Car audio Audi R8 V10 Spyder. New audio system to replace the standard Bang & Olufsen.
Car audio Audi R8 V10 Spyder for a beautiful sports car, with a mileage of only 1700 km, with which we worked for the first time. And for the first time we worked not in our box, but on the road.
It seems that the Audi R8 V10 Spyder already has everything, if we talk about music – the factory audio system is not just no-name speakers, but a premium Bang & Olufsen. But as it turned out, despite the fact that the car has everything, the owner still lacked something. The car was being worked on for additional tuning by our colleagues, the owner wisely decided to upgrade the audio system at the same time, so as not to disassemble the car a second time.
The task was to make high-quality, powerful sound without altering the interior, everything in standard places and at the same time not inflating the budget. Since this is a convertible, which also has a very loud exhaust and a 5-liter engine, the new audio system should have a reserve of power and volume without compromising the quality of sound and musicality.
Since the car was not made in our studio, we had to do a preliminary inspection, the car’s interior was completely disassembled, and in parallel, the process of completely re-upholstering all the interior elements was underway.
STANDARD SOUND Bang & Olufsen in AUDI R8
What is the standard Bang & Olufsen audio system in the Audi R8 convertible? The standard 13-channel amplifier, the signal to which comes via the MOST bus from the head unit, was located behind the back of the driver’s seat. As for the speakers, this is a per-channel three-component front, tweeters in the corners of the dashboard at 4 Ohm, play on the reflection from the windshield, midrange speakers 10 cm in the doors also at 4 Ohm (installed in their volumes), midbass 20 cm 8 Ohm are located in the doors. Plus there is a central channel with two speakers – MF and HF.
This is what the factory midrange speakers from the Bang & Olufsen premium audio system look like in the Audi R8 convertible:
An unusual feature of this convertible is the speakers in the headrests of the seats (2 midrange speakers in each headrest).
Freeair subwoofer 20 cm – 8 Ohm, installed behind the glove compartment. A very compromise solution in view of the small space in the car’s interior. In total, the factory Bang & Olufsen audio system in the Audi R8 included 13 channels – thirteen speakers! Looking ahead, we will say that we replaced ten speakers, leaving three factory ones connected.
Often our clients think that premium “branded” audio systems are something really high-quality, but this is not so. All standard acoustics are very simple and cheap, low-quality materials and, as a rule, most of the system is brand and nameplates on protective grilles. And in this expensive car, the premium low-quality system also played very poorly, by the way, as in one of our previous works in Ford Bronco, there was also Bang & Olufsen.
INSTALLING NEW CAR SOUND IN AUDI R8
We chose Focal TAM tweeters. They are compact and have a bright sound. With minimal modifications, we installed them in the standard mounting places and even retained the factory connector, which greatly simplified the installation and connection.
The midrange speakers in the doors are installed in their closed volumes. The standard speakers have a very small seating depth, so it was necessary to select new midrange speakers with a minimum installation depth, but this was not enough. A small modification of the housings was required, but in the end the new Helix Ci3 M100FM-S3 acoustics took their place.
The Helix Ci3 W200FM-S2 midbass speakers are securely fastened to their regular location using spacer rings. The new powerful and high-quality midbass speaker will significantly improve the sound picture.
As a central channel, we took the midrange and high-frequency speakers from the Match kit for BMW, with minimal modifications it fit like a native one and also retained the standard connectors for easy connection.
Speakers in the seats. It is in the R8 convertible version that Audi installs speakers in the headrests. The speaker sizes are quite specific there. We selected sets of broadband speakers Ground Zero GZUF 60SQ-A that were as close in size as possible, made adapter rings for them and fixed them to the standard points. It also turned out very minimalistic and standard. We often used these speakers in our previous installations, very compact size and good sound quality, adequate price.
And at the same time a logical and illogical question – why do we need speakers in the headrests of the seats? And you should listen to how the engine of this car sounds and you would understand that the driver can hear mainly only these speakers)))
The subwoofer speaker remained standard, because it has a compact magnet and the distance from the wall of the “glove compartment” to the magnet is minimal. There is no way to install a more powerful and high-quality speaker without complex modifications, and this was one of the conditions for everything to remain in standard places. Although it would be possible to make a housing either instead of the glove compartment, or at the passenger’s feet. But this is already in another car)
Well, and actually the main link of the new audio system is the processor amplifier. Since there is very little free space in this supercar, practically none, they chose the most compact device MATCH UP 10DSP, it is located under the trim behind the driver’s seat. A separate task was to pull the power cable. The battery is located under the hood, it seems to be a common thing, but to go into the interior you need to lift the car on a lift, because the entrance to the interior is in the bottom of the car.
From the new amplifier we connected the front and headrest speakers per channel, the sub and central channel remained on the standard amplifier. The new processor amplifier gave us more power, and most importantly the ability to set up the audio system in a high-quality and balanced manner.
The sound was finally adjusted, checked and with the engine running – the new music was simply FIRE! In general, you now know where to come for new car audio, which will definitely sound better than the so-called factory premium and not for all the money in the world)
