Standard stereo upgrade options?

[NickyF]

Hi Everyone, firstly a thousand apologies if this has been posted elsewhere but I genuinely can't find it.

I have had my new S3 for a week now and while I love it to bits, it's become dramatically obvious that not upgrading the stereo was a big mistake. I'm no audiophile and mostly listen to the radio, but the standard system has nothing about it whatsoever. It has no power at all, which makes listening to music pretty irritating. My old 8P had the "Concert" stereo that I thought was standard, and that had enough balls for me, that's why I left it standard in this car, but wow, this one is crap.

I should have gone for the ***, as I think the B&O would have been overkill, but neither was definitely a mistake.

So... does anyone have any idea what my options are? Should I take it to a car audio shop and let them tear my nice new car apart? Can I just retro fit an amp and leave the rest of the car unmolested or are the standard speakers very crap? Is there a head unit somewhere to upgrade, or is it just amp and speakers? I don't need a great stereo, just one with a bit of go. I've got the Tech Pack with Connect if it makes any difference.

Oh, and if anyone is reading this who has an order without at least the ***, change it quick!!!

 

[Bristle Hound]

I've just sold my 5 1/2 year old A4 S-line and this, as standard, came with the equivalent sound system to the option *** on the S3. So for this reason alone I spec'ed the *** so I didn't notice a difference

Should be a few more items on the S3 than should be standard and not options IMHO
Mono.pur, interiror parking sensors & *** spring to mind

Just have a look at the standard spec on a new A4 black edition, which was coming in at around £12k cheaper than I am paying for my S3

Audi penny pinching?

 

[thestore]

I'm in the same boat:

http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/sound-system-woes.229952/

I have decided to hold off on installed a sub at the moment and wait until some others have done it. Would be good to find a way to de-limit it though. The sound system is really inconsistent, I get varying levels of bass between different sources etc very strange.

 

[SilureMark]

The *** isn't much cop either, so God knows how bad the standard system must be!! Turn the sound up in my car and you immediately want to turn it down again, it's pretty awful. I will certainly get B&O on my RS3 when I order it!

 

[discodeek]

I have B&O in my A5 black ed and it's just amazing - s3 coming next week with just the standard kit..... Oh dear !!

 

[Marc18]

There's an A3 not far from me with 3 subs in the boot. Installed by bass mechanix I think. So it is possible but I don't know what audi tech was there first

 

[veeeight]

Having had a chance to do a ABX comparison with Audi Sound System and B&O, the *** is a very good system, neutral (transparent), adequate volume levels, whilst the B&O has slight colouration (this can be EQ'd out), but offers much more power (volume). It is much louder than ***.

Unless the "surround" feature is turned off, the B&O has a vague stereo image.

 

[Liquidfusion-S3]

Glad I upgraded to ***

 

[thestore]

Thought I'd give this a little bump. Did you manage to get this upgraded at all? Or even work out how to de-limit the standard sound system?

 

[Vertigo1]

I doubt there'd be much point in "de-limiting" the standard system as I'd presume the limit is there because that's all the speakers can handle - removing the limiter would just lead to distortion.

 

[NickyF]

I want to tackle it this month but my credit card bills have arrived and they say otherwise. I'll do something soon as it's doing my head in. After a quick check, it looks like you can buy an amp that is designed to upgrade OEM systems but not replace them, like the Audison Bit One.
This lot seem to do it, audiofile-incar and the below quote from that page that got my interest...

"With the design of tiny, super-efficient, class D amplifiers, we have been able to offer far more in terms of upgrading a system without the inconvenience of a boot full of amps. The electronics we use to interface with original equipment, such as the Audison Bit 1, allow us to upgrade the HiFi without replacing the original radio / satnav, ideal for cars like Audi with MMI, Mercedes with Comand or BMW with I-Drive.

Many of the systems we design and install are completely hidden in the vehicle. When the system is complete, there is virtually no evidence we were ever there, until you listen to the audio system of course."

Anyone have experience with solutions like this?

 

[AlexDR]

Don't really know about the technical details but the B&O in my S3 sounds way better than the *** in my Q5 (which actually is also pretty good compared to the standard setup I have had in Audis previously.)

The B&O in my 8V is also a step up from the Bose in the 8P.

 

[alijnclarke]

I want to tackle it this month but my credit card bills have arrived and they say otherwise. I'll do something soon as it's doing my head in. After a quick check, it looks like you can buy an amp that is designed to upgrade OEM systems but not replace them, like the Audison Bit One.
This lot seem to do it, audiofile-incar and the below quote from that page that got my interest...

"With the design of tiny, super-efficient, class D amplifiers, we have been able to offer far more in terms of upgrading a system without the inconvenience of a boot full of amps. The electronics we use to interface with original equipment, such as the Audison Bit 1, allow us to upgrade the HiFi without replacing the original radio / satnav, ideal for cars like Audi with MMI, Mercedes with Comand or BMW with I-Drive.

Many of the systems we design and install are completely hidden in the vehicle. When the system is complete, there is virtually no evidence we were ever there, until you listen to the audio system of course."

Anyone have experience with solutions like this?

I was talking to my local car audio shop about this for my previous car, it can be done so you can't tell and it works with MMI but it's very very expensive. Apparently the Bit One can be connected directly to the car's fiber optic network, the bit one is then linked to an audison amp (via fiber in the best case) and you can have a seriously good quality setup.

I was tempted to have it done to my S3, but the B&O seems great at the moment.. although I wouldn't mind a little more bass & pass filter adjustment options. (probably just my music taste though!)