i have a 1998 audi a6 with the bose sound system. in the right compartment in the trunk there is a box with 2 small (subwoofers?) in there. are they even subwoofers? if they are. can i buy any sub and replace the stock one without any hassle?

has anyone does this.

Yes, those are the sub woofers. Why are you looking to upgrade? This setup is known for having too much base (muddy) if anything. Do a search and you'll find plenty of info on how to tame it -- including taking advantage of the "hidden equalizer" that is part of the Symphony I.

i dont have the symphony. i have the concert. does this have a hidden equalizer.

also but if i bought say an infiniti 10" sub would installation be easy because wires are already there.

Installation would be pretty easy but you would want to buy an amp as well. The stock system will not be able to handle a 10 inch sub. I love my system stock, as it is.

I did some research and I don't think the Concert has the hidden equalizer (here's a link (http://www.ibiblio.org/tkan/audi/radios/)to a BUNCH of info on Audi stereos). I also found another link (http://search.audiworld.com/search.html) on AudiWorld that has some info that might be relevant for you to go over.

Good luck!

Installation is not really going to be "easy," especially if you intend to put the sub in the same location as the stock subwoofer, which is impossible unless you are good at making fiberglass molds. Your best bet is to disconnect the subwoofer, take the input wires which are high level and feed them to a high level to low level adapter. Take those outputs and connect them to your imput on an aftermarket amplifier with all of the other power wiring etc. and you be set. This is a pain in the ass though.
If I were you I would replace the cheap piece-of-crap head unit with an aftermarket one that has 3 sets of outputs which will let you utilize the stock amps and give you a Subwoofer RCA output. This will indeed make the stock system sound better and will also let you adjust the level of the sub independently of the rest of the system. Before totally replacing the stock system I did this with excellent results.

i'm surprised you don't like the bose subs...I think they are perfect and have just enough base. plus nothin raddles around. if you put a 10" you goin add unneeded weight to the already heavy A6. I have a friend who used to have dub 6's in his car. they sound really good but the raddle is rediculous (not an audi so i don't know how much it would raddle but subs are heavy.

Anything Bose is garbage. They use psycho-accoustics to make it seem that you are gearing deeper bass than it actually is. How can you get bass out of a enclosure that has 3, 4-inch paper drivers and about 30 watts of power?

I had 2 10W7's in a fiberglass enclosure in my trunk. If you install it right ang get the majority of the bass from the trunk to the Cab The A6 is solid (very little rattles). The only thing that you really have to worry about in that car is setting up a dual battery system to make sure that you don't put extra stress on the ALT, if you are running lots of power.

And also 40 pounds isnt going to make a noticable difference in a car that weighs 4700 pounds.

I have an Infinity Basslink 10" powered sub. It is really nice, reasonably priced, not a ghetto blaster or obnoxious by any means, just makes all the music sound better. Its nice and out of the way, installation was only $150 USD with a head unit....

ORIGINAL: houndz

Anything Bose is garbage. They use psycho-accoustics to make it seem that you are gearing deeper bass than it actually is. How can you get bass out of a enclosure that has 3, 4-inch paper drivers and about 30 watts of power?

I had 2 10W7's in a fiberglass enclosure in my trunk. If you install it right ang get the majority of the bass from the trunk to the Cab The A6 is solid (very little rattles). The only thing that you really have to worry about in that car is setting up a dual battery system to make sure that you don't put extra stress on the ALT, if you are running lots of power.

And also 40 pounds isnt going to make a noticable difference in a car that weighs 4700 pounds.

Do you have pics of this enclosure? I am planning on doing one, but want some ideas... thanks

Sorry I dont have pictures anymore. But I had both of the woofers in the drivers side compartment at an 30 deg. angle facing the trunk. It was a pain in the ass. It weighed about 120 pounds after installing the woofers. The woofers alone are 35 pounds each.
After spending countless hours on the box, I recently took it out, replacing it with a smaller box for a 13W0 Sub. I would have to say that the 10W7's were really loud, but not very punchy. The single 13W0 sub sounds much better. Tighter, more accurate bass indeed.

But, If you are planning to put 2 w7's in your ride, plan on investing some serious time, money and effort into the project. I didn't paint mine, only carpeting it in the end and it still took 30-40 hours. With W7's you have to make sure that the fiberglass is thick enough for the punishment those subs will give it. I had 8-12 layers of glass and a 1.5" baffle board on the front.

Also to ensure that they will sound good plan on spending $1000 on a good amp that isnt an offbrand piece of SHIT. I would recommend the JL 1000/1. I am an installer and have many different amp setups in my car I would have to say that this is the best D-Class sub amp on the market, you could spend more but it is not worth it.

im obnoxious and wanted a seriously loud system. Swapped out the factory radio for a Kenwood EZ500 (theres a new versio which is much better but it wasn t out when i bought it) added a JL 1400D amp and put 2 12inch 12W0's in a sealed box in the drunk- sounds amazing- the bass is incredible loud but managable. The A6 body rattles quite a bit, but with the stock bose speakers the system is louder than the raddle so dont worry

ORIGINAL: houndz

Anything Bose is garbage. They use psycho-accoustics to make it seem that you are gearing deeper bass than it actually is. How can you get bass out of a enclosure that has 3, 4-inch paper drivers and about 30 watts of power?

I had 2 10W7's in a fiberglass enclosure in my trunk. If you install it right ang get the majority of the bass from the trunk to the Cab The A6 is solid (very little rattles). The only thing that you really have to worry about in that car is setting up a dual battery system to make sure that you don't put extra stress on the ALT, if you are running lots of power.

And also 40 pounds isnt going to make a noticable difference in a car that weighs 4700 pounds.


I don't know what you are thinking Houndz. I can guarantee you that Bose can pull bass with 4" speakers. I run a DJ business and use Bose 802's. They pull more bass with 8 4" speakers in each box than I was getting with two 15" EV speakers.

hey everyone, I want to add a JL 500/1 Amp and Jl 10W7 Sub to my 1998 Audi A6 with Bose, believe it or not, all the electrical wiring was done and I found it to be the easiest part. the amp even powers on, but shuts off due to no audio input which brings me to the tough part, I don't want to use a line output converter, and I've heard the factory Bose amp has it's own set of Line outputs and I've read that I can tap into them, but does anybody have the wiring diagram for this or know which wire is exactly which and which one I have to tap into? Can someone maybe help me out? my email is ko01271n@pace.edu Thanx everyone.