This weekend or sometime next week I am replacing pretty much everything that has anything to do with audio in my 01 A4 2.8. After searching heavily on this forum and finding almost no relevant information, I'm going to include some right now and write up a tutorial when I'm done. I will be replacing the Symphony crap with a 6.5" Alpine LCD screen and a Clarion Dvd player (for now) The screen is not a touch screen because touch screens use TFD as opposed to LCD. TFD is inferior in quality to LCD. I haven't gotten my front speakers yet because I'm still trying to figure out how I am going to mount them, but for the rears i have a pair of Infinity Kappa Perfect 6.1 (6.5" Component speaker system) of which the tweeters will be flush mounted in my rear doors. I am also going to rerun all the wire in my car with 16 gauge. I am going to decide upon using a 4 channel amp for the speakers after hearing them powered by the screen. I currently have 2 12" Elemental Designs subs hooked up to an 800 watt Audiobahn amp, both of which I may replace this summer, put in a sealed box with a 1.2 farad Stinger Cap. They are hooked up through line-level converter to get it to RCA, but will be using the subwoofer pre out on the screen. For the installation of the screen and dvd player i am going to mount them similarly to the guy with the 01 S4 in the diy section except not using mdf board, only ABSI got from Crutchfield. I'm also going to mount 2 switches to that "dash kit" so I will be able to do the brake e-brake combination using those switches to be able to watch dvds while I drive.

Also, some of you seem to be misiniformed about speakers. If you have a stock 6 or 8 ohm speaker it CAN be replaced with a 4 ohm or 2 ohm, or anything LOWER than your stock speakers ohm. ohms are the level of electrical resistance. Generally the greater the resistance, the greter the sound quality because they aren't aiming for pure power, but sound quality. I wont go into that in detail though, thats mostly for any home audio guys. If your headunit sounds out 6 ohms, 6 or lower will be fine. DO NOT try using an 8 ohm speaker on a radio sending out a 6 or lower level ohm because you will blow your speaker.

For those of you who question whether you should keep your Bose set up, I say no. I hate Bose. Overpriced. Someone has to pay for all that advertising they do. If you blow a speaker, don't replace it with stock, do it the RIGHT way and replace em all, or at least the pair. ie 1 back speaker blows, replace both with the same kind of speaker. Pioneer speakers suck, don't get them. Infinity is one of the better speakers for ighs and mid, the low on it lacks, however, that is what a subwofer is for. If you have a sub, get Infinitys. Alpine speakers have fairly powerful lows, but lack in clarity. Kenwoods can be decent. Sony sucks with anything audio. Of course JL is good, we all know that. Harmon Kardon owns both Infinity and JBL, so Infinitys and JBLs are fairly similar. You will probably all yell at me for this, but if you are a BMW owner and have Harmans, don't replace them, they sound amazing, especially with the 3 way crossover in the front. If you have to change anything in them, it may be the mids in the front doors. For those of us with Audis and want to replace speakers and such, no matter what model it is my understanding due to the stock amplifier crap you have to rerun all your speaker wire, which isn't bad because you can up the gauge and lower resistance on the power flowing through.

Anyone that has a lot of money and is looking to upgrade their whole system go Alpine F1 Status. It is hard to find someone that can actually sell it, but if you do it'l cost 10 grand if not more. The F1 Status is all in components. The screen is jsut a screen that you need a dvd player for, the dvd player you need a processor for and so on, so you need the entire system. The F1 Status is so good that it was too good for the car audio Innovations award, so it was entered into home audio, and won.

This is the end of the novel, for now, more will be coming later.

 

Hi,

sounds like be a great soundsystem, I've got 98 B5 A4, in mine can only fit around 5 inches in the front and Ibought adaptors to fit them. For good front speakers maybe get some more infinti's, but check out splits made by 'Peerless' they have excellent speakers for very good price, they make a car system that most audiophiles would consider the 'ultimate' sq system- its award winning, they also offer great splits; 'definition' (I bought) and 'resolution' series.they are excellent, no BS,exagerated/hype or fudged performance stats, they just make good speakers (no, I'm not a sales rep).

what were you using/connecting the line level converterto onyour system? for example I've seen converters that hook upto the amplifieroutput on a head unit which then convert it to RCA signal - not good idea on a quality system.

 

I bought some speaker adaptors from here;
http://www.justkenwood.co.uk/install...odel.asp?id=16
they sellaerial adaptors, headunit adaptors as well.

can buy them other places, put part no in google search.

 

Right now as I still have the stock Symphony head unit the converter is connected to the line level right after the stock amplifier (which is a POS). Once I get my screen in it'll be coming straight from the subwoofer pre out going RCA all the way to the amp. For the fronts I want to do 5 1/4" Infinity Kappa Perfects, but I'm just not sure about the depth because the magnets on them are rather large.

 

you might be able to fit 6 inches hole size (later A4 than mine)-notsure of depth though, I did have an idea butlikely a 5 incher would be ok.I can check the depth of my speakers in bookif you like.

thought worth mentioning, I bought a JVC head unit with SRS circle surround itmakes 2 channel into 4.1, anothertype is dolby prologic II - upto 5.1 I think their good decoders not like silly ambience fx, seems to keep it sounding like the original recording, but just steer's sound around to different speakers.

 

I also googled to see what other people were fitting in there cars whilst checking the dimensions of their speakers.

 

A friend of mine said that 5 1/4 should fit, its just depth I have to worry about. Those simulate surround sound to the best of their abilities. In no way is it true surround sound. Music sounds much better in stereo, though in a car its not just 2 speakers. I'm not a fan of decoders for music as all. I considered getting a decoder for dvds, but not sure if I want to take the final step to install a center channel speaker.

 

yer not saying as good as originally recorded surround track like DVD-A, dvd 5.1,but it is good for many listening wise and the two I mentioned are the better ones, especially compared to some types that use delays and ambient reverb fx etc. I'm into homeaudio also, I got a DVD-A player, theres also the SACD. obviously the car isn't ideal for listening to music for accurate recording playback, but the car can be the most fun places to listen to music, and a great sounding system can still be achieved in the car, I find a good surround decoder can enhance that. Also dolby pro logic II whichcan use a centre, I dont think you need to use centre, it can be disabled.Seeing as you have good rears I assumed you might be into surround sound, as many SQ systems apparently have little use for high quality rear speakers.

 

Pro Logic II is a decoder for non surround recorded things, for anything recorded in a 5.1 it would be Dolby Digital or DTS, though DTS is harder to come across due to the less compressed signal, but I understand what you're saying. For now I'm doing the basic stereo, but there is always potential to go surround.