2017-04-18

The BOSE Audio Interface

I've been moving forward with this project assuming that my Raspberry Pi system could be connected *somehow* to the original BOSE amplified speakers.

Today I finally had a chance to get the Corvette into the garage to disassemble the dashboard, remove the old BOSE head unit and begin experimenting.

Since there's no documentation that I can find that describes what kind of audio signal is provided by the BOSE head unit or what the BOSE amplified speakers are expecting as input, I thought I'd try driving them with a typical "line level" audio signal provided by my iPod Nano.

Surprisingly it worked and worked well. I could vary the volume of the BOSE speakers by adjusting the iPod Nano volume. The sound was actually very good with a good volume range.

So, a question I've had for many years has been answered. The BOSE system uses "line level" audio between the head unit and the speakers.

The video below is a demo of the iPod Nano driving the BOSE amplified speakers:

I did have to provide 12 volts to the BOSE speaker amplifier relay to activate the BOSE speakers. The red wire (coming through the drivers door from the car battery) and clipped to the pink wire is activating the relay.

The other connections (clip leads in blue connector) are the audio from the iPod nano to the rear speakers (left, right and common).

I also tried driving the front speakers similarly with success.

And just for fun (now that I have the dash apart) here's a view of what this system might look like when it's installed: