# 2103 Audi S6 DIY install



## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Hi All!

I figured it's about time to get this thread going. I've spent some time over the last couple of months piecing together my thoughts/plan on how to upgrade the stereo in my S6. It came with the Bose system which is....horrible.

For starters, about the car: Stage 2 S6 (Miltek DP's and exhaust with electronically controlled valves that allow mellow vs loud as hell mode  and APR Stage 2 tune and TCU tune), black underneath with a 3M wrap and...a bunch of other stuff. I like to document what all I do with my cars, so you can see more details about the car at FARNY'S6 - Home . I came from a supercharged RS4 which was one hell of a car and you can still read about that one at Documenting THE 2008 Audi RS4 - Home.

Anyway, a couple of pics:

































Goals of this install:

DIY it all. I've had prior systems largely installed by others (minus several carPC adventures in the early 2000's which were fun), and for this one, I'm going to do everything myself. Budget is one reason, but largely it's all about wanting to learn. I love digging into something, researching, exploring, learning from others, and giving it a go myself.
Looking for a stealth as possible SQL build. Retaining as much of the trunk as possible and all functionality is a key objective. That means seats still have to be able to fold down, for example. I know I won't be able to retain all trunk space already, so there'll be compromises along the way.
3-way active setup for front stage, with zero rear fill for the moment (I've rarely used it in other cars, and budget definitely put it on the back burner for now...speaking of which...)
Budget: ~$5k all said and done. Right now, looks like I'm going to come in around $5.5k...close enough 

Here is the equipment/setup I've decided on. I should have all of it by end of day:

Mobridge DA1 to integrate into the Audi MOST network for best source signal possible.
Helix DSP Pro with Helix Director remote
Front stage: Morel Elate Titanium 903's (3-way's)
Sub: Arc Audio Black Series 12D2
Amps: Arc Audio 1200.6 and 600.4. The 1200.6 channels 1-4 will send 150w to each of the tweeters and mids, and channels 5&6 will be bridged to send 600w to the subwoofer. I'll bridge channels 1&2 and 3&4 on the 600.4 to send 300w to each mid-bass
 Sound deadener: largely sourced from Sound Deadener Showdown. CLD tiles, CCF, and I have plenty of MLV already from a prior home project. I've checked it against some of the MLV specific for car audio, and it's similar in malleability, and is rated at 1lb/ft2 while maybe an 1/8th or 1/16th inch thinner than the SDS MLV. Net/net: it's not Home Depot stuff, works really well in terms of blocking sound, and should do the trick just fine.


That's the high-level. I've already started with the sub box, and once I've uploaded those pics, I'll start sharing the play-by-play here 

Thanks to all who contribute to this forum and to those who have already answered specific questions of mine! There are certainly some awesome installs here already specific to the A/S/6/7 which is really helpful for me. 

Cheers,
Per


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## knever3 (Mar 9, 2009)

That's some choice gear! Great start, can't wait to see it all come together.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Gear pr0n:


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## JimmyDee (Mar 8, 2014)

Looks good so far... how long do you figure it'll take you to complete this project?

(if it were me, I'd get on it right now, and have it done by Sunday night)


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## diy.phil (May 23, 2011)

Oooooo that tuned S6 is so delicious looking!!!


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Cheers, guys. I essentially have 2 nights a week to work on this, but from July 20-30 I'm home alone and will turbo through stuff then 

First thing I've done (only thing I've done so far  ), is work on the sub box. Since I want to retain functionality of seats folding down, and want it to be mobile if needed (i.e. disconnect for a trip lugging something or another), and because I wanted a 12" sub (would've been hard to put in the right side near trunk opening as a result), I chose to put the box in this left corner of the trunk. It still allows opening of the ski sack which I use when going snowboarding, and it allows the 60 portion of the 60/40 seat splits to fold down.
Notice the irregular shape up top of the trunk, and also that on the left side, closest to the seat back, the floor has a curve to it which gently changes to be more of a right angle as you go forward (to the bumper). And yes...it's dirty.









So btw, I've never built a sub box before, and I've never fiberglassed anything 

The sub wants 1.2 cubic feet for a sealed enclosure, so I started with the width to be as wide as possible without blocking up the ski sack fold down, then calculated - roughly - how far forward I'd have to go towards the bumper to get roughly the required volume. After it was all said and done, I calculate the rough shape all up, and it's about 1.17 cubic feet. This video (3 part series) was actually really helpful in planning it out, particularly the angles I wanted so it would back up to the seatbacks as much as possible. 

After being convinced that I was a total idiot because it took me so damn long to get all of the measurements right, I ended up with this. The only reason it's even remotely square in the angles is because of extensive sanding I did after the cuts, which I had to do with just a skill saw, lacking a table or miter saw in my arsenal of tools.

















