carbonLORD

We already know what I'm going to say in comparo to my former car, thats not what my post is about though.

Yes, I love the 4.2

That said, the only thing I miss from my former 2.8 was (I must have been lucky) the sterio in the 2.8 had better bass beleive it or not. I have no reasoning as to why. Yes, the Bose system is muddy and the mid range is not fantastic but it seems I have better high range in the 4.2 and considerably less bass. Everything works, I checked adjusted etc, but I think I would like to have a secondary sub mounted in the trunk. I just dont get the same deep bass feel on certain tunes I listen to as I received from the stereo in the 2.8 (lots of Hip-Hop, Jungle, Trance etc.)

I'll do a search but this is not something I personally want to install. I would like to know others impressions and where, how much they paid, prefered brands etc, as I imagine I would need another amp, or can the amp in the current sub drive enough power for another 10" cone? I say 10" cone because I don't know anything about audio components but I certainly do not want one of these ghetto blaster boxes or some dumb large tube vibrating (no pun) my ride. Ideally I'd like to add just a little more to the low range bass and figured a secondary smaller sub would do the trick.

Stoney? I know you are LORD when it comes to Audio. All responses are welcome.

Other then that, I'll be honest and say, I don't miss my 2.8 one lick.

tung-sol

I had this post buried in my Outlook "Notes" from my A4 days, so I can't give proper credit to the author ... it did work wonders on my '00 4.2 Bose, although you can only get but so much out of the crappy Bose system. I started with his recommended setting and stuck with them, good luck.

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Audi - Symphony Radio "Hidden" EQ

The Symphony radio head unit for your A4 has the ability to set independent bass/mid bass/midrange/treble settings for the front and back speakers. This will allow non-bose users to achieve a much higher level and quality of audio without distortion and allow bose users to get some of that much-needed bass and, in theory, still move the sound stage forward at the same time.

If you somehow manage cook your speakers or your brain by playing your radio beyond the capability of your speakers I'm not responsible. Neither is Audiworld. You know the drill.

I'd like to thank all the people on the S4 forum who actually figured this out. I'm only writing the tech article because I don't want this info to disappear over time on the forum

So, on to actually making this work. To access the EQ all you have to do is turn off your car and remove the key. Then hold down the number '5' on your CD changer/Radio preset control and power on the head unit.

You will see '55555555' if your radio is in stock form. These numbers represent 4 EQ settings each for front and back. They are, in order from left to right (courtesy of LCP on the AudiWorld forums):

1. Front low bass
2. Front mid bass
3. Front midrange
4. Front treble
5. Rear low bass
6. Rear mid bass
7. Rear midrange
8. Rear treble

To adjust the settings, use your volume **** to change the flashing digit to a value from 1 to 9 (1 being the lowest level, 9 being the highest) and press P.SCAN to go to the next digit. When you get to the end it will wrap back to the first digit.

The most popular settings for bose seem to be 88698869, however after a bit of testing with my favorite music, I found that to sound boomy and hollow and have since gone with 76567656. My next task will be to increase the directional (midrange and treble) sound on the front speakers only to bring the Bose sound stage back towards the front without sacrificing bass out of my rear speakers.

The best setting that I have heard for the non-bose system is 38679657. It still doesn't sound like bose, and certainly not like a good after-market setup, but it's a major improvement for those that wish a simple change to improve their overall sound and reduce distortion.

As always, YMMV. Feel free to contact me with questions or comments, although your best resource may in fact be the AudiWorld A4/S4 forums to ask about people's favorite settings for whatever type of music they listen to.

carbonLORD

Printed and noted, thank you. I will try that route first.

im_cecil

Don't have a direct recommendation for another sub., but note that you would need one that's BOSE compatible. Same thing for replacement speakers.

Try the hidden EQ settings -- might get you where you need to. Stoney's FAQ has some more references.

TraderAlex

they were disappointed with the Bose upgrade, and did not get their $750 worth.

poontz13

Note: I might be wrong, but this is what I've gathered just from people on here talking about it. You can't just plug in a new amp/sub into the Bose head unit through preamp outputs, there is an adapter made by Blaupunkt that will convert your head unit to "non-Bose" and then you can replace speakers like any other system. I don't see why you could use an inline splice from the wires on your existing sub on the un-amped side of it and just use that as your signal. My guess would be that the signal wouldn't really be quite as good as using a pre-amp output, but it's still a signal.

meq123

But you have a recent 4.2, no? Hidden EQ only works with Symphony I radio (<2002)

Hy Octane

Does this work for Symphony 2?

meq123

No.

Stoney

No, sadly.