Car audio - active subwoofer and front door speakers

[jpru2001]

Remove existing sub, use those wires for active subwoofer and run power wire to battery, leave hole in the rear deck covered by the screen?

Not an audiophile, just looking for a simple and inexpensive way to improve the sound...anyone who is more knowledgeable think this would be a noticeable improvement with a high quality powered sub?

Also would just replacing lower front door speakers be a good improvement relatively cheap?

Also looking for recs on front door speakers that are plug and play or for an active sub.

Thanks!

[jcoleman_11]

This is my $0.02...

There is no cheap way to upgrade audio in our cars.

I would consider myself to have pretty high standards when it comes to car audio. The stock system is surprisingly good, so good in fact that this will be the first car I’ve ever owned where I won’t be touching the sound system because it would take a lot of money to get a better sound quality than stock.

The major reason for this is simple, you would need an aftermarket amp to power the speakers you would be putting in. You need to remember that the stock amp and speakers have been tuned to work together, in that cabin space. Having the same equalization on different speakers will almost de finely yield worse results, even when the speakers are superior. The remedy this, you need two things, an aftermarket amplifier, and a DSP. And now you’re into some serious money.


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[Audibot]

Depends on what you consider inexpensive. Also what you consider "good". Having Bose in my car and B&O in some of the loaner B9 cars, the B&O sounds much, much better. Makes mine sound like crap when I get back into it. I would not consider Bose to be good. I could make due if I had an actual equalizer

JWebb_C7_Comp, SubterFuse, OlyS6, and S4Per have all done audio mods to their cars, and have threads on these, some of which may answer the same question you are asking. You can also try reaching out to them.

[teknikk7]

I found the stock Bose to be absolute shit. I swapped everything for Focal. The doors were $750 alone because the odd 4" size and them being component. I added two focal subs and built a false wall. It finally sounds decent.

[jpru2001]

I found the stock Bose to be absolute shit. I swapped everything for Focal. The doors were $750 alone because the odd 4" size and them being component. I added two focal subs and built a false wall. It finally sounds decent.

yeah I have the stock bose. I did the center dash speaker swap to the $20 speaker and it sounded so much better (I was the originator of that thread over on the other website), which made me think...man what if I switch out these front door speakers and the sub with no other improvements, is that a decently effective and relatively cheap improvement.

[teknikk7]

What is this center dash speaker you speak of???

[Audibot]

My center grille rattles over bumps and certain phone calls/songs. Audi replaced it and it stopped for a bit but when they were redoing roads by me, the torn up sections shook it loose enough to vibrate. Need to pull it to insulate it better.

You can see it in the far right in this photo:

https://i.wheelsage.org/pictures/a/audi/s6_sedan/audi_s6_sedan.jpeg

And the very top of this photo:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Audi_S6_Avant_C7_interior.jpg

[subterFUSE]

Remove existing sub, use those wires for active subwoofer and run power wire to battery, leave hole in the rear deck covered by the screen?

Not an audiophile, just looking for a simple and inexpensive way to improve the sound...anyone who is more knowledgeable think this would be a noticeable improvement with a high quality powered sub?

Also would just replacing lower front door speakers be a good improvement relatively cheap?

Also looking for recs on front door speakers that are plug and play or for an active sub.

Thanks!



What year is your car?

Which factory stereo do you have? Bose, B&O?

[teknikk7]

2017 Bose.

[jpru2001]

What year is your car?

Which factory stereo do you have? Bose, B&O?

2012 A6 with Bose. Looking for most cost effective upgrade that is worth the money. I am not an audiophile, but I do like music and I spend alot of time in the car (125,000 miles on this one)

[jpru2001]

bumping this once because I was hoping subterfuse would have input, but won't keep bumping/spamming...

[Ellandauer]

I couldn't stand the Bose stock subwoofer so I upgraded.

I have a digital designs 3512 esp series subwoofer and a 1000 watt rms Sundown audio amp to power it. I kept the stock bose sub for mids essentially and have the 12'' upgraded sub for the boom. It hits HARD. after the 2.75 cu ft box, 12'' sub i bought from a audio forum, and amp i had in my last vehicle its about a $1200-$1500 watt system after install.

makes me smile every day.

[acamposac1]

I just added a sub as well and it drastically improved the sound quality. I have the stock Audi system in my A6, and while the mids and highs are great, the low end was non existent.

Alpine R-W12D4
Alpine S-A60M
Sound Ordnance Bass Bunker BB12-200V

Was just under $600 installed by myself after all was said and done for a 600w system. This thing hits so hard even when I leave the bass boost at 0 on the amp, and even have the subwoofer dialed down a bit on the MMI dedicated sub control. Well worth investment.

[subterFUSE]

bumping this once because I was hoping subterfuse would have input, but won't keep bumping/spamming...

Sorry, I just got back from a 2 week vacation in Hawaii.


I don't have much advice to offer for doing partial stereo upgrades because all of my experience is with doing a full stereo system replacement. If you do want a full replacement, then your car is compatible with the mObridge DA1 preamp which is good news.

[OlyS6]

Start with the subwoofer, as it will be the biggest bang for your buck in terms of sound improvement. There are several threads on this, but:

1) Easiest way to start is with a box in the trunk. You can get much more involved, but even this will be a vast improvement. I started with a JL10w3 (4ohms, 500watts RMS).
2) Then have a single channel amp to power it, just make sure it matches the resistance in ohms to your sub and the power requirements to drive it.
3) Use a Stinger (or similar) amp wiring kit with a fuse to wire your amp to the positive battery terminal, along with a grounding cable to go to a grounding point soemwhere in the trunk.
4) Use an audiocontrol LC2i line controller to take the high output signal for the sub from your OEM amplifier and bring it down to a low line signal (you can just disconnect the wires that go to your OEM sub and use those). You then use RCA cables to send the signal from the LC2i to your amplifier. You then use speaker cables to go from your amplifier to your subwoofer. Done.
5) All of this can be done for under $1k, and can easily be done yourself, since the battery is in the trunk.

As Subterfuse mentioned, redoing the entire system using a Mobridge Da-1 (for MY2015 and earlier cars, or a navtv zen-v for MY2016 and later cars), as well as a good digitial signal processor, aftermarket amplifiers, and aftermarket speakers is the only real way to get amazing sound. You can do all of this with very good speakers, good amps, and a good DSP for just under $4k in parts. You can also go incrementally more crazy and easily spend over $10k and more on a single system. As I said, start with the sub, see if you're happy, and you can move onwards and upwards from there.
The beauty of a digital preamp is that it allows you to completely remove your OEM amp while retaining all the full functionality of yor MMI system (Nav, bluetooth, etc).
The beauty of a DSP is that you can then actively control which frequencies go to which speakers, and time them all so that they all reach your ears at the same time at the levels that you want.
There are some great resources out there to allow folks to read up on this stuff, including DIYmobileaudio.com and audiofrog.com which are some great places to start.

[jpru2001]

^^thanks guys