Hello there! I'm just entering my first week of Audi ownership. I have a 2011 A3 TDI SE Sportback with the basic Chorus HU. Appears there are no rear speakers! Considering a 2nd hand Symphony (via Ebay) but can I ask.... 1) Is it likely that there are speakers in the back of the car - just not connected? (2) Will Symphony II work? The II has the cassette slot - I've seen a III without this but they are £££££s! Thanks! DAVE
A3 upgrade - help!
- Thread starter GaryHorse
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No there will not be speakers there, I have just had to add rear speakers/sub to an A3 that was supplied incorrectly. I bought a SUB and the two speakers from ebay for about £100 and then made my own woring loom.
Thanks S8Craig. So, as I understand it, it doesn't matter if you have a Chorus or a Symphony HU in your vehicle - that HU only drives the front speakers. If you want 4 speakers, you need to add an amp and/or subwoofer, the amp driving the rear speakers/sub. Are wiring looms for this readily available? Assume you are going to need quite a substantial one as it has to power the amp, pick up from pre-out on HU, etc!
Tempted to try this myself or possible entrust it to a specialist... Seems the tupperware Audi/Bose sub that fits in the back is less than popular with audiophiles so am tempted to get an Alpine or Kenwood amp and get some decent speakers in the doors. Sub isn't that important - it would only scare the dog!
Dave
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Well contrary to popular belief the chorus II+ doesn't actually have outputs for the rear amp either, i had to replace the chorus with a concert to use the newly installed rear sub.
The amp is built into the SUB, so unless your putting in a 3 way amp/SUB setup then I would stick with Audi system, you need to buy the sub for the shape of your car, normal or sportback, two speakers and all fixings to mount them into the doors etc.
The car I worked on was a normal car, I bought all the fittings and connectors/repair wires from a dealer and then made my own wiring loom up using the repair wires and my own additional cables. Yes you will need 2.5 cable for the power, I got that from the fuse box at the front right.
So cabling wise you need
Screened cable 4 way to reach the radio in the front for L&R and remote
2 wires for power, +12V to fuse box front of car right and one to ground local to SUB.
2 wires for CAN hi & lo cables to reach the radio
4 wires for speakers in rear L & R
The amp is built into the SUB, so unless your putting in a 3 way amp/SUB setup then I would stick with Audi system, you need to buy the sub for the shape of your car, normal or sportback, two speakers and all fixings to mount them into the doors etc.
The car I worked on was a normal car, I bought all the fittings and connectors/repair wires from a dealer and then made my own wiring loom up using the repair wires and my own additional cables. Yes you will need 2.5 cable for the power, I got that from the fuse box at the front right.
So cabling wise you need
Screened cable 4 way to reach the radio in the front for L&R and remote
2 wires for power, +12V to fuse box front of car right and one to ground local to SUB.
2 wires for CAN hi & lo cables to reach the radio
4 wires for speakers in rear L & R
Thanks for your help. I think I'm going for a 4x100w amp powering speakers in the 4 doors. I see that the rear connections allow you to use 4 pre-outs rather than the 2 front outputs. Was worried that if HU only throwing out 20w pc then power amp will be pushing too much into rear pair so better to drive all 4 through one amp (?) I don't aspire to an audiophile set up - just something that I like - the home hifi is where I seriously listen to my music... Dave
