You wont accomplish anything with stuffing the sub with pillow fill. If anything, it will be worse.

Also the subs & amp are 2ohm which is why they are wired the way they are. If you wire the amp up to a 4ohm head unit you will risk blowing the amp, HU, speakers or a combination.

The Bose sub shelf is designed as a ported system. If you want to use an aftermarket amp and/or HU then you need to use 4ohm speakers....NOT the Bose ones. You can get 5 1/4 subs in many component systems and run new wires to the amp using the sub channel or a mono amp.

I have 2 bose subs left from an upgrade I did if anyone wants them, but they have to be used with the factory amp & head unit...wont work right with aftermarket.

I am not sure about the 986 Bose sub because I have never seen one in person, but the 987 Bose works perfectly with aftermarket head units. It just needs power, input, and amp turn on signal like any other powered sub.

It may work, but it doesn't work correctly because it uses 2ohm speakers. Unless you are connecting it to a 2ohm system it is only a matter of time before it doesn't work or takes the headunit/amp with it

Are you talking about the 986 sub?

just bought one of these and was testing it yesterday
i connected the sub + and sub- wires to the 2 wires that go to the left speaker
this way i don't need to run new input wires
this basically taps the left speaker wire to the bose amp input
works well!
i also connected the remote wire to the power wire, this way it's always on
but i will wire the power and ground to the rear hardtop defroster cable plug thats on the rear shelf
this way the sub is only on when i turn on the defroster switch :)
but the rear speakers are always on
rear speakers i hooked up to the rear speaker out on the CDR-220
i put some dynamat on the interior walls of the sub box
and stuffed it with polyfill as well

Hi guys,

About to drop the hammer on one of these - does anyone have the specs/size of the speakers / subwoofer in this set? My plan is to use the box but upgrade the internals.

Thank you in advance!
Mike

i wouldn't bother replacing them
they are 5 1/4" woofers and 1ohm resistance
i wired them in series and hooked them up to an old Soundstream amp i have
giving them 200 watts @ 2ohm
low pass crossover at 80hz

sounds damn good
it's not a 10 or 12" sub, but because the port is about 1.5 feet from your ears, sounds really powerful
it only one port that is active, the one passenger side one
the other one is sealed on the inside

I love the idea of this, great find. I have an aftermarket double DIN head unit that I installed from Amazon. My 986 just has the standard amp and is not a BOSE model.

Based on what you see in the images below, does it look like I'd be able to successfully wire up the 987 rear speaker box to my existing setup?

Thanks in advance!

Attachment 23783

Attachment 23784

Does anyone who has done this happen to have a wiring diagram of what the wires at the connector of the speaker shelf are?

Attachment 23785