Car Stereo

[JKN]

Curious if anybody has replaced their stock Audi stereo with an aftermarket stereo.. here is the deal...

1) Bose speakers are not great.. i'm very close to replacing them.
2) IPOD cannot be directly linked without losing XM stereo (in US) and that is an unacceptable tradeoff

3) I'm thinking about an upgrade anyway..


BUT.. I like the way it looks in the dash.. Has anybody taken their stock stereo out and replaced with anything else???

jkn

[rs6_newyork]

i'll have to take some pictures, my stock stuff came out, i couldn't stand it.. speakers, bose box, (kept the Head unit). Replaced by Morels in the front and rear (rear tweeters removed) and 2x10" alumapro's in the trunk in custom fibreglass boxes that sit either side taking up space that was previously the bose, the bottle of oil and the toolkit.. the amp is JL 500/5 which puts 2x100w or something to the front, 2x35w to the rear doors, and 250w to the rear subs. I put the phatbox in that usless space above the battery cover.

the doors on the RS6 are excellent for good speakers.. the new system sounds awesome and despite the subs there still isn't a single rattle from the sub-sonics..

given the hassle of nav+, i'm thinking of going to the next step, which would probably be the kenwood double-din screen/head unit and kenwood nav, and convert the phatbox to kenwood music keg..

[JKN]

you know.. I can't stand it either.. just not the kind of stuff you'd expect when you spend what we all spent.... I'm curious if you think a nav unit and stereo would fit in the double din space... I don't know anything about the Kenwood solution.. tell me more..

[rs6_newyork]

two common units for that space are the kenwood double-din (it is their flagship one and on their mobile site as the landing page) and the Eclipse double-din (which contains nav functions whereas kenwood needs a 2nd box for that). I'd lean to the eclipse but it does not support phatbox.

the only problem is the plastic surround, but a decent audio shop can fabricate something.. I've also seen a place that claims to sell them i don't know if that option is any good.

[JKN]

I am on the phone with Eclipse right now and the AVN product does support Aux In.. So, I'm gonna learn more and see if this works. It looks like a kick A** navigational, dvd, cd, am/fm with aux in. If that is the case, then I'll get something custom made for my dash that has it fit right in..

I'm learning more and will report back.

[Last1]

I don't know if it helps, but you can actually connect the iPod to the standard RS6 radio without loosing XM, here is the link: http://www.densionusa.com/x/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=375&Itemid=79

[JKN]

Last1.. thanks for the thought, but actually it's either Dension solution or XM radio, not both (unfortunately)...

See bottom of page of following link:

http://densionusa.com/merchant/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=DU&Product_Code=I11_Audi_R&Category_Code=IA_AUDI

[half-sick]

I must be too easily satisfied, because the stock sound
system is good enough for me.

[Erik]

I didn't order any stereo in my A6 2.7T.
Instead I mounted Pioneer DVD-Navi, Amega speakers, 12" RF Sub, 2 x RF Amps etc.

They way it looked in the dash was not 100%, but the function was so much better.

[rs6_newyork]

Originally posted by half-sick
I must be too easily satisfied, because the stock sound
system is good enough for me. not easily satisfied - just lucky: unfortunately once you've experienced a well setup car sound system once, it is difficult to forget.
Same for home audio. Same for most things, really.

[JKN]

Some of the poster's here spend up to $40+ modifying the car for horsepower.. some others spend up to $20K on cosmetic stuff..

It's just another mod.. It's just that I love a kick a$$ sound system and jeez.. the car is so sweet, it would be fun to be able to have a concert on wheels at the same time too!

All for about the same cost as putting new tailpipes on the car.

[i_am_Waz]

I cannot find the size of the front speakers for the RS6. I 'ASS-U-ME' they are 5¼ slims for the front... and I want to knwo before I start yanking off door panels.

Does anyone else know?

Thanks!

Waz :heart: :rs6kiss:

Ignorance is not knowing better. Stupidity is knowing better and doing it anyway. I have no patience with stupidity.

[Aronis]

you CAN have XM and ICElink iPod connection. I did it three years ago and it works great.

The input for the iPod gets piggy backed into the sat module. Push CD to get iPod again to get CD and push sat to get sat. I also added a line level input with a mini jack which is a switch to allow me to plug in the audio of a portable DVD.

Mike

[DuckWingDuck]

So if I didn't care about sat radio then I can just icelink ipod to the sat button? what sort of information can you get to show up?

[Aronis]

There are two (at least) ways to connect the Dension ICELink to the Audi Head Unit.

One is the Short Cable which is set up to directly connect to the head unit. The other is the Long Cable which is set up to plug into the Factory Trunk mounted CD Changer Cable INPLACE of the changer.

So if you have the Trunk CD changer, you unplug it and plug in the Dension cable.

The RS6 has the Head Unit 6 Disk Changer built in, so does not have the factory Trunk CD changer wire harness in place.

Instead if you have the Sat Radio module (the cable is in place, I added my Sat module myself) you can have both working.

Once set of lines go directly to the head unit in the inputs which would be used for the trunk mounted CD changer - these are the control wires for CAN bus. The left and right audio wires get plugged into the Sat Module directly. When you choose CD on the head unit, the Sat module lets the Audio signal pass it by switching out the Sat Mod audio signal.

