[dkc7]

I found this car in June. I was really looking for an SQ5, but my mechanic gave me his A6 for the weekend. I fell in love with it except for the bose sound. It took me until the end of November to sell my A4. I spent that time researching audio upgrades for the A6. I ran across Jimmy Dee’s rs5 build in audizine which lead me to diyma. I took over the a6 early December and continued my research. My original plan was to use the components I had and add what I needed to use the oem head unit. MOST was a new concept to me. After several months of visiting I joined diyma. MythosDreamLab welcomed me, said there were lots of audi guys on the site, and be prepared to spend lots of money. I ignored the last part, but he was right. The only thing Im using from my a4 is a JL audio mono sub amp. I pieced together all the components from our classified ads. Thanx to Flyhogz, james2266, ajb1205, nautchilous and bruce miranda. they were all very helpful and were a pleasure to buy from.

The components are as follows
mobridge DA1
Audison AP F8.9
Jl audio jx 500
Seas 6.5” woofers
fountek 3” wideband
audio frog gb 10 oem
Jl audio 12w3 v4-2
Rear shelf fill tbd.
My goal is to do a stealth, simple and easily returned to stock build.
This will be my first dsp and 3 way active front stage.
After reading skizeR‘s exotic builds I decided to do this in stages. Mainly because it is still to cold to be popping off door panels and plastic interior bits. ( 2” of snow last friday).
I‘ll start off with Nicks stage one. DA 1 preamp to audison dsp amp to oem 3 way active speakers and a sealed box sub in trunk. I will run the Audison preset 3 way active tune for now while I save up for a remote tune by Nick.
This has been made incredibly easy with brucemirandas 38 pin board. It connects the oem harness for the bose amp/dsp, which feeds all the speakers via 16 awg oem wiring. It also provides 12v+ and ground

The bose amp and radio unit are in the driver side trunk behind the wheel well. The ap f8.9 is smaller than the bose amp so I could modify the oem rack. The da1 is velcro’d to the top of the audison. Everything is accessible from the access door.
Bose amp

Audison and DA 1

I had installed the sub amp in the winter running it from the bose wiring to the oem sub. So I just had to change the input from high level speaker to rca from the ap f8.9 sub output. The da 1 triggers the audison which triggers the Jl amp.

I got everthing buttoned up, double checked all the connections, and tried a test listen.
NO SOUND.
I finally wondered if the audison was not on the proper input. It is wired for optical input only. I connected the drc and sure enough it defaults to master input even though nothing is connected to those inputs. I can switch inputs on the drc but every time I start the car I have to manually change to optical input. My next step will be to hook up the dsp to my computer and return the ap f8.9 to factory setting.

Results so far
The sound is significantly improved even with oem bose speakers and a generic tune. The bose system is typical no highs-no lows, compressed dynamics and no sub to speak of. And on top of that sounds like there are pillows covering the speakers. The radio is pathetic. CDs better, my main source is tidal master downloads through my iphone, connected to dragonfly and aux input of audi head unit. Real instruments are ok but metallica and blues downright depressing.
Now I have significant dynamic range, clean clear sound and higher volume. Bass is much improved.

Next step
When the weather gets warmer I will yank the door panels, deaden the doors and install woofers and 3” wideband in factory door locations, tweets in factory dash location. I will fabricate a "new sealed sub box out of bb ply and veneer it with claro walnut which matches the interior trim. I will decide wether to fire the sub through the oem sub hole or remove the ski port and make a grill for the hole and fire the sub through the back seat back. If I find another set of small widebands, I”ll mount them in the rear shelf.
If the canadian dollar ever gets better I’ll get a remote tune from Nick. If you think $500 is expensive, thats over $700 canadian.
Its cool that there are 2 other members doing a6 builds right now. Hopefully we can learn from each other.

 

[dkc7]

Start of stage 2
changed out oem tweeters for audiofrog gb 10 oem. Made bracket for gb10’s to drop into factory location and made harness with capacitor.

