Hi Guys,
I'm new here and hope someone can comment. Last weekend I had a new Kenwood DCX591 deck installed in my wife's 2000 Acura 3.2TL. When I picked it up, the installer told me that he could not hook up the Bose subwoofer. He showed me the connector pins on the rear of the old Bose deck and spewed some jibberish about it being computer controlled.

I am not a car audio expert, but home 2 channel audio and home theatre has been a hobby of mine for many years. Why would it matter how the original Bose deck processes the bass signal? The subwoofer has +'ve and -'ve terminals like any speaker and current from the amplifier flows from the +'ve wire into the sub and back along the -'ve wire. Why couldn't he just use the original wiring and connect the Kenwood deck to the Bose sub? Perhaps he may have to remove/replace the connector. At worst case, run new wiring to the sub?

The salesman who sold me the deck, showed me how to setup the deck including subwoofer volume. I assumed all 5 speakers would be functional as they had been. Needless to say, there is little bass below 100hz without the sub active.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

I believe your 3.2TL is equipped with a factory (OEM) Bose amp that powered all the speakers in your car (including a dedicated sub channel).

When you installed the aftermarket Kenwood HU, you then bypassed the BOSE amp and powered the factory speakers via the built-in Kenwood HU's 4-channel amp. Unfortunately you won't be able to power the factory sub, since there is no dedicated channel to power the sub.

I would suggest opting for a single-channel mono amp to power your sub, or buy a new 5-channel amp and bypassing the deck altogether to get the best from your stock speakers.

Hope that helps.