Like many overtime, I changed my OEM deck to an aftermarket double din deck with Bluetooth years ago. As great as it is having an updated deck, I would really like to put back the original Bose setup back in. But there is one issue....... BLUETOOTH!

I can live without the android auto and such, but being able to play your Spotify playlist is still a must
Now if any of you are going to response "the sound of the car is all you need, you don't need music" just keep scrolling. I don't need the time wasted, my car is loud, and I like music!

Now for the topic at hand... Googling Bluetooth for older OEM stereo has led me down a YouTube rabbit hole of confusion and things I don't know how to do. There are obvious ways of adding Bluetooth like using the cigarette adapter radio transmitter etc, but that is not the way I'd like to go. The quality is not the best nor do I want to look at that thing bulging out of the console. I'm talking about how some people have hardwired a module into the circuit board of the deck. Some have gone through the CD and some use the AUX circuit, but we don't have that.

So is there anyone that has done this, thought about it and has good info or maybe you just have good insight into how this could work for our Bose units?

TIA

 

i have no idea, but people used to use the tape input for stuff.
there are three inputs, the radio, CD and tape, one of those should work.
i don't see a way to not have an extra box in the car, but maybe an old phone hooked to an aux input or something like that would work?

 

Never had a Bose unit so I don't know - does it have a standard 3.5mm AUX audio input jack on it somewhere? If it does, you can connect something like this thing to it to get bluetooth audio streaming:
^This one has a rechargeable battery, so you don't need to wire it to the car's 12V power/ground, just plug in to the 3.5mm AUX in jack amd use the USB cord to charge it when needed.

Alternatively, you can Google for shops that restore old car radios - there's a pretty big market for adding bluetooth functionality to OEM factory radios without changing how the radios look among the American classic collector car community.

This Youtube video is a DIY example of what these kinds of shops would end up doing for you, i.e., adding a bluetooth module to an OEM radio (early '90s Aussie Ford in video):

 

Audiophile and Bluetooth do not go together lol

 

Check the Miata.net forum. I think I saw a thread on there about someone doing that with a Miata head unit.

 

Yeah I think the tape and CD are basically a line level input. If you can disconnect one or the other then go from that to RCA jacks or 1/8" stereo plug there ya go. But it may need some resistors or something.

Remember this was NOT designed for any sort of aux in. In the early 90's you were listening to tape, radio, or CD if you had a baller car - that was it!

Dale

 

Yeah, this guy was able to do it to a '90s Acura. According to his video, the circuit board was labeled, but I haven't opened up the Bose unit to see if our circuit board is labeled also.

 

They make bluetooth adapters for cassette decks. Picked one up at Walmart for $20 and tested it on several tape decks just to make sure it would work. Haven't had any issues so far.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Auto-Driv...0&from=/search

 

Unfortunately from what I have watched and learned, this type of way like others, doesn't give the best sound quality. The better way would be to have the circuit board hardwired for optimum clarity.

 

Honestly the audio quality was fine when I was testing mine. Quality really only started to degrade when the phone (or whatever device) moved several feet away from the receiver. While this isn't the dream solution, this is the most accessible solution for most of the owners who do want to keep the OEM headunit.