Wood glue, pre-drilled holes for 1 5/8" drywall screws keep it together, and I sealed each seam with silicone. You'll see a couple of empty drilled holes where I drilled poorly :/

To fit as best as possible, I took the router and a 45 degree angle bit to accommodate the rear trunk 'curve' on the bottom:








(I did shave the screw a bit with a dremel to not stick out)










On to fiberglassing the top. Bondo resin and hardener and mat in hand I set to it. After two coats I saw one major air bubble that I wanted to take care of. Sanded everything with 80 grit and laid down one more layer on the outside. Trimmed it with palm sander and smoothed to the edges to get a better sense of where I was at.









After the 2nd coat:









Trimmed and sanded, having taken out the one big air bubble I had:









After the 3rd and likely final coat from the outside:









The seams between the wood and glass all seem good, but I wanted to make sure there are no leaks, so decided to do a layer or two on the inside, too, after using my router and circle jig to cut the hole for the woofer. 









To ensure I got the mat flush with the corners, I pre-laid them in, cutting each piece so it can be folder into the corners without bending.

















No pics yet after that layer of mat, but it worked out really well and is tight on the corners. At this point I can stand on the glass top without any give..though I may just add one more layer on the inside just because 

Fun to learn to work with this stuff! Definitely understood a lot better the need to 'stab' the brush into the mat, and what the mat should actually look like when saturated and devoid of bubbles. Poly fill, terminals are ready to go, need to get the speaker wire next.

That's it for now.


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## JimmyDee (Mar 8, 2014)

Good job so far. 
Looking forward to the end-half of July, to see how it all comes together.


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

You're doing it right. Take your time and enjoy what you're doing! Its worth it in the end....


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Minor update. Sanded the outside after the final coat and took pics of the inside after doing 2 coats there. I think I'm done with fiberglassing at this point. Enclosure feels very solid, I feel good about it being air tight, too, after doing the inside layers and already having done the silicone. Here's how she looks right now:










Looks like good seams to me...anyone think otherwise?

























Test fit looks good:

















Got it very tight to the seatbacks which was my goal. Now not quite sure where I'll put the binding posts, though...almost too tight up against the seats!









I have a couple mails out to carpet suppliers. Hoping to get the best match to the OEM, and it's really hard to tell that from online photos. Also about to pull the trigger on the power and speaker cables, and have a Audison 4-way distro block heading my way next week. Next step is probably taking the trunk apart to make the game plan of where exactly I can fit everything in addition to doing the sound deadening. Fun stuff!


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## MoparMike (Feb 14, 2012)

Nice work so far, the box appears to fit like a glove!


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

MoparMike said:


> Nice work so far, the box appears to fit like a glove!


Thanks! Hoping I left enough room for the carpet 

Had a few more hours over the last couple of days to make progress. Task at this point was to decide on final mounting positions for all of the equipment, that being: Mobridge DA1, Helix DSP Pro, the 1200.6, and the 600.4. I'm awaiting delivery of the distribution block, but think I know where I'll put that already.

First things first: open up the trunk and see where things are now. I missed taking a picture, but where you see the 1200.6 below is where the Bose amp usually is. I wanted to make sure there was enough space for the 1200.6 as it's a good bit bigger than the Bose. Initial eyeball test looks good:









How to mount? I couldn't get any thick wood in there to mount the amp to as I would've run out of height. Time to look and see what's laying around the workshop and found some of this plastic.









Alone, it's not strong enough, bind two sheets together via 3M 90 spray adhesive, and it's strong enough to support, and I only need coverage on the ends, not the entire length of the amp.









Put some carpet on it:









So far so good, but the amp is going to be covering the holes where these strips need to attach to the plastic 'cage', so needed to dremel a bit of the carpet away, and a tiny bit into the plastic. Also, the screws (couldn't use others as the plastic 'cage' has built in threads for the OEM ones) were too round up top, so I had to dremel them down a bit so they wouldn't rub / catch on the amp. Here's a pic of me being halfway done with one of them:









Once mounted:









Test fit looks good:









And it fits well:









Figured out where to put the DSP and the Mobridge, too. Good ole' 3M double-sided tape will keep them in place.









Fits perfectly in the middle slot of the 'cage' which was empty:









So, all situated except for the 600.4. Looking in the wheel well, there's a perfect amount of space for it. Validated that height wasn't going to be an issue either with the spare tire back in:









Carpeted up:









I'll admit the mounting took me a couple of tries, because at first I didn't think of needing the RCA's to plug in, and had it all too far over to the side. For securing, I saw two unused threaded posts in the area, found some pre-drilled straight pieces of metal in the workshop, cut the carpet out in those areas, and then added one more layer of carpet on top.









