# How NOT to build your 2006 A4 Avant system



## naiku (May 28, 2008)

So, here is my story of how I wasted an entire weekend and now have a non functioning stereo! My car is a 2006 A4 Avant, and I plan to keep the stock Symphony II head unit, the low level signal from this then goes into a PXE-H650, mids are Arc Audio, and I have some Vifa tweeters (will add model numbers later) sub is an eD 11KV.2 and for now the amp is an Alpine MRV-F345. 

Things started off easy enough, figured Saturday I would run the passenger speaker wire, install speakers on passenger door, repeat drivers side on Sunday. The door card came off easier than expected, and I took out the Bose woofer. Whilst trying to figure out how to remove the woofer from the plastic housing, I put a hole through the cone, so ended up ripping it to pieces before managing to get it off the plastic piece.

Secondly, the tweeters I am using have a large plastic surround that I needed to dremel off. Start cutting, my dremel dies. I eventually get the surrounds cut, break some off the pieces off the stock tweeter housing and my tweeters now fit. Good. Next to get speaker wire into the doors, I pull off the kick panel plastic and see the hole by the harness. Feed 2 lengths of wire through, and then f*ck it, because the wire I am using is so thick, the harness will not plug back in. So, I end up having to mount the crossover in the door, something I did not want to do. So, I pull one length of wire out of the door. The new mid goes in easy enough.

Time to put the door card back on, line everything up, push and WTF, discover my new tweeters (which by the way I just hacked up the surrounds on) are too deep and push the stock grill out of the door card. Not much I can do at this point, so I leave it on, with the stock grill sticking out by about half an inch. Getting annoyed now.

Pull off B pillar trim, and break something behind the lower trim, not sure what it was, but the trim at least clipped back on fine. Get first length of speaker wire to the trunk. Remove Bose sub and amp and call it a day. It literally was all frigging day.

Sunday, figure I will start on the drivers side. Thinking to myself, it should take less time as I know where to find hole for speaker wire, know only to run one set of speaker wire etc. So, everything comes apart easy enough, now I know how to separate the Bose mid I get it off easily enough. Already expecting the tweeter not to fit, but figure at least I will have music while I figure out what to do. Get speaker wire in, get door card back on, get speaker wire to the trunk.

Connect speaker wire to amp, connect RCA's to amp, connect power and other leads to PXE-H650.

Turn on stereo, and.......

Nothing, well, not quite nothing. If I crank the volume on the head unit I at least hear some music, but is is incredibly quiet. Go to trunk, PXE-H650 is not powering on, check wires, weird. Figure I will connect the H650's remote turn on to the same as the amplifiers. Check again, still no power to H650. Damn it. By now I am too tired to deal with it, I am hoping it is simply that the power that I spliced into at the Bose harness (should be + to battery) is simply not good, as I used these plastic connectors that I hate using.

So, this morning I have no stereo. And 2 hours of commuting. Crap.

I think the problem was that I tried to rush this, now instead plan to remove everything except the amp and mids/tweets so that I at least have some music until I have more time. Then I plan to remove the speaker wire I put in (it is about half an inch wide, by a little under quarter thick, was simply some I already had that I used in the house) and find some thinner wire, especially as I am sure most of the width of this wire is insulation. Will then remove the crossovers from the doors, and put those in the trunk. Figure out what to do with tweeters, which is probably going to be not use them and buy new ones (a HUGE pain as I am broke). Then re-wire the H650 back into the loop and start again.

Oh, and to top if off. This morning I discover that I forgot to hook the wire back to the interior door handle. So I look like a moron having to put my window down, reach outside and open the door. I am hoping it is simply the wire and nothing more. 

Moral of the story, don't rush things  

Hopefully in a couple weeks I can add to this with some success. In the meantime I am going to go and see about finding some smaller diameter speaker wire, and some small mounting depth tweeters.


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## Niebur3 (Jul 11, 2008)

Cudos for sharing your story....very good lesson! Most of us have been there. I remember trying to install some simple door speakers and sliced into my hand and had to go to the ER and get stitches.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

Yep, I was not pleased by the time all was said and done last night, and even less pleased now I have to remove the door card just to get my door handle working again. 

Prior to this my only experience was installing speakers in an F150, which was a piece of cake.


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## jimp (Jul 12, 2009)

if you've ever tried to do a diy project, you've had those days, they're tuff to deal with. Next time when you go in to fix it all, it will all fall into place.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

OK, this morning I started thinking about how I am going to re-install this system. For now I unhooked the RCA from the H650 and connected them directly to my amplifier. At least this way I now have some music from the front speakers, which considering I have yet to do anything with amp gains, are sounding pretty good already. I also took the sub out for now, as it was not hooked up to anything and simply sitting in the trunk.

I did discover that I have a loose connection somewhere on the drivers side though, figure I will check it out when I remove the door card to fix the door handle not working. 

Last night I had been thinking about the tweeters, they only push the stock grille out a short distance, so I plan to sand/trim away all the plastic that the stock tweeters fit in so that the new tweeters are flush against the grille. That may allow me enough room to keep them and not have to search for new tweeters. 

I will add updates to this thread (and pictures) as I go, and hopefully this thread can turn into a good build of originally having everything go wrong, to it eventually working as expected.


