RNS-E / Non-Bose Amp Questions and other stuff for 8P S3

Cross posting from 8P A3/S3 and other forums...

Gday all,
I have an Audi S3 8P with the standard non-Bose stereo system.
Keeping the RNS-E, I have fitted Alpine amps and speakers.
The amps receive inputs from the speaker wires that are connected to Alpine speaker-to-line-level converters, and this is alright, but frankly quite poor at the same time.

Connecting my iPod using a line-out adapter directly into the Alpine amps gave much much better quality, especially the bass which had so much more definition and clarity; this is in comparison to listening to the same song using CD or SD card from the RNS-E. (Aux-In on the RNS-E is further distorted compared to CD/SD)

I've received answers to a lot of my questions on other forums but I've been pointed here.

The stock rear amp (pictured below) resides behind the (removed) subwoofer in the left wall of the boot.


By simply unplugging the wiring harness shown far right in the photo I know this amp feeds only the rear speakers. Does anyone have the pin in/outs of the wiring harness on the far right? Or maybe the pin in/outs from the amp itself? I just want to know which wires are from the line-out on the RNS-E and which wires are headed to the rear speakers. (Easier to modify my current wiring if I just join the two to bypass the amp and then remove the line-level converters).

Also, does anyone know if there is an amplifier for the front speakers somewhere, or are they definately fed from the speaker-outs on the RNS-E? I don't have removal keys at present so I cannot check, but if the fronts run off speaker-outs, again, rewiring would be a breeze if I just change the wires going from speaker-out to the line-out.

I have also heard something about grounding the Bose wire will give a flat signal from the RNS-E? Is this true?
I noticed all sorts of rubbish in Radio-Testmenu-3 in engineering mode. Can anyone explain these at all?

Am I wasting my time going through the RNS-E if I'm after sound quality? I was thinking if I can't get a decent line level signal out of the RNS-E then to connect the iPod via a seperate EQ in parallel to the Alpine amps so I can retain nav/phone/radio functionality.

Any comments/opinions/suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers guys,
Daniel

thanks for all that info mate
might try hooking up the system using Audi wiring first (for simplicity's sake) then try RCA's from the HU if i'm not satisfied.

btw, can you give me any more details on the Blaupunkt RCA adapter? model number, anything?

In answer to my own question, here is the (very limited) pin diagrams for the wiring harness leading into the non-boss amp in the subwoofer enclosure... colours are just what i saw in mine and may differ.

1 yellow - RIGHT LINE LEVEL
2 purple - GROUND/COMMON LINE LEVEL
3 green - LEFT LINE LEVEL
4
5 orange
6 orange/purple
7
8
9 white
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17 yellow/red (speaker out)
18 yellow/brown (speaker out)
19
20 black/white (speaker out)
21 black/blue (speaker out)
22 brown (power)
23 red/blue (power)

Hope this helps someone for future reference.

I have now rewired my amps to run off the line level output of the RNS-E and the sound is a million times better than running off the speaker to line level converters.