B7 with RNS-E and BOSE, 2 questions

[Van Black]

Hi guys,

Got a B7 with rns-e and bose and I got 2 things to ask:

1) what's the deal with the TV button (Euro car) it's the second one from the left (CD/TV). What's it for
2) does any one else have lower volume coming out of the rear doors? Fader and Balance are both 0, but the rear doors volume is lower, I'd say about 30% lower.
I've read that the B5s had an EQ function that's gone from the newer models. Other explanation I can come up with is that the RNS-E is fried or this is how it comes
from the factory.

Some feedback would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Alex

[Guitarmageddon]

Hi guys,

Got a B7 with rns-e and bose and I got 2 things to ask:

1) what's the deal with the TV button (Euro car) it's the second one from the left (CD/TV). What's it for
2) does any one else have lower volume coming out of the rear doors? Fader and Balance are both 0, but the rear doors volume is lower, I'd say about 30% lower.
I've read that the B5s had an EQ function that's gone from the newer models. Other explanation I can come up with is that the RNS-E is fried or this is how it comes
from the factory.

Some feedback would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Alex

In the process of finding you anexample, I vomited a bit in my mouth when i saw that scorpion queen.




And in respect to your volume question, are you just going by what you hear in the drivers seat? Because usually the rears are just going to seem quieter by perspective anyway. I always ran mine faded closer to the front though

[Okedokey]

Usually the front speakers are run of the head, and the rear from the amp in the boot.

[Van Black]

So, how does one get video out of it? I've tried the DVD with some video files but no go.
The volume was I strange thing: I've tried them with the drivers side doors open and just put my ear close to each
and they just seem different. Took a sound meter to them and it would seem it's just me. I'll do another try on
higher volume during the day. Maybe it fades out as volume rises

[Charles.waite]

Usually the front speakers are run of the head, and the rear from the amp in the boot.

Bose has all the speakers powered from the rear Bose amp. So line-level outputs from the head unit to the amp and speaker-level amplified outputs from the amp to the speakers. Non-Bose is as you stated though. And I think other countries (not the US) can have all speakers powered by the head unit. At least that's what I gathered when i was paging through the wiring diagrams in my Bentley. (I was looking for the center channel speaker wiring info so I could disable it when I wore in my new amp).

[Van Black]

That's odd. Other info I got said that the fronts are powered from the finals of the HU and the rear from the preamp of the HU.
Is the Bose amp strong enough for aftermarket drivers? I'd like to through in something better; I've heard a lot of bad vibes on
the speakers that come in the car.

[Charles.waite]

Now bose is fully powered by the rear amp.

The amp itself is located behind the trim on the passenger side. You can mostly access it behind the little cubby door I think. At least in the avant. My old b6 has Bose (the b6 has the exact same speaker/amp setup as the b7 however) and the amp was in the trunk but it had to pull the whole trunk trim panel out to access it.

[Van Black]

Now bose is fully powered by the rear amp.

The amp itself is located behind the trim on the passenger side. You can mostly access it behind the little cubby door I think. At least in the avant. My old b6 has Bose (the b6 has the exact same speaker/amp setup as the b7 however) and the amp was in the trunk but it had to pull the whole trunk trim panel out to access it.

Would you recommend new speakers for the car? The sound is good but I think it could be better and a lot of people blame Bose for using low quality drivers in our cars

[Okedokey]

Yes, look here (what i installed): http://www.polkaudio.com/db6501/d/1099C2676

[Van Black]

Snap! they don't ship overseas. I'll look for alternatives in Europe.
Thanks for all the good info!

[Charles.waite]

Yea bose blows basically.

Its a tad more work but I would suggest getting a good component set (those Polks listed above are quite good) and an amp. Since you've got Bose you can just splice RCA connectors onto the existing wiring and plug the bose amp in. You just have to run a power line, find a nearby ground to connect to, and splice the remote trigger line, then pop the speaker lines into the amp outputs. Adding a quality amp solves two problems. 1) The bose amp is designed to output 2Ohm audio. Using 4Ohm speakers will lower the volume and/or make the amp work extra hard just to power them. 2) the Bose amp has built in EQ stuff that really messes with the audio and muddies up the quality.

Adding just the speakers is a start and will definitely help, but adding the amp will give the system that last bit of extra quality. The nice thing is you can just swap the speakers for now, and do the amp later. Or never. If you're happy with jut the upgraded speakers then just leave them as is.

[Van Black]

Shoot, I forgot Bose use 2Ohm coils. How are the inputs on the amp? I assume there's 4 inputs and 6 outputs, 4 doors, dash and sub.

[Charles.waite]

Thats correct. I am not certain but I think the Bose unit has a discrete output for that center channel dash speaker. In non-bose it is powered by piggy backing onto the front- channel right off the headunit. But In Bose I believe its wired discretely.

[Van Black]

Damn, you're fast!!! one more thing: do the door speakers have crossovers? I think I've read somewhere that the HU powers the tweeters and the amp powers the speakers.

[Charles.waite]

They have a small resistor/cap or something like that. Don't think they're is any sort of crossover unless it's inside the speaker itself. When I dismantled mine there was nothing.