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## 94VG30DE (Nov 28, 2007)

haha we've all had those days. Just have to chalk that day up to a loss and move on. It will get better as you work on it more. 

If it makes you feel any better, I (and many others here) have re-done our _working _systems 2 or 3 times at least. It sucks to have to do it rather than doing it because you have an addiction problem, but the outcome is roughly the same. As your install skills get better you will want to tear back in and fix some of the mistakes you made the first time. It helps if you think of the install as a hobby, rather than a means to an end.


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## RMF419 (Feb 13, 2008)

Thats a good way to look at it 94.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

This past weekend I decided to spend some time and start to correct / fix some of the things that went wrong first time around. My first task was to fix my drivers door handle, funny how quickly having to wind your window down in sub zero temperatures, reach out to open the door, then put the window up again becomes annoying. 

Took me just a couple minutes to get the door card off, and fix the handle. Next, was to see if there was anything I could do about getting the tweeters to fit. I took them both out, went to put in new brushes in my Dremel, when it decided to start working again. So I sanded one of the flanges down much smaller, and removed all of the back of the stock tweeter housing, tried again, and now they fit nicely. The drivers one pushes down a little, so I might sand a little more off, but they now fit.

Next task was to get the H650 working. I cut the power and ground wires that were originally going to the Bose amp, and connected these directly to the H650 harness (they were originally just spliced into the Bose wires, but I figured I can easily reconnect the Bose harness if I ever decide to do so). Plugged everything back in, turn on ignition, success!! I see the display light up on the H650. After confusing myself for a minute wondering why the Ant EQ did not come on, I remember I am connected to the aux in, so no need for Ant EQ. Next step is to reset the H650, push in the reset button, scroll to factory reset, H650 powers off, and nothing. WTF. It stays off regardless of turning ignition on and off, or HU on and off.

I check my connections, try again, same result. Then I remember a post on here about the auto ranging inputs not working that well, and hooking up a direct remote turn on lead. So I connect the H650 remote lead to the same lead my amp turns on from. This time it is working!! 

I get the laptop, try to install the H650 software and find it does not like Vista. So I go borrow a laptop with XP, install the software and am up and running. I won't go into detail but placed the microphone at 8 positions around the front seats and accepted one of the curves. 

I then discover there is literally no volume, cue scratching of head. I get the H650 remote and push the up volume button, no change, turn up the aux input level, and I get volume, but damn is it distorted and horrible sounding. I put my amp gains all the way up, but no difference there either. So, then I wonder if the remote is doing anything. I push the down volume and mute buttons, nothing happens. Check the batteries, they are good. Unplug the wired remote input, plug it in again, and now the remote is working. So I turn up the H650 and now it is starting to sound good. 

Done!! At Last. On my drive to work this morning I listened to a bunch of different music, some stuff sounded weird, but I think it was simply that I could hear more of the music than before. At the moment I have not fine tuned any of the settings on the H650, I feel like I am getting plenty of bass from the sub, and it sounds great especially when compared to the Bose system. One thing I noticed was that it sounds like the music is more off to the right of the car, something I might have to work on with the Imprint I guess. But for a budget system I am very pleased. 

Next task will be to put together a better box for the sub that fits in the cubby on the drivers side. Currently I have an MDF box that looks like it was built my a small child, but was just simply a temporary box so I can use my sub, so I am not too bothered. Then I will start to save up for some sound deadening, since I have none, and a lot of rattles. Other things on the list are shorter RCA's (the ones I have are about 20' long and only have to be about 5' long at the most).

At some point I will add some pictures to this thread, but for now I am happy to have some decent sounding music in my car. Thanks for reading.


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## pjc (May 3, 2009)

I look at it this way and my wife agrees... we could have alot worse addictions. As long as something is taken from it, its not wasted time.


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## The Baron Groog (Mar 15, 2010)

And I thought I had "fun"! keep us posted, did the imprint guide I sent help?


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## mdechgan (Dec 16, 2010)

naiku said:


> So, this morning I have no stereo. And 2 hours of commuting. Crap.


Yeah I know how that feels.
Its that weird feeling like taking a shower with your socks still on.
It just don't feel right!


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

The Baron Groog said:


> And I thought I had "fun"! keep us posted, did the imprint guide I sent help?


Yes, it definitely helped. The regular manual was all but useless.


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## The Baron Groog (Mar 15, 2010)

Good stuff-hope you're not suffering the same sh!t weather as us (how British!)


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

well, I think we have ALL been there.

Sounds like some of the stuff you mentioned is similar to the keys i mentioned in my article in CAE:

The Five Keys to Being a Good Installer - Guides - Car Audio and Electronics

hopefully it will help?  I certainly made blunders way worse than you back in the day.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

The Baron Groog said:


> Good stuff-hope you're not suffering the same sh!t weather as us (how British!)


Not quite as sh*t as the weather you are having! I heard last week that they were forecasting 25cm of snow, I think I was about 8 or 9 when I last remember the UK having that much snow.



simplicityinsound said:


> well, I think we have ALL been there.
> 
> Sounds like some of the stuff you mentioned is similar to the keys i mentioned in my article in CAE:
> 
> ...


Hey, thanks I took a quick look over that but will read it fully later today.


