Simple Stereo Upgrades (S4/B8 B&O)

[chanthing]

The B&O stereo in the B8 S4 and A4 is decent, but not great. Because my last car had an amazing stereo with an active front (Mosconi 6to8 DSP, Morel Elate 6.5 speakers), I finally reached the breaking point of needing to upgrade, but wanted to avoid breaking the bank in doing so.

Step one was to replace the two corner dash midrange speakers with Hertz HL70's.

These just barely fit, but sound much better. I toyed with the idea of replacing the center dash speaker as well, but after experimenting, decided I like the sound better without that speaker, so it is now unplugged.

Getting at the Torx that hold in those dash speakers is tricky without a very short ratchet, so I improvised this little gizmo:


Step two was to put a Pioneer TS-SWX2502 10" low-profile subwoofer in the trunk. This is a sealed cabinet containing the Pioneer TS-SW2502S4 subwoofer. Installation couldn't have been easier. I just unplugged the existing subwoofer and tapped into those wires with tap-splices. The Pioneer sub is 4 ohms rather than the the 8 of the B&O sub. I don't know if that's going to overtax the amp, but the volume, while certainly not commanding, is adequate and a very nice improvement.


I've got a pair of PHD FB Pro 6's I'm going to put in the front doors, and some Pioneer tweeters, and will probably shortly thereafter add a three channel amp to power the sub and the speakers in the front doors (No active crossover yet). Sooner or later, I'll probably get a Mobridge M1000-DA1 and another Mosconi DSP and another amp so I can go fully active (the only way to go).

Not sure if the picture links work, but try this album if not: https://www.dropbox.com/sc/8c49si2rm...5goaCxCBcezMDa

[sebgreen]

Nice job on this. Just got my car last week. Unfortunately it has no BO - sacrificed the option for a few other things which I think are more important.

I am planning on upgrading the speakers all round.

Are there plugs on the speaker cables?