I have a 2002 A4 3.0Q with the Bose sound system and am looking to put some subs in it. Does anyone have any good experience with particular subs? I'm not looking to spend loads, but I have a decent budget -- I'm thinking I want to run two 12" subs and maybe and 800W amp?

Any suggestions/experiences? Brands, setups, etc?

Thanks,
Chad

 

Allright here is my recomendation go with one 12 or 15 because by doubling your power and cone area (a second sub) you only gain 3db. So spend the same amount of money that you were going to spend and just buy a higher quality sub. I would recomend checking out the forums at www.caraudio.com . They should be able to help you more than here, and point you in the direction of some none "name brand" companies where you can get high quality speakers cheaper. I would look into Reonant Engineering, www.reaudio.com , or Elemental Designs, www.edesignaudio.com . I use to have a JL Audio 10w6v2 running off of a JL Audio 500/1 which was nice not too loud and nice tight crisp bass. I also just sold my JL Audio 13w7 which i ran off of a JL Audio 1000/1. I loved that set up it was clean and accurate and could get as loud as anyone could possably need, but it is on the pricey side of things.

 

I have had really good experiences with kicker, I had 2 of the solo baric l7's ad well as Rockford fosgate, I have one 10 I’m my Audi now and it sounds really good. I also know that for the price Image Dynamics and Elemental Designs make some kick A$$ subs. I believe there much less than most and are better quality than many.

 

I'll definately check out those cites, thanks man.

I guess I also need to know if I would need to change my head unit, or if I could just get an adapter?

 

How loud/deep does that 10 sound in the Audi? I really want something that stands out a little bit.

 

No, you do not need to change your head unit. There is an adapter that you can buy that splices into either the front or rear channel and changes it to an RCA connection that you can run to the amp. Just make sure the amp you get has a remote bass control **** so that you can still control how loud the sub gets since the stock head unit will not allow you to control this. Allright on the kicker 10" solobaric that you are asking about, yes it will get loud especially if it is in a ported box, but it is an SPL, sound preassure level, sub so that is pretty much all it does is get loud. I am assuming that you either want a SQ, sound quality, sub or a SQL, mixture between SPL and SQ, sub, but i might be completly wrong and you could just want something that will get loud. One more thing that you need to consider when choosing is the subs box requirment. How big of a box does it need? Are you going to go ported or sealed? These are almost as important as what sub you get because buying an amazing sub then not putting it in its recommended box will lead too poor performance or even blowing it later on down the road.

 

i love my alpines and would reccomend them to anyone. either the type-r's or trype-x's (for those psychos). and i used a memphis 1100d amp. sounds amazing.

 

The one ten in a ported box with about 400watts is pretty damn loud; it easily overpowers the other speakers in the car so you need to run another amp to the stock Bose speakers for them to keep up with the sub. I had the two kicker solo baric 10's in my Audi for a while and it was insane so i think with either a 12 or a couple 10's you would be satisfied.

 

I have a JL 12w6v2 with a JL 500/1 (also have a sealed box) for sale. I took them out of my old car and will not be putting them in the audi. I would recommend the setup even if I was not selling it. Sounds awesome and it is all that you will need.

If you bought anything else I would suggest a adire brama. The size of the box will make a big difference in which amp you use. You can get the 12" brahma and build a pretty big box and get by with a good 500 watt amp. or a smaller box and use 1000 watts. with all the room in the trunk of audi's I would build a bigger box and use a smaller amp. adire has the box size reccomendations matched with the amout of power you will need.

The 500/1 would work awesome with the brahma.. it is compared to JL's w7 series which is a very expensive sub. not sure of the price now but I think around 700 or maybe more.

 

The resonant engineering and the elemental designs are also good. I will 2nd that. But I would still go with the adire brahma. there site is www.adireaudio.com.

Dont forget with the adapter that you are going to be splicing wires. And if you want a really nice converter JL makes the clean sweep. It is very expensive but one of the best ways to make the factory stereo work nice with aftermarket speakers and subs. It can be found on there website, but I think it was around 400.