A4 Robin

I have the B&O w/ Navi and love it. Both SAT radio and iPod are clean and clear. I like it loud w/o the family in the car it it really holds up under volume. B&O system was one of the reasons I went with a Prestige package and I'm glad I did.

Realgrippy

I have the B&O system and it is the best system I have owned. My wife has the G37 Bose system and its really good as well, but you can hear the clarity difference with the B&O. I would definitely buy it again.

quality_sound

No, the point was that when even speakers that have historically "required" long break-in times don't show ANY change in their parameters after break-in you can be guaranteed that your OEM speakers are NOT going to sound any different after a few weeks. The ONLY thing that happens is you get used to them.

If you didn't drive the car for 200 hours you would absolutely hear a difference because humans do not have the ability to remember details in sound over more than a few minutes.

Sumo.wong

Those of you that simply have the audi Concert. when you turn up the base do you find that their is some speaker rattle?

I have my trebble at 2 bars from the max, my midbase 3-4 for the max, however I leave the base at just 1 or 2 passed the middle.

I find if I turn the base up anymore on heavy songs with some deep low end, it almost sounds like the speaker is hitting something?

Bargamon

IM citing some owners manuals of high end speakers, and the long term opinon of many that speakers need a break in period.

I suppose we can source our opinions or let it go.

In any event. Wife and I happy with concert sound for a base system. In the end, thats what we strive for.

quality_sound

I haven't had the door apart yet but older VW/Audis had a platic ring to seal the speaker to the door that had a tendency to rattle. It could also be something else in the door. The most likely option is that your'e bottoming the speakers out.

Mine is not an opinion, it's fact. I'll dig up the article specifically about the Dyns. You can look but I guarantee you'll NEVER be able to find a credible article that proves a speaker's sound or parameters change enough after break-in to be audible. I'm not sure if you can read that. It's blocked at work.
<CITE>www.nousaine.com/pdfs/dynaudio.pdf </CITE>
<CITE></CITE>
Of course it's in high-end manuals. If it wasn't people would be returning their high end speakers and buying Paradigms. I've sold high end home speakers, trust me, it's bunk. Just because people think it doesn't make it true. Home audio dorks wil put rocks in their room or elevate their cables because they think it helps. Some even tape bags of sand to their signal cables...

Here are the important part of the article I linked to above:

"The bottom line: Based on this test, break-in had no effect on real-world performance. [] breaking in a high-quality driver has no more effect on performance than ordinary sample-to-sample variations among consecutively manufactured drivers.

Consider that speakers are made from a bunch of electromechanical parts that can all vary slightly. When these parts are assembled, we get speakers with bigger sample-to-sample variances than any change caused by break-in.

If you think about it carefully, the only thing that can change significantly with break-in is the compliance of the speaker. Human beings get bigger and stronger when they work out; speakers don't. Exercise won't change the moving mass of the system. It won't change the magnet or the motor strength. And it doesn't change the voice coil, the pole piece, or the top plate. A change in compliance produces a lowered Fs and an increased Vas, which are exactly offsetting in both a mechanical and a mathematical sense. This means that changes - when they can be confirmed - result in exactly the same speaker design and identical performance with or without break-in".

He goes on to say the following:

"In fact, the concept of a component break-in often turns out to be a clever merchandising tool. When you complain about the sound of your new Godzilla speakers, the salesman tells you that they'll need extended break-in to sound their best - thus encouraging you to keep them for a little while longer".

...and...

"It's a well-known fact that humans lose sensitivity to a stimulus with continued exposure. For example, you only hear a fan just after it's been turned on or off. With continued exposure, we equalize ourselves to our environment; given time, we just fill in the blanks and tune out the peaks. Extended break-in simply gives you time to equalize yourself to the speakers and may prevent a manufacturer from having to deal with a costly return.

Break-in periods allow normal adaptive changes in the listener to masquerade as changes in the product. "

...and finally...

"There's nothing inherently wrong with breaking-in your speakers. It just doesn't lead to design enhancement or an improvement in performance."

gunsmoker

Any break-in has to do with some wear. What wear do you expect from a speaker? If you don't abuse it, it can last you a lifetime. Sure, you may need to re-edge the sub driver every 10-15 years, but that's not wear. It's the aging of the material.

On a different subject, I played some more with my Audi concert tone controls and I settled on the following: Bass +7, Mid -2, Treble +3.
I did that over various music - rock, metal, pop, classical.
These settings are the best for my collection. Sure, there are rock tunes that have less bass and R&B tunes that have more bass than what I want, but it's a reasonable compromise.

NCAudiFan

I have the standard system in my S4 and my wife has the B&O in her A4 S-line so I have listened to both systems alot. I do think the B&O is superior in the overall sound quality especally when you crank it up. My biggest complaint is that my older classic rock songs (like the Eagles or Led Zeppelin) are not nearly as clean and crisp as new music (say Alter Bridge). I find myself making adjustments in either car based on the age of the recording. I think the $800 upgrade for the B&O is good value for money. It could be worse, the B&O could be a $6,300 upgrade like in the A8.

quality_sound

You can't really fault the system for it's accuracy because the quality of the recording is bad.

a4-bob

+1

I've been surprised to hear things in some of my music that I hadn't heard before the B&O. but then a lot of my old-school stuff sounds pretty weak; it's just the way it's recorded.