Replacing std speakers, not bose, to better ones?
 

I've been trying to search for info about replacing std speakers in a A8 D3 with std speaker system, and there seems to be nothing. The reason to replace is that they sound like crap, so I hardly use the sound system at all since I bought the car over five years ago. Does anyone know the size of the speakers, and will, lets say a 6,5" speaker fit with the bracket in the door if the original one is 6,5"? May bose speakers from at D3 fit, assuming they sound better? I'm not thinking about replacing the amps or anything else, just the speakers.

The problem is everything is component-protected on an optical link, IIRC.

I feel the same way about mine.

Since it's only the speakers being replaced, there shouldn't be an issue with component protection.

NightOwl - What about contacting the forum sponsors and asking them about speaker dimensions, as at least they are more likely to have them sitting around? You could also query impedance values as well.

Good idea, inquiry sent.

Short update.

I ripped off a door panel in the front today, and can say that no 3. party speakers will fit without considerable fabrication as the bracket for the speaker was molded together with the speaker housing. But that said, looking at the BOSE speakers for sale at eBay for the D3, it looks like the bracket is also molded together with the speaker housing in the same way, so maybe it would be just to swap them out?

It looks like an ordinary speaker screwed in to a bespoke bracket from pictures on Google images. Did you remove the speaker from the door card or just look at the back of it?

It also looks like Audison do a direct drop-in replacement: https://srotas24.co.uk/car-parts/aud...872993648.html

Thanks for the link and comment, MikkiJayne.

I removed the speaker completely from the door, and the bracket and the speaker housing is made out of one piece of plastic. Although, looking closer at the BOSE speakers, it looks like they are screwed into at separate bracket like those in the Audison link.

In the afternoon I received a message from Prestige Motor, that the BOSE speaker will fit directly and will work. He confirmed that they have done it for a customer. Obviously it won't be like a complete BOSE system without the proper amplifier and also the BOSE system has to two speakers in the parcel shelf (and a center treble in the front) that the std sound system doesn't have.

I feel tempted to go on with this... :)

Not meaning to send the thread OT but does anyone know why the standard door speakers have two input connections and the sound is the same from each?

Good question! My initial thought was that Audi used the same speaker in more models and may have two together and use the second connection to connect the other speaker. It would lower the impedance and the amp wouldn't be too happy with that though. Also, doing a search on 4E0035411M, gives only A8 D3 fitment, so maybe it's not used in any other models? On the other hand, a lot of speaker elements do have dual terminals for plus and minus.

Talking about speakers, the BOSE set is on the way and have expected arrival on Friday. :)

Is one connection the input from the amp and the other the output to the tweeter?

Not for the front doors at least.

Quick update.

The BOSE speakers arrived on friday, and I've done all the doors so far. The swap was as easy as it could be, rip off the door panel, unhook and unscrew the speaker, then screw back on the new speaker, hook it up and attach the door panel. Done in 15 minutes on each door.

The tweeters on top of the dash gave me a little bit more work, as the connection plug doesn't fit. Also, I see on the std tweeter there is a 4,7 µF to take away the bass, but there is non on the BOSE speaker. Making med think it could be a crossover hidden somewhere where the cables to the door woofer and the tweeter separates for the BOSE speakers? Well, if so, sending full range to the woofer doesn't matter much but I'm not feeling good about doing the same with the tweeter. There isn't much power in the std amp, but a tweeter is not built to play bass. Another surprise is that using a 4,7 µF together with a 4 ohm tweeter means it will start rolling off at 8k Hz. That is very high roll-off in my opinion, so I think I will use a 10 µF with the BOSE tweeter and see how it sounds. Luckily I have some good quality caps laying around from earlier speaker jobs.

And, haven't done anything with the subwoofer yet. Need to see some videos on how to gain access first.

Another quick update.

