Speaker upgrade for B8.5 RS5 Cabriolet

[Anodo]

Hello,

I have been searching here and other forums but cannot seem to find a definitive answer. I have a 2014 RS5 Cab that has the B&O system with 3G MMI+ and I am looking to just upgrade the speakers starting with the doors first. I have read the Audison Prima 8 are good speakers that add bass and am thinking of going wth these, but wanted to know if I need an additional spacer to make them fit. Any help and other recommendations would be welcomed. Thanks in advance.

[captain_video]

You will need spacers for any replacement door speakers. If you try to mount them flush against the door panels they will interfere with the window glass. There are aftermarket spacers available for 6-1/2" speakers or you can easily fabricate your own from wood or thick plastic. You could even cannibalize the OEM speakers and cut out the old speaker and use the frame for the new speaker.

These should fit your front doors for 6-1/2" speakers:

https://www.car-speaker-adapters.com/items.php?id=SAK108

Here are the rear door 6-1/2" adapters:

https://www.car-speaker-adapters.com/items.php?id=SAK129

Here is a good write-up on replacing the door speakers:

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/audi-a5-s5-rs5-coupe-cabrio-b9-220/replacing-door-speakers-3003820/

Here's a thread showing how to replace the rear door tweeters:

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/audi-a5-s5-rs5-coupe-cabrio-b9-220/mounting-aftermarket-tweeters-rear-door-panels-3035376/

The tweeters in the front door door pillars can pretty much just be inserted in the opening where the OEM tweeter was installed and secured with some RTV.

Now for a bit of shameless self-promotion, I sell a plug and play kit kit for upgrading the front dash and rear deck speakers for B8 Audis:

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/audio-video-security-discussion-15/dash-speaker-upgrade-kits-b8-a4-s4-b8-a5-s5-rs5-3003042/#post25486534

Note that the outer dash and rear deck speakers in the B&O system are used basically for surround effects. The center dash speaker is a summed midrange driver for both channels. All speakers in the B&O system are driven by their own dedicated amplifier channel which also contains the crossovers to make sure each speaker is fed the correct range of frequencies.

Note that all door woofers have an integrated connector that mates with the factory wiring harnesses. You cannot buy aftermarket connectors that mate with the harnesses so you will need to splice in your own connectors

[Bobby Kinstle]

Note that in the B8 generation, the front door woofer is limited range and the rear door woofer plays the bass notes. You should plan to replace it with a good woofer at the same time

[captain_video]

Note that in the B8 generation, the front door woofer is limited range and the rear door woofer plays the bass notes. You should plan to replace it with a good woofer at the same time

Check this YouTube video at around 54:08 and it addresses this very issue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHxTzL9S9TI

It's not that the front door woofers don't have the right frequency response to reproduce the low frequencies, it's that the amp rolls them off too soon. The author of this video swapped the speaker connectors so the front door speakers are fed the signal from the rear doors and vice versa and the result is much better bass from the front doors. I would think that most people performing a door speaker upgrade would tend to concentrate on just the front doors and not both front and rear. I have not personally done this in my 2014 A4, but it might be worth considering if you are only upgrading the front door speakers.

[Anodo]

Check this YouTube video at around 54:08 and it addresses this very issue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHxTzL9S9TI

It's not that the front door woofers don't have the right frequency response to reproduce the low frequencies, it's that the amp rolls them off too soon. The author of this video swapped the speaker connectors so the front door speakers are fed the signal from the rear doors and vice versa and the result is much better bass from the front doors. I would think that most people preforming a door speaker upgrade would tend to concentrate on just the front doors and not both front and rear. I have not personally done this in my 2014 A4, but it might be worth considering if you are only upgrading the front door speakers.

Interesting thanks for that info. I am wondering if this is the same or similar to a VCDS tweak that I saw where you can set the sound profile to "external amplifier" and get more bass. Here is the video that I found some time ago where it is explained that Audi lowered the bass for B8 cars because some people complained of too much bass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcoFuORAJLY

I may give this a try before reversing the speakers.

[Bobby Kinstle]

It's not that the front door woofers don't have the right frequency response to reproduce the low frequencies, it's that the amp rolls them off too soon. The author of this video swapped the speaker connectors so the front door speakers are fed the signal from the rear doors and vice versa and the result is much better bass from the front doors. I would think that most people preforming a door speaker upgrade would tend to concentrate on just the front doors and not both front and rear. I have not personally done this in my 2014 A4, but it might be worth considering if you are only upgrading the front door speakers.


Yes that is what I meant. Sorry I wasn't clear enough on that.

[captain_video]

Interesting thanks for that info. I am wondering if this is the same or similar to a VCDS tweak that I saw where you can set the sound profile to "external amplifier" and get more bass. Here is the video that I found some time ago where it is explained that Audi lowered the bass for B8 cars because some people complained of too much bass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcoFuORAJLY

I may give this a try before reversing the speakers.

I was not aware that you could change the sound profiles using VCDS. I will have to give that a try for sure.

[Mars2k]

Focal makes some 6.5 sets that are purpose built for VW swaps, they look very much like my OEM fronts with spacer I know they have the same plugs these are much nicer.

[Dark Session]

Some good advice from other people in this thread, i may want to share mine too.

RS5 B8 B&O 2010

https://imgur.com/a/XKFRRfE

(MAKE SURE TO CLICK LOAD MORE IMAGES IF YOU REACH THE END OF THE GALLERY!)

