Bang & Olufsen v's Audi Sound System

I have had an iPod Touch out of Audi to use for now, until a fix is released. However, Spotify + AMI is shocking, so it's not really a usable fix. I am now pushing for the cost price of B&O to be refunded, although the issue still remains and I still have a substandard sound system that crackles. Don't get me wrong, when you can't hear it, it's an excellent system. But............
 
I am a professional classical musician and audiophile. Obviously specced the B&O: you must give it time to "loosen" because when the car was new, I was a bit lukewarm about it. Then, after hours of listening, I am quite satisfied by it. Good bass and mid response, a bit too shrilly the highs for my taste but a) it depends of the media you are playing b) you are free to play with the settings: I lowered a bit the sub (1 tick CCW) and the highs (1 tick CCW). Absolutely set the focus to front and not to front+rear.
 
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I have the *** system and I'm pretty pleased with it. Nice, crisp sound and a definite upgrade over the regular sound system although lacking a bit of depth. I think I need to play with the settings to get the most out of the bass.

The decision for BO really boils down to if you're a real audiophile and if you believe paying an extra £500 is really worth it over another option you might get. To be honest, I'm not sure that it is. Mind you, at full volume it wakes the dead.
 
My question is: upgrading from base --> *** --> B&O you only get different speakers and amplifiers or they also improve the acustic insulation of the door with foam panels and acoustic correction of the listening environment? (the inside of the car)
 
I´m not sure if there is any additional foam or other sound dampening material in the doors. If there is, it´s certainly not sufficient. I have the B&O and there is excessive vibrations from both door cards. I will probably remove the door cards on my A3 and add some dynamat or similar now during winter.

What comes to acoustic correction, depends on what you mean. The B&O system corrects both the frequency & time domain. As previously commented here, the bass & mid response is OK, the highs are quite shrilly/rough. I´ve decreased the treble two notches. I still would like to have more options to adjust the system to own listening & music preferences though. The frequency response is not to my liking and the low pass filter for the subwoofer sounds to be set fairly high, so the sub-bass is not very well integrated with the front-stage. Again, depends on what you expect to get, I would certainly not call this an audiophile system but being old & lazy it is nice to have the option of just ticking a box and paying for a pre-installed & fully integrated system that is substantially better than stock.
 
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It is a good idea improving the acoustic treatment of the door (damping foam) I used to visit the shop of a friend of mine that was (now he retired) a good hi-fi car specialist and I had the opportunity to hear some cars after and before a serious foam dampening inside the door: the result was as from day to night. Same components - two totally different results.

Considering the B&O driver size of the subwoofer I'd bet that is basically a very long vent port bass reflex that has a very narrow frequency response and so the lack of integration with the front-stage. As you know, SERIOUS sub-woofer could dramatically reduce your trunk space :D

At the end I agree: it all worths ticking the box instead of have your new car interior disassembled like a tuna can at hi-fi specialist shop.
 
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Well, I went for the Audi Sound System as I seen the B&O's price and nearly went bang myself :p

I've also read that B&O can sometimes develop a crackle/rattle...

However the illuminated strips with the ILP looks nice, but I don't think it's worth the extra dough personally.
 
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I had the B&O in my A5 and it sounded awesome and very clear listened to it in the A3 and its nowhere near as good.
 
audi upgrades
B&O is fantastic but you'll only really hear the difference at high volume, it has become essential kit for me.
 
danilotto said:
I am a professional classical musician and audiophile. Obviously specced the B&O: you must give it time to "loosen" because when the car was new, I was a bit lukewarm about it. Then, after hours of listening, I am quite satisfied by it. Good bass and mid response, a bit too shrilly the highs for my taste but a) it depends of the media you are playing b) you are free to play with the settings: I lowered a bit the sub (1 tick CCW) and the highs (1 tick CCW). Absolutely set the focus to front and not to front+rear.
Click to expand...
This is interesting. I was initially underwhelmed by the B&O and have even mentioned on here that a Mark Levinson system in a Lexus I once had was better. However, a few months in and the B&O is sounding superb. I definitely improves a lot with a bit of 'running in'. Agree about the focus......originally had mine central, but amending to front also made a big impact. So in conclusion, needs time and tweaking, but if you like music in the car the B&O is a worthwhile investment.
 
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We have standard system in an A3 no sub in spare wheel. Pretty poor system really in comparison with B&O on S3.
 
When I update my A3 to hopefully an S3 I wouldn't even consider the standard sound system. When I think I spent £495 on a pair of louboutins and not £250 on *** I feel like a d**k!! :boxing:
 
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Have the £200 ish Audi sound system as b&o is expensive but find it's great. I demo'd an a3 with b&o and put my SD card in it. Didn't really notice much difference apart from the b&o could go up in volume, but was louder then most average users would ever go to.b
 
B&O all the way. I made the mistake of getting *** on my S3, it's pretty awful. The sound that comes out of it is like someone's covered the speakers with a damp cloth. If it was a standard system, I could forgive it for being so bad, but as a cost extra, it's a joke. I keep the volume below 15 most of the time, as to avoid ruining my favourite music. It's barely passable for listening to radio, but again, turn the volume up and I start to cringe at the sound quality it produces. I'm defo going B&O on my new TTS or RS3, once I can make my mind up which to order. lol.
 
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*** is awesome, What radio station were you tuning into, some French one.
Using High quality MP3's on the SD card makes a massive difference. iPods etc are rubbish as they compress the music so much.
 
The B&O is a decent upgrade - especially sound quality from the cd player (as opposed to the SD card or via an iPod playing compressed music files). I've connected my iPod and have streamed Spotify on 'high quality' and that sounds pretty damn fine too.
 
RobIW said:
*** is awesome, What radio station were you tuning into, some French one.
Using High quality MP3's on the SD card makes a massive difference. iPods etc are rubbish as they compress the music so much.
Click to expand...
Hmmmm....

B&O, set focus to "Front", set volume to 30-35, kick out any passengers (they obscure the passenger door speakers), play any CD or High Bit Rate SD/MP3 you like....

Sit back and listen to TRUE awesomeness ;)

^^^ These are the basic settings you need to start getting the most from B&O, do this before you start fiddling with treble/bass/sub etc.

Worth every penny of the upgrade if you frequently drive by yourself and enjoy listening to music. And don't worry, 30-35 may seem loud at first, but it really isn't, just give your ears about 10 seconds to adjust ;)
 
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mjcourtney said:
Hmmmm....

B&O, set focus to "Front", set volume to 30-35, kick out any passengers (they obscure the passenger door speakers), play any CD or High Bit Rate SD/MP3 you like....

Sit back and listen to TRUE awesomeness ;)

^^^ These are the basic settings you need to start getting the most from B&O, do this before you start fiddling with treble/bass/sub etc.
Click to expand...

Yes but classical doesn't count as music, so you have to turn it up really loud to hear it ;)
 
What's the highest volume level both Audio Systems can go up to?
 
At work, we have some custom made kit, that goes up to 11 ;)
 
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I hope I'm wrong but think you need ILP. That was the case on my old S3. Had thought ILP was standard on RS for some reason, apparently not!. Had x2 5's with B&O and the silver rings did not light up.
 
With B&O front speaker grilles light up, rears do not. ILP makes no difference to this if you have it or not.
 
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Best thing is to avoid listening to the B&O then you wont be missing anything. At times it's good (Not the bees knees). Then the crackling kicks in and.... Admittedly it doesn't happen to everyone, although I suspect not everyone notices it as I think it's to do with compression ???? in which case it would be a standard feature (wouldn't it). Could be wrong.
 
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