JMEngineer
Member
I'm not doing a full installation write up here, but I have some potentially very helpful information for anyone wanting to upgrade their main amp without hacking up their factory wires.
Blaupunkt sells a series of amps called 'plug n play' amps (NO, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO UPGRADE TO A BLAUPUNKT AMP). There is a specific wiring harness for these amps to go in a Mazda 6. It should cost about $25 - I got mine from Crutchfield. BUY IT! Unlike the Schosche harnesses, it includes all the wires for steering wheel controls and climate control display.
The harness comes completely wired with two main connectors - one connector to go into your head unit and another that accepts the factory plug that goes into the head unit.
-There are also two smaller brown connectors with 8 wires each - these are the speaker wires (all wires are clearly labeled). If you plug them into each other, everything will work exactly as stock and it is basically a wire extension.
To wire up an amp, just hack off one of the brown connectors (the one whose wires go into the head unit) and hook up 4 female RCA connectors*^ - I used panel mount, solder-on connectors from Radio Shack that cost me about $3 for the four of them.
*there are conflicting sources on how to wire RCA's, but I'm pretty sure the center should be positive.
^for NON-BOSE systems, hook up a line out converter instead of standard RCA connectors.
You now have your RCA connections to run to an amp. All that is left is to wire from the amp output back into the speakers.
For non-bose systems, you can just hack off the other brown connector on the harness. Run speaker wire from the amp back up to the head unit and splice into the harness wires and you're done.
For BOSE systems, this part is a little more complicated but not too bad.
The way I see it, there are 3 options (2 leave the factory system intact). Both require removing the factory amp, so do that first.
Option 1 (I personally recommend this option) - make sure the ends of your speaker wire are pretty clean and straight, then put a little bit of solder on them to give them some extra stiffness. Then, using the wiring diagram (I'll try to attach it - if that doesn't work, PM me with your email address and I'll send it to you) 'plug' the ends of the speaker wire into the bose amps wiring harness. (Make sure you are plugging into the outputs)
Option 2 - same as 1, but you can get a better connection if you are willing to cut of the factory bose harness and actually crimp/solder wires together.
Option 3 (This will work, but I'm not sure how safe it is and I think it's a bit more complicated) - Hack off the other brown connector from the blaupunkt harness and connect your speaker wires to the harness wires there. You will then have to create jumper connections between the inputs and outputs at the Bose amps harness. There will be 8 total -> a + and a - for each speaker.
The reason I question the safety is that the factory wires from the head unit to the bose amp are only meant to carry a low current 2v preamp signal, not the 5 to 10A, 10 to 20V signal a good 4ch amp will push.
I'll do my best to answer any questions!
Blaupunkt sells a series of amps called 'plug n play' amps (NO, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO UPGRADE TO A BLAUPUNKT AMP). There is a specific wiring harness for these amps to go in a Mazda 6. It should cost about $25 - I got mine from Crutchfield. BUY IT! Unlike the Schosche harnesses, it includes all the wires for steering wheel controls and climate control display.
The harness comes completely wired with two main connectors - one connector to go into your head unit and another that accepts the factory plug that goes into the head unit.
-There are also two smaller brown connectors with 8 wires each - these are the speaker wires (all wires are clearly labeled). If you plug them into each other, everything will work exactly as stock and it is basically a wire extension.
To wire up an amp, just hack off one of the brown connectors (the one whose wires go into the head unit) and hook up 4 female RCA connectors*^ - I used panel mount, solder-on connectors from Radio Shack that cost me about $3 for the four of them.
*there are conflicting sources on how to wire RCA's, but I'm pretty sure the center should be positive.
^for NON-BOSE systems, hook up a line out converter instead of standard RCA connectors.
You now have your RCA connections to run to an amp. All that is left is to wire from the amp output back into the speakers.
For non-bose systems, you can just hack off the other brown connector on the harness. Run speaker wire from the amp back up to the head unit and splice into the harness wires and you're done.
For BOSE systems, this part is a little more complicated but not too bad.
The way I see it, there are 3 options (2 leave the factory system intact). Both require removing the factory amp, so do that first.
Option 1 (I personally recommend this option) - make sure the ends of your speaker wire are pretty clean and straight, then put a little bit of solder on them to give them some extra stiffness. Then, using the wiring diagram (I'll try to attach it - if that doesn't work, PM me with your email address and I'll send it to you) 'plug' the ends of the speaker wire into the bose amps wiring harness. (Make sure you are plugging into the outputs)
Option 2 - same as 1, but you can get a better connection if you are willing to cut of the factory bose harness and actually crimp/solder wires together.
Option 3 (This will work, but I'm not sure how safe it is and I think it's a bit more complicated) - Hack off the other brown connector from the blaupunkt harness and connect your speaker wires to the harness wires there. You will then have to create jumper connections between the inputs and outputs at the Bose amps harness. There will be 8 total -> a + and a - for each speaker.
The reason I question the safety is that the factory wires from the head unit to the bose amp are only meant to carry a low current 2v preamp signal, not the 5 to 10A, 10 to 20V signal a good 4ch amp will push.
I'll do my best to answer any questions!
