Standard Sound System is Bad; How To Upgrade?
11-26-2017, 07:29 AM
#31
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I have the premium sound system and it is ok for talk radio, a little light classical but for more complicated music with a greater dynamic range the speakers just aren't sensitive enough.
I just started looking for speakers that fit the bolt holes up front, with a db sensitivity of 91 or higher.
The current woofer installation could be replaced with a bigger sized woofer with a line out going to another amp.
I think the factory head unit is ok, and the signal from the amp is ok, the music just gets a little muddy due to the low sensitivity of the speakers.
I had a Jeep Grand Cherokee with the factory head unit, and muddy sounding factory speakers and the advice on the forum there was take out the stock factory speakers and put in Infiniti's so I did and there was a vast improvement, and I was quite content.
I do not feel it is necessary to spend a vast sum to get audiophile quality sound on a car, which has a relatively short life, better to have great gear at home.
I know this flies in the face of conventional high end audio wisdom, but hey, it's only an a3, you have a very limited area to work in, just not worth an excessive and expensive redo.
Hope this makes sense.
I just started looking for speakers that fit the bolt holes up front, with a db sensitivity of 91 or higher.
The current woofer installation could be replaced with a bigger sized woofer with a line out going to another amp.
I think the factory head unit is ok, and the signal from the amp is ok, the music just gets a little muddy due to the low sensitivity of the speakers.
I had a Jeep Grand Cherokee with the factory head unit, and muddy sounding factory speakers and the advice on the forum there was take out the stock factory speakers and put in Infiniti's so I did and there was a vast improvement, and I was quite content.
I do not feel it is necessary to spend a vast sum to get audiophile quality sound on a car, which has a relatively short life, better to have great gear at home.
I know this flies in the face of conventional high end audio wisdom, but hey, it's only an a3, you have a very limited area to work in, just not worth an excessive and expensive redo.
Hope this makes sense.
04-10-2018, 12:17 PM
#33
AudiWorld Member
I just thought I would give an update on my impressions of the stock sound system after about 1 year. I still think it is pretty good compared to other systems (not high end premium systems) I have had, with good vocal clarity and sound separation. The subwoofer I have come to appreciate as being more musical than "in your face", as it delivers the low frequencies but properly blended with the music and not boomy. When I play a good quality source, it is enjoyable. Perhaps people's varying and often negative opinions are partly based on what they are used to in their previous car or what they have come to expect from subwoofers. The same thing occurs in home theatre when people go from a poor quality, or poorly set up, sub to a properly designed and integrated unit. It should be subtle most of the time.
04-10-2019, 06:25 PM
#34
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Lots of good information here……
I recently purchased a 2018 Audi A3. Being an audio enthusiast I am kind of critical of my audio systems. One of the first things I did on my first drive was to pop in one of my favorite CDs. To my horror there was NO BASS response from the advertised ten-speaker, 180-watt audio system that includes a subwoofer.
Going to the car manual I noticed that there was a subwoofer setting, (this should solve the problem right?); wrong – my A3 had no subwoofer control.
My previous car was a 2016 Jetta and it had a sound system far superior to the A3 and it had NO subwoofer.
Took the vehicle to my Audi service center, apparently the subwoofer control is only visible with the Bang & Olufsen upgrade.
OK, what to do next? I have a couple options:
Adding attenuation to all of the speakers except the sub, this would make the sub louder compared to the other speakers.
Replace the sub with a model that produces more bass, maybe add an amplifier.
The easiest option is to hope that my speakers still need to be “broken in”, this is new to me but I have less than 20 hours of quality listening in my A3 to this point so let’s hope for improvement.
I have a sound pressure measurement meter so I will measure the frequency response now and maybe in a month to measure any difference.
I recently purchased a 2018 Audi A3. Being an audio enthusiast I am kind of critical of my audio systems. One of the first things I did on my first drive was to pop in one of my favorite CDs. To my horror there was NO BASS response from the advertised ten-speaker, 180-watt audio system that includes a subwoofer.
Going to the car manual I noticed that there was a subwoofer setting, (this should solve the problem right?); wrong – my A3 had no subwoofer control.
My previous car was a 2016 Jetta and it had a sound system far superior to the A3 and it had NO subwoofer.
Took the vehicle to my Audi service center, apparently the subwoofer control is only visible with the Bang & Olufsen upgrade.
OK, what to do next? I have a couple options:
Adding attenuation to all of the speakers except the sub, this would make the sub louder compared to the other speakers.
Replace the sub with a model that produces more bass, maybe add an amplifier.
The easiest option is to hope that my speakers still need to be “broken in”, this is new to me but I have less than 20 hours of quality listening in my A3 to this point so let’s hope for improvement.
I have a sound pressure measurement meter so I will measure the frequency response now and maybe in a month to measure any difference.