I also started to tune with dsp instead of using a preset tune. I set speaker distance and got the amp to default to optical drive. What a difference is sound.

 

[mumbles]

You should be pleased with the gb10’s, and good work on the adapter!

 

[dkc7]

Thanx for that. Freehand on the bandsaw gets it done.

 

[mumbles]

LOL… looks much better than that!

 

[dkc7]

Finishing off the sub box. The claro walnut veneer is brittle stuff but looks great. Too bad only I will see it.

 

[supersuk]

That breakout board is pretty cool! Wish I saw that when I was doing my build.

Everything is looking good so far!

 

[dkc7]

Thank you. The breakout board really changed my plan. One toslink and one output harness instead of a gazillion rca cables. Gotta love it
did u ever find a panamera.

 

[supersuk]

No, I did not. Since Porsche isn't making any cars at the moment, i've just decided to keep the car for now.

 

[dkc7]

PART 3
so did this in May but too busy releveling my paving slabs in the back yard to post.

Im finding the Audi doors are gettng better as I move up models and generations. Deadening is better, foam around cables and wires etc. I will use the left over materials I have and if required later will upgrade.
The bose system comes with a small mid bass in the lower door panel that has its own enclosure. Too bad they took so much effort for something to sound so bad. But thats the bose way. The baffle fills in the whole lower door panel. Has its own rubber sealing gasket for the door panel and driver and a small harness for the driver to plug into the door panel. The driver itself has no real cone. A huge suspension ring and an oversized voice coil cap that s clear so you can see the voice coil.

There is a build here where a member made an abs baffle for this model to use a standard driver. Fortunately the base model A6 has a standard mid bass driver with a filler plate. I purchased a used set from wolf auto parts. I think they are in Minnesota. They have an online inventory and ship fast. The oem baffle has a built in seal and I could use the oem fasteners.

I used 3/4 bb ply to make adapters for the Seas 6.5” mid bass. Stole the wires from the bose driver for a plug and play connection.

 

[dkc7]

For some reason could only have 10 attachments to my post. Anyone know what I’m doing wronglet me know.
The audi body is aluminium. I dont know if that improves deadening but I used some on the inner and outer panel

The baffle and mid bass bolt on great wth oem fasteners.

The oem mid range bolts on to the inner door panel in a shallow depression. It was shear luck that the fountek mid fit. I made bb ply baffle, stuck the driver to the inner panel with 2 sided 3m bodyside molding tape and measured for L brackets to oem mounting points. Again using oem fasteners.

These photos got way out of order. Using an ipad pro to do this and it sucks.
Installed the door panels and everything fits.

I can remove the mid bass driver by just popping out the grill.
I started with using the oem rear door speakers with standard xover points. But they are a bit louder than the front stage.
I changed the crossover points to those of rear fill.
Then I decided to use the oem rear deck drivers which are similar to the front door mids as rear fill.
Then I gave up on rear fill and bridged the amp to give the front mid bass drivers 260 watts instead of 85. Much better.
The breakout board in the harness makes all those changes very quick and easy. I can have the whole harness out of the car in less than a minute. Then bring it inside and open the breakout box and move wires around, then back in the car in a minute.

 

[dkc7]

Again with the 10 attachments.

Been enjoying the sound for a couple months. Need a proper tune. Not even gonna attempt it myself.
Looking forward to the sept meet in Va.

 

[StaudiA6]

Glad to see you have system completed. I bet it sounds way better than that stock Bose! If time allows I hope to wrap mine up in time to make the Va meet in September. Any tips on deadening those doors or door cards?

 

[Cayo71]

Really nice work. I did my 14 A6 two years ago at the beginning of the pandemic. Active 3 way front with Hertz Mille using OEM Bose for real fill tamed down and crossed at 150 HZ. Overall very similar to what you did. 8 channel DSP Amp plus mono amp for the sub which is 12W6. Where did you get the break out box? That’s a great idea and find!
A proper tune will make your system sound from great to amazing. I played with different tunes for about a month. Changing house curves and crossover points in the front 3 way stage until I settled with what I liked best.

