Aftermarket Alpine in my 8l Audi A3

[Jimmeh]

Hello all,

so I brought an Alpine CDA-9883R to replace the stock Audi Cassette/Radio player in my A3. Although I was happy with the sound quality with the above, I just couldn't get the CD-changer to work, so I figured the best bet would be to move onto an MP3 HU.

After installing the unit with all the right connectors and fascia fittings, it's left me baffled & quite annoyed? The sounds isn't anywhere near as 'crisp'? as it was, and the sub is non-excistent. The wiring has been done 'properly' and I'm stuck scratching my head as to what to do.

Will the Alpine unit support the standard sub (non bose..) in the Audi? Some say to just 'up' the original Audi HU, this way at least I'll still have CD capability, just no MP3.

Any thoughts or ideas on this guys would be great.

Jim

 

[AndyMac]

Alpine HU's would not be my choice - way too complicated with no Bass or Treble controls, so I would say half your problem is the setup on the HU. The default seems to be totally flat EQ (on the ones I've installed) so once you've been on the course you should be able to change that relatively easily. Why they don't have some pre-installed presets like every other brand god only knows?
The other half of the problem is the Audi rear/sub amp.
The Alpine kicks out 50w to the front speakers which is over twice that of the stock Audi HU, so the rears & sub will be very quiet in comparison having only 2 x 20w for the rears and a feeble 1 x50w for the sub from the tiny Audi amp. My suggestion would be to rewire the rears directly to the HU and then connect the RCA input adapter to the sub woofer pre-out on the Alpine, then jack the sub level up to maximum to try and compensate. Better still ditch the Audi shyte and install my stealth sub.

 

[steve1975l]

Better still ditch the Audi shyte and install my stealth sub.

I 2nd that, the stealth sub is great if you still want a boot.

 

[EssVier]

Whats all this talk of stealth subs i hear?

Going from a Phoenix Gold amps/sub and Focal speakers in my old car to Bose is a let down and I miss the power/bass but dont want to butcher my car!

 

[AndyMac]

8L A3 only, you can get stealth sub enclosures for the B5 at Auto Acoustics but they're not cheap.
http://www.autoacoustics.com/sbo-aa4.htm