rageman

I am going to be installing a Mac in my 00 A6 with Bose audio and I am looking for suggestions on how to handle the audio. The headunit is going away completely (replaced by a touchscreen), so I need to get audio to the speakers. Audio output will be handled by a Griffin Firewave (or similar) external sound card (since the computer will be a powerbook). Here are my options as I see them:

1. Take output from the sound card (I think it is line level) and put that directly into the bose amp (as though it is the head unit). I like this idea since I am not looking to upgrade the audio at this point; I'll have my hands full enough as it is. Will sound quality suffer terribly? Wiring harness available?

2. Take output from the sound card, into a 4 channel amp capable of 2ohms, out to speakers after bose amp. Remove the bose amp entirely. Line out from from sound card to bose subwoofer. I'm thinking an amp like the Rockford P4004. Will I need to add crossovers? Will the stock bose speakers handle it?

3. Remove all bose audio components and replace with new speakers and amps. I'd really rather not do this - expensive and time consuming. Yes, I know the output would be better. Maybe down the line.

So, any comments or suggestions are welcome. Also, if anyone knows where to get harnesses for this stuff so I don't have to hard wire very much I'd appreciate it. I did seach the archives quite a bit, but this situation seemed to only be skirted around, not directly addressed.

Thanks,
Sean

HIS4

it makes no sense to worry about SQ when you install the carputer if you're not going to change the speakers or amps because you'll get the same crap SQ as you had before. It also doesn't make sense to add an amp to the stock Bose speakers because again, you'll get no performance gain on that. You don't have to get high end expensive speakers. You could probably spend less than $300 on a decent set of 4 speakers and get 10x better SQ than you had before. In relation to what it's going to cost you to do the whole carputer thing, I'd say the cost of the speakers is negligible.

One other thing is that since you're doing a carputer, I assume that your sole source of material will be the hard drive which means you'll be using all compressed music (MP3, AAC, WAV, etc). I wouldn't be all that concerned about having the ultimate SQ system because you won't get it using those types of sources. Unless you are going to have another source that can directly read optical media, I wouldn't put too much money into trying to build a competition SQ vehicle from a carputer.

rageman

Certainly not as much as getting the carputer system up and running. Ideally, I would just wire from the external sound card to the bose amp and let it take care of the rest. The SQ I am worried about there is that since the signals are not coming from a Bose HU, the output will be terrible (worse than stock).

I will have an optical drive in the dash, and at least FM radio as well. I doubt I'll go for satellite.

Thanks,
Sean

[[.:Uber-Stalker:.]]

It is going to sound like **** if you half *** it.....replace all...none of this half & half bs

avincar

It's pure poetry when you type...