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## n_olympios (Oct 23, 2008)

If it makes you feel any better, I went through a mid surround with an electrical screwdriver the other day, whilst unhooking it from my door. I've done this thousands of times without "injuries", yet this time I had my mind on something else. As said, we've all been there.


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## jimp (Jul 12, 2009)

simplicityinsound said:


> well, I think we have ALL been there.
> 
> Sounds like some of the stuff you mentioned is similar to the keys i mentioned in my article in CAE:
> 
> ...


HARD to imagine this guy made some install mistakes back in the day, but apparently he remembered those mistakes, and ain't making them anymore. 

TO OP;
glad things are going in the right direction and you can see improvements. As several have stated, it's happened to more people more times that lots of us will admit.


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## Vital (Feb 23, 2010)

So one day i decide to add 8'' midbass woofer to my rear doors that have stock speaker opening for 6.5''
Got my dremel, cut up both of my doors real nice, woofers fit, GREAT SUCCESS!!!!
Well, only after i've installed both of them (run wires, cut out mdf rings, drilled them in the door..) i decided to install my panel door cover back on..... MFUKKA doesn't fit now!! lol

The only thing i could have done to try to fit it back where it belongs is melt it in a few spots to make it "pop out" lol. Decided not to go any further and took out my 8'' midbass. Lesson learned - ALWAYS CHECK before keep on going.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

Figured I would bump this thread back up, since the first post I have switched out pretty much everything. My system now consists of:

OEM Symphony II head unit.
JBL MS8
Massive Audio CK6 (fronts)
Alpine Type R coax (rear/side)
Aura NSW2-326-8AT (center)
eDesign 11KV.2 (sub)
Alpine MRV-F345
Alpine MRD-M600

The F345 is driving the front mids and center speakers, MS8 is driving the rears and the tweeters off it's internal amp. M600 obviously running the sub. 

I had wanted to run a bigger center channel, but in the A4, while the center grill appears to be fairly large, there is literally no room for anything but a 2" speaker. I had originally tried the 3" version of the Aura, but there was no way it was ever going to fit without cutting up who knows what of my dash (something I was not prepared to do). For it's size, and given it does not match the front's at all, the 2" does a surprisingly good job. Vocals are front and center, and sound very clear. 

I pretty much left the rear doors alone, but in the fronts I covered the bigger holes with aluminum roof flashing, and used some CLD tile on the inner and outer skin. There is a piece along the top of the door that was a pain to seal, but I blocked it off as best as I could manage. I also re-used the plastic housing of the original Bose speakers, they sealed nicely to the door and are a solid plastic.

After much tweaking around of settings I am finally happy with how it sounds. But, as we all know, things don't stay that way for long. While the OEM HU does not bother me, it is extremely limited (no aux input except cassette adapter etc). Recently I picked up a cable from Monoprice to run my iPod/cell phone into the MS8's aux input. That has since led to me deciding to install a Nexus 7 as my main source unit and remove the head unit altogether. 

First thing I did was remove the OEM HU and test fit my wifes Kindle Fire:










Since it fit fine, and with some room either side for connections, and with the Nexus being almost identical size. I went and picked one up from Staples. 

The first thing I wanted to do was to run the 3.5mm to RCA under the carpet. I originally just had it running under the rear seat and then loose to the passengers seat where I could plug in iPod/phone etc. However, since the Nexus would be in the dash I wanted it fully hidden. Getting the cable under the carpet to the center console was a PITA, the cable I bought is fairly thick (I did not want to get any cell phone interference). I ended up having to loosen a good portion of the center console to lift it up enough to get the cable out from under the carpet. 3 attempts with a wire coat hanger, the cable kept popping off right at the point of me being able to grab it inside the console. I finally got it through with a combination of duct tape and cable ties. Once inside the center console it was easy enough to run to the front of the car. 

Next piece is to pick up a dash kit, and then dremel away what I don't need. Then I need to figure out some way to have it hold the Nexus securely, but also be easy for me to remove it if parked somewhere I am not comfortable with leaving it in. 

Will update when I get some more progress, for now here is a picture of the car....









Had the windows tinted since that picture, but other than that looks much the same.


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## Derekj (Aug 11, 2011)

I love German station wagons! The Audi is my 2nd choice to our 325. Looking forward to some install pics!


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

Quick update... at lunchtime today I went outside to check out some of the wiring I would need to do. I had hoped to have the Nexus oriented so that the buttons were on the top (not a big deal, and they won't be accessible anyway, but for some reason I wanted them on the top). The issue there is that with the buttons at the top, I cannot get the 3.5mm connector in place. I already know I have to cut some plastic away, but with the buttons on the top I would have to cut an area where a bolt currently resides, which I don't intend to do. So, rotated the other way the 3.5mm jack is now on the bottom left corner. In the picture above I need to cut away some of the black plastic to the bottom left, but it feels as though it's a hollow piece and not structural. 

Second discovery is that I need to find a switched 12V in the trunk, the MS8 currently runs off the remote turn on provided by the stock HU. With that HU not present, it does not get the signal to power on. Annoyingly I have a 12V port not more than 2" from the MS8, but Audi decided to make all the outlets in the car have constant power.


