Bose installation

[tourangang]

HI All

The A2 im Considering buying has only got a chorus unit (Cassette), obviously this will need upgrading, but i see a bose system was an option on A2's, has anyone put this or something of equivelent quality into an A2, and what sort of job was it?

I need something that wont take the whole boot up mind you!

cheers

tourangang

[humps]

well, I have mine factory fitted and all I can say is it sounds good tho it is not great for high volume with club-style heavy bass music. Sounded better than my home hifi when I watched a bit of movie yesterday.

I think Skipton has retro-fitted his. The bose needs wiring from front console to an amp (under passenger footwell), then amp to the 8 speakers (if you haven't got 8 already) in the doors, wiring to the lower boot for the sub. And then you can optionally get the Bose badges on the 4 driver speakers ;-)

It is not the boot you have to take apart, but the wiring around the car!

[Skipton01]

Hello there,

I have indeed retro-fitted Bose to my A2 and it sounds superb (mind you, it should - my day job is as a professional broadcast sound engineer!).

If you can source an A2 Bose amp from Ebay cheap, then it's worth doing - but beware, not all Bose amps are suitable (even though the seller may say otherwise). You must make sure it's an 8Z part and that it includes the mounting bracket.

After this, all you really need is a sub (they're about £200 new and it pays to get a new one as you know it's going to be in good nick, the paper cones ofter warp or sag if there's been water ingress in the boot area) and a load of wire, a few connectors and a lot of time.

You don't necessarily need to replace all the door speakers, but cap the bass units off to prevent all the sub-200Hz stuff from going to them. I've got Bose speakers and chose to leave my 'normal' ones in - there's minimal difference and if anything, I'd say the standard speakers are actually a bit better.

It isn't a very complex job, in the great scheme of things, but it does involve a lot of re-wiring and your soldering skills should be first class.

I took the opportunity to upgrade the entire audio setup whilst I was at it and fitted new dedicated power and ground lines, sheilded pre-amp cables and a 1 farad capacitor to smooth out and crispen up the bass response. I can truthfully say that it does sound very good indeed now.

OK so it wouldn't win any awards at a Max Power convention, but then it's not about all-out POWER!!!! but about sounding clean and natural.

Cheers,

Mike

[tourangang]

Sounds brilliant, but dont think my soldering skills are up to it:( I think I will make do with some decent aftermarket speakers to fit in the standard pods, i read somewhere they are 165mm, and upgrade the head unit.

cheers.

Tourangang

[erstens]

It's not worth to retrofit the original Bose. Only if you get the parts cheaper than Audi price.
If you upgrade yourselfe you even don't get the Speakers fittet. It needs self made adapters, cause you can't by ones for A2.
Or you do this: http://forum.a2-freun.de/thread.php?threadid=12136&hilight=maxi+bose

[A2hundred]

""", i read somewhere they are 165mm, and upgrade the head unit."""

http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/6554/dibujojx3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Skipton01]

The headunits are the same for cars with Bose or without Bose - only the coding changes, so that the unit says 'Bose' on switch on.

The speakers are all 165mm, whether Bose or standard.

The main differences are in the subwoofer in the boot and the Bose amplifier in the drivers-side (RHD) footwell. The amp has Bose-customised EQ curves specific to the A2 and houses 5 channels of amplification (the sub channel is derived from the 4 pre-outputs.

Cheers,

Mike

[erstens]

You are right and wrong:
The speakers (Original and Bose for the A2) are DIN 130 (which ist 158mm in diameter) and NOT DIN 165 (which ist 165mm diameter). So as you can read in the image abothe, they are 16cm, not 16,5.

There are 165mm Speakers (Bose) in the A6 (4 peaces) and Woofers 165mm in the back of the Audi TT C
(the diffrence between 158 and 165 is small and the diff. in it's Membrane-diameter is 5mm only , but it is not the same)
DIN is a standard (worldwide means Deutsche Industrie Norm)

erstens

[Skipton01]

Ok Erstens, hate to get picky, but here are the specs from Audis own catalogues (and in a way, we're both wrong in our initial statements!).

There are 2 speakers listed as woofers: 8Z0 035 411 and 8Z0 035 411A, the 'A' being the Bose part. Both are listed as follows:

Bose Part:
Fitting Location, Door, Front
Fitting Location, Door, Rear
Frequency Response Hz 70-10000
Load Rating 25Watts
Nominal Diameter 160mm
Type of Speaker, Woofer

Standard Part:
Fitting Location, Door, Front
Fitting Location, Door, Rear
Frequency Response Hz 80-8000
Load Rating 25-30Watts
Nominal Diameter 160mm
Type of Speaker, Woofer

As you can see, there's no 158mm or 165mm, only the same nominal 160mm and also, the standard part is rated as being very slightly higher power handling and having less bottom end and less top end, but these figures are minute and undetectable to the average ear (I should know, due to my day job!).

As I've said before, I have both Bose and non-Bose speakers and I chose to leave the non-Bose installed as there was no appreciable difference, in fact if anything, the standard speakers sounded slightly better and this is borne out by the figures, as they integrate better with the subwoofer.

So, nuff said - if you want to put Bose into your A2, get an amp and a subwoofer for about £300 all in and then get soldering!