[Charles.waite]

Also I can snap a pic of I the stock tweeters and that cap I was talking about. I just removed them last week and still have them in a box in my car.

[billyp7718]

Yes, look here (what i installed): http://www.polkaudio.com/db6501/d/1099C2676

Great speakers. I used to work for them up until last year.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Van Black]

Also I can snap a pic of I the stock tweeters and that cap I was talking about. I just removed them last week and still have them in a box in my car.

If it's not too much trouble. btw, what do you mean a discrete output for the center dash speaker?

[Okedokey]

The centre dash has a line out straight from the head unit separate to the rest.

For those who have asked, this is how i installed my polk components. PS the crossovers are screwed in, but a slight warping of the case meant that the cover could pop off - thus the tape.

I gutted the original speaker and therefore could reuse the original mount and wiring harness clip. Please note, that even though Polk claim their mounts included with the product fit the Audi, they didn't in my case. Even if they did, i would still do it the modified way using the original mounts. Just neater and tighter fit.

The location of the crossover allows for no clash with the door card. I mounted the speakers in the mount so that the speaker terminals lined up with the mount terminals and then used a 2mm drill bit to use for the mount screws. Then I soldered the terminals to the mount with small lengths of wire.

The two spare wires on the harness clip were eventually routed to the tweeter. Again, I gutted the tweeter and the Polk tweeter clipped straight in. :) I had considered cutting out the speaker grill from the door and use the one that comes with the speakers (to allow you to seek teh gold speakers and nice grill), but it was all too hard.

The improvement in sound is night and day, both in clarity, staging and volume.

Snap! they don't ship overseas. I'll look for alternatives in Europe.
Thanks for all the good info!

http://www.polkaudio.com/dealer-loca...=United+States

[Van Black]

That's a nice job. Did you also have Bose? The 4 Ohm coils of these speakers would case a loss in volume on a Bose amp.
BTW the old tweeters were powered by the amp or the HU?

[Charles.waite]

The tweeters are powered the same as their partner speaker. They're wired in series.

That's almost the same as what I did with my speakers. Gutted the OEM speaker, screwed the new speaker into the gutted housing. Though I had to cut out that stupid rear baffle for clearance for the magnet. Then just some silicon adhesive sandwiched between the speaker flange and the OEM housing and we're good.



That's the rear but front is the same. I plan on removing my factory sub. My friend who builds tube amps for a living helped me spec out the proper speakers and the main woofers we specced to have really low frequency response and so far they definitely make up for the lack of shitty OEM sub. I can't recall what they are off the top of my head but they're either Dayton Audio or Tang band mids. The tweeters are a nice silk done unit that we had to trim a tad then just glued into the stock tweeter housing using some rtv. We ran new wires for those since trying to integrate the existing wiring wasn't worth the hassle considering how thin it is anyway.

And as promised I have a few shots of the OEM speaker and tweeter:




You can see the cap or whatever it is. Not sure what purpose it serves...





As you can see the speaker input and tweeter output are not only interchangeable but simply wired in series. It's super basic stuff.

This is all non-Bose stuff. Bose speakers actually disassemble yo you can reuse the housing without having to cut the existing speaker out. Much easier.

[Okedokey]

I removed all amps, hu and speakers

[Charles.waite]

I'm keeping the stock RNS-E but new amp. I've got an ALPINE PDX-5 waiting for wiring to be run.

[Okedokey]

I'd recommend getting the wiring done pro. That way if you have any noise they are liable

[Charles.waite]

It seems easy enough. I don't trust shops in general. Why pay a guy who barely has a high school education when I can do it myself, save some cash, and learn something new in the process.

Besides I have a few friends who've done it before so I'm not exactly going in blind.

[Van Black]

You're right, that thing on the tweeter is a capacitor. It's suppose to cut frequency. Normally, it would be a different setup for high range but a cap would just about do it.
I'd do the speakers and maybe the amp, but replacing the wires usually means removing carpets and trim from the car and in my experience that leads to broken plastic,
not an event I'd look forward to or enjoy in any way.
I'd be somewhat tempted to pay a shop to do it, but it seems like the more I work with shops the more I'm convinced none give a s##t about what they do, nor do they
have the intellect to carry out any work on any machine.

[Charles.waite]

^^ yup. At least if I break anything it's on me and I know how to fix it. I've removed trunk and door trim more times than I car to remember, there's not a whole lot that realistically can go wrong as long as you don't go Hulking out on things. That and buy door card clips in bulk because no matter how careful you are you WILL break at least two every single time you remove the doorcard. I just bought a 30 pack in bulk on eBay.

[bucknutt76]

It seems easy enough. I don't trust shops in general. Why pay a guy who barely has a high school education when I can do it myself, save some cash, and learn something new in the process.

Besides I have a few friends who've done it before so I'm not exactly going in blind.

Me thinks that my 75k in higher learning does not necessarily qualify me to be taking apart my car. I would rather have someone that has done it a few times do it regardless of their formal education level.

[Okedokey]

Its really an easy DIY. A few bolts.

[Van Black]

Why not keep the old harness for the speakers if you don't put any more power on the installation?