Stereo upgrade plan/advice for Audi S3 8L 2002 BAM

[thegoal007]

I have the original HU (with old fashioned cassette!) , with Bose Speakers, a 6 cd multichanger and bose Sub hidden in the usual back quarter panel.
I am after a good quality head unit replacement with my 2 simple requirements: play music from a USB and have DAB radio (dont care about bluetooth or anything else). Prelimanry choice made and going for Pioneer DEH-5720DAB + aerial. The idea with this HU is to have much greater control of various sound levels (better EQ). It should still go through the Bose amp with the existing sub working. At the same time I am adding an old Kenwood Amp (PS 200T) I had together with an 8" tube sub (again an old one I have). The idea behind this is to help in the bass dept as that Bose Sub really is underwelming and so needs extra depth to sound. The CD changer is staying where it is, but will not work and i dont care. Existing speakers dont really sound too bad, but feel the system is certainly lacking something...quality of sound and I hoping with the small tweaks it should be better. For a second opinion I did got to a reputable stereo shop/fiiter and asked them about replacing all the speakers, but they agreed that afetr spending £100s I am not going to get the sound that much better and thought that route would be a waste of money.
I did read somewhere that the tweeters were of bad quality on our cars and NOT bose even in a Bose equipped system - not sure if that's true....sounds ok to me abeit they dont stand out like superior items.
obviously the correct kits/wiring will be purchased to make the abovew work.

Anyone have any advice on the above or suggestions/conversation?

 

[MPH]

I have the original HU (with old fashioned cassette!) , with Bose Speakers, a 6 cd multichanger and bose Sub hidden in the usual back quarter panel.
I am after a good quality head unit replacement with my 2 simple requirements: play music from a USB and have DAB radio (dont care about bluetooth or anything else). Prelimanry choice made and going for Pioneer DEH-5720DAB + aerial. The idea with this HU is to have much greater control of various sound levels (better EQ). It should still go through the Bose amp with the existing sub working. At the same time I am adding an old Kenwood Amp (PS 200T) I had together with an 8" tube sub (again an old one I have). The idea behind this is to help in the bass dept as that Bose Sub really is underwelming and so needs extra depth to sound. The CD changer is staying where it is, but will not work and i dont care. Existing speakers dont really sound too bad, but feel the system is certainly lacking something...quality of sound and I hoping with the small tweaks it should be better. For a second opinion I did got to a reputable stereo shop/fiiter and asked them about replacing all the speakers, but they agreed that afetr spending £100s I am not going to get the sound that much better and thought that route would be a waste of money.
I did read somewhere that the tweeters were of bad quality on our cars and NOT bose even in a Bose equipped system - not sure if that's true....sounds ok to me abeit they dont stand out like superior items.
obviously the correct kits/wiring will be purchased to make the abovew work.

Anyone have any advice on the above or suggestions/conversation?

Personally, I like the old head units Audi concert Bose version so I kept mine wired in a connects2 Bluetooth to connect to the phone for Spotify etc Then oldskool 5 channel ALPINE MRV F450 V12 AMP JL AUDIO 8W3v3-4 8 inch sub and box in place of the original one a pair of JL AUDIO C3 525 in the front and JL AUDIO C5 650X in the rear fitted the crossovers discretely in the front doors towards the front the hinge area direct bolt-on and the same in the rear changed all the speaker wiring QED Bi-wire and 16 awg front and rear 12 awg for the sub Stinger SHI4317 4-channel RCA PHONO LEADS 5 M from the head unit to the amp tri rated 10mm 70 amp for the power wires direct to battery fuse box put a slightly larger Duracell Advanced - DA 74 CRANK 680A for some extra kick best thing I have done to the car period.

 

[thegoal007]

OK, so that's interesting with your replacement door speaker setup and amp to power them. So you have basically 50W per channel on each of your speakers with the rears able to take much more 220W, but feeding in only 50W.
By chance did you have a bose setup in your car to begin with and did you really notice that much of a differnce in the sound you were getting, and i mean EXCLUDING the sub. I know that replacing it with a god amp and sub will transform the overall sound to a whole different level.

