Symphony radio hidden EQ question

[SF944]

Do the front and rear EQ settings have any effect on the factory subwoofer in the Avant? I'm trying to get some more punch without overdriving the crappy factory door speakers. (Yeah, yeah, I know....."upgrade!")

Also, if anyone has tried varying the factory setup (55555555), how about posting your results? (please specify if you have an Avant or sedan, and if any aftermarket speakers are used).

[4ingDrive]

Just turning up the sub overdrives it. Notice when you turn it up past a certain volume the sub doesn't get any louder.

[DGUYER]

Here is a post from the AudiWorld B5 A4 Forum. It worked well for me. It was posted by LCP.

"I had already posted a solution for better sound before knowing of the hidden equalizer whereby balance was faded to the rear to make the larger rear speakers handle the bass, and relative midrange and treble settings increased to bring the soundstage up front.

Lately, there's been a flurry of activity of people changing their equalizer settings to enhance their sound. Most of these have been people with Bose systems. Tonight, I decided to see if the same held true for us non-Bose people, and what needed to be done to the popular recommended settings to make it work with the non-Bose speakers. Well, it does work for us.

To access the hidden equalizer, do the following:
1. Turn off stereo.
2. Press "5" and turn stereo on.
3. You should see "55555555" displayed.
4. Turn volume dial to change the values, and press "P.Scan" to scroll through the digits.
5. Turn stereo off and on again to hear changes.

If you think you can't tell a difference when you make changes, try the following settings, and then get your hearing checked: 11991199 followed by 11111111. Note that it has been reported that you must turn the key off/on to hear changes, if the key's on. I did all of my adjustments without the key even in the car, so I could just turn the stereo on/off to hear the changes.

The 8 digits represent the following tones, in order from left to right:
1. Front low bass
2. Front mid bass
3. Front midrange
4. Front treble
5. Rear low bass
6. Rear mid bass
7. Rear midrange
8. Rear treble.

Anyway, I started with the popular settings for Bose users, 88698869, but figured they would need tweaking for the non-Bose speakers, which have very little capacity to reproduce bass in the front and very little capacity to reproduce treble in the rear. The combination I found best at allowing the speakers to do the jobs for which they were designed, while keeping the soundstage in the front was 38679657. Slight variations of this combination that I tried would have allowed changing some of the digits (in different combinations -- never all at once I think) to 48788757, but 38679657 is the winner for me. The volume level to which I was able to play the Symphony stereo without distortion amazed me with these settings. Making the puny front speakers try to reproduce deep bass tones causes distortion by moderate volume levels, but the rear speakers can handle them at very high levels. Of course, set your generic knob-adjustable fader, bass, treble and midrange settings to neutral."

[IndieRockSteve]

avant, used the techarticle setting, HUGE difference. Haven't really bothered trying to tune it more. There is definitly more bass than the stock settings. Its not amazing, but as a quick fix its nice, and lets me drop money on more important things before I worry about the stereo(I'm not trying to impress any honda owners...).

[ebmcs03]

I just got a 1998 April Build A4 2.8 and the bass is too strong for my taste. I've been trying to access the equalizer using the posted steps to see if i can lower the bass but havent been successful.

The car has the Boss sound system with CD changer and the Power button / Volume is in the middle of the head unit.

Any other tips on trying to access the eq settings?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: N/M I guess its only for Post 2000 cars... pre cars have concert radio.

[ny02s4]

my "hidden eq" settings on my Bose system:

front stage:
2367
rear stage:
5543

front doors now have almost no bass and very minimal mid bass in them. And being that they are only 4" speakers i think its the best way to have these setup from the start. I also brought up the front mid-high levels, while the rears(acting as rear fill, lowering the highs) to focus the sound from the the front stage of my car. I think this sounds the best so far and i must have adjusted that hidden EQ a million times already, haha.

oh yea and my TypeR 10" takes car of the mid-low bass.