Help with 2016 A6 c7.5 Bose Subwoofer/Audio

[Chrispizzitola]

Ughhh.

Bought the car 2 weeks ago and have been very disappointed with the overall sound quality.
This weekend I installed an LC2I and Jl Audio Amp Sub/ Combo ACS112-TW1

I was hoping this would help with the low end but after hour and hours of trial and error it still only sound marginally better.

I am thinking that the Bose EQ settings are really interfering with the ability for the new sub combo to accurately reproduce the low end.

Right now I am either considering saving up and editing the whole system via a most interface, new amps and speaker combos or find another alternative.

Is there a way to keep the factory system intact and create a flat EQ to get the after market sub to sound better. Really don’t want to spend $3000 on an entire set up at this point. I am in Southern California/riverside area and would love some help.

[Chrispizzitola]

Here is what we got, love the car just wish the audio was better. Bose isn’t all that great at all.
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[digdah]

If you figure this out let me know. I go so frustrated with my setup that I pulled all the aftermarket stuff out. It just was not doing anything since the Bose was neutering the low frequency bass at certain volume levels. Maybe disconnecting the microphones might be a start.

[Mark.in.tulsa]

Which speaker wires did you use to send to the LC2i?

[Chrispizzitola]

I tapped into the rear deck subwoofer wires. I used the one with a stripe as negative and the other one as positive. I set the sub to 180 phase. It sounds okay but I can tell that it is long something weird as the base doesn’t sound like it’s playing the full spectrum.

Set up is tapped into Rear sub (disconnected rear sub as with it still connected sounded even worse, just rattled) wires to LCI and remote and rca wires running to amp sub combo sub is facing up in trunk.. I’ll take photos tonight.

[MVR 155]

I would suggest removing the factory sub so you have better pass through for the bass. Tuning this system to sound good is not easy!! I moved my stuff that was in my 2013 S4 which had the B&O audio. The S4 did sound quite a bit better but after quite a bit of time, I've gotten the system in my S6 to sound pretty good.

[Chrispizzitola]

That was one of my next thoughts. I do notice that from the trunk to the cabin that it is pretty well sealed off. If you don’t mind what is your set up for the S6 now. Do you have Bose? What speakers have you replaced and are you still using Bose Amp?

[OlyS6]

I agree that the EQ for Audis is very strange. Although still expensive, the navtv Zen-V digital interface (now $750, down from original price of $1299) will allow you to completely remove the factory amp. That plus any decent DSP will allow you to do whatever you want for EQ for any of your speakers.

[Chrispizzitola]

Well after a few more hours driving around and playing with the gains and crossover on the amo and LOC I got it to sound better. What I found is that the aftermarket sub works best when crosses over at around 80Hz and the gain turned down to about a third. Next I turned the AccuBass all the way down on LC2i and then turned the gain on that down to a 3rd as well.

Attached are photos of where I put the sub and mounted the LC2i using Velcro

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The factory sub is still disconnected but installed, I found that having it connected just causes rattles and a bad sound.

I am definitely still considering getting the NavTv zen v interface down the road but for now I’ll keep it as is.

Going down the route of replacing all the speakers and adding an aftermarket amp and DSP is a bit more than I am willing to spend on the sound at the moment.

For those interested, the total cost of parts for the JL audio ACS112lg-tw1 MicroSub, LC2i and airing was about $600. I did the install myself. So no labor but relatively straight forward. The think I like about this route is that the sub amp combo draws very little current as it’s wired at .25 ohms this only drawing about 50w from car to produce up to 400w at the sub. As others have said this is nice especially for the newer cars that have the auto start stop feature.

Now that I got it sounding close to the way I want I will most likely go back in the trunk this weekend and re do some of the wires to route better and keep completely out of sight.