Upgraded stereo from BOSE... long, part 1
 

I wanted to share my experience with you all so maybe I can help someone trying to decide on aftermarket options. I started with the Bose system with changer from the factory. I was satisfied with it for about a week.<p>Changing speakers:<br>I purchased a set of Infiniti Kappas for front doors, rear doors, rear deck, etc, and ended up returning them all but the ones for the rear deck. The factory Bose separates in the front doors sounded much better than the Kappas, and can handle plenty of power (I am driving them with a clean 2x90W amplifier). Note that if you only replace some of the speakers in the car that you have to reverse the phase of all the aftermarket speakers with respect to the factory speakers since the factory ones seem to be all wired backwards. No big deal. I kept the Kappas for the rear deck since I like to have tweeters in rear (there are many opinions on this), and the factory setup has only subwoofers on the rear deck. If you are not like me and you dont need tweeters in the rear, leave all the factory speakers in place. It will sound great, believe me! Also, my final setup doesnt use the rear door speakers because the "soundstage/imaging" got a bit weird with them connected, and there seemed to be too much sound coming from the rear. The followup to this post has my comments on wiring and amplification, if anyone cares.<br>

Upgraded stereo from BOSE... long, part 2
 

This is a continuation of my first post on the subject.<p>Wiring/Amplification:<br>The factory speaker wiring is more than adequate for driving the factory speakers at serious levels (90watts RMS per speaker in my case). Don't bother running new wire to the speakers, in my opinion. Also convenient about the factury wiring with the bose system is that all the speaker wires converge at the factory Bose amplifier in the trunk. When I got done installing my amplifiers in the trunk, and removing the Bose amplifier, I made a harness to mate with the connector that originally connected to the Bose amp. I can supply details on the pinout of that connector, If anyone wants it. Keeps everything neat if I ever want to restore the original system.<br>In case anyone isn't aware of this already, I should mention it is not necessary to run a power wire thru the firewall to the battery since there is already a huge one going directly from battery to a post under the dash (driver side knee panel.) Back to that Bose amp connector... The factory harness is also semi-useful for carrying your line-level signals from head unit to the amps if you have a balanced high line voltage from the radio. I say semi-useful because they are not coaxial, but just a pair of wires which would pick up noise if the levels werent high and balanced. I chose to run my own cables just in case. Another aside note on wiring: The carpet is tough to lift if you plan to run any wires down the middle of the car, so good luck!<p>Anyway, I'm running 90 watts to each of the four factory locations I am using: rear deck speakers, and front doors (I left the tweeter/mid-woofer paired as in the factory setup since I saw no need to amplify them separately.) Ok, this is technically 6 locations. I have nothing going to the rear door speakers. The trunk contains a bandpass enclosure housing 2 10" kickers driven with a 2-channel 350Wrms continuous/channel amp. Crossovers and 50-disc changer also reside there. Like the typical car audio enthusiast I'm never satisfied, but the consensus is that it is "good enough".<p>If I can help anyone with Audi-specific audio issues, I'd be thrilled, since I spent a few weekends crawling around every corner of my A4.

Re: Upgraded stereo from BOSE... part 3 not so long
 

My ramblings-on continue:<p>If you change the factory radio, you have to do some special wiring so you still get FM reception with the new radio. I can provide details on this, if anyone is interested. It has to do with powering the antenna amplifier that is (somewhere) in the line.<p>Unfortunately, I did not document the connections to the radio harness when I installed the replacement, so I can't be of too much help there.

Hi mike. I need help. I have the Bose system and i love the sound but it is lacking bass. What are my options?
 

Can i change head unit and leave speakers? Can i take Bose amp out and replace with another and leave speajers. I just bought to 8" Kicker solo-Barics and i have a pheonix Gold amp. I had to get a connector or a Power link 2 from Audio link inorder to add the amp and subwoofers. What else should i or could i do?

