# 2014 Audi A6 build - Mobridge, Illusion, Gladen, with review of Mosconi Pro 5/30 Amp



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

Hey guys,

been quite some time since my last build log. I have come to the realization that with a super busy shop, two young children including a baby, it is virtually impossible for me to post a build log of every car we are doing. So from now on, i will be doing build logs of the more unique projects that come through our shop....however, if you want to catch up on all of our projects, i suggest u like us on FB as we post pics of all the builds there...but DIYMA will still be the source for any build log we write.  facebook.com/simplicityinsound

So lets get onto this build. This 2014 Audi A6 came to us wit some pretty simply goals, but what made me really excited for was the opportunity to finally try out the long awaited Mosconi Pro 5/30 5 channel amplifier. This is the first major new amp realease in quite sometime (not counting model additions to other lines), and from what i have seen and heard first person at tradeshows, it promises to be an awesome solution. It is an amp that offers all in one solution for a two way active front and sub system, with an abundance of power on the sub channel, and best of all, it is designed to compete with, if not exceed, the performance of the AS line of amps, which has been our go to high end line for some time.

But we will get to the amp review later, for now, lets talk about the goals for the build:

1. to achieve a nice level of SQ 

2. maintain a relatively oem appearance in the interior

3. retain as much cargo space in the trunk but also give all the component appropriate room and space.

lets get started...first, a few pictures of the car, which is just a nice spacious luxury sedan 




























To meet the channels available of the mosconi amp, and to achieve the level of sound quality we want, we chose a pair of Illusion Audio C3CX 3" point sources to pair with a set of my favorite midbasses, the Gladen Aerospace 6.5" driver. 

The C3cx went into a pair of custom molded A pillars, the idea here was to get a decent SQ but still not be too obtrusive and mess with the aesthetics of the interior, so they are aimed relatively off axis, wrapped in an OEM headliner matching material, and finished off with a silver ring and pressed grille. Joey did most of the fabrication on them, while i wrapped them:



























































































here are some build pics of the pillars...first, joey positioned and attached the two mounting ring baffles to the oem pillars:










and then, filler was used to bring them to a curved integrated shape and sanded down smooth:



















i then came and wrapped them in the headline material, and installed the C3CXs:





































Joey then favricated the grille rings outof acrylic, painted them silver, pressed the mesh grilles, painted them black, and expoxied the two together, forming the finished press in grille:


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

moving onto the front midbass install. The A6 with Bose has a pretty unique stock mounting location. it features a 4" woofer with beefy surround, in a decent sized PORTED enclosure in the door. Its kind of a blessing and a curse as i know when well sealed, the enclosure does an good job of accepting a 6.5" midbass and provides very controlled output even at high levels...but the downside is, it is far more complicated to make it work with a 6.5 than the normal making a ring and securing it.

so here is the stock front door:










and here are the stock enclousres out of the car, and them with the port and speakers removed:



















first thing i did was to completely grind down the mounting surface of the stock woofer, so that it is much bigger and can accept a 6.5" driver"










then i thoroughly sound proofed the whole structure, inside and out, with STP CLD damper:



















i then made blanking plates by routering the flange of the stock port, and bolted those in place on the enclosure, effectively sealing the enclosure:



















Then, a pair of adapter rings was fabricated, and coated on both sides with black bedliner, just out of habit even though they will never be exposed to the elements:



















and these were bolted to the stock enclosures, and the interior filled with blackhole STUFF:



















and finally, the gladen aerospace midbass drivers were installed:










the inner and outer door skin also received some CLD treatment, and the enclosure was bolted back in with the oem hardware:




























the inside of the door card got a bunch of CLD as well to fight resonance, while the backside off the snap off OEM grille got some foam to decouple it from the door card itself:














































the same process was then repeated on the passenger side:


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

next comes a series of pics showing the new wiring we added traveling from the front of the car to the back...as the normal for us with any rear battery cars, we ran all the wires down the side away from the stock power cable, in this case means the entire bundle comes down the driver side...it is ziptied to the factory bundle every few inches going all the way to the trunk:














































In the trunk we replaced the stock bose amp on the rear driver side trunk with a mobridge DA3 Unit, it was suppose to receive a DA1 but it was out of stock, and this also gave me an opportunity to see if there is any sonic difference between the DA3's analog and optical output, as it has both, so i ran both an RCA and a TOSLINK cable from it.

