I.C.E Upgrade

[danny-p]

Hi,
I,m picking up my new A3 1.9 tdi quattro this saturday and it has the Bose upgrade fitted....how good is this ??
Surelly its better than most standard systems?
Not into stripping my new ride out thats all ....as long as its reasonably loud, bassy and clear i'm happy....
Any replies welcome.

Danny-p

[Nobber22]

Actually I quite like the Bose setups in the newest Audis (and I am a vocal critic of the home systems.) The are certainly better than the standard Audi setups, which I feel are too bass-heavy and front biased. The Bose setups in the older A3 and new A4 are nicer, with a warm midrange and pretty good clarity - for a car anyway. Better than the Merc's in that price range IMO.

the bose systems do sound pretty damn good for "standard" systems

[danny-p]

Cheers lads.....hurry up saturday!!

[danny-p]

Hi,
Picked up the car on sat and apart from getting stuck in 18m of traffic enjoyed the day.
The question i have is about the bose cd player....clarity of audio is excellent on full blast with no....absolutely zero distortion.
The only thing i would improve is the bass...is there any way i could fit a bigger bose (doesnt have to be bose) sub without having to fit an amp because i dont fancy stripping out most of the dash on my new ride locating antenna and power supply leads from unit/ battery..
unless the bose sub already has a built in amp so it would just be connecting the ground/ power and antenna (blue) wires to a bigger amp and sub??
Any help would be great.

Thanks...........Danny-p

[Nobber22]

Are you sure your setup has a sub? If yes, I think you will be a disappointed with the Bose "sub". Bose are not known for making woofers which "plumb the depths" unfortunately. A replacement by another manufacturer? - I doubt the dash of any car is suitable for a sub. You need more volume in a sealed/ported box and the only place they fit is in the boot. If your h/unit has a preout (you'll have to remove it and look behind or check the manual, then fit a small, active (non-Bose), removable sub in the boot.

[danny-p]

Originally posted by Nobber22
Are you sure your setup has a sub? If yes, I think you will be a disappointed with the Bose "sub". Bose are not known for making woofers which "plumb the depths" unfortunately. A replacement by another manufacturer? - I doubt the dash of any car is suitable for a sub. You need more volume in a sealed/ported box and the only place they fit is in the boot. If your h/unit has a preout (you'll have to remove it and look behind or check the manual, then fit a small, active (non-Bose), removable sub in the boot.

Cheers for that mate....but i didnt intend to fit a sub to my cars dash i was commenting on all the hassle of removing the dash of a new car to plug in the red/white phono's for the amp along with power supply leads from live and the attatchment of the centre ( blue) cable from radio to amp....then feeding all wires from front dash all the way to boot without spaghetti junction....
In my audi the bose sub is located in a hidden side compartment very securely held down in the boot....seriously the things tiny...at least i think its a sub as it has a kind of bass tubes shape with bose on the side and the system sounds way too bassy for just speakers?? unless its some kind of processor??
Last thing what did you mean by small active sub?

Cheers for the reply

[danny-p]

Last thing mate can you recommend a good sub for my set up.
thanks

mmm.. even if you buy an active sub.. youll need to run power remote and pre out wires to it.. which means pulling the audi to some bits :P i doubt the audi unit has pre outs but an converter lead from audi will probably be available.. for the question of what sub.. mmmmmm depend on how much you want.. soo many makes out there just go to a dealer and listen to some which are around your budget..

[danny-p]

My budget is around £300ish.....
Surely the power, remote and ground wires are going into the sub on my bose setup....surely all i can do is extend the 3 wires from the back of bose sub (prob hard wired) and into an active sub?? If i was to do this would it work? if so what is the best way of doing this?

The reason i ask is i've mailed bose and they said if i did this then the whole system "could" distort?.....i didn't see how as the sub i'd be getting would have its own built in amp?
Help.........
Heres hoping
Danny-p

[danny-p]

Originally posted by danny-p
My budget is around £300ish.....
Surely the power, remote and ground wires are going into the sub on my bose setup....surely all i can do is extend the 3 wires from the back of bose sub (prob hard wired) and into an active sub?? If i was to do this would it work? if so what is the best way of doing this?

The reason i ask is i've mailed bose and they said if i did this then the whole system "could" distort?.....i didn't see how as the sub i'd be getting would have its own built in amp?
Help.........
Heres hoping
Danny-p

Anyone??

sorry..


the amp could be fed by a din cable.. which would cause massive hassles when trying to install a new amp.. + it would take "me" under 2 hours to fit a new amp and sub properly .. is it worth the agro of cutting about the original stuff?

[danny-p]

Originally posted by Dave20
sorry..


the amp could be fed by a din cable.. which would cause massive hassles when trying to install a new amp.. + it would take "me" under 2 hours to fit a new amp and sub properly .. is it worth the agro of cutting about the original stuff?

Cheers for the reply Dave,
So what your saying is the best way to go about this would be to buy an amp and decent sub and install it properly (make a good job of it instead of shotting together a halfords cheepy)....is this what you mean??

Not sure what you meant by is it worth cutting about the original stuff.....

If i buy an amp and boxed sub then what methods is there of making a good job fixing it solid to the insides of my boot?

Id even concider a proffessional company to do the install to ensure its the dogz and that its done correct-(i'm a total newbie to all this thats all)



Thanks in advance
Danny

[danny-p]

Totally read your post wrong......i thought you were saying i could use a din, but this would complicate things with an active sub....

.....but what you meant was my bose could be already setup using a din connection.....which may be awkward

My system needs heavy bass.....the way it is now sounds crystal clear with treble and vocals.......but nearly non existant bass....

Tempted to change the lot

Originally posted by danny-p
Totally read your post wrong......i thought you were saying i could use a din, but this would complicate things with an active sub....

.....but what you meant was my bose could be already setup using a din connection.....which may be awkward

My system needs heavy bass.....the way it is now sounds crystal clear with treble and vocals.......but nearly non existant bass....

Tempted to change the lot

correct unusual for bose stuff.. usually thats something they are halfway good at..


concerning the sub.. a 10 or 12" sub "should" be enough for you. with a faily matched amp.. if you look around for bargains you can usually get a sub and amp package from you local dealer and they might throw in some fitting etc also.. try and steer away from cheap and nasty stuff.. youve got an audi and i like to see things being done properly to a car like that.

with regards to fitting.. there are a few things you could do.. either you could mount the amp to the rear seats (this involves drilling and i can understand if you didnt want this) then the speaker cable would just simply plug into the side of the box or you canmount the amp to the sub box and have some quick release cable fittings if you wanted to remove it at time of shopping etc.

the most car friendly way of installing a sub box would be to use some velcrow on the bottom of the box.. this will grip most boot carpets firmly (pioneer had a box which came with velcrow and the damn thing needed 2 ppl to seperate it from carpet heh) but if you want it ROCK solid.. then the only way would be to drill it down (which im against tbh)

lastly.. to wire the amp to the bose system.. im sure audi or bose would be able to supply a lead which would convert one of the plugs on the radio into a Pre-out which then makes the amp an easy installation..

this is a job that most ppl can do themselves.. but the wire through the bulkhead for the main power can be tricky..

if you go to your local car audio specialist (not halfords) they would probably tell you everything i have

anymore questions ill try to answer np

(most of my references to "you" would be whoever installs it)