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## stylngle2003 (Nov 2, 2012)

they do that so your key doesnt have to be switched on to use them. 
the stock radio plug should have a switched 12v source.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

stylngle2003 said:


> the stock radio plug should have a switched 12v source.


Unfortunately the Audi does not have that, there is a constant 12V and it uses the CAN-BUS system to switch it on with the ignition. Pretty sure my only option is going to be adding a new switched outlet.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

Quick update, dash kit/bezel arrived today. After some dremel work and sanding, here is how it looks so far:










I sneezed at one point and slipped with the Dremel:










Thankfully I had just bought a cheap dash kit, you can see the black does not quite match between the HVAC controls and the bezel. Once I get everything installed I may well switch it out for a more expensive one that supposedly matches much better. 

If it looks like it is not clipped all the way in, that's because its not. I am not sure how easy it is to pop it back out, and since I don't yet have a bunch of cables I need, I did not want to push it fully in.

Need to order a DC-DC regulator and wire up a USB port to that, and also plan to pick up a USB-DAC to use with the Nexus. Then, I can finally get everything put in.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

Bit of an update from today...

Safety first when working on the car.










Pulled out the glovebox, knee bolster on the drivers side and trunk trim in order to run wiring. I had to run a new remote turn on wire to my MS8 as there is no switchable 12v in the trunk. Power and ground to the fuse box area, and I wanted to run a USB extension into the glovebox for my flash drive.





































For now I ended up removing the inline fuse that I was using behind the fuse box on the 12v going to the 12v regulator, I may add it again, but have it tapped into a fused circuit, so not sure I need to. 

Here is how the trunk looks with everything put back together




























The door on the MS8 stays closed, but the one that covers the sub goes inwards, so I can't use it. I fabricated a grill to go in place of the door, but am struggling to find any matching carpet to cover it with.

I got 99% of things working today, my ground wire to the USB hub needs to be re-done. The wires are so thin that the splice was not working, for now I just have them twisted together. I did get music playing through the MS8, and my USB flash drive was mounting fine. The other issue I am running into is when I turn off the ignition, the hub loses power instantly, causing the Nexus to give me a warning about improper removal of USB storage. I am trying to find out if there is a way to use Tasker to unmount the storage. But, I don't think I can get it to work, as the second the ignition goes off, the hub loses power. I may just have to manually unmount each time (which sucks).

The other thing is that I need to trim some more plastic to the right of the tablet, due to the 90 degree micro USB adapter, and charger cable, the dash trim does not seem to fit in properly. I am planning to finish these pieces up tomorrow, and then see how it does with my commute to work on Tuesday.


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## nittanylion64 (Oct 3, 2007)

I like the cop car in the background. I am thinking about getting one for my son. Have you done anything to it? As for the Audi- looks good so far and I hope you can get the usb figured out, unmounting manually would be a chore!


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

nittanylion64 said:


> I like the cop car in the background. I am thinking about getting one for my son. Have you done anything to it?


No, although I keep debating adding one of the strobe kits I have seen online, also keep toying with the idea of adding a second battery. I think there is enough room under the passenger seat to add the extra battery.



nittanylion64 said:


> As for the Audi- looks good so far and I hope you can get the usb figured out, unmounting manually would be a chore!


Thanks, at the moment I don't think I have any real choice. Reading around though, it seems like apart from the warning message, its not a big deal. Getting annoyed with it today, the way the USB plugs into the bottom of the tablet is a squeeze. As soon as the wire gets pushed slightly, the hub loses connection to the tablet, causing much annoyed popping from the MS8 before it loses sound entirely.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

On Sunday I managed to get 99% of things back together, but kept running into an issue that the sound kept cutting out. Turns out that because there is such tight space to the right of the tablet where the USB gets plugged in, when I push the dash trim into place, it pushes the cable to a slight angle which, while the power remains to the tablet, it must be moving the USB plug off the data pins as I lose the hub. Tried dremelling a couple different spots, and re-routing the cable, but it's incredibly tight, and I am reluctant to cut any more of the dash away as I want to return everything to stock when I sell the car. I have it installed and working for now, but I want to be able to remove the tablet if parked in crappy areas, and don't want to have to mess around for 20 minutes putting it back in again and getting the connection right.

With the trim in, there was about a 10mm gap at the top due to the Nexus leaning back in towards the dash, and the trim being almost vertical. I glued a couple small pieces of foam at the top to push the Nexus outwards, which makes it look a lot better, I may also add something to the bottom as well to make it sit a little more flush. Somewhat afraid to remove it at the moment though, due to the USB issue with the cable being knocked slightly causing it to lose connection. I do want to think of a solution though, as like I said, I want to be able to remove it from the car.

Took a quick test drive into town and back (about 30 miles of driving) and both audio / power did not cut out at all. Battery went from 78% when I left, and was back up to 83% when I got home. Spent half the time streaming music from the flash drive, the other half streaming over Slacker using Bluetooth tethered to my cell phone.

Next steps is to pick up a Connects harness, and then pick up a Joycon. Having had to change the volume via the screen, I want to use steering wheel controls. It's difficult to accurately adjust the volume, so I want the steering wheel option back. I also need to try and think of what to do with the USB. If I can find a charger cable with a shorter plug section, that may work as I can remove the 90 degree bend. But, most I have looked (I have 3 different kinds laying around the house) all have a similar length to them. I also need to re-calibrate my MS8, the center image is slightly off to the left with the Nexus.