the two switches located in the stock mounting bracket are for the mobridge service bypass and for lighting. this new bundle runs to the front part of the trunk along the stock wiring route:





































The power and ground cable was run up the opposite side, also following the stock wiring route, from the oem battery located in the spare tire well below the spare:




























and lastly in the interior, the entire rear deck was fully sound proofed, the stock subwoofer mounting bracket was retained as it supports the rear deck cover, and the cover itself also got ample amounts of foam to help it decouple from the rear deck itself:









































































moving to the trunk. the first thing is pretty simple, when you flip down a back seat, there is a simple blanking plate that hides all the guts of the build..its is simply finished in black carpet:



















in the trunk itself, everything is located at the front of the trunk, as the stock battery is located in the spare tire well and not suited for a fake floor build. when you open the trunk, here is what you see. a simple rearward facing strcture with a trim panel finished in grey alcantara, with a center pressed grille featuring the audi 4 rings logo, simple and straightforward:














































pop off the grille, and here is waht you see. two illusion audio carbon C10 subwoofers on either side, with the aforementioned mosconi pro 5/30 amplifier suspended in a floating amp rack infront of it. the rack itself is wrapped in oem tan matching vinyl and black vinyl. again, pretty simple, elegant and symmetrical: 














































open the side panel next to the stock amp location, and flip one of the swtiches, and edge lit acrylic light turns on and baths the well with white light:














































for a better look at the lighting effect, here is the structure in a darkened shop:


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

lets now look at the build pics of the trunk structure itself.

first, i liad dow some foam on the stock floor pan and installed 4 rivetnuts into the floor:










then, a foundational support board was bolted in place via the rivetnuts, angled so that the final product is paralell to the ground:




























then i built the dual subbox itself, with each one about .6 cubic ft sealed, and attached all the brackets and threaded inserts to attach all the equipment and trim panels:




























the back of the enclosure was carpeted and two threaded inserts attached to mount the blanking plate behind the rear seat:










the enclosure was then filled with blackhole stuff and wired up and the two illusion C10 subs secured:



















then i fabricated the main front trim panel and the floating amp rack board and test fitted them together:



















the amp board was then wrapped in black vinyl, and the mosconi amp secured to it:



















i then wired up the amp and organized their routing to the appropriate locations behind the amp rack, so it would present a nice organized look from the front:



















i then wrapped the main cosmetic trim panel in tan vinyl, and bolted the amp rack to it:



















this board with the amp rack was then secured to the subenclosure structure and all the wires lead through the slot on the board:



















i then installed and wired all the barrier strips, the dsp and the passive crossovers for the c3cx to form the finished structure, the open zipties on top are to secure the main bundles from the other parts of the car once this structure is in the trunk itself:














































this structure was then loaded into the car, and secured via various brackets and threaded inserts:










the walls for the well was now fabricated, and the inside wrapped in black vinyl:



















this is the edge lit acrylic light with the led strip attached:










this light was then bolted to the top wall of the well via threaded inserts embedded in the mdf, and the wire run out via a hole:




























this is the two piece from main baffle board, with the stepped ring to allow the front grille to sit on, fabricated, test fitted, and then wrapped in vinyl and alacantara and secured together:





































here is the rear blocking plate behind the rear seat, before and after carpeting:



















here is the front press fit grille, with the custom routered audi rings secured in place, and then wrapped in black carpet:





































and finally, a quick look at the wiring in the car...here the signal, speaker and power cables coming out of the two sides of the trunk liner, runs along the top of the enclosure and down in the center wiring area:



















and the look at the wiring itself inside the central area, making all servicing, tuning and troubleshooting very simple as everything is located in one place.


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

so that is the build itself.

instead of going into how it sounds, like now turn our attention to the mosconi pro 5/30 amplifier.

Here is the unboxing of the amp, in a simple mosconi-esque white box:



















once removed from the plastic wrap, it is immediately apparent that this amp looks like nothing else out there. The same could be said for the mosconi AS amps when they released, but that was over 6 years ago, and now it seems to have become common place. 

