daf999999

I have the B&O in my S8 and had the ML in my Lexus. Both are great but the B&O is a major step ahead. If you care about music, its well worth it. Caveat is that I understand that A8/S8 B&O is a different system than A7 so ymmv.

Gear Junky

Having a similar enthusiasm of music and after listening to quite a few OEM sound systems I can say that the B&O system in the A6/7/8 is right up there with the very best. Though it isn't the daddy, that title in my opinion goes to the B&W system in the Jaguar XJ, it's warmest and placement is the dog's bollocks, oh and yeah it's less than half the price so that should answer your question whether it's worth it.

UberS5

I have a 2006 A6 with the Bose and 2009 S5 with the B&O. The sound from the B&O is much better quaility. It was worth the extra money in the S5 and will be worth it in the S7.

slojotaa

In reality it is in the "ears" of the beholder :-).

I spent two hours at the dealer, and a majority of my time was spent listening to the three systems.....Base, Bose, and B&O. I am a semi-pro musician for many years now, and here is what I determined:

1. - Base system is the best of the lot from "base/highs balance all of the way around in listening to Rock, pop etc.
2. - Bose was very dissapointing. Have a '08 A6, and the bose in that is quite different and much better sounding (better base, power, sound)
3. - B&O, although brilliant highs, had no bottom/base to it "at all", and if I was listening to opera, classical etc., would have considered it, but Led Zep, and Hendrix wouldn't cut it and wasn't created for this system. Besides, as stated....B&O wires alone are hundreds spent, and not worth the $6K, period end of story. The prior dealer got me to listent to it in the A6 with his ipod btw.

My quest for perfect sound in a car for "my ears" as you rightfully state will never end. I still think the Acura TL has the all time best and strongest stereo in the market, and don't understand why Audi makes such a perfect car(s), and such crappy systems. I know this will get a lot of negative responses, but it is my "artistic ears forcing my piano playing fingers to express the result of my analysis.

Hope this helps, and is just another guys opinion!

slimoli

I listened to the B&O when I was at the dealer and in my opinion it's not a real audiophile system. The B&W I had in my Jag is way better than the B&O and only 1.2 K more than the basic sound. For 6 K you expect a phenomenal sound and I think the B&O is far from it. I only played CDs, no IPOD or any other hiper-compressed media.

I don't like the Audi basic sound at all, very poor in my opinion, but the 6K B&O doesn't sound like a 6K audio system.

BTW, B&O is never on any list of audiophile gear. It makes more style than sound. The Jag B&W, the Bimmer or Mercedes HK worth the premium price but not the B&O.

I had many audiophile gear in the past and I think I know a little about this subject.

Gear Junky

I've said as much earlier about the B&W systems in Jags, in my opinion the ultimate OEM setup. I disagree that the B&O is dire, it's sub frequencies are extremely tight which gives the impression of little bass.

I actually rate the base system very highly with a solid bass and well placed highs, the only thing it lacks is volume, 180watts are to blame here.

HK in the BMWs are ****, my M3 had it and I was very disappointed with the results, you got no centre staging what so ever.

slojotaa

Amen.....will settle for the base system :-(, and have major surgery afterwards to get it up to speed. I hate to do it on a new car, but the Germans let us down on this one. Thanks God the machine itself is world class, or I would pass on the entire experience (yes folks for a stereo I would do this). Look at the Acura TL, one of the finest stereo systems on the road. Why couldn't the Audi people rival this?????

dhaval36

I have the B&O and at first i was hesitant but Im so happy i went with it. definitely a plus! You can hear the difference.

Phantom68

Just out of interest, do you think the actual source of the music can impact the performance of the B&O and Bose units ? for example I know that a traditional CD tends to give a better sound, but what about the difference between digital music stored on an SD card versus on the MMI hard disk versus music hosted on an iPod connected via the AMI cable.

I tried out a DVD in the car at the weekend and the surround sound is pretty cool in this particular environment and the Bose definitely seems to respond alot better to the DVD source. I believe the DVD source also offers true 5.1 sound as well. I also find that the sound quality from the SD card is better than that coming from the iPod, even with identical music on each.

So many options for playing music in this car, makes you wonder how we ever got by with just the simple cassette player LOL

muski

Two comments:

a) I love the B&O system. It is one of the finest systems I have heard for listening to classical music (which I listen to 99% of the time). It has a wonderful, natural-sounding DAC and it presents a level of detail that surpasses most of the high-end listening room and headphone systems I have heard.

b) the source makes a HUGE difference. The worst source is an iPhone/iPod. Why? Since the output of an iPod/iPhone through the MMI cable is analog, the music will do two digital to analog conversions -- one on the iPod/iPhone and one again by the B&O's DSP. It seems to really flatten the sound and really doesn't do justice to the B&O system.

The best source is a CD (or DVD, I guess) as it is lossless and only does one d2a conversion. Next best are 320kbps AAC files on a USB hard disk or an SD card (shouldn't be difference between these two other than perhaps how quickly you can navigate tracks). The MMI doesn't support any lossless formats, so these high bitrate AAC files are as close as you can get to lossless.