I'm getting ready to pick up a B5 S4 within the next few days, and I've had a sound system sitting in my closet because I never got around to putting it in my current car because I knew i would be putting it for sale....I don't know a lot about sound system setup's in general, however I did some research and purchased what I figured would be a decent "entry" and budget setup. Here's the stuff I ended up purchasing..

10" JL Audio W3v3
JL audio 10" sub-box
Eclipse XA1000
Alpine CDA-9883 /w ipod connector
EFX 4 guage wires

Now onto my questions..

Do you think my setup will produce a somewhat decent bass?What size are the speakers in the B5? Any opinions on brands to go with my setup?

Thanks for all the help guys, I appreciate it!

 

i have a 12" jl w3v2 off ~300 watts and it hits pretty nice. it looks like you got all quality equipment, and 4 gauge power wire will work great. what kind of box did you get? a ported box will generally get louder, but sound more boomy. whereas, a sealed box won't get as loud, but it will sound cleaner.

 

Agreed - the sealed box will also punch tighter bass than a ported box. You have plenty of capacity in 4 gauge wiring too, so don't sweat that. You're going to need a few more things though. In the A4 (and therefore most likely the S4) your stock stereo will be at least partially Bose. In my A4, the rear speakers were driven with a line level signal from the deck, to an amp mounted on the driver's rear speaker, which then powered the two rears. The four front-door speakers were driven with speaker-level power directly from the head unit. When you put in your new components, you can run the front doors directly off the deck, but you need a line-out signal to the rear speakers. If you search the forum, type in "metra harness" and you'll find links to where you can buy the proper harness to allow you to keep the OEM speakers.

Personally, I recommend that you go ahead, spend some extra money and time, and replace your OEM speakers. Leave the high-mounted tweeters in there (they're fine) but upgrade the others. You won't have to worry about the pre-amp setup that way, although you should run new wires to the rear speakers. You won't regret upgrading all of it.

The other parts you need are the dash "filler" piece, as the OEM headunit is wider than the aftermarket ones, so you need this dash adapter to take the extra space around the new head unit. You'll also need the Audi antenna adapter, so you can plug the OEM antenna wire into the back of the new deck.

Hope it helps.

 

its all about install really, pre-fab box will work and you'll get some bass.. but its all about install really.. if you want to have a lot louder sound from your sub you will want to build a ported box for it (would not reccomend a prefab for that either) the sub will be a lot louder and can sound just as good in a well built ported box.

PLEaSE PLEASE PLEASE don't get a capacitor for your system, they don't help. to prevent dimming and voltage drop upgrade the big 3
-pos bat to pos alt
-neg bat to chassi
-engine block to chassi

its really all about the install.. play around with how the box is facing in the trunk and see what sounds the loudest and best to you

good luck