Upgrading as well,waiting for parts(long)
 

HI Mike,<p>I felt the same about the Bose. While its pretty good for a factory system, it can't beat<br>a well designed aftermarket system. The bose staging is all screwed up. Have most of the system in,just waiting for the speakers and adapters to show up. I chose an Alpine (7949) headunit and 12 disc changer. The fr & rr speaker sets will be MB Quart RSB's<br>with Musicomp crossovers driven by an A/D/S 4 channel amp. I think that fact that the<br>MB's are pretty much drop-in helped make my decision over BA and A/D/S. Did you<br>have any trouble fitting the Kappas? I will also be running a Kicker Solobaric 10"or<br>12" in a sealed box(wanna hear them in the car before deciding) with a Phoenix<br>MS 275 (300watts bridged@2ohms)<br>What kind of problems did you have with the FM reception. I have an antenna adapter that's supposed to allow an aftermarket headunit to use the factory amp'ed<br>antenna. Is there another issue I should be aware of?<p>Thanks<p>Dave W<br>98.5 A4 2.8 QM

Re: Upgrading as well,waiting for parts(long)
 

Did you get an install kit to fill in the space around the new radio? I got a custom made one.<p>There are some bezels in the door panels that you can just remove and the holes on the new speakers will line up pretty good. I think you need to remove the bezels, anyway, because the new ones probably have a bigger magnet or mounting depth.<p>For FM reception, it is necessary to power the signal amplifier by running a 12V lead to the center conductor of the antenna cable. (Make sure it is fused!) Your adaptor may accomplish this for you. You'll know right away if it does not, because you wont get any stations unless they are local. With it wired correctly, I get a clear station at nearly every click on the FM dial, better than the factory radio I might add... The problem I expected with this was that you'd be running that same 12V into the radio's antenna input, but since (i believe) all radios have DC blocking there it turns out not to be a problem. Mine's been working this way for 8 months.<p>I think you'll be pleased with the bass response of the car if your box is tuned properly (sealed is good idea for sure) , since the car doesn't exaggerate upper bass frequencies like other cars with less solid construction. You get a nice solid thump, rather than boom boom. Enjoy!

Re: Hi mike. I need help. I have the Bose system and i love the sound but it is lacking bass. What are my options?
 

If you want to replace head unit:<br>Well, if you change head unit to one with high output line level (at least 4V) you should be able to route its line-outs to the appropriate pins on the factory connector and have the bose amp still power everything.<p>Or you could leave the head unit in there and save some money.<br>If you like the sound but just want more power and bass, you could replace the bose amp with a 6-channel unit (the Bose is a 6-channel, by the way), and just connect all the speaker outs and line-ins to the right pins on the connector that originally goes to the bose amp. There's even an amp-remote lead there. This would allow you to use the factory head unit and changer (if you have it) with your own amp and subs, and leave all the speakers alone. Meanwhile you would have almost no wiring to do, except a power lead to the new amp(s) and to make a mating connection to the bose amp connector.<p>The other option, if you *only* want more bass, is to leave the bose amp there, and use the pins on it that carry the line level signals from the head unit to go to another amp and sub(s).

Re: Upgrading as well,waiting for parts(long)
 

The only headunit kits that I was able to find (via a search of the archives) are from<br>Scosche and one sold by Lltek. Someone wrote that the Lltek kit is from Audi in <br>Europe where they have regular DIN size faceplates, but I liked the look of the<br>Scosche kit. Custom one like yours is probably much better, but for $20, I'll give the <br>kit a try. I wasn't able to find a Scosche kit locally (Boston area) so I called them<br>directly. They were really helpful, even though they don't normally sell direct. Sold <br>me a kit as well as the antenna adapter and wiring harness adapter.<p>Looks like my headunit does have a DC out thats not the remote turn-on, so this may <br>work on the antenna amp.<p>Yeah, don't want to get too boomy, I'm leaning toward the 10", but want to hear the<br>12" sub just for comparison. Accuracy counts!<p>Thanks for the advice. I'll post w/ pics when I'm done

Hi Mike,

I'm looking to make/buy a harness that also plugs into the Bose amplifier plug of a stock system and provides the 4 RCA's to plug into an aftermarket amp and also has leads for the wires going to the speakers.

I have an A6 (C5...2001) with the Bose amp and sub in the back. I've replaced the headunit and am currently sending line level signals to the stock Bose amp. I want to replace this amp and would rather not hack the wires up if i can get a clean plug-in solution. I've scoured posts and online retailers - all I can find are the Metra adapters for easy headunit replacement, but nothing for easy amplifier replacement. Any tips?

Jason

This is a 13 year old post you dug up and it looks to be unlikely that he is still around. Try starting a new thread in the A6(C5) section and see if you can find some help there.