Finished the tweeters on top of the dash today and took a closer look at the subwoofer. The BOSE subwoofer has a box of electronics that I'm not sure what all is. The socket has five pins but there are seven cables going into the box, and there are four cables going to the speaker it self (looks like two and two of those joins together). The parts in the box is not a passive cross-over, not sure what it does. Also, doesn't feel too confident that the std sub shares the connection with the BOSE sub. Time will tell.

Anyhow, my wife and I had a short drive today, and we both agreed that the difference in sound is surprisingly big. It's not by any means in High-End land, but a descent lift in the right direction, especially the tweeters sound very good in my opinion. With the std sound system, I had the treble at 3+ to try to make it good, now I could dial it back to zero and still sounds balanced. My wife said she heard details in the music that she hasn't heard in this car before.

I understand that adding a cap and the plug doesn't fit for the tweeters is a deal breaker for many, but everybody know someone that can use soldering iron, right?

This is what I think will be the last update. :)

The BOSE sub woofer doesn't fit directly because it has a plug with five wires and the std sub only has two.

What have I learned so far?
Std sound system have:
Two tweeters on top of each side of the dash.
Front and rear doors has a 6,5" woofer.
Rear doors have a tweeter.
In the parcel shelf is a sub woofer, think its 10" but could be 12".
All driven by std no-name amplifier.

BOSE sound system has all above but:
One more tweeter in the middle of the dash (next to the wind shield as the others)
Two woofers in each side of the parcel shelf.
And there is a 12" sub woofer in the middle of the parcel shelf.
The tweeter in the rear doors are the same for std and BOSE sound system, all other are different.
All driven by BOSE amplifier.

If you are planning to "upgrade" from std to BOSE, you can only replace the speakers that are mounted in the std setup, there are simply no wires or channels from the amp for more speakers.

Going from std or even BOSE to B&O, I think it will be bigger headache than I will recommend.

So for those with itchy fingers that like to think outside the box, while using mostly the same locations for the speakers. Is there any possibilities? Of course there is, but you would need some tools and fabrication skills. This should apply to both std and BOSE sound system. To start off in the front of the car, you should decided if you go for two or three tweeter if have BOSE, std have only two so there its easy. I would abandon the holes under the cover and mount them on top with a screw or double sided tape. The holes has limited depth, at least the left (or was it the right?), so to make it easy I would recommend top mounting. Maybe some with an angle housing or just flat to bounce off of the wind shield. The doors has the same 6,5", but the back cover is slightly different, but shouldn't make any difference in choosing speaker. The only thing to think about is that the total depth should be less than 63mm. Passive cross-over may be a challenge for the front door woofer/dash tweeter as I think it would be a deep dig to find where the cables split to the woofer in the door and tweeter on the dash. I see some two-way sets has only cross-over for the tweeter and just full range for the woofer, while other has a dedicated two-way crossover box. There is also a possibility to take apart the two-way crossover and reassemble it in two pieces, one for the woofer and the other for the tweeter.

For the rear doors it would be easy as the woofer and tweeter are mounted not far from each other. For the tweeter in the rear doors, I didn't have a closer look at as it was the same in std and BOSE, but anyway I would go for the same as in the front to get the same sound. Mounting of the tweeter could be possible under the cover, if not, just mount them on the surface of the door panel.

In the parcel shelf std has non woofers so that makes it easy, and BOSE has two, but I don't know the size of them although I won't be surprised if they are 6,5" too.

For the sub woofer, the std sub will be easy to replace with any other sub as it has two wires inn, some fabrication for a bracket would most likely be needed. The BOSE sub would be a little bit more tricky to replace as it has five wires going into it, but I've read online some has made a splitter to take out the signal and feed it into a normal car amp and then to the sub. Another thing with replacing the sub is that both the std and BOSE is very low profile, so you may need to cut out some to get room for the magnet and/or speaker housing.

The big frustration with modern cars is that the sound system is so integrated into the car and the amplifier has proprietary connection that doesn't follow any standard.

So, in the end. If I knew what I know now before I started, would I have done it differently? Good question, but probably not. Although tempting to go for even better speakers, I think (without knowing) that the std amp would quickly be the thing that holds it back. Expecting that the BOSE amp is better, it would actually be more tempting to do some serious upgrades if I had a BOSE sound system as a starting point.

