Basic sound system upgrade (tweeters and rear speakers?)

[Damo S]

Hi All,

Going to book in with DJalix soon for the Audi sound system upgrade (including the door speakers). Has anyone upgraded the tweeters too (since they sound a little dull) or the rear speakers?

For the tweeters I'm assuming it's a potential pain given there is also an airbag located behind the pillar cover.

And what about options for the rear speakers (mines a 3 door)?

 

[hellodave]

Have you listened to a car with the A.S.S. to compare with yours? I found the A.S.S in the wife's S3 pretty poor - lack of power made it very thin at higher volumes. It may be better than the stock system but not much, and retrofits arent usually cheap - I'd want to be sure it was worth the effort before comitting.

If it were my car, I'd go aftermarket - replace the front speakers with components, stick a small sub and amp in the boot, job done. Should give far better results for similar money to a retrofit. I'm sure there's a few threads on here with examples. Don't bother changing the rears - your ears are in the front.

If you must keep things OEM go B&O but I doubt it's going to be cheap!

 

[CanadaA3wales]

I agree with Hellodave aftermarket all the way.
I have heard Bose and HK in cars and they sucked, not much better than my standard A3, just a little deeper base.
Get some amazing aftermarket speakers and a 10" sub and descreet amp and I bet it would blow anything Audi ever produced.
Its like a Bose house system compared to my gold series monitor Audio set up, its not going to compare

 

[Damo S]

I hear what you are saying guys.

One of the attractions of the retrofit is the centre speaker, and having the dedicated sub output. I know the *** one is a bit pants but I have a 12" passive in a box which I could put in the boot and feed that instead. I did this on the old 3.2 (bose system, disconnect the bose sub and wired mine in). It was much better bass. That said, I doubt the sub output will be that powerful but if it isn't enough I could install a small cheap amp later. The only hassle would be providing a power feed with the sub feed already in place.

I'm not too fussed about having anything really kicking or sounding amazing, but being able to turn it up a few notches louder than it currently goes and with a bit more bass would do. I also don't want to be doing much hacking to get some form of sub running.

There is a local company who do a component speaker install and door treatment for not too much money. Maybe the retrofit (without the speaker upgrade), wire my sub in myself, and then get the local guys to install their component system. Might do the job.

 

[rcnacura]

I have the A.S.S. system and it really comes down to the input. The radio/satellite sounds awful by itself, but when I used the 3.5mm Jack, it sounded much much better.

I then upgraded the subwoofer and that made the biggest difference and I think it sounds just add good as the b&o, minus some midrange, which I want to add in the front doors too.



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[CanadaA3wales]

As much as its nice to have everything Audi and OEM, its not the greatest mod to be done on cars.
Most things on cars are better to have OEM all the way like the mechanics ect.
But there are some great speaker companies out there that seriously blow B&O HK and Bose out of the water.
Bose and B&O are so overated and it beats me why people continue to buy them.
Not only are you going to get better sound, its going to be a lot cheaper to either do it yourself or get a local supplier to do it for you.
Get a nice descreet 10" sub and upgrade all the door and tweeters and you will save lots of cash and have better sound to boot.

Its funny, I have a £12,000 home cinema that has put cracks in walls, but I am happy with the standard Audi speakers, I turn it up to 21 and I am happy with Deezer and my playlist.

 

[hellodave]

There is a local company who do a component speaker install and door treatment for not too much money. Maybe the retrofit (without the speaker upgrade), wire my sub in myself, and then get the local guys to install their component system. Might do the job.

AFAIK, the A.S.S is just a speaker upgrade over the basic system (and some coding) - the head unit is exactly the same.

The A.S.S uses the amp in the head unit, which is a big reason why it's so poor - lack of power (even the sub runs off the HU). If you want to go custom sub and components, adding an offboard amp will make a huge difference. You don't need the A.S.S retrofit at all then.

 

[Damo S]

AFAIK, the A.S.S is just a speaker upgrade over the basic system (and some coding) - the head unit is exactly the same.

The A.S.S uses the amp in the head unit, which is a big reason why it's so poor - lack of power (even the sub runs off the HU). If you want to go custom sub and components, adding an offboard amp will make a huge difference. You don't need the A.S.S retrofit at all then.

Yes I think the retrofit is just putting in the sub (and wiring), centre speaker, and activating both using coding (plus giving the sub control on the mmi). The door speaker upgrade is optional extra.

The main problem is the head unit doesn't have any line outputs, only the head units amplifier outputs as far as I know. That's always going to be a limiting factor. The local company who install upgraded speakers can go much further and install an EQ correcting amp such as audisson and then run everything from that. It is supposedly very good but the problem is its an awful lot of money, like 3 grand for the full install but its a butt kicking system. I just dont want to go that far.

 

[pburv]

Speaking from actual experience. I had the standard system in my S3 and the wife has B+O in her Q3. There is a definite difference in sound quality with the B+O set up. Everything is a lot crisper and has plenty of depth to the sound. If funds allow it is worth going for the B+O set up.