 

[dkc7]

Thanx, I hope you go to va with your car finished or not.
I didnt think my front doors needed much more deadening. I didnt hear much with the oem system and I am only sending 85 watts to the door speakers. I think a high end shop has to pretty well guarantee no squeaks, rattles or buzzes. So they shotgun the whole car. Plus they make money doing it. And thats the right thing to do.
I just used the sheet material I had kicking around. I put a 12” high piece across the inside of the outer door skin. And some bits on the flat areas of the inner panel. Also a big piece over the plastic filler plate on the inner panel. I was prepared to deal with any residual issues if they arose.
One thing I didnt show in the build was while I was clearing out my garage for step 3 I found the
heavy duty drawer liner for my tool chest. So I replaced the old thin foam stuff that moved around constantly. I realized that would make good gasket material so I used it for both sides of my mid base ring and the ring and brackets for the mid driver.
After 2 month of demo cant say I hear any bad stuff from the doors.
your car is 4 years newer so probably even quieter.

 

[dkc7]

Cayo71
got the breakout board from miranda. But it is available for 1/5 the price from ali express. It was a real game changer. The box is an off the shelf electronics box that I slightly modified. What did u use for MOST 25

 

[Cayo71]

Cayo71
got the breakout board from miranda. But it is available for 1/5 the price from ali express. It was a real game changer. The box is an off the shelf electronics box that I slightly modified. What did u use for MOST 25

I went with the Helix SDMI25 Most interface.
I was just curious about the break out box. It’s little late now. I cut and soldered Deans connectors.

 

[dkc7]

Ouch, thats alot of work, nice job though. How is your bluetooth phone connection. Mine is very quiet. the 38 pin connector has a microphone connection but since there is no bose amp anymore I dont know if that has affected it.
oh, and I didnt miss soldering while laying in the trunk😖

 

[StaudiA6]

Thanx, I hope you go to va with your car finished or not.
I didnt think my front doors needed much more deadening. I didnt hear much with the oem system and I am only sending 85 watts to the door speakers. I think a high end shop has to pretty well guarantee no squeaks, rattles or buzzes. So they shotgun the whole car. Plus they make money doing it. And thats the right thing to do.
I just used the sheet material I had kicking around. I put a 12” high piece across the inside of the outer door skin. And some bits on the flat areas of the inner panel. Also a big piece over the plastic filler plate on the inner panel. I was prepared to deal with any residual issues if they arose.
One thing I didnt show in the build was while I was clearing out my garage for step 3 I found the
heavy duty drawer liner for my tool chest. So I replaced the old thin foam stuff that moved around constantly. I realized that would make good gasket material so I used it for both sides of my mid base ring and the ring and brackets for the mid driver.
After 2 month of demo cant say I hear any bad stuff from the doors.
your car is 4 years newer so probably even quieter.

Thanks for info. I think you are right the professional installers have to protect against rattles and go all out. I plan on doing this as well. I would hate to have some rattles in my doors ruin the sound stage. The Audi seems like a good car for low rattle and other noise so I am optimistic. I did see a video on PSSound where they did a C7 A6 and had some crazy rattle at the rear window frame. Hopefully me isolating the sub bass by firing into cabin and having multiple baffles will keep that issue away. I plan on taking a couple of days off work soon to finish things off.

 

[Cayo71]

Ouch, thats alot of work, nice job though. How is your bluetooth phone connection. Mine is very quiet. the 38 pin connector has a microphone connection but since there is no bose amp anymore I dont know if that has affected it.
oh, and I didnt miss soldering while laying in the trunk

The soldering was a bit of a pain but in the overall scheme of things not too bad.
Phone works as good as before. No issues at all.