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Old 6th June 2020, 09:28 PM
NightOwl NightOwl is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Norway
Posts: 79
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Having a look at the view count and seeing that it's growing steadily is cool, but more comments and questions are still welcome.

Last week I mounted the second amplifier in the car and after some consideration I mounted both of them high on the wall towards the backseat in the trunk. To connect the second amp was just as easy as the first one, first cut the wires going from the original amp and connect them to the new amp, and then connect the wires going to the speakers to the new amp. Finding power is also easy as the battery is located in the rear, and there are several ground screws/bolts in the trunk making it just as easy to find ground as well.

But how does it sound? Well, from the previous post it's obvious that I wasn't too happy with bass even after adding the first amp. Now, after installation of the second amp, it's clear that there need to be somewhat a balance in the build and not just do it half way. With the original amplifier the sound was quite good at low volumes, also with the Focal speakers, but immediately when trying to turn up the volume, the sound stage collapses and the sound get distorted and compressed. This doesn't change much with just adding the JBL sub and the first Helix amp, but now after the installation of the second Helix amp, the pieces are starting to fall into place. The sound at low volume is very good, and it keeps it this way when turning up the volume. Even the sub that I wasn't too happy with, now sound much better as the level of all components are more equally matched.

My wife and I had a drive today and she said that the sound reminded her of the sound we have in the living room, and there we have Klipsch RF7 MkIII with two 18" subwoofers powered with Wired4Sound and Hypex amps. And I have to agree, the sound in the car now is very tight with a great sound stage and stress free at all volumes like it should be in an A8. Even the sub now plays so good that the idea of making a box is put far back on the shelf.

The price of this modification adds up to be about 50% higher than the BOSE option you could chose ordering a new car about 15 years ago, taking the inflation into account I guess it will be more or less the same. Haven't heard a original BOSE system in an A8 apart from the speakers I replaced earlier, I'm still convinced that this build sounds way much better than a complete BOSE system. Never heard a B&O system either, so can't comment on that.

To summarize on this project. This project was never done to show off, only to make the music sound better, so I'm quite happy with the result. The finish build is hardly visible from the outside or the inside of the car. The only visible thing is the flush mounted tweeters on top of the dash. In the trunk the amps are mounted so high on the wall towards the backseat that they should never be in the way and the "bottom" of the subwoofer hardly sticks down in the trunk too, but that would differ with another sub. The price is not to be ignored, but in my honest opinion the std no-name sound system should never have been allowed into an A8. I understand that the car need to meet a price point, but the sound from the std sound system is not worthy of a car of the class. Now, after doing this I think the sound is adequate for the car. Not that the sound can't be better, but I think we then quickly start moving into the land of diminishing return, although it would be fun to try out the Ultima or Utopia speakers with their renowned Beryllium tweeter from Focal parred with a multi channel DSP and some amps at the same level as the speakers. Then we would quickly enter the price of the B&O option.

In a couple of days I will write about the last piece in this project, sound dampening the doors.
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2006 Audi A8 3.0 TDI Quattro Sport
A8 W12/S8 Brakes front and rear (385mm/335mm)
Focal and JBL speakers, Helix amps
S8 anti-roll bars front and rear
Complete rear LED taillight
Xenon fog lights
All interior LED
S8 rims 9x20"
Stage II tune
S8 Grill
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