Dvo85

For those thinking about changing the stock Audi Sound System Speakers here is write of of where I am at currently and what will be next.

I was coming from an S5 that had the B&O system in it and came to a 2021 Q5 with the Stock Audi Sound System in it. I immediately regretted that decision. Not that the B&O system was the best thing ever, but it is a hell of a lot better than the crap Audi Sound System that is in the Q5. There is no oomph or mids at all and the vocals sounded like they were on the floor and under water.

The first thing I did was change out the spare tire "sub" (aka a 6.5" speaker in a plastic box in the spare tire). Being that it's an SUV I didn't want to lose cargo space so I opted for a Cerwin Vega 12" Spare tire Sub (Shallow Version)

https://cerwinvegamobile.com/12-shal...r-vpstx12.html

I then was searching on these Forums over in the A5/S5 sections and came across Bruce Miranda and his awesomely detailed breakdown and posting of all the speakers in both the Audi Stock System (can't abbreviate on here or it gets censored.. ***) and the B&O systems.

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/aud.../#post25445385
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/aud.../#post25445394

Being that the B9.5 Q5 is the same as the B9 Q5 and the B9 A5/S5. I measured up my speakers against what Bruce was making and selling and bought them and just installed them. A big selling point as well is that Bruce has the proper wiring harness to just reuse what is there so it is truly a plug and play option.

Before I get into the pictures below of how they look and what I had to do, take a look at Bruce's thread as they have very detailed instructions on how to remove the grills from the Dash.

The end result is that the mids and highs coming from the dash (especially the vocals) now sound MUCH higher and are coming from the windshield rather than sounding like it was coming from your feet under water. I am very pleased with the results so far. Now that I have the dash and the Sub done. It's onto the door speakers.

So the first thing I did was remove the grills and take out the stock speakers:



With the Center Grill off, the 1 Mid speaker in the center dash was very easy to to get to and remove

You can see the B&O tweeter cut our here with nothing installed there. To remove the speaker you will need a 5.5mm Socket wrench for all of the screws (2 per speaker).

Just a quick connecter holding in the power cable, which you can reuse as Bruce made a harness for the new speakers to just click this right in.


The stock Dash Side Tweeters. Note when looking at Bruce's post linked above in this thread of the difference in the hole opening, that little tab above the speaker makes dropping the new on in a little tricky to get it seated properly, but not more than a minute or two of moving the new side speaker around.


Ample space below to drop the new speaker in

Same quick connect release as the mid speaker

Here is a side by side of the Stock tweeter and the new speaker going in. The Stock tweeter looks like a coin in depth.

another top comparison

Here is what I mean by it is a little tricky for it to fit in, note that its not flush and needs to go in on an angle. you then have to reach in and pull the far side up and then it drops in perfectly.

Here is the passenger speaker fully installed.

To remove and install the drivers side speaker, you'll need a bendable bit for your screwdriver or ratchet and it is very tight against the windshield here. All in all both Driver and Passenger from start to finish took me about 20 minutes to do. I would recommend starting with the Passenger as it's easier to get at so you can figure out how to drop the speaker in properly.

Now onto the Center speaker. This was by far the easier and quickest.

Apologies for the blurry photo. It's the only one I took of top down of both.

Here is a side by side of Bruce's center speaker (left) and the stock Audi Sound System one.

A photo of the quick connect to Bruce's harness.

Here is the center speaker installed. No issues or hurdles what so ever just drops straight in.

Dvo85

So after changing the Dash speakers, I went ahead and grabbed the door mounts from Bruce as well. I bought Hertz Cento 165 C Speakers to replace the Front and Rear speakers.

For Removing the door panels in the Q5 I highly recommend this video as it is different than the A5 and S5 for removal it works for all 4 doors it was actually a lot easier than I was anticipating to remove the panels:


I didn’t take as many pictures this time as I was in a little bit more of a time crunch however, once you get the door panels off, it is super straight forward to just screw the speakers in and put the door back together.

There are a few other posts from the A5 pages that have more detail as well and here are the links to that. My pictures are below:https://www.audiworld.com/forums/a4-...grade-3013616/




All the gear from Bruce


The Hertz C 165 6.5” speakers I replaced the stock Front and Rear doors with.

Door with the wedge trim pieces removed


Stock Audi Speaker removed

If you go on crutchfield. The site will tell you that any 4 Ohm speakers is lower impedance than what was installed (it is incorrect. Here is the rear speaker which is in fact.. 4 ohms)

MarkP888

How does it sound so far?

Mark

Dvo85

The mids and the highs are a lot clearer and crisper now. The sub in the trunk definitely puts out a lot more thump and with the control you can adjust it on the fly.

The dash speakers definitely brought the vocals up higher on the cabin.

Still have to break them all in. Without the sub/amp combo I feel it would still need more oomph (the stock Audi sound system “sub” would not cut it with these new speakers) but with that and all the rest this will definitely be enough for me. I don’t listen to blow your ear drums loud and this keeps sounding better every time I get in the car as they break in more.

Definitely a lot better than the stock speakers. Not even close really

bruce_miranda

You have managed to prove, yet again, that the Q5 MKII is definitely a A4/A5 B9 sibling and so shares a lot with them.

You might want to change the subject of your thread, now that this is more than just the dashboard speakers. And if you add your subwoofer upgrade journey on here too, it then becomes a complete swap out that might benefit many others.

But well done.

GeriatricSQ5Guy

Any idea how your upgraded system sounds vs the B&O upgraded Audi setup?

bruce_miranda

An Audi Sound System with decent upgraded speakers and a properly amplified subwoofer will blow an unmodified B&O system out of the water.

GeriatricSQ5Guy

That's what I was afraid of.

Jmillar82

Hi there, just wondering if you know what size the centre dash speaker is?

I'm getting JL C3's put in my door speakers in weeks but it sounds like there's a fair bit of volume that comes from the centre speaker too, so I think I should get this done while my car is at the car audio place.

I'm glad to hear it has made a big improvement without an amp - some car audio places told me 'not to bother' doing the speakers without an amp (ie spend $2,000-3,000) but I'm just after crisper highs as the stock Audi Sound System is awful, especially in the highs!! For such a premium car I don't know why they cut corners - it wouldn't have cost them much to install better quality speakers...

bruce_miranda

The JL C3's are 2 way component speakers. That will work perfectly in the rear doors. However in the front, all you will do is improve the sound marginally. The issue in the front is actually different. The tweeter and woofers are on different surfaces but are connected to the same speaker line. This means, only all the Highs are hitting your windscreen from the dashboard but all the mids and lows are buried low down in the footwells.
What you want is to raise the sound stage so that the vocals and high come up to the top. In the B&O system Audi did this by adding a midrange in the door but high up and then the tweeter in the A pillar aimed at you. This is the biggest reason why my dashboard speaker set changes the configuration and replaces the dashboard tweeter with a mid-tweeter. It comes with a matching Centre speaker to keep the tonal balance across the entire dashboard.

The Centre speaker is a 4inch shallow driver.