GMT900 Bose Premium Amp to Luxury Amp Upgrade

[Reebok59]

Bill,
I have been racking my brain about what could be causing your problem. I am at a loss. It is either your head unit or something to do with how you wired your rear speakers. For my SUV, the rear door speakers and the d-pillar speakers fade together as rear speakers even though they are wired on 4 separate rear channels. And the front door speakers, a-pillar speakers and center channel speaker fade together as front speakers even though they are wired on 3 separate channels. As I understand it, you wired your rear speakers through the 108 connector on your stock wiring circuits. I would recommend using a test speaker(s) wired directly out of the amp (not through the 108 connector) and see if it makes any difference. All the LUX installations have the rear speakers wired directly out of the amp and not back up through the dash where the circuits run through an INFOJMPR. It should not make a difference but it is the only difference that I cam think of that could be causing your problem other than the head unit.
Good luck, hope you get it worked out.
Scott

 

[rebel222]

Hi Scott,

I joined this board because of this thread. Thank you for this write up. It is extremely helpful. I am in the process of upgrading my premium system to the lux system in a 2014 yukon. I have a few questions that I was hoping you could help me solve. I purchased a luxury amp from a junkyard on eBay. It came with the console harness. However, there is one difference between the harness and your pin out, and I was hoping to understand this extra wire and it's purpose in the harness that came with the lux amp, it has a yellow wire in pin A-8. Any idea what this could serve or where I can find out?

My second question/comment is a follows: In the wiring pin-out you provided, I have a difference. For the J2 connection at the luxury amp, I have J2-12 and J2-13 swapped in the harness that I received with my luxury amp. J2-12 is light blue and J2-13 is yellow/black in the harness I received. You have these reversed, and I suspect that it's a typo.

Third Question: Where does the VNC mic mount in the denali/escalade vehicles? I'm going to order one to attach to the new luxury amp, but I wasn't sure to where the wires should be routed?

Fourth Question: In my RSA connections, there is a green connector that goes to the back side of the center console. My original harness had 8 wires and two bare wires. In the Y91 harness, there are four wires and no bare wire. In the original hardness, the colors duplicate from top to bottom (i.e. if there's a brown wire in the top row, there's a brown wire directly below it). Do you have any idea why these would double up?

Fifth and Final Question: I'd like to make a connector to bring the low voltage signal from the radio to Lux amp instead of cutting up my non-Y91 harness. Can you help me with the part number for the connector and pins for this? If you don't have this information, how did you make the connections to pins J4-8, J4-15 and J4-16 at the back of the radio?

 

[swathdiver]

...a yellow wire in pin A-8. Any idea what this could serve or where I can find out?

Join ALLDATADIY and you'll have access to that and a whole lot more.

 

[Reebok59]

Logan,

You are most welcome. Glad to see the information is helpful and being used by others. Below is my attempt to answer your questions.

1st Question: I have no idea what this extra wire is for. I have not seen it in any of the 2007-2013 wiring diagrams I have reviewed. I checked another Y91 harness I have and A-8 is blank. Maybe it was added for some function in 2014. I can only recommend researching a 2014 Electrical Manual. Good luck with this one. I would be interested in knowing what it is for when you figure it out.

2nd Question: Good catch. My bad! I got the polarity and description right but the wire colors are reversed. What you have is correct. I have attached a corrected table. Thanks!

3rd Question: The VNC mic in my 2008 is mounted inside the console on the driver’s side just below where your knee would rest against it. The pic in my post shows the location inside the console. If your console has the mount location, it will have a small perforated “dot” that looks like a small salt shaker lid. I think it was relocated to the left front headliner in later years. If you look up at your headliner you will see three small speaker/mic grills (left front, right front and rear). The same head liner was used for all SUV’s (Chevy, GMC or Cadillac). All mine are blank grills. The UQA Lux amp uses one mic (console or left front headliner). The UQS Lux amp with the Surround Sound uses all three in the headliner.

4th Question: This is a really odd question and throws me for a loop. My non-Y91 harness had had eight wires and two bare wires (basically two shielded quad bundles) (two sets of BN, BN/WH, D-BU, TN, Bare). These are rear channel low level outputs from the radio. In the Premium System, these feed the RSA first and then double back to the Premium Amp for rear channel inputs. My Y91 harness only had 4 wires and no bare wires. In the UQA Lux System, the rear low level outputs stop at the RSA and are not amplified, therefore no shields are required (The amp only uses front low level inputs and creates the 9 different channels, i.e., “Smart Amp”). Now the UQS Lux System with Surround Sound is different. It uses the rear channel low level inputs (J4 connector on the Lux Amp) for the Surround Sound. Sounds like you may have a UQS harness. Does it have the J4 connector for the Lux Amp?