Thanks for reading!

Was interesting to see how far you got, kudos.

Strangely I think the radio feed has better sound in the standard system than the HDD so I use an FM transmitter bluetoothed to my phone. It still isn't great but sometimes, if I squint my ears ( :) ) it doesn't sound like it's being played under a couple of quilts.

Not surprisingly there is a thought spinning in my head, what if? So I've been looking at some alternative 2-way component speakers and found there is actually not many to chose from because most of them are too deep. But looking at the back side of the door panel shows there is a ring there that should meet the speaker. So then I've been wondering, is it possible to mount the speaker even further out from the door that the stock speaker by modifying this ring? If so, then it opens up a whole lot of speakers. I would not like to mount the speaker from the outside of the door panel, then it would look too much home made. Curiouser and curiouser, as the cat said... :)

You need a 3D printer, then anything is possible :)

This is a 6.5" speaker mounted directly to the D2 front door, rather than the 4.5" speaker which was mounted to the door card. Designed in Fusion360 then 3D printed +++

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1587937889

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1587937889

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1587937889

This is as far forward (out of the door) as a 6.5" speaker can go while still fitting behind door card, albeit with some fairly heavy mods to the door card itself. And the door. And the window frame :D Its 80mm deep and clears the window glass by 5mm. Clearance is clearance ;)

Good stuff, MikkiJayne. +++

This looks to be the never ending story... :ROFL:

I've been out today and had a look behind the door panels again, and can inform that the depth mentioned earlier in the thread is not entirely correct. With the woofers in the same position in relation to the door/panel, the available depth is about 98mm in the front and about 120mm in the rear (less in the front because of a support for the window). This opens up to about every 6,5" speaker set available. Need to mention though, this will include a lot of modification, fabrication and adaption. The goal will be to modify the BOSE brackets as they seems to fit a little bit better for the purpose than the std brackets, this will include reusing the "back cover" so no water or dust will have an easy access to the rear of the speaker element.

The ring mentioned in the previous post is so wide (185mm) that any average 6,5" will go inside it, so not cutting of this would be necessary I think. If needed, the woofer could be mounted about 15mm further out than original position.

At the same time the panels was off, I had a closer look at the rear door tweeter, and it's actually the same as the std front tweeter! Not the same part number as it didn't have the extended mounting bracket as in the front. This will be a massive upgrade!

I've been thinking to go for same set in the front and the rear, but has lately reconsidered to go for better quality in the front and a bit less in the rear, as I'm never in the back seat anyway.

Plus you don't stand with your back to the stage at a gig +++

Exactly! :rockin:

Seems to be all the rage with younger people though, taking selfies of themselves in front of the performers...….:Confused:

Ok then, the decision has been made.

Focal PS165F from the Performance Expert series in the front.
Focal 165AS from the Performance Access series in the rear.
JBL - S2 1224 12" in the parcel shelf. Out of production.
New one: JBL Club WS-1200
Helix D ONE amplifier for the sub woofer.

+++

I do

But then I spend a lot of time in the wings backstage.

Quick update.

The subwoofer mentioned in the previous post is out of stock and out of production. So I've ordered another one: JBL Club WS-1200

I have a question. Will be adding an amp for the subwoofer and was wondering how to connect the power. Directly to the battery or will the battery management system be confused? Is it a way to connect so the battery management system will recognize and accept the extra current drawn by the amp? Tried to do some search, but its limited to find someone who actually has added an amp, and even more about how its done.

I'm not much of a person who documents every move with photos, so when I'm doing any projects, I hardly remember to take any photos before everything is done, and then it's mostly too late. This time i tried a bit harder to take some along the way, but this will not be a step-by-step guide as I think every person should add their own creativity to any project and not just copying.

