I just ordered my A6, and did not opt for the b/o ( 6000 ) is a little steep. Now I am having second thoughts. Is this worth the money. Or does the Bose do an adequate job. The other option isto go aftermarket. I am just hesitant to give over a brand new car.

 

If you play compressed music like sat radio or MP3s, forget it - those formats compress the dynamics so much that they are the sound limiting factor.
If you mostly listen to CDs and have an audiophile ear for " depth/soundstage width/ linear freq response" not artificially emphasing bass or treble, and you mostly enjoy classical music where the music isn't artificially tweaked by a sound engineer anyway AND if you mostly listen to music in your garage so that wind and tire noise don't intrude , then I say go for it , LOL !

Bose is big box store level retail high fidelity; B&O is upscale mall- level retail sound . The only truly " snob " high end audio company ( i.e., a brand the masses have never heard of but that audiophiles argue about ) in a car today is the NAIM brand of England, as in the Bentleys .

 

I have a 2011 A8 with BOSE and it sounds just fine. I currently am using an A8 with the B/O and the only difference my tin ear notices is slightly more defined highs and of course there are the tweeters that rise from the dash. In my opinion. the BOSE has a more noticeable surround effect and despite how I adjust the B/O, I don't notice the surround feature as much. The A6 may have different acoustic qualities but I'm happy with the BOSE and the $6300 I still have. I'm sure you'll be pleased also.

 

I have a 2012 A6 with standard Bose & it sounds just gereat!
Personally I don't feel any car sound system is worth $6000.
If you want to pay $6000 to see speakers rise out of dash I say go for it!

 

increased my 3 year lease by like $90 so I was OK with the upgrade to B&O

 

Personally, I can't justify spending that much money on a car sound system. My home sound system didn't even cost that much, and that's a pretty nice system for 1/2 the price.

Sound systems in my opinion have diminishing returns, and the Bose system sounds pretty good to me. The Bose used to be the high-end system on the previous generation Audis.

If you spend a lot of time in your car and are an audio nut, maybe it's a worthy upgrade. Just know that you will never ever recoup anything you spent on the B&O system when you sell the car later. No one looking for a used car will pay for the $6,000 you spent when you purchased the car new.

To me that option (on both the A6 and A8) is for people who don't have to worry about money and just want the best of everything. The Bose will probably be 80% as good for $6,000 less. I have never heard a B&O system in an Audi, but to me no sound system would ever be worth $6,000, no matter how good it sounds. I am sure you will enjoy your A6 even with "just" the Bose system, it sounds plenty good to me.

My 2 cents ...

 

I would agree - it's not worth the $5900 - but I added it to my configuration anyway. Just like the rest of the car, it'll be worth half of what I paid for it in 3 years but I'm okay with that. I can tell the difference as I sat in an A6, and A7, and an A8 with both the Bose and B&O systems. The B&O definitely expanded the upper frequencies and provided for a better stage presence. The low-end was tightened up and the separation was noticeable.

$5900 worth? Nope. You're already paying for the Bose upgrade in the Prestige package - so if I were pricing it out maybe a few thousand dollars in value above the Bose.

But you'll find the buyer out there if you're thinking about resale. When I was perusing used A8L and S8, I looked only for those that had the B&O. At that trim level, I was looking for something unique and in the used market - it definitely set it apart.

For me I used to be able to spend time at home in my media lounge and enjoy music as loud and as crisp as I wanted. Those times don't happen as frequently as they used to. Having a premium place to listen to music on a cross-state drive makes sense to me. Figuring I came from a time when building my own sub-woofer boxes and components into my earlier cars was "fun" - I don't have (that much of an) interest in doing that any more. Probably for the same reason I don't build my own computer workstations any more

If you take a quick poll and search for B&O comments on the site, you'll get similar responses. The B&O (in the A6, A7, and A8) sound fantastic - but isn't "worth" the $5900. You can't compare it to the A4 & A5 B&O systems as they're not quite the same type...

That all being said, I'm happy with having in my order. I did chuckle with Barry626's response - "If you want to pay $6000 to see speakers rise out of dash I say go for it!" - notable since some how seeing the speakers doesn't have anything to do with listening to the speakers!

 

I listened to both back to back and actually LIKED the Bose better. Had a little more punch. The B&O sorely lacks on bass, but is a cleaner sound. The Bose was still a premium stock system. NO WAY is B&O worth the money. Anything more than $1000 for that upgrade from Bose is criminal :-)

 

Not worth the money.

If it were a $1000-1500 upgrade maybe but purely for the coolness factor of the speakers and not the sound quality.

As others have mentioned here and in multiple other threads the "Blowz" sounds better overall. I hate to give Bose any praise at all but if you listen to both I cant see how anyone would say they want to spend $6000 for it.

Perhaps if you listen to only Classical CD's otherwise, forget it.

 

I could NEVER justify spending 6K on an audio system when 6K (with respect to buying cars) will typically get you to the next model up/next engine up.

I am frankly surprised over all these years Audi must be getting ample takers of a 6K audio system else it still wouldn't be on the order sheets...

Now if i were buying a used Audi, it would be high on my list as i understand it doesn't command much on the resale market

My 2 cents...

Aceman