In my opinion, this amp presents a very unique image, it is some how both euro chique, with its silver edge wall that forms rounded corners of the amp, to the red fans behind the metal mesh; and still looking sophisticated at the same time. in other words, to me at least, its looks extremely esoteric, yet still "plain" enough to most people to like. I think this is a very hard line to walk for most amp manufacturers...many new amps either look very much oldschool that some may consider boring, while other go wild with questionable results...i think this Pro 5/30 amp really nails that fine line..



















Similar to the AS amps, the Pro has all the connections at the front edge of the amplifier, which makes wiring pretty simple and is my preferred layout. all the controls and set screws for the amp are located under a magnetic plastic cover, easy to remove to access all the controls.




























the controls for the amp is pretty standard mosconi affair if youa re used to the zero or AS amps, but there is one major new feature. a DSP bypass switch. once this is pressed in, it disables ALL onboard adjustment of the amp, gain, xover, etc all is removed from the signal chain, and all level and contorls are relegated to the dsp infront of it in the signal chain. I have seen a few other amps done like this but it really simplifies things for me, and actually makes the tuning process easier. There are statements regarding how doing this makes amps sound better, but my ears are not personally good enough to hear a difference i dont think, so i will leave that up to yall to debate 

If there is one area i have to nitpick, it is the layout of the speaker output channels. if you look closely in the following picture, you will see that on the sub channel, the paralell inputs are left and right for + and -, this is very logical and easy to wire if you want to make sure the wiring looks neat. however, if you look at the front four channels, they are not arranged the same way. instead, we have top and bottom for + and - and left and right for the two channels. this, coupled with the fact that the bottom speaker connection is VERY deep inside the amp chassis down a long tube, making for a pretty difficult time if you want to make sure your speaker wires look perfect interms of the angle and curve they make coming out of the amp. as you would need to keep on trimming and adjusting one of the wires to match the other one. on this particular install, i actually just gave up, and instead, inserted the wire left and right for each speaker wire, and labeled the other end that goes into the barrier strip, so i still was able to keep tables on which wire did what, but if this was simply changed to left and right for positive and negative and up and down for the two channels, it would make it a lot easier. is it a big deal for most installers? not really, but for me, i just wish it was simpler.










the rest of the amp pics are here...you can see the shape of the aluminum bar that forms the outer perimeter of the design, and how the center portion is slightly elevated. compared to a totally flat amp like the AS, this could make it a bigger channel to truly flush, but i dont consider it much of an issue and it for sure looks very unique. the red fans could be a polarizing aspect of the design, i personally like it as it adds a bit of attitude to the overall look, but i can certainly see other as thinking its a bit gaudy. 

overall though, i think the amp looks very nice, sophisticated and modern:




























For the specific power outputs and specs of the amp, here is a shot of the manual:










Now, onto the sonic performance of the amp.

In one word: WOW! i dont tend to use superlatives much when i review things, if you read my past reviews on products, and amps, you will see that i tend to use words like "good, well performing, nice, very cool, etc etc" when describing products...only when i encounter a truly impressive piece of kit do i giggle like a school boy.

From the very first moment i turned on the Mosconi Pro 5/30 i was very impressed. sonically, the car was very very good....could infact be one of my favorite ever. its balanced, works well at low and high volume levels. the staging and imaging are both very solid, despite front midrange/tweeter locations that arent optimized for SQ. three things really stood out for me:

1. the sense of how airy and big the car sounded, easily as good as the other mosconi AS amps i have done. could be a function of the interior of the car itself, but thats how i felt listening to it.

2. how controlled the sound is even at high volumes. and with the relatively low power ratingof the front stage (95 watts and 195 watts RMS), i feel that this amp is perhaps even more controlled than an AS amp of slightly higher watts rating. I dont know enough about amp design to say why, but perhaps the push pull design of the amp has something to do with it. I am sure there are many here that can answer this question more, but the reality is, even high volumes, i never got the amp to fall apart on me, and i was playing some music quite loud during listening. 

3. The noise floor is virtually non existent. I am one of those people who is super OCD about noise floor. i know for 99 percent of our customers, they will never notice it, as who really sits in a car, turned off, with the system on but nothing playing? but for me, i really like to have an amp where on a quiet song with intermittent moments of silence, but TOTALLY SILENT. now, compared to the AS amps, where i have used the same signal source, the same dsp, on the same speakers, i feel that this amp is ever so slightly superior to them. as i am able to easily achieve the same level of volume with less floor noise than AS. WOW!

