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Hello! Long story kind of short: I was looking at an 8V with the B&O, decided to wait until June to buy, my old car decided to leave me stranded, the other 8V was sold the day before I came in to buy. SO: I ended up without the B&O. I've done a lot of audio work before so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to swap out the components, but everything I read of it says that's not the case. I'm actually not terribly disappointed in the stock speakers, but it definitely needs a better sub. When you turn it up (making sure the phone's BT volume and the input volume on the car are turned up) it gets reasonably loud without distorting, but the sub seems to just stop getting louder and the bottom end falls out. I haven't replaced the sub yet - I wanted to see what size the stock one was before ordering and deciding what I'm going with.
I don't know if they added sound dampening material to the B&O but I can't imagine they didn't because at certain frequencies (e.g. the higher bass note in Kendrick Lamar - DNA) the rear deck/trunk rattles horrendously. So: I took mine apart to add dampener to the top and underside, as well as behind the speaker in the front door. I had a hard time finding good pictures of the stock system so I tried to take a couple while I was doing this. Hopefully it helps someone!
Update: It sounded better, but there was still a pretty bad vibration on certain frequencies - it turned out to be the third brake light. I put sound dampener on that and pulled the metal cover off so it's black. It's out of sight for the most part but doesn't look super great so I'll be experimenting with other ideas. I used little felt pads between the glass and the third brake light in my last car - I may end up doing that with this one too. It sounds SO MUCH better without that vibration, though. I can actually stand to turn it up now.
Thanks for this! Been wanting to do the same and get the cabin a little quieter. Are you looking into changing the sub? Some have and added an amp and said it was a huge improvement. I'd just not want to compromise my trunk space as its already limited.
Yeah! I put a 12" Rockford P3 in my last car but same as you - I want to keep the trunk space in this one. So I'm currently researching and deciding what sub to buy because I'm well versed in sealed/ported enclosures but new to free air. I'm going to replace the one in the rear deck (the hole is ~8" but it's not a perfect circle) but if the basket of the new one is too wide I may end up mounting it from underneath the rear deck rather than cut into the metal... we'll see how well it works. Either way I'm planning on keeping it freeair/no box to retain the trunk space. I'll post as I do more work on it! I just got my doctorate and am studying for the boards so hopefully I'll have some time here soon to put towards it. Glad to see there's at least some outside interest in this!
So, finally put in a new sub - it was kind of a PITA because I did more than I had to (part of learning a new car!) but also not terrible.
My buddy helped me enlarge the hole. This was probably the toughest because we initially made the hole larger toward the front of the car, but when test fitting the sub the surround would hit the sheet metal of the rear deck where it raises up. (the scratches on the basket of the sub are from test fitting so many times - I'm going to try to polish them out and if I can't, I'm going to just repaint the basket). I ended up going with a Kicker Comp R 10" (400w RMS) and used the MB Quart Reference 800.1 (800w @ 1ohm) that I had in my last car. I used a Rockford Fosgate high level converter (my first experience using a high level converter) and hooked up the one sub channel to both channels on the high level input, and zip tied it in the hollow area fore of the rear deck. I need to build a little mount for the amp tomorrow. Overall impression: WOW. HUGE difference. I am blown away. It's super nice that the stock subwoofer control in the menu controls it. Had a scare when I plugged the battery - got errors from everything: TPMS, ECS, Audi pre-sense, hill-assist, auto up/down on the windows... I hoped (and was right) that the car would reset after a short drive. Everything works now after a ten minute drive. I also sound dampened the trunk lid because now there are more vibrations (obviously) lol. I posted a picture of the trunk liner so you can see where the clips are.
Any questions about any of this just ask! I don't regret not getting B&O any more. I'd obviously still do it if I could (and upgrade the sub), but I don't feel like my stereo is missing anything now.
do you have any more subwoofer installation photos?
does the top of woofer sit flush down the hole you cut out?
is there a spacer or bracket for it to sit in?
05-24-2017, 06:13 PM
8V A3 Stock (non B&O) stereo pictures