I started with the rear doors and reusing the bracket from the BOSE speaker made it very easy, just to pry out the old speaker element and put the new one in the bracket. Even the screw holes fit. The tweeter is located high on the door, and the old one was just to pop out, but needed to use a Dremel a bit to make the hole slightly larger, then it was just to slide the new tweeter in and secure it with a bit of hot glue. Attached the crossover just over the woofer and connected all the cables. Yes, it was as easy as it sound here.

Photo of the front and rear of the speaker in the bracket.

https://neshaug.files.wordpress.com/...rear-front.jpg

https://neshaug.files.wordpress.com/.../rear-back.jpg

And the tweeter without the cover.

https://neshaug.files.wordpress.com/...eter-front.jpg

The front doors and dash was a bit more time consuming, although not difficult. Also there I was reusing the bracket from the BOSE speaker, but they are very different from those in the rear, so some creativity was needed to make it fit. First off, the mounting flanges on the BOSE speaker are located almost at the bottom of the speaker and with a slightly larger diameter than the standard 6,5", meaning the hole is too big. For this I made a ring out of waterproof plywood to get the correct hole and position for the new speaker.

A couple of photos from the front door speaker front and rear.

https://neshaug.files.wordpress.com/...ront-front.jpg

https://neshaug.files.wordpress.com/...front-back.jpg

As we can see, I needed to cut away the "back cover" to make room for the magnet. After the photo was taken I glued on a piece of plastic to act like an umbrella to prevent water to fall directly on the magnet (make sure its not too deep for the available room in the door). Also the pieces for the woofer crossover was glued on the inside of the black plastic with hot glue.

For the dash speaker grill, not sure the correct word, pops easily out after removing a couple of screws, and it's also easy to find the center of the tweeter position from the shape on the underside of the grill. Then its just to cut out the correct hole for the flush mounted tweeter and connect it all before assembling.

A photo of the flush mounted tweeter.

https://neshaug.files.wordpress.com/...eeter-dash.jpg

Everything worked at first try and during the test drive the sound was quite okey, but after some songs it was clear that the tweeter was a bit too loud. I tried to adjust the treble a few steps down in the head unit, but still didn't feel right. Back to the garage and pull out the crossover for the tweeters and flick the switch to -3dB and a new test drive. Now it felt so much better with nice balance between the woofer and tweeter. Me and my wife had a drive in the evening and she said the sound was much more 3-dimensional and she heard details in the music she hadn't heard in the car before, and I have to agree, the sound is so much stress-free and calm. It's like the speakers are ready for anything, you can throw complex music at them and they handle it as the most obvious thing.

It was a massive upgrade from the std. speakers to the BOSE speakers, but I dare say it's almost the same step up from the BOSE to the Focal speakers. In fact it's a bit better than I expected as I didn't believe the std amplifier would deliver at this level. But this only makes me think it can even be better with a better amp.

I have to mention the level of difficulty and it probably depend if you have std or BOSE sound system.
Although I have never tried, I think it would be slightly more difficult coming from std sound system, as you would need to fabricate or buy rings to get the speaker in the right position and also find a solution for the rubber sealing towards the door panel. From this I would say the difficulty level would be 5 out of 10.

Coming from BOSE speakers it's much easier, at least in the rear, and I would say the difficulty level to be 4 out of 10. In both cases you would need some tools and some materials, but it's more time consuming than difficult.

One thing to mention coming from original BOSE system, is that the tweeter doesn't have a crossover (mentioned earlier in the thread), and that makes me think it could be a crossover under the dash where the cables split to the door and up to the dash. Other possibility is that the woofer and the tweeter has separated channels from the amp and the crossover is done there, but that is less likely. I used a LCH-meter to measure all cables from the woofer and tweeter in my non-BOSE wire harness and couldn't read anything than just the cables. But this is something I would take into consideration upgrading from a original BOSE system.

In the next days I will dive into replacing the subwoofer and adding an amp for the sub.

A question in the end, how much did the BOSE option cost ordering a new car? And how much for the B&O option?

Good result +++ I'm trying to decide whether to go with Focal or JL in my current project.

Thanks for the last comments above!

