Audio Advice - Audi S4 (B5)

[imported_ZeroK66]

Hello all,

Had my S4 a few weeks now - getting all settled in wtih performance & all the nigglies... now onto Audio.

I got the car without a CD Changer - owning a few iPods I have bought the Dension Ice>Link and will fit this once it arrives.

Problem I have is as follows...

1. The car does not have BOSE and so only has front door speakers & rear parcel shelf speakers.
2. The car does not have rear speakers as previous owner isntalled a stealth shelf that can take 2 x 10" speakers...
3. I canot find the audio cables in the boot that ran the speakers/amp that were in the boot.

Questions are:

1. Where would the audio/power cables be tucked away?
2. Can I get 2/3 way 10" speakers? This way I can get trebble in the rear of the car along with bass from the 10" cone.
3. What do I do about the front speakers? They will not be loud enough to match the 10"'s in the back - assuming they were just SUBS.

Help/Advice welcome.

Cheers,
Leon

 

[madvw]

whats the plan?

best sound, or best price?

Are you bothered about the sound quality for the peolple sitting the back?

Do you really want 2x10" subs for bass?

 

[imported_ZeroK66]

Hi Mad,

Well I am hoping to get a nice fill in the car - so some trebble in the back would be good.

I am wanting to make best use of what I have got. The box in the back (Although not that big/deep) is well made & fits very well - looks OEM from the boot. So 2 x 10" would be my best bet - Unless I would to take the top panel off and change that and cut holes to suit what I want to fit? - 1 x 12" & some mids/tweeters?

Sound quality deffo important - but I am not going to spend a crazy amount. I believe in quality and money is not a real issue - but I dont beleive in spending double for a tiny increase in sound quality. Best bang for buck really...

 

[madvw]

by the sounds of it then you'd be best of keeping the 10"'s as subs then, and amping those seperately.

For keeping the sounds as good as possible you really want to be installing the mids and (especially) the tweeters facing the listeners - so mounting these on a rear shelf is a real no-go, unless you dont mind it sounding muddy.

Personally I'd try and use as many of the stock speaker positions as possible. It may be possible to retro-fit the speaker grilles into where the bose components would have gone, meaning that you can install speakers in these positions too (for the rear listeners). Retro-fitting may be expensive, but it'll save potential major headaches from cutting trim or installing stupidly huge and heavy custom door builds.

Once the speakers are in you should be able to get away with just two amps - although i'm not too much of a fan of quad-channel amps, so you may go with 3.

the final question would be how loud are you going to be running your subs? If your planning on LOUD, then power upgrades are needed too, otherwise you should be OK on the standard battery.

 

[imported_ZeroK66]

Thanks mad... pretty much my thoughts exactly. Thats the theory down... now I need to start thinking about specifics...

1. What speakers & how to install std speakers into Door cards
2. Finding the cabling in the boot
3. What subs to install... given the box is not too deep...

Think I will pop down to my local audio "specilist" this weekend - see what they have to say. They didnt exactly inspire confidence when I took my A4 to them previously. Wouldnt be happy leaving my pride & joy with them either... get some luunatic ripping it down the road /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[madvw]

your best bet for speaker recommendations would be to ask your local guy for a listening session, if they can demo their equipment. Your in the market to buy a shed load of gear, and you want to make sure that what your buying is gonna sound good together.

As for makers of subs and components, i've always been a fan of JL audio subs - even their bottom of the range sub at the time, the 12" 0W12, was damn loud and gave really tight bass. For the components i went for Infinity's, as they were a resonable price, and sounded good. I did want to go for the JL components, but their 3-point mounting was a show stopper for the grilles i was using. However, these are at the cheap end of the market (like 200 for the sub. and 200 for the components), so you could easily add a zero if your not worried about the cash.

Another point worth concidering is your crossovers, and these will need to be tailored to your wattage requirements - i wouldn't bother considering built-in amp crossovers, as aftermarket ones will probably include better DC-protection to prevent those clicks and bumps as they turn on.

one last thing, the higher output your tunes, the heavier it will all weigh... unless you buy ultra top of the range components made from exotic lightweight materials.

the best way to find out about OEM door builds would be to look on elsawin or etka to see the exploded diagram of the doors.. that way you should get a half idea of whats possible before you pull it all apart.

your exisiting cabling is a bit of a mystery. What headunit do you currently have?

 

[imported_ZeroK66]

I have the standard Audi headunit... there must be cables running to the boot for the power. I wouldnt have thought the guy would rip the power cable out the car - I sure as hell hope not /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[madvw]

even if there were the OEM power cables in the boot, you can't use them for amps. Idealy you'd run some heavy gauge (like 70-100 amp) wire to the rear directly from the battery, then fuse both ends (paranoia!) and distribute from the rear. This can all then be concealed under a false floor or shelf - make sure you give enough space for the cooling of the amps.

Make sure you also run power down one side of the car, and speaker wires down the other side.

as for the speaker wires from the head unit, to get these to the amps you'll have to get a high level to line level converter, as i don't think many OEM headunits have a level out - you should be able to fit this behind the glovebox area so that you just have to run RCA's down the side of the car.

If your lucky though, i think there is one OEM headunit, the blaupunkt one, that allows you to use the mini-iso breakout cable that terminates in RCA connectors. Dont ask me which one though as i dont have a clue which one /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[easytease]

what you want is two 10" IB (infinate baffle) subs on the shelf, and some tweeters too. (if needs must) then up front get some decent components and amp the components and subs /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

oh, and get a becker /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[AndyMac]

All Audi head units have both front & rear pre-outs, so if you can find the original wiring you can use this to feed the rear/sub amp and pick up the remote on.
If you can't find it then you'll need to pull the HU and use the Blaupunkt RCA adapter to give you standard RCA's outputs and run new RCA's to the rear.
2 x 10" subs will be total overkill for most people, especially if mounted in a stealth shelf, you'll find it difficult to get a balanced sound. IMO you'd be better off reducing the apertures and installing two 8" units which will give you a much more punchy bass without swamping the sound with very low bass.