CobraCommander

I am almost certain the sub is blown, but haven't crawled into the trunk just yet to verify... Since all the highs are fine, only bass delivers a crackle even at lower volumes from the rear deck.

Anyway, I was researching OEM replacements and upgrade options, but while many places list W215 OEM replacements including Ebay, they all seem to only list the CL500, CL55 and CL600...

If I was looking to just replace it with OEM, can I trust that these would work? Also, has anyone just wired in a nicer replacement?

Not really looking to increase power, but more so just stop the crackle.

Thanks!

whoover

The CL600, etc. speaker is the same used in the C65. But beware that the problem could be the bass channel of the amp. It's probably more likely. A blown speaker would probably give you distorted, "papery," bass, not a crackle.

City Rat

Agreed. If in fact the problem is with your OEM sub crawl on there and fond out its size and get a look at the enclosure. In mine it an 8 inches. I found a low profile sub which fit perfectly in the OEM enclosure from a company called Helix. The sound was better than OEM, the bass line was so much more crisp and clean, not just "thump".

CobraCommander

Awesome... Thank you both...

I probably did a poor job of describing it as a crackle as I just used that to describe the typical blown speaker sound. It is definitely the papery sound you mentioned... However, it is interesting to know about that being a possibility in the future, so thanks a lot for that...

I'm going to pull it out now that I know... Before I just wanted to avoid it and do the research first just in case...

Thanks again!

whoover

Just keep in mind that Bose speakers are pretty much impossible to upgrade without changing out everything. I think that woofer is 1-ohm, and a normal 4-ohm speaker won't work. Also, Bose uses weird equalization and crossover points so any other brand of speaker won't be fed the frequency band it was designed for.

If the speaker is bad, stick with the exact replacement unless you're prepared to make a lot of changes.

City Rat

Regarding the Bose speakers, given that I liked the sound of them I can't speak to the complexity of replacing them. I can speak to the complexity of replacing the sub. I went with the Helix Espirit E8W sub. It is a 2 ohm dual voice coil, low profile sub that dropped right into the OEM horn shaped sub enclosure between the rear seats in my cab. I was prepared to put in a new amp but in the end the installer just ran thicker gauge wire from the factory amp to the new sub and that's it. The sound is much improved over the OEM sub. I can say that I can make adjustments to the sound because I swapped out the Command unit with an Alpine 138BT which gave me better ability shape the sound of the Bose and Helix speakers. For max flexibility I would need to swap the factory amp for an aftermarket 5 channel amp. Again Alpine makes a good unit. No expert here just letting you know my experience. Good luck.