5th Question: I attempted to do the same but had trouble finding the pins in small quantities so I decided to cut up my non-Y91 harness. I did however find the pins and the 8-pin female connector for the rear speakers from Mouser.com. I was able to purchase the connector and 10 pins for a very reasonable price. Also had to buy a Delphi Packard crimping tool for like $30 bucks! If you look at the wiring diagrams for the radio/amp/RSA, you will see a set of part numbers listed for each “J” connector. You can search these part numbers at Mouser.com and view the “related items” to see all related pins and connector assemblies.

Hope all this helps. Good luck.

Scott

 

[Jonah52]

Anyone have their stock nose amp that they would part with? Mine has a bad channel or two causing rear speaker distortion

 

[olmie]

Very impressive insight on system details. I just got a 2018 Yukon XL Denali with Luxury Bose system (RPO = UQS, 10-speaker, IO6 head unit ... Denali package loaded with all bells & whistles) ... What I really want to do is get low level (RCA) inputs prior to the Bose amplifier to input additional aftermarket amplifiers for other speakers... using line output converters from Bose amp speaker wires has a number of drawbacks. I'd actually like to keep the Bose amp as part of the system to power sub in console and tweeters in read (D-pillars), with all other speakers / subs aftermarket, powered by aftermarket amps. I see wiring schematics for wiring FROM Bose amp, but nothing on inputs feeding TO the Bose amp that I could tap into for full range low level inputs... I've had good experience with PAC for OEM integration like this, but neither PAC, nor anyone else seems to make anything for the new GM Bose systems. Any advice on how to get a good pre-amp full signal without disrupting vehicle functionality?

 

[Reebok59]

Sorry, but I am not familiar with the new Bose systems. Sounds like you are making good progress. Good luck!

 

[Chateau Vin]

As stated, I started with RPO UQA (Premium 6-Channel Bose). All the Bose speakers for the Premium 6-channel system (including the Sub) are identical to the Luxury 9-channel system except the D-pillar speakers. So I had to change out the D-pillar speakers with the LUX Bose speakers from a Denali which are 3.2 OHM to better match the door speaker impedance as they are now on a separate channel. When you upgrade to the LUX Amp you get 9 separate channels including a Center speaker. So I also added the OEM Bose 3.35 OHM Center Dash speaker inside the Driver Side Console Kick Panel. With the LUX Amp, the stock Bose Sub comes alive. Huge difference! It won't rattle the windows or side panels but the rearview mirror will vibrate and you can feel it in your gut! The PREM Amp was so wimpy, I didn't know I even had a Sub until I did some research on it. I am very happy with the clear crisp sound and power the system now delivers.

UQA-Y91 = Premium Non-Luxury Speaker System (6-channel Bose)
UQA&Y91 = Premium Luxury Speaker System (9-channel Bose)

The difference is the LUX Amp and the D-pillar speakers (and of course a little wiring, a VNC MIC and reprograming of the Radio).

Could any time be saved by sourcing a complete Denali Lux HU and center console , wiring harmess and pillar speakers . could this be a plug and play
with a GM dealer system reboot?. [A 2008 Denali system transplant to an 08 Avalanche LT.

 

[Reebok59]

Sorry, but not really. There is no plug and play solution. The wiring harness in the dash is different for the LUX and Premium systems and depending on truck or SUV, the body wiring harness for the speakers is different. As for the HU, the only difference is the programming. The Denali LUX HU is the same as the Premium HU. Wiring modifications are required for this upgrade. I would recommend thoroughly reviewing the wiring diagrams and PIN Tables referenced in this thread for a successful upgrade. Since you are considering upgrading an Avalanche, I would suggest reading Joe's thread on the Silverado Sierra Forum titled "GMT900 Bose Premium Amp to Lux Amp". His thread is linked in my references above. I recall Joe being able to do a HU swap with a LUX Console Harness with minimal wiring mods. Or maybe it was because he had a non-NAV HU, can't remember.

Good Luck,
Scott

 

[MCAT069]

This may have been covered already, but I did not see the answer, so I apologize if this is a redundant post; however, what is the 4th plug for on the UQS amp? I am in the process of gathering the needed supplies for this conversion on my 2012 Z71 and I picked up a 4 plug UQS amp for 20 bucks at the local wreaking yard.