You won't get much better sound in your car without spending a fortune and if anyone wants to have a listen to my system, they're more than welcome.

Cheers,

Mike

[erstens]

As you can see, there's no 158mm or 165mm
OK forget the 158mm and 16cm or 160mm this is the same. DIN 130 can be up to 160mm in diameter but if you measure it, it is mostly 158mm in reality.
And the orig. Speakers also sound good in the A2 so the most important upgrade would be a big subwoofer(speaker) in the back or a new headunit if you want.

But here the Speakerproblem in details: ;)

Bose took the standard Speaker (IT IS a DIN 130, they call it 16cm, but it has if you measure it 158mm diameter) (this speaker is mounted for example in the A4 rear (1999-2001 I am not exactly shure about) and Bose mounted this speaker (I have some at home) into THE ORIGINAL A2 (Blaupunkt) Speaker. The first pic shows the 158mm Bose (16cm) speaker an the second shows the Bose speaker fitted into the plastikframe from the orig. A2 Speaker and the third pic showes the orig. A2 Speaker. (the first an second image is the SAME speaker but the second one was extra farbicated (means mounted into a frame) for the Audi A2)

The orig. Speaker: You can cut out the Membrane with a knife and the Frame in the rear can be cut through, because it is made from Plastik (not metal, witch would be standard in all speakers around the world). So the Adapterframe and the Speaker is ONE PART in the orig. A2 Speaker. I haven't ever seen something like that bebore. Normally you take a DIN Speaker and mount it into a frame.
But this is, what only Bose did with its DIN 130 speaker, mounted into the frame (with an additional small adapterring) from the orig. A2 Speaker .
Or the manufacurer delivered to Bose the pure frame (wich you CAN'T By single! many people would like to!).

So I was right. It is a 158mm Speaker mounted into the frame and all together has 158-160mm if you measure it.
Ofcause the number 158 is not what you can read in descriptions. There you allways read 160. But I measured it. And I am shure that DIN 130 has to fit into 160mm holes (kompletely) ald for tollerances, they produce mostly in 158mm.

By the way, there is a big difference on the backside between DIN 130 and DIN 165: DIN 165 fits into holes from 143mm diameter. But DIN 130 fits into holes from 128 (THIS MEANS 130 but it is 128 mostly because of tollerances).

And that makes it difficult to it an 165 into the A2. cecause of the doorbrake or how you call the metal peace witch hold the door.
erstens

[Skipton01]

Well, that's cleared that one up then!!!!

Cheers,

Mike

[toby1]

Well done chaps. I think we're all "in the know" for A2 speakers now.

Unless anything's been missed........:D ?

[erstens]

I'm sorry for that :) Thought it would help.

The difference is the impedance of the Bose and the A2 Speaker system. (Bose uses let's say: cheep amps 12V based (no transformer; it could be the wrong word vor DC but I am German). That is the reason, why Bosesystems can have more than 20 Watts per chanel. (the only reason). They use 2 Ohms in the 160 and 165mm speakers . Normal audio-systems have 4 Ohms except the A2 speakers:
The older ones are discribed as 4 Ohm (but have 3 Ohms for real!) and the newer speakers (I don't know the Modelljear) are correctly discribed with 3 Ohms.
Bose:
The Woofer (A2) in the Trunk has 1 Ohm impedance (wore Watt's) and the ND (neodymic magnet system) from Boses 23cm (Audi TTR) and 20cm (Audi A4 Roadster /cabriolet) and the 30cm (all ND are verry flat woofers) (new A8) has only 0,5 Ohms . These speakers can't be used with most other amps than the Bose. because it is to many load for standard Amps.
By the way: Audi calls the Bose 160mm speakers woofers. (As you copied out from *AKTE*). But Bose don't call them woofers. There is only one type of 165 Speaker (from Audi TTC and from old A4 in the back) Bose calls woofers. All other Bose woofers are either the neodymic or the smaller new speaker, you find in the doors of the new A6 and A8 and whatever (this is: The woofers you find in the trunk inside a well fitting plastic-box wich is the real "woofer" in most Audis. There are mostly two inside one box or one, as in the A2). (see the Bose .pdf files for actuall models and details).


By. erstens

[Aikon]

Fascinating reading!!

I can say for sure that Bose sounds good, not the loudest system I've had but ace quality. The Harmann Kardon setup in the wifes Disco seems to have better low end bass but this could just be the cars acoustics.

[msorel]

Does anyone have a scheme to hook up my BOSE amp to a Concert 2 and Audi Navi BNS?

Can't figure out how to hook up the following pins:

11- Pin 31 (of what? Footwell driversside?)
13- Pin 30 (of what? Footwell driversside?)
25- power switch of radio

Does the "mute out" of the navigation calculator stay on the radio (Nav. Con.) or does it connect to pin 12 of the BOSE amp?

Thanks!

Maurice

[erstens]

All Geman cars have "Klemme" 30 and Klemme 31. (it's like pin 30.. but you will never find a pin with this number).
This is just a name for plus (drain) and minus (ground)
And Klemme 15 is swithed plus

[msorel]

Thanks Erstens!!

Anyone info on the "mute out" question?

Greetings Maurice

[erstens]

25 is swiched plus (Klemme 15).
Read it here: http://forum.a2-freun.de/thread.php?postid=101382#post101382