In the past with my older cars where I have added new powerfull amps for door speakers and sub boxes I have found the bit that really transformed the sound into something really special was adding kenwood kgc-4042A - the miniture 5 band graphic equaliser. The problem is I forgot and cut the wires as they came out of my old setup and now not able to use it! I was told that I would not be able to fit it anyway even it was intact.

 

[MPH]

OK, so that's interesting with your replacement door speaker setup and amp to power them. So you have basically 50W per channel on each of your speakers with the rears able to take much more 220W, but feeding in only 50W.
By chance did you have a bose setup in your car to begin with and did you really notice that much of a differnce in the sound you were getting, and i mean EXCLUDING the sub. I know that replacing it with a god amp and sub will transform the overall sound to a whole different level.

In the past with my older cars where I have added new powerfull amps for door speakers and sub boxes I have found the bit that really transformed the sound into something really special was adding kenwood kgc-4042A - the miniture 5 band graphic equaliser. The problem is I forgot and cut the wires as they came out of my old setup and now not able to use it! I was told that I would not be able to fit it anyway even it was intact.

I have just had a Google and power leads are available I would open it up and solder some new phono leads on! my head unit was just coded to Bose with VCDS light as I only have the standard one being in an A3 8L 1997

Sent from my SM-S908B using Tapatalk

 

[thegoal007]

I have just had a Google and power leads are available I would open it up and solder some new phono leads on! my head unit was just coded to Bose with VCDS light as I only have the standard one being in an A3 8L 1997

Sent from my SM-S908B using Tapatalk

That maybe so, but its not going to transform the unit to suddenly start playing mp3 usb sticks or have DAB. And I cenrtaily do not want to start bluetoothing stuff from my phone/other device....Not that this has bluetooth nether.

 

[MPH]

https://www.incarconnections.co.uk/blaupunkt-car-stereos-car-radios.html That is fair enough take a look at these in the link BLAUPUNKT USB and DAB on most although not sure what your budget is.

 

[thegoal007]

https://www.incarconnections.co.uk/blaupunkt-car-stereos-car-radios.html That is fair enough take a look at these in the link BLAUPUNKT USB and DAB on most although not sure what your budget is.

For some reason I didnt think they still made Blaupunkt stereos anymore! is there a reason for this brand?
There seems to be something for any budget range

 

[MPH]

For some reason I didnt think they still made Blaupunkt stereos anymore! is there a reason for this brand?
There seems to be something for any budget range

Just a personal choice even though all blaupunkt original production is now outsourced to china having modern up to date features with the original oldskool Audi look especially the red one thinking of possibly putting one in myself now as I love the look of the original head unit and think anything that looks too modern is just out of place given the age of the car and sticks out like a saw thumb that is why I have tried to make my install as stealthily as was possible just saying

Sent from my SM-S908B using Tapatalk

 

[thegoal007]

Just a personal choice even though all blaupunkt original production is now outsourced to china having modern up to date features with the original oldskool Audi look especially the red one thinking of possibly putting one in myself now as I love the look of the original head unit and think anything that looks too modern is just out of place given the age of the car and sticks out like a saw thumb that is why I have tried to make my install as stealthily as was possible just saying

Sent from my SM-S908B using Tapatalk

so you got me re-thinking.

 

[thegoal007]

Is it easy/straighforward to replace the head unit only with one of these blaupunkt ones? or will i need adpators and a bit of rewiring?

 

[MPH]

Is it easy/straighforward to replace the head unit only with one of these blaupunkt ones? or will i need adpators and a bit of rewiring?

Probably needs a little bit of rewiring as for adapters depending on the model you select measurements etc widely available Online Also I have the full wiring information should you need it

Sent from my SM-S908B using Tapatalk

 

[thegoal007]

So for an update on what happenned next. please check my post in the I.C.E /Sat-Nav / In-Car Entertainment forum.