No you cannot. You need to amplify it. The stock bose amp is not going to put out enough to push anything.

 

x2 on the size of the sub...is it a 10'?

Also who makes the stock stereo?

 

I will buy an aftermarket amp also, I am wondering is there a subwoofer that can be dropped right into the stock subwoofer location?

 

I will buy an aftermarket amp also, I am wondering is there a subwoofer that can be dropped right into the stock subwoofer location?

Check out these thin subs by JL

Thin Line Subwoofers

Dunno how good they are but I'd have to assume they would be better than stock.

 

I would also change the tweeters in the MDX, the highs are not as clean as I would have expected. Does anyone know the size of the tweeters and if I would have to get them amplified also?

 

Not to resurrect an old old thread but I thought I would add to this in case anybody else googles like I did trying to find how to replace the subwoofer in a 2008 acura mdx with the ELS sound system.

My goal was to get cleaner bass out of the system by replacing the sub. The original sub is a 100W 2ohm shallow mount sub. The factory cut-out hole is about 7-3/8". I got two subs. The first was a pioneer TS-SW841D which fits the hole perfectly but it is a 4ohm sub. 4ohm is fine (it's actually easier on the amp) but I also learned that you don't get as much power out of it. The bass from this sub was much crisper but not as deep and punchy most likely because the ELS amp doesn't have quite the power to push it as much at 4ohm. As a second attempt after measuring the resistance and realizing the sub was 2 ohm I picked up an Earthquake SWS-8Xi. I came to the very quick realization that the mounting hole was not the same. Something I will check in the future.

After all of that I ended up putting the factory sub back in and oddly it sounded much better. I'm curious if one of the connections was loose, if it's because I resealed the box, or if it's just that after hearing the 4ohm I realized how much base actually came out of it.

As a side note one of the bolts holding the subwoofer box in had either come out or never been put in properly. I found it inside of the panel. It had been causing a rattle that was very noticeable from the back seat. I was happy to find out that it was something easy to fix.

As for the how to remove it in case someone wants to be as adventurous as I was (no you can't just pull at the fabric covering the subwoofer):

1. Pop off the plastic piece at the base where the rear hatch closes into.
2. Pull out the little trap door behind the third seat.
3. Pull out the jack kit from in there on the left hand side and undo the 2 screws holding the hidden compartment down. Remove it and set it aside.
4. There are two silver cargo hooks with false backs. Use a hook or something to pull down the little hatch to reveal screws.
5. At the very back look for another false back behind one of the other hooks.
6. Just behind the rear passenger side door there's a little plastic flap covering a screw.
7. There are two removable plastic plugs holding the side panel down underneath the third row seat.
8. The bottom half of the rear side panel should come out now. You may have to pop off the kick plate in the rear passenger door as it does sit on top of the panel.

 

After all of that I ended up putting the factory sub back in and oddly it sounded much better.

I too found this out. Here's the thing, as much as I wanted to upgrade the OEM driver, it actually sounds great for a 8" sub. The enclosure is quite well built and the driver matches it perfectly. The weak link is the OEM amp. The amp is a VERY small (about the size of an iPod) class-D amp that is INSIDE the sub enclosure. It is so small I couldn't find it at first!

I hooked up a Rockford 190w mono amp to see what the sub would do. I stuffed a bag of poly fill in the enclosure just to help tighten it up. Surprisingly you can really push it. I had the sub completely over powering the rest of the system without thumping out. The shop was really impressed as well. So I decided to clean up my install and keep it that way. Sounds great and no cargo loss!

My advice is if you want to improve the low end, just get a decent amp. Pretty much the smallest mono amp you can fine will do the trick, but get a decent brand -- Rockford, Polk, Arc, Zapco, etc.

Also, the sub is 2 ohm but a dual voice coil. So it will be a 4 ohm load to a mono amp.

 

It didn't even cross my mind that that was the amp. I'm going to give it a try and compare the pioneer against the ELS sub with a proper amp in there.

As a side note I wonder if I could just take the power that used to drive the old tiny amp. I guess that would probably blow a fuse...

 

Some info for you guys to chew on. MERRY CHRISTMAS!


