ICE Advice!

[MikeA3]

Hi All,

I'm thinking of upgrading the entire setup in my current A3 and thought this was probably the best place to ask so here goes:

Firstly I don't have a fixed price in mind but I'd prefer to focus on sound quality rather than sheer volume as I have no intention of sitting in tesco's car park at 11pm on a friday night looking cool /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/groovy.gif.

Are there aftermarket speakers that would fit directly into the existing spaces without requiring me cutting holes in the car and if so, what would you recommend getting?

Has anyone replaced that excuse for a sub in the boot - IMO - it's about as much use as a one legged man in a @rse kicking contest.

As for headunits, are there any particular ones which are recommended by people here? - I used to have a nice sony HU (think it was the fore runner of the CDXM800) which looked fantastic but i'm /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/swear.gif if i can remember the model number.

(oh and the cars a 8L 5 door chassis if that makes a difference)

Thanks in advance

Mike

 

[AndyMac]

All aftermarket speakers need an adapter ring to fit the A3, it uses a bizarre 3 post mounting sitting proud of the hole, so you need a spacer to fill the gap and allow for 4 screws, otherwise it will flap about in free air.
The consensus on here seems to favour the Infinity kappa 50.5, which is quite a snug fit (you only have about 60mm depth to play with), although I've just fitted Rainbow SLX-230's to my A4 and am very impressed. The A4 has similar restrictions on size & depth so I imagine the Rainbows would fit an A3.
The OEM speakers are 4" with 1" tweeter, but you can go to 5.25" inch which gives you a lot more choice.
Wouldn't bother with the rears unless you have a lot of passengers, not sure what they are in the 5 door, but they're 6.5" coaxials in the 3 door & are driven by the sub amp inside the sub.
A sub makes a big difference, but if you need your boot then you need one of my Stealth subs (custom 18mm MDF enclosure with JL Audio 6.5" sub) which replaces the tupperware unit you're so impressed with, but needs a seperate amp. In the 3 door I hide this behind the rear speaker panel, but in a 5 door it would have to be in the boot somewhere (sorry, never done a 5 door). Do a search under A3 sub upgrade, there's loads of info & reviews on here.
Any HU will be a big improvement on the Matsushita/Panasonic Concert unit. I favour Alpine but must admit the latest models are way too complicated and flashy for my liking (no treble or bass are they mad?)
Becker units blend in with the sombre dash & Nakamichi seem to be well received, but basically go for something that plays MP3 CD's has sub pre-out and won't stand out screaming "look at me"!
You'll also need:
Fascia adapters (Audi dealer or go for the wraparound one from Seat Leon which actually fits better)
Antenna amp (caraudiodirect.co.uk)
Wiring loom adapter (if you still want to drive the rears/sub via the Audi amp.
And plenty of Dynamat.

 

[MikeA3]

Andy,

Thanks for the help / sales pitch, much appreciated.

Mike