Bobby Kinstle

I do the same obsessiveness at home too but I spend 2-3 hours every work day in my car, usually going 5 MPH. Thankfully home audio gear lasts longer than i keep cars and i made that investment before i had kids. Now the kids are sleeping and i can't turn it up most of the time anyway.

Bobby Kinstle

I put some dynamat inside the doors while I was in there. The car actually has a decent amount of vibration deadening material in it, but I still got 6 more square feet of mat in the car and it made a pretty big difference in reducing road noise. This of course means better music and lower volume levels which leads to less driver fatigue.

Bobby Kinstle

Since the old door grille was only open above the 4x6 woofer i found that it was 75% blocked over the new woofer. I sanded down the back and opened up more holes. Even with this is still significantly diminishes the performance of the door woofer.

I considered opening it up completely and putting a fabric mesh in there but I noticed that people get REALLY close to kicking the woofer with the tip of their shoes when they get in the car so I think I'll stick with something structurally sound for now.

ywang98

Yeah, I can see why you want a good system in the car. Fortunately for me, my commute basically has no traffic issues. And as with you, I hardly have any chance to push the system at home because of kids...

TT-S4

Excellent information. Thank you for your hard work!

The audio aspects that you describe, along with the graphs, show what I also hear in the system.
With every 3D and "surround" effect turned off, the system is ok, but not great.
Given all the effort and work that Audi and B&O did, the overall audio system, as far as music playback, is lackluster really.
Thus, all those speakers and amplifiers are worthless for my needs, and for all others who use their car audio system to play music.

There are very few recordings done in actual coded surround systems. And, I'm not positive which surround methods/systems this B&O can decode in order to give an actual true reproduction of what the musicians and engineers intended.
For most intents and purposes, nearly all music is still recorded in good ole stereo.
And that means, if one uses any fake 3D modeling mode, or the fake "surround" modes, then they are not hearing the music and recording as it was meant to be heard.

Frankly, I think it's a waste of time for these car companies to invest all the time, money, and effort in attempt to create an audio system that is more suited to playing back movie soundtracks than music, and music is what nearly all people listen to in their vehicles.
I have NEVER listened to, nor been able to watch, a movie in my cars.
A surround system may be cook for passengers, especially those in the back seat who are watching a movie, but these system suck at audio reproduction.
I'm sure others see/hear it differently, and that's cool, we all don't have to agree on everything.

Thanks again for the information.



When I got my S4, the B&O was set to some very wonky modes with 3D and surround turned on, and the overall quality was AWFUL. There were "holes" in audio spectrum, there was no "stage" for the audio image so it was impossible to hear "where" the music and instruments were.
Everything was coming from everywhere, and then there was a reverb effect on top of all that mess, making things every worse.
As I experimented and learned what B&O had done, I turned all of the 3D and surround OFF. I experimented with those effects singularly, together, at various levels, etc.
Comparing any and all of those effects at various settings to everything OFF, the obvious became obvious, leave all the effects OFF.
And that is where my audio system is to this day.

I use a bit of the front/rear fader to move the sound stage a bit, and I adjust the treble, bass, and sub.
And, as you have discovered, that center dash speaker is on no matter what, and it SUCKS. I don't like it.
I experimented with covering it up with a large piece of cardboard, and the result was positive.
But, I don't like a large piece of cardboard on my dash. So, I live with it.

The stated power by Audi and B&O is also quite misleading. The power is only available when the systems effects are ON, which then activates the extra speakers and their amplifiers.
I'd like to know the stated RMS power/wattage, when all effects are off, and the system is just in stereo mode.
Have you found that spec?

For reference, my professional work in in Audio/Video production and technology, along with Photography. I'm also a musician, guitar player mainly, and have played in various bands in live shows, and studio recording and producing. Not at a high pro level however.
I've also installed audio systems in a few cars, perhaps 10, and every single one sounded SO MUCH better than the stock systems.
The clarity from even modest after market speakers and amps is night and day difference, even compared to these so called "high end" OEM systems.
I had the HK audio upgraded system in my last 3 BMWs as well, and they were no better nor worse than this B&O, except I did like the dual under seat sub placement in the BMW, as the placement is solid, no rattles.

I'd love to see an audio system option that is designed to optimize music audio playback in standard stereo mode, thus not needing those 16 speakers/drivers and requisite amps.
Use the money that was not spent on all of those extra speakers and amps, and put it into better speakers/drivers and amp for music audio only system.

TT-S4

I hear you on that.

In my car is where I listen to the majority of the music I listen to in a day.
And when I'm in there, there are times when I crank it up and enjoy!

As I've aged, I don't upgrade my car audio systems as I used to.
Since 2012 I have left the stock OEM "upgraded" audio systems as they built.

I've got plenty of speakers, components, wiring, and amps to upgrade any car, but I'm not as motivated as I used to be.
And with my aging spine and the issues I have with it, that makes it a painful endeavor.

Bobby Kinstle

I think it would be a lot better with half as many speakers. There are a lot of phasing problems too and since the B&O amp is doing god knows what to the signal, and I have no access to it's settings, I still have to live with it. Anything with natural reverb is painful to listen to when the 3D effect is on. Like fingers on a chalkboard.

I used to have the fader set front a little bit but after the swap I set it dead center. The woofer I put in the rear door made a huge difference in the back seat. Every single person that has ridden back there has brought it up. The midranges I used have awesome stereo imaging that's better than the 3D effect could ever try to fake. You could unplug the center channel if you wanted. It's not easy to get in there but you do it by prying up on the front of that panel. It's about 1cm thick.

No, but most of the speakers were marked with impedance and power ratings on the back. I figured that the speaker's rating is at least as high as the amp's output and so if any replacement drivers were at or above this rating, then they should be OK. I verified the impedance myself however. The sub power is guest a guess. If you add up all these values it's a little higher than the stated power (what 760W or something) but not absurdly higher.

I'm glad it's useful to you. I put so much work into getting it, I figured why not share it with the community. Modifying this system is in the "not for beginners" category to say the least, but for those who have the skills, this info should go a long way. I hope I'll see people posting about their new custom systems using that data in the future.

Bobby Kinstle

I've been listening to some bass guitar and there's definitely some strange phasing happening. It varies with frequency and I can hear it coming in at certain frequencies. As soon as I get a chance to get in with the microphone I think what I'll do is find the new -3dB point on the front door speakers, and then put in a low pass filter at that point onto the subwoofer. If it's still a problem then I'll high pass filter the front door speakers. I'm inclined to let the new front door speakers play as low as they can do well and then let the subwoofer pick up the rest below that instead of letting the subwoofer play bass like B&O did. The front door woofers I installed are very accurate and detailed, even more so than the sub. Let the sub be a sub, and let the woofers be woofers.

I wish I could get access to the DSP in the amp. That would be so sweet.

Bobby Kinstle

I've added a tab called My Car for the work I've done in my own car so far:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

ETrains

Thanks for all this beautiful research. I have 0 experience with modding car audio, but I really want so much more out of the B&O. Would you say door woofers and sub are most vital to upgrade?