used, and it works really well. I know it's a little more, but it's worth it IMO.

<--- Click Here

AJ

 

What was the first black box, a speaker level to RCA level converter or a sub crossover?

I'm more inclined to replace the factory speakers and run them all off the amps, maybe a sub later. I'm thinking an honest 25 Watts X 4.

 

Yea...... I'm sorry

Scratch off the first one. I thought it was the second one until I actually found the second one.

You can use the second one as just a regular converter (speaker output to RCA output). It has a crossover, but you actually don't have to use it. That way when you add a sub later, you can use it for a crossover.

AJ