Siberian

Hello all. I just bought my A4 two days ago and I must say I am completely happy with everything....everything that is, except that piece of $H*T they call a stereo system.... or for that matter, ANY oem stereo system. Sorry, call me an audio snob... but once you've heard a real sound system, consider yourself bitten by the bug!!

Anyway, soon I will be tearing out the so-called Bose concert audio system and installing my own stuff, including amps, all new speakers.. sub woofer, and a new head unit.... (By the way, what's with the tweeters high up on the doors?? That's a cardinal sin for proper imaging!) BAAARF!

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone who has done a serious system might share their experience with me... I'd appreciate any info you could spare... including tips for where they ran the power and audio cables, where did you mount your amps, what kind of head unit did you go with (I'd like to find one that matches the red illumination of the interior but so far, I have not found anything worthy). Did you do any modifications to the doors to add separate speakers? Did you use anything like Q-forms to get the front speakers off the front doors and into the front kick panel where they belong? Did you use dynamat or another type of dampening material in the doors?


Well, any info you could provide would be most helpful.

Thanks all, and I look forward to learning more about my wonderful new car on this forum. I plan to add some goodies under the hood as well... (I have a 1.8T with a 5-speed)

Thanks!

Paul

I've done a bit of research regarding installing an aftermarket system in my A4 Avant. Since you have the sedan, you will have less trouble positioning the amps than I have. For other Avant owners, I stereo installer I trust suggested that I use the space currently taken for the Bose system and cd changer. The top of the line german made Blau has perfect red lighting to mate with the dash, but you will have to custom cut a trim ring as it is oversized. This is what I plan to do, however. Placing the amps and sub is easy in the sedan, compared to the Avant, but I am having a box made that will fit neatly behind the seat and not take up the whole cargo area. Carpet to match of course. As for modifying the doors -- no thanks for me. I'll take a little less imaging instead of modifying my doors.

Paul
Denver, CO
barrow@usa.net
99 A4 Avant 1.8TQMS MTM Stage II, Bilstein Sports

Carlos

i own a 96 a4 sedan..
i upgraded my front speakers with comp level JL Audio 5 1/4 and 6 1/2 in the rear.
Also, i had a custom kit to kit my Sony cd player with remote.
I had my 5 channel amp (sony with crossovers and equalizer built in) mounted behind my rear seats.
And had my 12" Kicker with a custom box in my trunk. to see my pic of my trunk, look for my profile of my car.. look up a4 2.8 jl audio...
anymore questions, e mail me... good luck... its a tough job looking for good components for the a4.. but they are, out there...

Leland

Hi, I had the speakers replaced with Eclipse seperates. A five channel amp, Soundstream Rubicon 555 (75x4,250 for the sub). A pair of JL Audio 10 inch subs mounted in a box that fits nicely behind the rear seat. The sound is pretty good. It is missing some midbass. The installer wants to put six 1/2 inch drivers in the front kick panels for more midbass. He says the small drivers 51/2 in rear deck and 41/2 in the front doors cannot provide this midbass and these frequencies will not pass into the cabin from the trunk from the subs. It sort of sounds like a Bose accoustimase(sp)home system, but better. Lots of bass, highs but missing that midbass. Also I left the head unit in. The installer is pleading with me to
"get rid of that crappy head unit" to hear the true potential of the system.

I probably will go with his suggestion, money is not so much the issue but rather losing the cool all red interior lighting is.

I can't answer your tech questions because I had it installed.

Good luck, Leland

Mark Fulford

I felt exactly the same as you when I got my new A4 9 months ago. I had a 96 model prior to this and replaced the head unit and added a CD changer which was easy to do and improved the sound significantly.

However, modifying the new A4s is a totally different kettle of fish.

The rear speakers are active so you can't just add an aftermarket head unit. The speakers are crappy anyway and should be changed. The mounts are non-standard, so you'll need to make adaptors (or buy the MB Quart ones and modify them).

I replaced the fronts with JL 5.25in XR components and the rears with JL 6.5in XR components. The tweeters fit fine in the stock locations, but on the parcel shelf you'll need to make holes for them (this is the only visible surgery I had to make). The only other issue is the crossovers, which are quite large and need to be located. The fronts I fitted inside the doors, but had to cur some of the foam padding out first. The rears fit inside the trunk under the parcel shelf.

The amp I chose is a PG XS6600. This is suspended in the trunk under the parcel shelf also as I didn't want to lose much luggage space.

I have 2 JL 10in subs in separate carpeted boxes in the trunk also. These are easily removed when I need to put the seats down and a button on the amp puts the full signal range through the component speakers.

I chose a Blaupunkt Bremen head unit. It isn't a perfect match in terms of display colour, but sounds good. There is a trim panel to fill in the space. The Blaupunkt CD changer fits on top of the stock rack in the trunk. I had to alter the way the little door thing shuts, but it works fine.

As far as wiring goes. I put all the speaker and signal wires down one side and the amp power and earth down the other. I also wired in a 12V feed into the FM antenna wire to power the signal booster. It was a while until someone told me this trick and it really works. Before this I could not get any reception.

Good luck with your install