Tuesday morning I went to head to work, and no power from the Nexus. I have read on a couple forums that in the cold they can lock up, I plan to look into that some more, but will likely just take the Nexus out when parked in the cold. After about 20 minutes of driving, I pulled over, popped off the dash kit and got the Nexus to boot. The problem I then had was (see above, USB cable issue) I could not get everything back together with the USB cable in the right place. So no music for my 90 minute commute. That sucked.

Couple of install pictures...

The red line is a lip that the Nexus sits against, it's small, but is enough to stop the Nexus from falling into the dash.









I also drilled a larger hole today for a new USB cable I ordered with a downward facing USB. It comes out of the Nexus and is right angled towards the rear. (the hole is a mess as I had to use my Dremel, and there is 0 room to work there, especially as the tan piece to the right is a visible piece of the dash that I don't want to tear up). When I have some time over the weekend I may clean it up some, although once the Nexus (or when the Symphony) is in there, it's not visible. The scratches at the bottom are from me trying different methods of routing the USB cable:








The new cable fits perfectly though, and remains loose even with the bezel clipped on.

Next thing I need to do is figure out a better way to make the Nexus sit flush against the bezel. I could tape it, but would prefer not to do that. In the first picture above, the blue arrow is pointing to a piece that I glued some foam to, but it came off (I only used a small amount of glue). I may go this route again, the only other option is to try to fabricate some kind of hook system to the back of the bezel, but I am there is not much room on the back:








This picture also gives you an idea of how much sanding/trimming I have had to do to the dash piece. The advantage to making some kind of hook system though, is that it will likely hold the tablet nicely against the bezel, and make it a little easier for removal/installation. You can also see in the bottom right of the bezel where I had to cut a section out, this kept pushing on the power / volume rocker when I was installing it in the car causing it to either end up muted, or power off.

After work today I went down to install the new USB cable. Since putting everything in I kept getting weird connection issues (I was blaming my poor soldering skills), turns out I need a new OTG cable. I was looking at the male end of mine that would plug into the Nexus, and noticed it at a slight angle, looking closely at the pins its like they have all been pushed to the side. No doubt a result of the stress from it being pushed against the dash. I used a needle to straighten them out, but can only seem to get power. So, ordered a new one this evening.

Since I am now sort of stuck, I am thinking of taking out the wiring and re-doing it, both to make it look neater, and also because a couple of the USB wires just feel flimsy to me. The USB hub I am using is an octopus type, and with a separate cable for each plug, its taking up more room than it needs too. I have a small box type USB hub on the way, and plan to wire that in slightly more securely as well. It stinks that I have to drive around for a few days with a giant hole in my dash, but hopefully the new OTG should be here by Monday. In the meantime I am just running my cell phone to the aux input on the MS8.


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## rekd0514 (Sep 24, 2006)

Ahh you are on diyma as well. I thought the name looked familiar from rootzwiki.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

So it has been a few years since I created this thread, but why not bump it back up now. Since starting this I have gone through a couple iterations. The Nexus now sits in a fiberglass tray I built for it, with the trim held on by magnets. I picked up a reliable power supply (DCDC-USB) which nicely charges the Nexus and also powers a 4 port USB hub in the glovebox. Currently the system is:

Nexus 7 (still running like a champ)
Helix DSP
Alpine PDX-V9
Alpine PDX-F4
MB Quart PWD254 sub
Dayton ND16FA-6 tweeters in stock locations
Dayton RS75 - mids in kick panels
Woofers from Massive Audio CK6 set - midbass in stock location

Unfortunately it looks like most of the pictures I have are lost, but here are some I still have... 


































I have been using REW and a Dayton microphone to get things dialed in, while I am happy with how everything sounds for the most part. After going to a handful of meets the install itself I feel is lacking!!

Currently I have one amp mounted behind a door on the left of the trunk, the other amp and DSP under the floor. My biggest issue here is that with the cover closed on the floor, it is virtually touching the top of the amp. Additionally I have never been really happy with the wiring, so am hoping to tidy that up as well.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

So, why bring back this thead of shame?? First of all, I think it helps to admit mistakes. Secondly, because I am hoping to change some things and thought they would be worth documenting. 

I like to have a stealthy install, hence why I have kick panels and not dash or pillar mounted mids. I initially had my mids mounted in PVC cups temporarily on the dash, while it sounded good. I could not get over having them right there. This leads onto my subwoofer, I also wanted stealth. However, I have heard a couple cars and the sub stage sounded more effortless. Don't get me wrong, I get plenty of output from mine, but having heard a couple others I wanted to change it. 

Additionally, I wanted to have something hidden but in plain sight if that makes sense. Talked with a couple people about installing a sub inside a grocery bag (I drive a wagon... aka grocery getter). But, finding a bag large enough is being kind of troublesome. The other idea I am looking into is using a suitcase, I have seen a couple installs using this and it does not seem terribly difficult. Right now I am planning, which is another reason for bumping this thread, to get some input on how best to accomplish what I am trying to do. So, onto where I am at... 


















