hisport

If you're suffering from a lousy Bose A8 sound system (like I was), try this...

(Thanks to JD and others for their help. This post is nested in a long thread below; didn't want you to miss it.)

Bose Quick Fix:

- Set Treble +3
- Set Bass -3
- Set fader F4

I drove 285 miles round trip today on business, and tried different Bose settings (and your collective advice) to come up with these settings.

This makes a tremendous difference in sound quality. Takes the Bose Audio ('99 A8) sound quality from truly lousy to pretty darn good. And, it doesn't cost a thing.

Conclusions:

1. Fading to the front of the A8 brings in alot of treble clarity

(I had mine rolled to the rear - R3 or something - to balance front/rear speaker volume, like other cars. This is the adjustment that makes the most difference in fidelity. Do it first.)

2. The Bose treble/bass "flat" setting is anything but

(believe they had a gang of Hertz lot boys set up the equalizer for them)

3. If you listen loud, the bass setting needs to be rolled down to -4 or -5

(Doesn't seem that there is any loudness contour built in; bass is definitely overboosted - especially for reggae and such. Ok with these settings for lighter stuff, but still a bit boomy)

PaulW

This is from the modification page on the tech articles. It appears it might work for the Bose system, have to try it.

The Symphony radio head unit for your A4 has the ability to set independent bass/mid bass/midrange/treble settings for the front and back speakers. This will allow non-bose users to achieve a much higher level and quality of audio without distortion and allow bose users to get some of that much-needed bass and, in theory, still move the sound stage forward at the same time.

If you somehow manage cook your speakers or your brain by playing your radio beyond the capability of your speakers I'm not responsible. Neither is Audiworld. You know the drill.

I'd like to thank all the people on the S4 forum who actually figured this out. I'm only writing the tech article because I don't want this info to disappear over time on the forum

So, on to actually making this work. To access the EQ all you have to do is turn off your car and remove the key. Then hold down the number '5' on your CD changer/Radio preset control and power on the head unit.

You will see '55555555' if your radio is in stock form. These numbers represent 4 EQ settings each for front and back. They are, in order from left to right (courtesy of LCP on the AudiWorld forums):

1. Front low bass
2. Front mid bass
3. Front midrange
4. Front treble
5. Rear low bass
6. Rear mid bass
7. Rear midrange
8. Rear treble

To adjust the settings, use your volume **** to change the flashing digit to a value from 1 to 9 (1 being the lowest level, 9 being the highest) and press P.SCAN to go to the next digit. When you get to the end it will wrap back to the first digit.

The most popular settings for bose seem to be 88698869, however after a bit of testing with my favorite music, I found that to sound boomy and hollow and have since gone with 76567656. My next task will be to increase the directional (midrange and treble) sound on the front speakers only to bring the Bose sound stage back towards the front without sacrificing bass out of my rear speakers.

The best setting that I have heard for the non-bose system is 38679657. It still doesn't sound like bose, and certainly not like a good after-market setup, but it's a major improvement for those that wish a simple change to improve their overall sound and reduce distortion.

As always, YMMV. Feel free to contact me with questions or comments, although your best resource may in fact be the AudiWorld A4/S4 forums to ask about people's favorite settings for whatever type of music they listen to.

skiracer

The hold down 5 and power up head unit doesn't do anything other than power on the radio and switch to the #5 preset station. No 55555555 or any other indication of a "special" setting. Any idea of how to get to this in my '97 A8 4.2Q Bose system? By the way, thanks for all the hard work you have been doing for us Paul! Much appreciated.

PaulW

Not on my 97 either....does it work on 98 or newer cars?

NakedA8

Well, this doesn't do a thing on the concert system in my 98 A8Q, however if you hold down the mode key while turning the unit on, it says "CONNECT". I'll bet there are quite a few things that can be changed using a VAG tool.

hisport

Looking in the archives, I believe the headunit internal eq is accessible only in the older (Delta) radios. There is quite a bit of stuff in the archives about it.

Paul's procedure doesn't work on my '99 "Audi Concert" unit, either. The fade and treble/bass adjustments sure do, though.

skiracer

Power on with the number 3 pressed brings up:
4816.1 M
Pressing the arrow up button changes the display to these:
4802.2 S
4726.1 D
0000.0 R
Then back to the first reading. There seems be no way to adjust these settings, whatever the are.

Power on with the TP button pressed brings up:
GALA ____|
You can move the vertical bar to three positions, but there seems to be no way to "save" the new setting- it always reverts back to the right side. Pressing the TP button again changes the display to:
VOL__|____
For this setting too, you can move the vertical bar to five positions, but there seems to be no way to "save" the new setting- it always reverts back to the second position. Just what these setting mean, and how to change them still eludes me. I will try to access the head unit through the VAG system to see what can be changed there. If anyone knows what the above numbers/settings mean, please post a reply.

KjellA

GALA is the "Gescwindigkeits abhängig lautstärke automatik" or something like that. And please excuse my rather rusty german.

What it means is that the volume is speed dependant, in other words, it automaticaly adjust volume up and down with the speed. The adjustment you saw is to adjust its sensitivity.

The other one I guess is the RDS traffic warning system preset volume. I don't think you use this in the US, do you? When the TP option is activated, traffic warnings will interrupt the current program at the preset sound level.

It can actually store traffic messages transmitted when you are away from the car as well, so you can replay them when you get back to the car. I rarely use it in Norway, not many stations here use the system. It is obviosly very handy in countries where it is more used.

KjellA

When done adjusting the level, press both the "up" and "Down" keys at the same time. It should then be stored.