[Blobby]

I don’t intend on doing a ton of work as Bose seems to sound more than fine to me. I don’t think I’ll even touch the front drivers. I am curious if anyone has converted the back seat side panel speakers into subwoofers (as much as a 6.5” can be a sub). Assuming the amp has unused sub channels for the deleted rear deck subs, it should be a quick driver pin swap.

[Blobby]

Well to help answer my own question, I faded to the rear speakers alone. They are absolutely horrid! Possibly the absolute worst speakers I’ve ever heard. Might just stick a pair of Alpine S series and call it a day. The front setup isn’t particularly good, but there’s plenty of bass. It’s adequate. Best stock system, but still a stock system.

[Kerry]

the rear speakers are just for imaging only so it sounds as though its center stage in the front seat

[17rsvert]

Don't make any assumptions about what can be done easily to modify the Bose setup. Someone please correct me if I misstate some details here, but here are some of the issues.
None of the speakers are easily replaced by typical ones made available by any other manufacturer. The Bose speakers are very low impedance, they are not full range, and they do not have a typical 'flat' frequency response. The Bose amp compensates by generating custom frequency response and range output for each speaker. From reading other people's experiences swapping out Bose speakers to other quality speakers, the results don't appear to be worth it. The replacements don't play as loud and the resulting frequency response is generally disappointing.
The consensus is, from what I have read here, the best way to upgrade is to add additional flat output amplification ALONG WITH new speakers. But this is not a simple process due to the fact that the Bose amp input is digital, the amp performs some internal digital processing to that signal before converting to analog and amplifying it to its outputs.
Aftermarket processors specific to Bose amps are available to generate a preamp flat signal. But this adds additional cost and complexity along with the need of additional amplification. What one might think should be a simple speaker upgrade may not be.
There are plenty of posts on this forum that go into a lot more specific detail. After reading them I decided upgrading the Bose was not worth it to me, but that's an entirely personal preference. I can easily understand why some people love the Bose system, and some absolutely need to upgrade it.

[Msquared]

I know in the non-Bose cars the rear side-panel speakers don't get a full-range signal. That may be part of it. You'd have to do some measuring, but it might be possible to mount shallow-depth 8" free-air subs in place of those stock speakers. For example, Audiofrog GS8ND2 subs are made for these kinds of fitments. The Five Star Car Stereo video of a 2017 Camaro install is worth watching. Starting at 12:13, they show how they fit 7" Kenwood speakers in there. Just going by those visuals, I think 8" could be made to fit, but you'd have to get subs that are specifically made to work in a free-air fitment (no sealed or ported box).

I am not familiar with the Bose signal outputs, I follow your thinking about why they might have unused sub outputs on your convertible, but I wouldn't count on it. If they don't, you can probably tap into the front-speaker signals; run a low-pass filter, stereo-to-mono summing device, and line-output converter to a dedicated sub amp in the trunk*; and run that output to both sub drivers in the side panels. That assumes that the front dash/door speakers get a full-range signal like they do in non-Bose applications. If they don't - which is very likely - then you are going to need a digital interface like 17rsvert discusses above.

*This doesn't have to be big or expensive - the Kicker KEY500.1 should work well and combines all four of those functions (summing, LOC, low-pass filter, and amp) into one small box.

[Blobby]

Ahhhhh I am needing a pre-101 class on this stuff it looks like. So the Bose amp receives a digital (110010011 type) signal and spits out a power signal to drive speakers. A lot of the things I’ve read previously are making sense now. So to get the typical analog audio signal wires I want, I’ll need a Bose digital processor (specific to this amp?), feed all digital signal wires to it, and the processor will output analog speaker signals (FL, FR, FC, RL, RR, and/or sub). Then from there I do a traditional overhaul with amps and drivers.

According to the pinout diagram on this thread, it looks to me that the three dash speakers and door speakers are fed by individual power wires from the amp. If true, that makes things a heckova lot easier.

https://www.camaro6.com/forums/showt...ight=Amplifier

I just ordered a pair of previous model bottom line Alpine E 6.5” for $35. Will stick them in the back and see what happens. Might monkey with the sub wires too. They’re 4ohm but have 90db or so sensitivity. Will at least be a learning exercise.

[Plasar]

Blobby:

Welcome to the journey of improving your Camaro sound!

17rsvert and Msquared have given sage advice and I too needed to start at 0 to understand how the Bose system (and other OEM stereos) operate first, and then you can understand if you need to do some minor outpatient treatment or open heart surgery to get the sound to where you want it.

I think what you might want to consider first is - what is my budget?

My budget target was originally $3,000, but this ended up being nearly $6,000 all in at the end. Others have spent up to $20,000.

Besides the useful posts in the Camaro6 forum, you might want to spend an hour or two or three at Crutchfield doing research and looking at some products:

https://www.crutchfield.com/m_318250...provement.html

You also might want to choose your year and model Camaro to see Crutchfield's model specific products and tips:

https://www.crutchfield.com/car/outfitmycar/mycar.aspx

Good luck buddy!