How to take out the parcel shelf seems to be a well kept secret. I took out the back seat and unscrewed everything I could see from above and in the trunk, even removed some of the interior pieces around the small triangular window, but still it was completely stuck. I've managed though to pry open a crack to take out the original tiny 8" subwoofer. Then it was quickly obvious that I couldn't reuse the original or BOSE bracket for my JBL 12", so I cut a double piece of plywood, in total 30mm, that I was able to bolt into the car and attach the JBL into.

https://neshaug.files.wordpress.com/...0550312067.jpg

Connected the cables and turned on the music and huh?. Honestly, if I didn't know what I've done, I wouldn't hear any difference! What?! How could this tiny 8", that looked more like mid/high driver if it wasn't for the actual size, perform like the 12" JBL?! Hm, I noticed that both the std and BOSE subs was firing downwards, could it be phase problem? Switched the cables and listened again. Still no difference! Did it need to be broken in? Scratched some gray hairs while wondering how could it be this massive upgrade with the doors/dash speakers and not the subwoofer...................???????? :Confused:

I know it's not ideal to mount a subwoofer in "free air" like in a parcel shelf or even towards the backseats, but this was unexpected. Was this as good as it could be in so-called "free air" installation? Did I need a dedicated box to get it better? Questions buzzed around in my head.

Half expecting that I needed to build a box for the sub, I decided to connect the amplifier mentioned earlier in the thread, that was planed to be used together with the sub first. Before I connected the amp, I noticed that everything was set to lowest from factory, so no loud sounds was expected when I turned on the music. Earlier I've set the sub level in the head unit to max to even get any decent response from the sub and now it was alive and kicking back there! Even at the sensitivity level in the amp set to minimum, the sub came to live as I've set the level in the head unit so high. Adjusted the level in the head unit back to normal and less than quarter of a turn up on the amp to compensate slightly, the output from the sub was more balanced with the rest. The I saw, as this is a dedicated subwoofer amp, that the LPF was set to minimum too (50 Hz)! Means it only let through frequencies lower than 50 Hz,and still it was kicking good! Adjusted the nob to about 80-90 Hz and lowered the level a bit more and now it blends quite good. Still lack a bit of definition on the bass as I can't hear the tones moving up and down from a bass guitar or other instruments with deeper tones. I'm pretty sure this would be much better with a dedicated box.

I like surprises, because then I can learn something, and this was completely unexpected! The thing about adding an amp to the subwoofer was initially a test to see if the new amp triggered the surveillance police in the car and shut down the music and throwing fault codes. It did not trigger anything but the sub to come to life, so in the light of resent knowledge, I've ordered a new four channel amp for the door/dash speakers. For now I'm awaiting how things will sound after this amp is installed before deciding if I go for a dedicated box for the sub too. Maybe I'm in for another surprise?

To be continued...

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.

Good progress +++ Thanks for the updates :)

Thanks again Mikki!

When reading about upgrading the speakers in any car online, you will come across the words "sound damping" and "sound deadening". Some will even claim that if you don't do this, upgrading speakers will (almost) be a waste of time and money.

During the project of replacing the front door speakers, I had a drive in the car with the door panel and the door woofer dismounted, and I was really surprised how much noise it came from the hole where the speaker should be, especially when driving over some wet parts on the road. Initially I've been thinking, this is a A8, not a Golf from the 70's, it shouldn't need any extra sound damping. The experience with the noise coming from the speaker hole made me reconsider.

After some research I went for a brand called Silent Coat and their 2mm option, and I can say immediately that the sheets are very easy to cut with a sharp knife and also easy to apply at 20°C and no need for a heat gun at this temperature.

Here are a few photos before and after.

https://neshaug.files.wordpress.com/..._110727496.jpg

https://neshaug.files.wordpress.com/..._110744154.jpg

https://neshaug.files.wordpress.com/..._110759397.jpg

https://neshaug.files.wordpress.com/..._115341951.jpg

https://neshaug.files.wordpress.com/..._115358020.jpg

I forgot to take a photo of the opposite side of the last one, but damping material was applied in the same fashion as on the last photo, just try not to add anything where it might be tight like next to the window motor or around the edges and so on. This was done at both front and rear doors. I did all four doors in one day, and had a couple of long breaks and I didn't start very early either. Expect to spend somewhere between 1 to 2 hours on each door from start to finish.