I am hoping to pick this up later today, the dimensions show it is 25" x 20" x 8" which assuming the thickness of the suitcase at around 1/4" is around 2cf volume. My plan is to either fiberglass the inside of the case (after gutting it) or build an MDF enclosure that sits inside. My plan is to put in a pair of the MB Quart PWD subs, since I already have a pair of them, down firing, with the enclosure volume being around 1.25cf or more.

Ideally though, I want to cut the suitcase at an angle such that it fits flush against my back seat. Assuming I cut the suitcase at an angle where the bottom is 4" larger than the top dimension, then use 0.5" thick MDF I still end up with around 1.45cf. If I use fiberglass, then would likely end up with a little more volume. 

The next thing I need to determine is how do I mount this thing in the trunk. For this I am wondering if I can use the factory tie down in some manner. The difficulty being keeping it looking stealthy, while also secure.

So, that's where I am at. Hopefully will post some updates again soon. If anyone has any ideas, suggestions, tips etc. I am all ears.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

New enclosure design ready to go...


















The overall volume is a little smaller than I had hoped due to restrictions with needing it to fit inside the suitcase, but should be a nice improvement.


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## 94VG30DE (Nov 28, 2007)

Don't people love stealing nice-looking luggage from cars also? I mean they won't think it's a subwoofer, but I don't know that it necessarily deters theft. I would assume anything covered in body-colored carpet, or cardboard that said "walmart" on the side, would be more invisible than a nice leather briefcase.
The idea of a subwoofer inside a briefcase is incredibly cool to me, but doesn't make sense from a theft standpoint. I always lean towards making things look so ugly that no one in their right mind would think of stealing them.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

Definitely understand where you are coming from, however, 99% of the time the case is not going to be visible at all. I have a cargo cover that I rarely ever remove, so outside of someone catching a glance of a case when I am loading groceries, for example, no one except me will see it. 

Really, what I am saying is that I think it will look cool, semi-stealthy and be neat to show at meets  

I do like the idea of a beat up cardboard box with Wal-Mart on the side of it as well though.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

Spent some time with the help of j4gates a week or so ago putting the enclosure together.



















Checking the fit against the back of the seat:










Once that was complete I needed to cut the back of the suitcase off at an angle to match the enclosure. A little nerve wracking as if I screwed this up, then the whole thing would not work:



















With that done I started working on the floor. Luckily the carpet pulled off very easily from the OEM piece, which meant I have a perfect match.



















Glued the carpet down last night, the lines are where the original folds in the floor were (it was 3 pieces, and is now 2):










I need to cut the opening for the sub, port and also a pair of small grills that will be either side of the enclosure. The next piece that needs to be completed is moving the amplifiers from under the floor, to where my old subwoofer enclosure was located. 










I am not yet 100% sure what I am going to do. It is a pair of PDX amps, I want to install them at an angle so that when I open the door on that side of the trunk the controls are easy to get at for any adjustments. Looks to be plenty of space, just need to figure out a way to get everything in there. 

The other thing I need to do is figure out a way to secure the sub enclosure. I don't have a whole lot of idea's on that piece yet as there is really not much available that I can anchor it to.

Edit: Sorry for the weird orientation on some of the pictures, I have no idea why when I view a picture on Photobucket it is rotated correctly, but then rotates it 90 / 180 degrees when posted somewhere.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

Over the weekend I secured the sub enclosure the floor, used 4 x 5/8" t-nuts and some bolts through the floor and into the enclosure. It's heavy and should not move anywhere.

Made some progress on the amp rack, it will fit in here and use a couple bolts to hold it in place:










While I wanted to mount the amps diagonally facing out to access the controls, more importantly, I wanted them mounted so I could get to listening. After trying different layouts decided to mount both amps this way:










The reason for this is mostly convenience; the wiring needs to go to the rear and then across to the other side of the trunk. With the amps mounted horizontally, the wiring would have had unnecessary bends so for simplicity sake they are going this way. They won't be visible anyway, so ultimately it does not really matter.

The next piece of the puzzle is to put something together to mount on the opposite side of the trunk for the DSP, power and ground distribution blocks to go and then start wiring everything up again.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

Decided on mounting the amps vertically, biggest reason being that it made it simpler for routing the power and ground wire to the opposite side of the trunk:



















Annoyingly the power and ground wire I ordered ended up being about 6" too short, so for now I have 1 amp on 4 gauge and the other on 8 gauge. I may order some more 4 at some point in the not too distant future, but may leave it as it is such a short run.

In the end I left the DSP under the floor, but it is now bolted down instead of velcro. I had thought of moving it to the same location that the distribution blocks are, but it fits nicely under the floor and is easy to access the USB port for tuning etc. 

Amps all wired up:









Trunk views, nothing to see here:


















With that all done, I decided to give things a quick listen. Reconnected the battery, hopped in the driver seat, look over and....










That might be a problem!!

Unbolted the enclosure, put the sub back in and bolted it back down. Took the car for a short drive and discovered I had a bit of alternator whine, not much, but noticeable especially on quiet songs / between songs. Popped the side of the trunk off, cleaned the ground spot again and also moved the DSP ground to share a spot with one of the amps on the block vs having its own spot. Alternator whine gone and onto tuning.