Subwoofer (+/-) green - red (preamp) +,- radio, gray 32 pin plug, pins 30, 14 or gray 24 pin plug, pins 12, 24
Aux. Audio Input Left (+/-) white - red +,- radio, gray 24 pin plug, pins 14 and 1 or 1 and 2
Aux. Audio Input Right (+/-) black - red +,- radio, gray 24 pin plug, pins 13 and 1 or 13 and 2
RSE Video (+/-) blue - pink +,- radio, gray 16 pin plug, pins 11 and 10
RSE Audio Left (+/-) red - white +,- radio, gray 16 pin plug, pins 6 and 13
RSE Audio Right (+/-) black - white +,- radio, gray 16 pin plug, pins 14 and 13
Satellite Radio 12 Volts white + XM Receiver, white 14 pin plug, pin 1
Satellite Radio Ground black - XM Receiver, white 14 pin plug, pin 11
Satellite Radio Ignition red + XM Receiver, white 14 pin plug, pin 2
Satellite Radio Antenna (coaxial cable)
Satellite Audio Left (+/-) black - green +,- XM Receiver, white 14 pin plug, pins 6 and 14
Satellite Audio Right (+/-) red - white +,- XM Receiver, white 14 pin plug, pins 5 and 13

What Fits
Item Size Depth Location
Headunit irregular center of dash
Left Front Speaker 6.5 3.8 left front door
Left Front Tweeter 1 2 left front dash
Right Front Speaker 6.5 3.8 right front door
Right Front Tweeter 1 2 right front dash
Left Rear Speaker 6.5 3.8 left rear door
Left Rear Tweeter 3.5 3 left rear pillar
Right Rear Speaker 6.5 3.8 right rear door
Right Rear Tweeter 3.5 3 right rear pillar
Center Channel top center of dash
Subwoofer 10 4.5 right side of cargo area
Left Front Headrest
Right Front Headrest
Left Rear Headrest
Right Rear Headrest
Satellite Radio Tuner right side of cargo area

 

Some info for you guys to chew on. MERRY CHRISTMAS!


Subwoofer (+/-) green - red (preamp) +,- radio, gray 32 pin plug, pins 30, 14 or gray 24 pin plug, pins 12, 24
Aux. Audio Input Left (+/-) white - red +,- radio, gray 24 pin plug, pins 14 and 1 or 1 and 2
Aux. Audio Input Right (+/-) black - red +,- radio, gray 24 pin plug, pins 13 and 1 or 13 and 2
RSE Video (+/-) blue - pink +,- radio, gray 16 pin plug, pins 11 and 10
RSE Audio Left (+/-) red - white +,- radio, gray 16 pin plug, pins 6 and 13
RSE Audio Right (+/-) black - white +,- radio, gray 16 pin plug, pins 14 and 13
Satellite Radio 12 Volts white + XM Receiver, white 14 pin plug, pin 1
Satellite Radio Ground black - XM Receiver, white 14 pin plug, pin 11
Satellite Radio Ignition red + XM Receiver, white 14 pin plug, pin 2
Satellite Radio Antenna (coaxial cable)
Satellite Audio Left (+/-) black - green +,- XM Receiver, white 14 pin plug, pins 6 and 14
Satellite Audio Right (+/-) red - white +,- XM Receiver, white 14 pin plug, pins 5 and 13

What Fits
Item Size Depth Location
Headunit irregular center of dash
Left Front Speaker 6.5 3.8 left front door
Left Front Tweeter 1 2 left front dash
Right Front Speaker 6.5 3.8 right front door
Right Front Tweeter 1 2 right front dash
Left Rear Speaker 6.5 3.8 left rear door
Left Rear Tweeter 3.5 3 left rear pillar
Right Rear Speaker 6.5 3.8 right rear door
Right Rear Tweeter 3.5 3 right rear pillar
Center Channel top center of dash
Subwoofer 10 4.5 right side of cargo area
Left Front Headrest
Right Front Headrest
Left Rear Headrest
Right Rear Headrest
Satellite Radio Tuner right side of cargo area

Where did you get this? And do you have more pinout descriptions for the stock amp?