Short story without too much talking :

- Stock B&O Sounds horrible. One Door Sub was broken as you can see on the images.
- Dynamat everything you can reach, 4m² are enough for the whole trunk where the sub plays (top and bottom plate) + both doors and doorboards. Its really enough, trust me. I ordered 8m² and i still have a box left. (Talking about the Coupe)
- Rear Speakers in the Coupe don't need to be changed, insane amount of work and little reward, the system plays way too front heavy already so no point in upgrading speakers that do little to non to the whole sound sensation.
- 20cm Subs in the front doors need spacers or you cannibalize the oem Speakers like i did. Dremeled the old speakers out and drilled holes into the plastic housing. (Look at the pictures with the focals installed, so you know what i mean) *HINT* My Focals are already pretty flat, but since they go on top of the oem housing they stick out too far and you can't properly assemble the door, i had a big gap where the speakers were, so my doorboards did not sit flush and i had to redo everything with the next tip.
- Get 200mm Spacers, everything else is just a gamble if it will fit if your speakers are too tall like mine. Use thick isolating tape (for speakers obv.) on the inner side so that the speakers dont touch the spacers. (Again : between the spacers and speakers is where it needs to be put, not on the speaker itself and also not on the door mounting!)
- Don't know if there are any mid-speakers that fit the oem mounting brackets, i went with 3.5" instead of 3.0" and had to dremel half the dashboard apart. Lotta fun and 7 hours wasted with trying it without a dremel first ... also had to cut the oem B&O speaker grill in the middle because my mid-toners are too high. If your speakers are just the right size but the clips break or anything, use bluetack to keep the grill in place, then glue it with industrial glue.
- Hightoners are easy to swap, nothing to explain here.
- Center Console Speaker is fullrange, either disconnect him and let him stay in place, or get the dayton audio speaker which is often recommended. But do any of those two, i beg you. This thing ruins the sound. Disconnecting is fine enough, im saying this with having the dayton and hearing all three variants.
- If you have no blinds in the back, easy peasy, removal of the pillar covers and rear cover that sits on top of the sub is relatively easy. If you have blinds like i do ... HF&GL ... Horrible job to get out, and even more horrible to get in again. Super tight and frustrating.
- Your new custom sub can be connected 2 ways, first put + on + and - on - , then try + on - and - on + to see if it sounds better. The correct wiring is whatever sounds better to you. You want to find the right combination without phase shift in which case the other speakers neutralize the frequencies resulting in less bass.
- MOUNT THE SUB WITH THE MAGNET LOOKING DOWN. I BEG YOU! Audi was smoking some good shit when they let the sound play into the trunk instead into the cabin. No reason to do that. The back seats don't let any sound through. Do it in reverse, you can look at the pictures to see how my new sub was installed, do it this way... reduces rattle and actually lets you hear bass...
- No matter how many inch your new sub is, you need adapter plates to fit it properly. Cannibilizing the oem Sub is a bad idea, won't fit at least with my sub and you want something more sturdy and slim for a proper replacement subwoofer. So i built a 200mm adapter ring, just measure it and cut out a wood plate. Bigger sub diameters needs also some dremeling on the hat cover.
- Sound improves a million times, with my Focals i had to turn the bass down because the doors were slamming so hard that i was starting to get uncomfortable [:D] . So at least in my case wiring the front speakers to the back speakers would be an insane overkill. High Tones are a lot better and mids are finally there where they should be.
- Dont worry about the surround speakers in the back keep them like they are, if you dislike them just turn the Gala surround to 0, that means they are off and put the system to front.
- I covered the trunk in microfiber because i disliked the naked metal look and was able to make it look less obvious that theres a new sub. (Audi also smoked some good crack when they ship out such expensive cars with naked metal instead of some 20$ wrap like any other coupe ...) Did a shitty job with the first try and redone it properly with looking super clean now, the images in the gallery are from the first try which were horrible as you can see. You need 2m² if you want to do it too. I luckily ordered 6 m².
- Oh yeah, also only get speakers/subs with a pretty similar RMS rating as the stock speakers if you keep the stock dsp/amp. +-20% of the stock speakers rating is okay, but replacing the 15W tweeters with 5W or 25W speakers is a horrible idea. For the sub i used the R08 Audio System, can do 2 x 150W bridged and is highly efficient, did not find any other sub that fits and theoretically brings out the best bass out of the oem amp. The often used JL-Audio speaker does fit too, but honestly no point in picking such a driver which is not suited for the amp at all, it will sound better but its not the maximum you can get out of the system. And the R08 costs the same and does the job a lot better. Dont know why people use this [o_o] .

Tools used :
- Dremel (was my absolute best friend) , make sure to get the flexible attachment if you dont have one already, its needed for the mid speakers.
- Bluetack
- Speaker Cables
- Gas Soldering Iron if you want no hassle, otherwise electronic.
- 4m² Dynamat (i used 2mm)
- 2 x Tweeter, 2x 20cm Subs, 2 x Mid Speakers, 1 x big Sub
- Plastic Door/Panel removers (ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY), get multiple, they wear out quick.
- Door Clips (only broke 1 in the process which is super lucky, usually you break at least 2-4 if they are old, make sure to get B8/8.5 Specific A5 Clips!!!, the B6/B7 ones wont fit).
- Lots of patience, cigarettes and nerves