Started with level matching and noticed my left mid was about 10db lower than the right. Flipped the phase in the DSP software made no difference, went to flip at the amp but first figured I would swap RCA left to right. Sure enough, the right mid was then quiet. Hooked up a short RCA and both play the same level. Picked up a new RCA Saturday and should be good to go now. 

Sounding pretty good so far, the new sub enclosure is a huge improvement over the original sealed one. I need to get it blending a little better with the midbass though, but hoping that does not prove too difficult. I did notice that I have a lot of rattling from outside the car near the rear bumper, I am torn on whether to do anything about it to be honest. I do also have a rattle from the drivers exterior door handle, more noticeable outside but it is also noticeable inside. Will likely pull the door card and see if there is anything I can do about it.


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

Great work on doing stealthy yet WOW Ian.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

New RCA connected and started tuning last night, first re-checked time alignment, then level matched before making a couple tweaks to my EQ. Here is where I am at so far (Blue line is left, right is red)... 

Tweeters:









Mids:









MidBass:









All Left and Right seperately (no sub):









All with sub:









I don't think it looks too bad, my left midbass needs the most work. Not really sure why it is such an odd response compared to the right, but that is likely where I will focus first. Then I will see if I can do anything about the slight dip at 400Hz (I think that is right at my crossover point, so should be fairly simple to cure). 

Thoughts? Suggestions?


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## j4gates (Jan 1, 2016)

I didn't even know you had a build thread. We need more snow days so I can keep up.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

j4gates said:


> I didn't even know you had a build thread. We need more snow days so I can keep up.


No, no more snow days. Not after having several warm days!!


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

Some updates coming soon, I recently installed a bass knob underneath the armrest in order to change the sub volume while driving. Also recently sold the Helix DSP to try out the MiniDSP C-DSP 8-12. The Helix is a great unit that I only had for a short time, but there are a couple things about the C-DSP 8-12 that made it appealing to me. One of these is being able to import EQ filters from REW. While entering values into the Helix is not a big deal, it is pretty time-consuming entering frequency, q values etc for multiple bands. I don't have a huge amount of free time, so being able to import those is pretty big for me.

The other thing is rear fill.... I have had some Alpine Type-R coax in the rear doors since back when I had an MS8, additionally, I have 2 spare amplifier channels on my PDX V9, so I figured why not hook them up and give it a try. If I don't like it I have not spent any money on the equipment as I already have it (actually, I think I need to buy 1 RCA cable) and the difference between selling the Helix and buying the C-DSP. So, now it's a whole new software package to learn and see if I can get this sorted.

I also need to look at the Nexus, I suspect it may be starting to fail on me. The battery used to charge around 4% in 15 minutes while driving. Lately it barely charges 1% in 30 minutes of driving, not a bad run for it though 3 and a half years in the car is unlikely what Google / Asus designed it for. If it does die, I may just try to find a 2013 Nexus to replace it with.


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

I'm looking forward to reading more about your impressions of this.


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## Truthunter (Jun 15, 2015)

Ditto.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

The MiniDSP arrived last Thursday and after connecting everything up it turns out I have noise. A bunch of hissing noise. Mute the DSP and the noise goes away entirely. So, looks like I have some fun ahead of me trying to determine what is causing it. Fingers crossed it is something simple, I saw on DIYMA a few people have noise with the 6x8 but nothing on the 8x12. 
So far I have tried 3 different ground locations, all made no difference. Optical cable disconnected made no difference (and a little disappointing but the door that covers the optical port broke off when I unplugged the cable. I liked how snugly the cable went in, now it feels a little loose). I have not tried a ground direct to the battery as I don't have enough wire laying around to try. Pretty annoying to be honest. 

While setting up the TA I was having a hard time as after entering my values as a measured distance into the DSP software, the stage pulled so far left I thought I had somehow muted the right speakers. After looking into it some though MiniDSP TA is based on the distance between speakers, not the distance to the listener. Elgrosso explained it to me but you enter the distance you want to virtually add and not the actual measured value. For example if your right mid is at 3ft and your left at 1ft. You have to calculate the difference (3ft - 1ft) and then the resulting 2ft is what is entered in as the distance into the DSP plugin. Definitely confusing as every other DSP I have used does not work this way and the manual does not indicate this is how it is done either. Someone on the MiniDSP forum mentioned this is how TA is done in home audio. 

Earlier today I spent a little time tuning... Sounding pretty good already to me on a quick tune. The stage is a little off to the right, like 4" or so, should be a simple enough fix though. But, it is up fairly high on the dash and out further than it was with the Helix. Rear fill is up and running, not sure yet if I am getting the most out of it currently. The stage sounds further out, however, I may have lost a little width. If I mute the rears not much changes, so I think I need to tweak the settings. At the moment they are delayed 22ms and playing 500-3000hz, -4db in the mini DSP routing tab.

Being able to save EQ settings from REW and import them into the MiniDSP is a really nice feature and one hell of a time saver compared with the Helix. It is taking a little bit of getting used to the different software, but it works nicely and is fairly intuitive, as well as being way more advanced than my knowledge.

The hiss is still there, not sure what to do about it yet. I don't compete and it's not really noticeable while listening to music. So I may leave it. But, I would like to compete just a couple times for my own curiosity and that hiss will likely skew any results. 