04-17-2019, 02:47 PM
#35
I have a 2014 Q5 with the B&O system, and it's fine. Sure, it's not skull crushing bass, but I'm 52, and really don't like that anyway. Mids, highs and lows are all great, I like the stock system, and lately have been just streaming Spotify most of the time anyway, so the quality is not that great. I have two 32mb micro SD cards in the MMI as well, and that along with the HD FM radio sound pretty good for my 80's music ears.
I've had three Bose systems, and took a long trip in a S8 with the B&O system and it was pretty awesome, and the Bose units were not bad either.
I tried to upgrade my Bose speakers in the 2001 S8 I owned and found the stock units to be just fine. Ended up just putting a nice Kenwood dual DIN 7" touch screen head unit, hooking it all up to the Bose amps/speakers and it was great. Gave my older car bluetooth phone ability, iPod controls and USB hook up etc.
If your Audi has MMI, I would not try and "upgrade" that system since nearly everything in the vehicle is controlled via MMI, and you would not want to lose that ability at all. Also where would you mount a DIN sized head unit? The MMI system does not lend itself to "changes" in any easy way.
As noted by a few folks get a powered subwoofer if you want more bass. That's a simple and effective fix for rap music or heavy bass music.
PS: For my home theater/speakers... I have Infinity 3 way 8" with the EMIT tweeters, sitting on two 10" powered subs used as stands to bring the EMIT tweeters up to ear level, and 3 Kliptsch rear surrounds for movies and such. For awhile, I did have it setup with 7 plus the two subs, using Sony TL1's as the middle side surrounds, but really it's too much for any house short of an Arena sized area, and takes up space, so I put the TL1's back in their box, and might use or sell them some day. (Perfect as the day I bought them in 1990.) Great sounding speaker if anyone's looking for used/vintage stuff BTW.
The bass with the dual subs is pretty dang nice. Rattles stuff during movies if you want that sort of feeling/realism. Opening of TopGun nearly blows you off the carrier deck...
I've had three Bose systems, and took a long trip in a S8 with the B&O system and it was pretty awesome, and the Bose units were not bad either.
I tried to upgrade my Bose speakers in the 2001 S8 I owned and found the stock units to be just fine. Ended up just putting a nice Kenwood dual DIN 7" touch screen head unit, hooking it all up to the Bose amps/speakers and it was great. Gave my older car bluetooth phone ability, iPod controls and USB hook up etc.
If your Audi has MMI, I would not try and "upgrade" that system since nearly everything in the vehicle is controlled via MMI, and you would not want to lose that ability at all. Also where would you mount a DIN sized head unit? The MMI system does not lend itself to "changes" in any easy way.
As noted by a few folks get a powered subwoofer if you want more bass. That's a simple and effective fix for rap music or heavy bass music.
PS: For my home theater/speakers... I have Infinity 3 way 8" with the EMIT tweeters, sitting on two 10" powered subs used as stands to bring the EMIT tweeters up to ear level, and 3 Kliptsch rear surrounds for movies and such. For awhile, I did have it setup with 7 plus the two subs, using Sony TL1's as the middle side surrounds, but really it's too much for any house short of an Arena sized area, and takes up space, so I put the TL1's back in their box, and might use or sell them some day. (Perfect as the day I bought them in 1990.) Great sounding speaker if anyone's looking for used/vintage stuff BTW.
The bass with the dual subs is pretty dang nice. Rattles stuff during movies if you want that sort of feeling/realism. Opening of TopGun nearly blows you off the carrier deck...
Last edited by Adjuster; 04-17-2019 at 02:59 PM.
04-17-2019, 10:44 PM
#36
AudiWorld Member
Lots of good information here……
Took the vehicle to my Audi service center, apparently the subwoofer control is only visible with the Bang & Olufsen upgrade.
OK, what to do next? I have a couple options:
Adding attenuation to all of the speakers except the sub, this would make the sub louder compared to the other speakers.
Replace the sub with a model that produces more bass, maybe add an amplifier.
The easiest option is to hope that my speakers still need to be “broken in”, this is new to me but I have less than 20 hours of quality listening in my A3 to this point so let’s hope for improvement.
I have a sound pressure measurement meter so I will measure the frequency response now and maybe in a month to measure any difference.
Took the vehicle to my Audi service center, apparently the subwoofer control is only visible with the Bang & Olufsen upgrade.
OK, what to do next? I have a couple options:
Adding attenuation to all of the speakers except the sub, this would make the sub louder compared to the other speakers.
Replace the sub with a model that produces more bass, maybe add an amplifier.
The easiest option is to hope that my speakers still need to be “broken in”, this is new to me but I have less than 20 hours of quality listening in my A3 to this point so let’s hope for improvement.
I have a sound pressure measurement meter so I will measure the frequency response now and maybe in a month to measure any difference.
04-22-2019, 04:57 PM
#37
AudiWorld Super User
Even with the B&O, the "sub" is a plastic box that mounts center of the spare tire. Has a pair of ~4" drivers with a tuned box that gives it a bit more "volume" in the sound. B&O sounds great, but don't expect skull crushing with the small sub box. Does give some really nice snap from things like kick drums though.
05-31-2019, 01:54 PM
#38
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