So overall, this is the first amp where i feel very confident in using as a single amp system without feeling that i am compromising on anything, not on signal quality, not on flexiblity, and most importantly, not on subwoofer output power, whcih this one has in abundance (1030 watts rms) and easily handled the two illusion C10s. At no time did i feel that the class D nature of the sub channel was subpar with the front stage, it just provided a lot of clean output, at all volumes, all the time.

Now some may say this amp is quite expensive at $2000 retail, and that is true, $2000 is a lot these days for anyone to pay for an amp, but when i compare it to other high end amps, its not that much at all. for example, in order to acheive a similar power output with the AS line of amps, i would need a 100.1, and two 200.2s, this would result in a footprint almost twice the size of the Pro 5/30, and at a cost that is $700 more retail, than the Pro, and i believe the pro will sound just as good, if not better, in doing it. 

So aside from the small issue i have with how the speaker output terminals are laid out, i really think this is a perfect 5 channel amp, and i have a feeling that you will see us using this amp, in lieu of other high end class AB amps pretty soon, and with a 4 channel about to be released, i will be able to do 3 way active systems with it as well.

Job well done Mosconi! Could yall make a 7 channel amp that does 4x95 2x195 and 1x1030 in the future? that would be so badass...not sure if many would buy it but i can dream right? 

Thanks everyone for reading,

Cheers,

Bing


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## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

Screw the audi, shows us the NSX .
Very euro design on that amp, totally digging it except for price tag.


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

Mless5 said:


> Screw the audi, shows us the NSX .
> Very euro design on that amp, totally digging it except for price tag.


the nsx features pictures taken by jesse and joey...which means i have to spend like 68 hours sorting through it


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## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

Not a bad thing .
Interesting that you went with using that enclosure, do you feel like it produced better results than more "traditional" mounting vented into the door cavity?


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## JimmyDee (Mar 8, 2014)

I especially like how the work table says; _'**** You ***** LOL' _on it...


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

Mless5 said:


> Not a bad thing .
> Interesting that you went with using that enclosure, do you feel like it produced better results than more "traditional" mounting vented into the door cavity?



i have used it before with good results, and surprisingly, if you sound proof it well, it doesnt give you a ton of build up. but the control it lends to the midbass is quite good


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

jimmydee said:


> I especially like how the work table says; _'**** You ***** LOL' _on it...



you can ask jesse about that one. 

it does show that we dont waste wood though, as thats been used as a bench for years now lol


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

Again you gents have done a fantastic job and I am sure the customer is still grinning.


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## wildnimal (Mar 29, 2008)

Beautifully executed. Really loved how the amp is floating. 

1. Which speaker cables / RCA did you use? 
2. How would you compare the Sound Signature of AS vs ZERO vs PRO?


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## bigbubba (Mar 23, 2011)

Wow, incredible job. I was wondering what happened to you guys. I haven't seen a build thread from you in quite some time.


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## m3gunner (Aug 6, 2008)

Beautiful install...

How was tuning with the DA-3?

How much difference in SQ if you had gone with the dash mounts for the front stage rather than the pods? I get that pods are one of your signature details, but the dash mounts would push the drivers even further forward *and* would be totally stealth...

Thanks for posting this one up...


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## Lycancatt (Apr 11, 2010)

I loved this car too, that floating amp is just so nice and something different from the common false floor builds. it sounded great as well! the sealed midbass didn't play as low as it would with ib door install, but it had a snap that ib door installs often cant match.

screw the nsx..post pics of the vw bus..lol


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

Where’s our “ Vw bus “ photos lol.


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## Brules (Sep 22, 2017)

Killer install, I have heard the new amp has a fantastic sound to it!

Are you running the C3's full active or off the passives? 

Looking for rec on where to cross mine at full active.........


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

Coppertone said:


> Where’s our “ Vw bus “ photos lol.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk




Still waiting , ha ha ha ha...


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## MrGreen83 (Jun 11, 2015)

Would u mind sharing the headliner fabric color that you used? Seems to be the exact color I need for my pillars. 


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## SkizeR (Apr 19, 2011)

MrGreen83 said:


> Would u mind sharing the headliner fabric color that you used? Seems to be the exact color I need for my pillars.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Dont use pictures of fabric to match what you want. 110% chance of it not being the same as it looks in the photo

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