While I decide what to do about this hissing noise, I need to determine where to mount the remote. The metal case it is in is quite large for the size of the board within.... which makes it not quite fit where I wanted it to. I may try to disassemble the remote, ideally, I want it beneath my armrest with just the buttons showing. But, when I tried to remove the board from it's housing the other day I could not get it to come out and did not want to damage it. I am likely to try again though as the remote is too large to even fit inside my ashtray as is. 

Now to wait and see if MiniDSP release a DIRAC plug in for the 8x12. Which from a thread I found on their forum I suspect they are working on it.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

I spent a good bit of time tweaking the gains on my amps a little more and while there is still some noise, it's at this point reduced enough, coupled with the fact others have had some noise out of MiniDSP units, that I am fine with it. It could have been gains all along, but (and without hearing it in person, it's hard to describe exactly) there was more noise than I would have imagined going from 4V to 6V..... moving on. 

Next step is going to be trying to mount the remote somewhere in the car, I am hoping to be able to flush mount it beneath the armrest with only the buttons showing. This piece of felt covered plastic:










Sits on top of another piece of plastic that is part of the center console. The hole you see is from when I had a bass knob from the PDX-V9 mounted there. I am hoping to be able to mount the board to this felt covered piece, trim the plastic piece that is beneath here and then just sort of drop this piece down into its home. It worked for the V9 bass knob, so other than having to remove some more plastic should work for this as well. The biggest thing being making sure it does not fall off, I think (and hope) that the nut that is beneath the volume knob will hold the board tightly to the felt piece. 

The remote is fairly bulky:










Especially when looking at how big the guts of it are:










Here is a picture of the back of the piece I need to cut the holes for the buttons on, the ridges are actually a pain in the butt for cutting it easily. I want to cut from the back ideally, but those ridges make life difficult. I am likely going to cut the 4 preset buttons as a single hole, I don't think I can cut out the individual squares neatly enough nor will the plastic strip between them be particularly sturdy.


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## AccordUno (Aug 7, 2009)

Hey man, I just drove a B5 Avant, man ol' man. Nice little car.. I'm working on a system for it next few days. I might have to pick your brains on this car.. Should be simple (radio + 4 speakers + amp and 10" sub)..


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

AccordUno said:


> Hey man, I just drove a B5 Avant, man ol' man. Nice little car.. I'm working on a system for it next few days. I might have to pick your brains on this car.. Should be simple (radio + 4 speakers + amp and 10" sub)..


Neat, is it yours or for someone else?


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## AccordUno (Aug 7, 2009)

Someone else. Sticking to my wagon until I get a wild hair and find a A6 Avant, but then again car this car is running unitronics software and has exhaust.. Really tempted to flash my wagon..

Took it apart last night, Lots of room behind panels.. Audi definitely did their homework after the B5s when it came to audio..


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

A6 3.0T? Those are hard to find, nice wagons though. I drove a friends A4 a few weeks back that was flashed with JHM software.... yeah, that made mine feel real slow after I got back into it. It did not help that his was also a stick shift. 

And you are right, especially at the sides of the trunk there is a good amount of room.


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## AccordUno (Aug 7, 2009)

Nah, going to go with the 2.8. Not really trying to go fast (hmm, I keep telling myself that) just like being comfortable.. 

BTW, thanks for the help on the tablet install. fixed all the little bugs I had and running like a champ now.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

Glad you got the tablet sorted.

Made some progress on the remote today...



















The biggest issue I am having (which I suspected would happen) is that when you push a preset button the whole thing drops on that side. If you look at the picture of the board and case, there are 2 screws that prevents that happening in the case. I may try to attach something to the plastic piece that I can screw the board onto, while I will rarely use those preset buttons, I also don't want it to drop down when I do push one. Especially as they look fairly uneven from the factory, it's highlighted more against the light background vs the black case they were in.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

Quick recap with new picture links... 

Here is the car, it's a 2006 A4 Avant, has a couple dents in it currently (stupid deer) but still looks good:










I run a Nexus 7 for a head unit, it's been pretty reliable for the few years it has been in the car, especially considering the extremes of temperature it has endured:











I used a couple apps and photoshop to try and mimic the OEM RNS-E interface screen. It looks a little different now, but still overall it looks like this:










Here is a picture of where I used to have my MS8, Alpine F345 and M605 mounted. Despite them being out of sight, I was never happy with how sloppy the install looked:










And a picture of the old subwoofer and enclosure:










So, onto how things currently are and some in progress / build pictures... 

Kick panel mounted mids, Dayton RS75's:










Amp and power mounting pics:


































Suitcase enclosure and trunk floor build pics:









Nothing exciting in there... 


































Finished views, very happy with how this turned out. I can get plenty of groceries etc in the trunk and not worry about damaging the sub. Additionally with the cargo cover closed 99% of the time, its pretty stealthy:


















The amplifiers are mounted behind the left door and the distribution block behind the right, DSP is under the floor.

Dismantled the MiniDSP remote and mounted it under the armrest:

























And that's about where things stand, at least that I have pictures of. I am trying to resist the upgrade bug on my speakers at least until they break! At that time I will grab some more pictures and likely improve upon the minimal deadening I have done in the doors. Will be competing for the firs time in a couple weeks, should be eye opening


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