ocles_inc

I hope this helps you, if you have a dead Audi Symphony in your Audi A8, because it explains what's likely to be involved in making the unit from an A6 work in your car, on the premise that A6 parts are much easier to find than A8 parts. We moved the unit from an A8 to an A6 but the converse seems likely to work just as well.

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If you're not here for the technical analysis but would rather buy a used unit from us, then please select the link below. Our stereo units come with a matching radio code, and are guaranteed to work.

Original used Stereo sound system main unit for 2000-2002 D2

Our shop owns some Audi C5 A6 Quattro 4.2 V8 cars and some Audi D2 A8 Quattro 4.2 V8 cars. For the latter, parts are hard to find and we are often comparing parts to see what can interchange cleanly. Here's an article about the Audi Symphony Sound System (stereo main unit a.k.a. radio) from a post-facelift D2 A8 finding its way into a C5 A6.

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As to electrical connections, the two units are interchangeable as to the plugs, as well as visually identical front and back. The A8 unit is working just fine in the A6 vehicle including the connection to the CD changer in the trunk. However, I have not tested the cassette player.

Audi did affix a sticker atop the main unit, indicating whether the unit was going into an A6 or A8. One possible reason is: the face plate surrounds are different, so the A8 unit doesn’t fit as snugly into the A6 front center console as the A6 unit does. Fortunately, the face plate surrounds are removable so an A8 unit can ...

"easily be changed to an A6 unit and vice versa" ...

... I wrote in my ignorance, in the original version of this post, not realizing that there's much, much more to it. A big "thank you" to "silverd2" for directing me to a link that shows all the work someone had to do, to make an A6 unit fit into an A8.

Making an A8 unit work in an A6, I've done. Easy as to the electrical connection and the unit clicking into place ... though there are indeed noticeable gaps on the sides.

Making an A6 unit work in an A8, I've NOT done. And now I understand that it's quite the project to make it fit.

silverd2

BTDT ... this may help >>

quattroworld.com Forums: Put in my new (reman) Symphony today. Plug-n-play? Well, not quite >>>

ocles_inc

Thank you SO much! Wow, I had it all wrong. I've edited the original post, to make more sense (I hope).

~Tanya

ocles_inc

Here is the Audi A8 variation of the Audi Symphony main unit, cheerfully playing in my A6, including talking to my CD changer. The picture shows the gap on the right, due to the A8 face plate being smaller.



Here is a picture of the gap on the left:




I now understand that if you require an Audi Symphony main unit for your post-facelift A8, then the cleanest approach is to buy a unit made for the A8, since converting an A6 unit is a lot of work. I do have an A8 unit in stock: Original used Stereo sound system / radio main unit for 2000-2002 D2

~Tanya

jfrahm

I did not think it was a big deal to swap the faceplates over. You also need to get into the hidden EQ and sort out the tone settings or the sound quality is pretty terrible.

ocles_inc

You're hard-core. :-)