Damon44

Big difference.
BMW is investing heavily into their M sport line and Mercedes is well known for their Amg brand.
I do not believe that electric cars will ever be popular with auto enthusiasts specifically due to their lack of visceral appeal.
You couldn't give me a Prius or a Tesla.
I want to hear and feel the engine I am paying for.
The sound and excitement of a well tuned powerful engine is what makes auto racing so attractive and appealing.
The roar of an engine, the squealing of tires, and the blur of scenery rushing past you are reasons to buy a performance vehicle.
Otherwise get a Honda Accord.
You can certainly have power and quiet but when you switch to Dynamic mode you should see it, feel it, and hear it!

njspeedfreak

There are some interesting posts on some of the VW forums where they disassembles the soundaktor to see what makes them tick. The transducer is vibrating a heavy weight which in turn causes the firewall and windshield to vibrate as well. It's not mechanically amplifying existing noise or vibration like a resonator, it's creating them from an electronic source. So in essence, it's just another speaker, just using non-traditional materials and not driven by the entertainment system.

Mine has been disabled now for a few days. I do notice that the sound focus is distinctly coming from the rear of the car and the rear only. That's creating a sort of unbalanced aural feel inside the car. Sort of like if you had the fader of the audio system set to rear speakers only. I suspect that when I turn the soundaktor back on it will make the sound more balanced without really adding that much overall noise to the interior.

Lawgone

Having come from a 2014 BMW 335i, the exhaust on the S4 is much better. It's deeper/throatier, slightly louder (but not annoyingly so), and it has that lovely burble when you downshift.

Lawgone

Are you sure? There's lots of conflicting information saying otherwise and it's entirely possible it functions differently than on a VW. I just don't see how a weight would reproduce all the sounds. It would only create the impression of enhanced bass but not other frequencies. I know on my S4 it sounds like something has "opened up." Whatever it is, I'm happy it's not playing a recording (seriously don't know what BMW was thinking.)

njspeedfreak

I can't verify that the soundaktor in the B9 works the same way as the VW, but I can't imagine that VAG would bother to spend the extra money to develop something different just for the Audi. Running through the test cycle of the module in ODB11 leaves no doubt that it's there. It's creates a very load vibration in the firewall and cycles through the midrange frequencies. Here is a video I found on youtube that was done on VW. Sounds the same on the B9.

markcincinnati

Power and quiet is the best kind of power, so, there is nothing at all wrong with power and quiet -- in this program (the "S" car program).

I believe Audi has made a shift in the 2018 S4 to push up the luxury quotient and push down the, hmm, more "visceral" side, leaving the cars prefixed RS doing THAT duty.

The S tuned suspension, this go 'round. focuses on "compliance" rather than "stiffness" which was, as I recall, the initial thrust of the S program back in the 1990's. This S4 is my 5th "S" car and the progress is as they have intended -- luxury gets cranked up.

You can read what does, at times, seem somewhat contradictory information that is said to be from Audi. The 8-speed transmission -- although I'm quite pleased with it -- was, for some time, a big disappointment to those of us who had learned to love the DSG 7-spd for it's "always right" feeling and instant paddle shifts. The 8-speed provided the desired (?) market with a smoother experience.

The double pane acoustic glass, too, is part of an "S" program push -- "S" is for silence.

The initial test report in Car and Driver (of the A4) said that the A4 was second only to a Rolls Royce (or was it a Bentley) in quietness. The "S" is an Ingolstadt production. RS models are Neckarsulm productions, I believe -- I assume they must like things a bit louder there.

If you're looking for a high-performance Audi, the "S" -- which certainly qualifies as a "performance" Audi -- is not your car. That duty falls upon those cars fortified with an "R" -- check out the RS 3, RS 5 and RS 7.

For now -- and I am speaking of North America -- even numbered Audis are not in the high performance club any more than the somewhat pedestrian BMW 340 is any more than a regular 3 series with some extra horsepressure. BMW does have the M program for the 3 series here in the US; sadly, AoA does not have an RS 4 for those of us willing to crank it up a notch (the payments as well as the performance, that is.)

We love our S4's don't we? I sure love mine and my wife is very much loving her second SQ5 in less than 45 months. But likewise, with the promise of an RSQ 5 looming large, we have no illusions or delusions that the "S" cars (sans the "R" prefix) are the high-performance models.

I look at my "S" 4 Prestige as a shhhhhh "stealth" car (for the US, it is configured to be pretty quiet -- be vewy quiet, I'm twacking wabbits). It is, no doubt, a bigger stick, but if you think you will be getting the "S" for sports sedan car, you will probably end up somewhat disappointed since the market for the "S" cars -- these days -- is the well-heeled (but not VERY well-heeled) person who likes the notion of some decent grunt and handling that is nothing to be embarrassed about. The "S" is a sporty A4. The RS would likely be a true sport sedan.

Wait for the RS 4 (and, in my case, at least, hope it doesn't come ONLY in avant form).

The S program, these days seem to be pushing the luxury pedal harder than any other.

For $60K+ -- seems like a good deal to me.

Lawgone

That sounded very strange. Not like an engine at all. More like a laser powering up lol.

njspeedfreak

Our cars should be equipped with laser blasters as standard equipment. Something to help deal with all the left lane bandits

markcincinnati

Talbot,

I'm with you, if I could select "rig for silent running" in ADS and still have the performance of the S4, I'd be there in a heartbeat.

If we end up with an RS Q5 or an RS 4 and it makes a bit more noise, that'll be just fine, too.

Meanwhile, just note that just about every car tested head-to-head recently (Alfa Gulias, BMW M's and Mercedes AMGs) outgun the S4 by a MINIMUM of 90 HP (the lowly BMW M3 has 444 HP and is the wimpiest of the bunch). The S a great car -- it just isn't meant to be confused with OEM "sports sedans"; rather the S4 is a sportier A4 -- perhaps "much sportier," but it lives in a different class of car than the M's, RS's and AMG's.

But, I, for one, am fine with that.

Now where is that "Tesla Sound" button, again?

msochemist

+1
They should add Audi performance exhaust like what AMG C43 has.