Before the first test drive I expected it would dampen the outside noise a bit, but was unsure how much it would affect the sound from the woofer in the doors. During the first drive it sounded like I was holding my hands 5cm away from the head at both sides. As I are well used to the car, it was obvious that the noise from the outside has been reduced from the sides/doors, but at the same time I was expecting a bit more damping. So from a pure noise damping side of it, I would say it was not worth it. Audi know obviously a thing or two about noise damping the A8. Playing music on the other hand gave much more attack and punch in the mid-bass, and for this I think the job of applying Silent Coat in the doors are worth it. Not exactly the result I was expecting, but still a nice experience to learn about. Still have some sheets of Silent Coat I've been thinking to cover some holes in under side of the parcel shelf to prevent air to move freely from one side to the other of the subwoofer, as this will cancel out the bass.

Some last words. In my research for this project I came across many answers in different forums telling that "nope, don't do it", when asked about upgrading speakers, adding a sub and/or amplifier in the D3 A8. Not sure where this claims are coming from, but this thread should be a proof of that it is possible and it's actually not difficult at all.

Thanks for reading!

I recall when I was sorting out my broken rear window mechanism there was a period when I was driving around with the NSR door card missing.
It was amazing how much extra road noise I could hear from that direction and a door card is such an apparently flimsy thing..... :Confused:

On my D4 I had a replacement door skin fitted under warranty - on the drive home I could hear the difference. The dealer basically said "no fault found, all in your head", until I took pictures of the opposite door for comparison - seems the sound deadening had not been fitted to the replacement door skin.....

Needless to say, they did resolve at their expense :ROFL:

Interesting comments from both of you, thanks a lot! My idea has been to reduce the noise as early as possible and haven't given the door panel much thought because of this. Maybe it could be smart to add a layer of Silent Coat Isolator directly on the backside of the panel as it seems like it's quite good room between it and the metal plate.

I've used Silent Coat on a D2. It did help on that because the original bitumen sheet was dry and falling off so probably wasn't that effective any more. Certainly there was a substantial difference in sound from tapping on the outside of the door skin before and after.

I still need to find a good solution for the inner door frame on the D2 as the plastic bag containing soggy carpet underlay doesn't really cut it :rolleyes: I will probably be using some Silent Coat on the door card itself at some point when I get the 6.5" speakers in there.

In light if resent comments above, I've added a layer of Silent Coat Isolator 10 to the sheet of metal behind the door panel. I was first thinking to apply it on the back side of the door panel, but it’s much easier to do it on the metal sheet. Now, it starting to help on the noise damping. Obviously a good idea to use different material together to achieve better damping, but also it seems like the A8 is fairly well dampen from the factory, so adding to this in ways that it is noticeable inside the car, isn’t easy. But now I feel like it’s getting somewhere, the best way to describe it is like the same noise (from the outside) as if I was driving 15-20 km/h (10-13 mph) slower than I actually does, if it makes sense. Have only driven in dry weather lately, so I’m not sure how much of a difference it makes on wet roads, but I can only imagine that it possibly will dampen this noise pretty good too.

A photo of the door.

https://neshaug.files.wordpress.com/.../last-door.jpg

A photo of the trunk. I’ve cut out some more for the subwoofer and attached the trim better after the photo was taken.

https://neshaug.files.wordpress.com/2019/07/amps.jpg

Finally I've come the finale station of this project, at least for now (I think, maybe....perhaps).

Thanks for reading and following the journey!

Weeeelll, I guess it was inevitable that it would happen.

https://neshaug.files.wordpress.com/...3/dsc_3826.jpg

Hint, the 12" JBL is going out, and this is going in... :love: