Standard wattage on front speakers?

[Defratos]

Hey guys, do any of you know how many watts the standard Audi "casette" headunit runs the front speakers at? and what are the max output of the standard audi speakers (front and rear) if anyone knows, cheers /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif

 

[AndyMac]

2x 20w at the fronts driven off the HU.
2 x 20w rears driven by rear amp/matchbox

The Bose system upgrade is about twice the power.

 

[Defratos]

cool, thanks Andy. Reason I'm asking is because I'm gettin Kenwood HU fit on Tuesday, and it has a 4 x 50 Watts for each of the inside speakers, would this be fine for the original speakers? or would there be a tendancy to blow after a while?

 

[AndyMac]

No you should be fine, remember the 4 x 50w will be peak power, more like 4 x 25wrms in reality. The standard speakers will sound awful before you're anywhere near blowing them. It's actually harder to blow a speaker than people think

 

[Defratos]

probably is 25rms, not sure. Hey Andy, since you seem to know soo much about cars and Audio what's the biggest size speaker I can fit in the back? would 6x9s fit or is it only 17cm (I think)

 

[neil.c]

I think the 17cm speakers are the ones for the rear of the S3, you could probably fit 6x9's as there is enough room but as the grill is only big enough for a 17cm speaker ...
What you want is the Andymac sub for the boot if they are still available and some 17cm coaxial speakers for the rear quarters.

 

[AndyMac]

Yes you'll be limited by the strength of the rear speaker cards more than the space behind them as there is no shortage of space, also the position of the rears means you'll never really get more than rear fill from whatever you fit, and they'd need to be amped as well as the rear/sub amp is the size of a fag packet. If you amp the rears then you'll definately need to amp the fronts.

 

[Defratos]

ok well I was thinking in the future to change the rear to the pioneer "TS-E1796" they're 3 way speakers but in a 17cm round speaker. and for the front I was thinking of the pioneer "TS-E176C", would these fit? would I have any problem running them off the HU? or would u advice a seperate amp? Do u know anything about these speakers i.e. quality?

Rear 3-way speakers

Front speakers

Cheers for any help given /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif

 

[AndyMac]

No the fronts won't fit, you need 5.25" components or 4" for the fronts with a max depth of 60mm. The main problem in the A3/S3 is the lack of bass and you won't solve that issue by upgrading speakers. Your money is best spent on a stealth sub or proper sub, then you can run the HU at a minus Bass setting which will dramatically improve the sound from the front components. The rears are a waste of time TBH unless you have passengers in the back a lot.

Also bear in mind how the new HU will be wired. If you are gonna run the rears off the HU amp and bypass the Audi amp, then you still need to feed the rear amp otherwise you'll lose the sub as well. Even if you retain the existing sub it will sound even more feeble than it does at the moment as you have doubled the power to the cabin speakers but left the sub at it's original 50watts. So at the same volume level the sub will be quieter unless you wire it up to the sub out of the Kenwood (if it has one) and then jack up the sub level to compensate.
I've installed my stealth sub for customers who'd already speant over £1k trying to improve the sound with expensive HU/speaker upgrades and the results aren't good. They were giving the sub a go as a last resort and couldn't believe the difference it makes. It doesn't provide overpowering bumper rattling bass, just nice tight punchy bass and allows you to run the cabin speakers much harder without distortion.
TBH I did exactly the same thing in our A3, started with upgrading the speakers, little improvement, added a new Alpine HU, then an Amp, and lastly a 10" Apline sub. It was the sub that had the biggest "bang for buck". With a family on the way we needed the boot space back so I started experimenting with the standard sub as I just could not live with the feeble downgrade of losing the proper sub. Once I'd got the stealth sub installed the sound was superb and it wasn't until I fitted another one to my mates A3TQ with everything else left standard that I realised the great sound was 90% down to the sub on its own and the speaker & HU upgrades had really very little effect apart from the benefit of sub control (which you don't get on the OEM HU).

 

[Defratos]

Sounds like you've been on a long journey Andy lol, I'm fitting a kicker solo-baric 12" sub in the boot with a Kenwood amp 800wrms, The speakers are for next month. It sounds like what you're advising, I hope the sub will keep me happy for a while, have you had any experience with Kicker?

 

[AndyMac]

You'll definately need to amp at least the fronts with an 800w sub. Personally I think a 12" sub is total overkill in a small car like an S3 (unless you're going in for competitions) and you'll run the risk of ending up with droning bass smothering everything and no punch so you'll have to spend a lot of time setting up the amp, even the 10" I used to have needed constant fiddling with every track I played, now I much prefer the tightness you get with smaller subs, I must be getting old.

 

[Defratos]

it maybe be slightly too much but maybe it's cause you're gettin older lol j/k, I dunno, I like my bass and I've wanted a system with seriouse bass for like 4 years so hopefully it won't be overkill, I'm expecting tweaking the bass from time to time and the songs will be varied so that's ok

 

[j4jon]

I have an Andymac special and its fantastic, sooo much more bass and I still have a boot that I can use. I used to have a 12" Pioneer in my last car (306) and it was great for bass but used up all the boot. Whereas the stealth sub gives good bass and still leaves the boot free.