ctwickman

Had the day off yesterday so I decided to spend a couple hours at the Audi dealer and really critique the sound systems. As an audiophile and someone who has spent literally tens of thousands of dollars over my lifetime in electronics and car stereos, audio has always been very important to me, especially in a vehicle. It's my one chance to really crank the music way up without bothering anyone.

So what I found was pretty interestesting. Using primarily electronic dance music of all types, which I find to have the most dynamic range and to be the most taxing on today's audio systems, from low end all the way to 20000hz+, I auditioned Audi's options for the S4/A4 models, B6 to B7.

If you have RNS-E Navigation:

Very surprising results. The Bose option was not as clear as the standard Audi system when equipped with the RNS-E navigation system. From my understanding the Bose amplifier runs all four channels, while the standard external Audi amplifier (non-Bose) located in the trunk runs only the rears. So if you have the RNS-E non-Bose, the RNS-E itself is running the fronts. Now the big question is how does the RNS-E internal amp compare to the external Bose amp? In car audio front speaker amplification is everything when it comes to quality and you could notice this right away with this comparison. The standard Audi system had more clarity through all frequency bands, especially at the midbass, where things just started blending together and getting muddy on the Bose!

I can only assume that the internal 2-channel amplifier to the front speakers in the RNS-E navigation head unit is of a higher quality than the Bose amp. So if you have the navigation withOUT Bose you will actually get some more punch and midrange clarity with the standard Audi system. The Bose had equal if not better low end bass, however. Overall they both sounded surprisingly good.

If you have the Symphony II:

Now this story is quite different. The Bose with only the Symphony II (no nav) sounds equal to or perhaps slightly worse on the Symphony II than the Bose system on the RNS-E. I can only assume here that the RNS-E is merely providing line levels to the already installed Bose amplifier, which henceforth powers all speakers, and perhaps the source quality is a little higher coming through the RNS-E because I noticed increased volume throughout all bands even though the RNS-E is not providing amplification to Bose customers.

Now the standard Audi non-Bose Symphony II was by far the weakest of all configurations tested. The bass was very muddy and all frequency ranges lacked the clarity of the other configurations. From my years of experience in audio it sounded like there just was not enough power going to the front speakers. They were craving more juice especially as I turned the volume up and the bass just fell completely flat and bands started to blur together.

Conclusion:

I am not sure what the internal amplification specifications are of the RNS-E or Symphony II. Googling provided no information. I can only reason, however, that the RNS-E has considerably more output wattage per channel or has a higher quality amplifier than either the external Bose amplifier or the internal Symphony II. The best sounding system by far was the standard non-Bose with RNS-E. Symphony II customers will get a tremendous sound quality upgrade by upgrading to the RNS-E navigation.