If I recall, there are Three wires for the Head unit and you need some of the connector pins to ADD these three wires, and I think you had to change the position of one of them, I'd have to look back at my notes.

It's not rocket science and you cannot believe everything the Guys at the radio shop tell you because few if any of them are engineers! No disrespect meant, but face it the radios are complex and wiring them correctly takes some skill and knowledge.

The Software in the ICElink is not really that great but basically the head unit just sees the IPOD as a CD changer and you can Change Disks - ie song lists from the head unit buttons and fast forward to the next song etc etc.

The ICElink unit does work fine for the Iphone but the IPHONE gives you an error message which you can simply ignore. The size of the Iphone requires a shim to get the plug to line up, also needed the shim for the 30 gig video ipod as it too is slimmer than the original IPOD. But the connector is the same.

Mike

[Aronis]

So if I didn't care about sat radio then I can just icelink ipod to the sat button? what sort of information can you get to show up?

The ipod get accessed via the CD changer button, not the Sat button, and no IPOD info gets displayed on the head unit, just CD number and Track Number. The timer just cyles through 0 to 9 and the CD number 6 is the access to do the ICELINK programming. I keep the control of the IPHONE/IPOD at the IPOD so I can look at the screen on the ipod/iphone for song information, but even in this mode you can skip tracks by using the Head Unit buttons.

Mike

[i_am_Waz]

Cmon~ Someone has GOT to have changed out the front speakers on an '03 Beast ~ What size speakers did you have to purchase to replace them?

Waz

[DuckWingDuck]

crutchfield.com doesn't have fitment information?

[i_am_Waz]

crutchfield.com doesn't have fitment information?

Nope~ Says there's not enough info on the vehicle. Then offers me the option to buy one of everything in the store from 5¼" to 6½"....

I think it is a 5¼" slim ~ but don't wnt to pull off panel to have to look and then put it back on and then search... blah blah blah.... so hoping someone has upgraded the speakers and can tell me.

Waz :heart: :rs6kiss:

Ignorance is not knowing better. Stupidity is knowing better and doing it anyway. I have no patience with stupidity.

[PatriotRSX]

Bumping this thread.

The stock audio in the '03 RS6 is pretty weak, imo -- the Bose in my '03 Acura RSX Type-S sounds better. I also have trouble with the CD player skipping, especially on burned CDs (no matter how slowly I burn them).

What I want is something that keeps the dim-red-glow theme of the stock electronics, but plays mp3, mp4, wav, wma, etc., from an easily accessible/update-able hard drive and will do bluetooth cell phone duty for me as well.

Found this beauty of a device while scouring the interweb:
http://www.parrot.com/uk/products/car-stereos/parrot-rk8200

Was wondering if any of you Redcoats have any experience with this, as it does not come up on the Parrot website unless you insert that little "uk" into the URL. Seems like perhaps it was only sold for a short time(?) and was/is buggy(?)

Alternative suggestions are welcome as well. The car's plenty fast enough for me, it's just lacking in gizmos, as far as I'm concerned.

[DuckWingDuck]

I think most everybody has been trying to stay stock. And so the logical move is to go from the Symphony II system to the RNS-E.

[Leadfoot]

Kenwood DNX8120

http://www.kenwoodusa.com/Car_Entertainment/eXcelon/Mobile_Video_n_Navigation/DNX8120

This looks to be promising and I use to sale Kenwood kit and the quality is top draw, though I would still look else where for amps and speakers.

[MPT]

Kenwood DNX8120

http://www.kenwoodusa.com/Car_Entertainment/eXcelon/Mobile_Video_n_Navigation/DNX8120

This looks to be promising and I use to sale Kenwood kit and the quality is top draw, though I would still look else where for amps and speakers.

Leadie, havent you worked at some hifi-store, or something like that? Or am i mistaking?

[allwheelsdriven]

pretty much every car I've ever had I've put ADS 325is 5.25 inchers in the front doors and one or more ADS pq20s in the trunk. Now what to do with my stash of Alpine 3545's and one 3558 amp...

My sti has this system and I would move it to a RS6:

Alpine 7909
Alpine 5959s
Kimber silver streak cabling
ads 325is
ads pq20

on another note...one of several RS6 threads over on talk audio a UK car audio forum

http://www.talkaudio.co.uk/vbb/showthread.php?t=270604&highlight=audi+rs6

[Leadfoot]

MPT,

Yeah I use to own a car audio business many, many moons ago. The brands I stocked were Alpine, Kenwood, Sony, Altec Lansing, Volt, Earthquake, Streetwire and Audio Control.

I know Altec Lansing are no longer making speakers for cars.

Price is always the problem determining what can be achieved and the brands you can use. On a mid sized budget I would highly recommend OZ speakers, Moral or MB Quarts. Amps by Soundstream, JL Audio and Phoenix Gold. Subs by JL Audio and the only cabling I would ever use is Streetwire.

If you are going up market then ask KersoF1, he owns a high end home audio business and if probably a lot more up to speed on car gear than I am now.

[snoopra]

Just upgrade speakers to DLS, install RNS-E and you're good to go.