(I know I'm not scoring style points on this bottom carpet...it was the last remnant I had)









Test fit (one of the earlier ones, I ended up moving it more to the left):









And final fit with enough room for RCA's:









BTW - the factory sound deadening is not bad on this car. I was surprised to find the amount of foam and 1/2" thick carpet/mat throughout, at least. The area behind the 'cage':









Foam in the wheel well:










Next: wait for my power wire and distro block to come in, then do my sound deadening on the trunk, run the power wire, and put the trunk back together (need to deaden the lid yet, too). After that I'll start thinking about the doors i.e. what I need to fabricate in terms of rings and baffles, and progressively pull out more trim from the car to get ready for July 20th-30th when I'll hopefully finish with all of the hardware install.

Again - fun stuff, and great to be able to leverage all the knowledge here to get this far!

Happy 4th,
Per


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

Looks good so far, nice update


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## SoundAudio (Jul 5, 2016)

Love the car. Looking great so far.


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## ewward31 (Jul 5, 2016)

Looking good. Love the car too.


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## 5bites (Jun 11, 2016)

Very very nice. Appreciate the write up and will be following


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Thanks all!

Small update from tonight: permanently mounted the DSP Pro and Mobridge, and ran just a couple of wires.

I decided to secure the DSP Pro just a bit more in addition to the 3M double sided tape. Pre-drilled the holes, and used short screws so as not to mess with the radio hardware beneath.

























Also found a place for the Mobridge on/off button that needs to be turned off when you bring it into the dealer, otherwise they know you've messed with factory stuff. This location will be easily reachable when everything is all back together. I used a drill, then a dremel and went back and forth with test fit/dremel/test fit/dremel, and about 50 test fits later, it was perfect 

























Attached the Mobridge to the DSP with the 3M double sided tape:









On to installing a small terminal strip for power and amp-on from the Mobridge, which automatically turns on when sensing a signal on the MOST network. I ran the wires through the 'cage' and mounted the terminal strip:









OCD'ed and soldered and crimped and used ring terminals:

















Remote in wire for DSP Pro added:









And some nip and tuck leveraging zip ties and the pre-drilled holes on the DSP to make sure wires don't get accidentally pulled in any direction:

















That was it for tonight...short and sweet 

N00b question: for running the remote on signals, is there a best practice? Does it matter if I attach both amps to the same terminal that the DSP is hooked up to for remote on? Should I daisy chain the signal instead, i.e. Mobridge connects to terminal strip, to which DSP is hooked, should I use the DSP's 'remote out' to one amp, and then from there to the final amp? Does any of this make a difference (for my setup)?

My plan as of right now is to hook the 2 amps 'remote in' to the same terminal that the DSP is hooked up to on the terminal block. Let me know if I should do otherwise.

Thanks as always,
Per


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

In their documentation Helix wants to control all amps so you dont have any on/off pops. Does the DSP Pro have 2 remote outs? If so I would use them both to turn on the amps. I have the P Six and it has 2 rem outs.

Nice job on everything so far. Just an FYI...I also installed the On/Off switch for the DA1. I know that all dealers are different, but I have never used it when I have taken the car to the dealer and they have not said a word to me. The car does throw codes because it knows that the stock speakers have been disconnected. Since your car has the Bose amp, I am guessing that would also throw a code. 

I have cleared the codes with a VagCom cable and the speaker codes still come back every time.


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## Huckleberry Sound (Jan 17, 2009)

Very NICE!


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Hugg727 said:


> In their documentation Helix wants to control all amps so you dont have any on/off pops. Does the DSP Pro have 2 remote outs? If so I would use them both to turn on the amps. I have the P Six and it has 2 rem outs.
> 
> Nice job on everything so far. Just an FYI...I also installed the On/Off switch for the DA1. I know that all dealers are different, but I have never used it when I have taken the car to the dealer and they have not said a word to me. The car does throw codes because it knows that the stock speakers have been disconnected. Since your car has the Bose amp, I am guessing that would also throw a code.
> 
> I have cleared the codes with a VagCom cable and the speaker codes still come back every time.


Very happy you mentioned the DSP documentation...I hadn't looked. The DSP Pro has one in and one out, so I guess I'll either need to fit 2 remote out wires into its one out, or use a butt connector or something similar to effectively make it a Y cable and feed the amps that way.

Good to know on the on/off switch, too. I'm definitely aware that each dealer is different, and am lucky to have become very good friends with the Audi Master Tech at my dealership who also has moonlighted some at my tuner's shop. He hooks me up in all ways, and whenever I bring it in, he does the work and makes sure no TD1 flags get tripped (since it's tuned). So, this piece wouldn't be a big deal in the end either, but happy to have just put it in.

I haven't done any research on eliminating those codes permanently, and like you say, no biggie, but I wonder if at least some can get eliminated via re-coding (for me, for example, I can likely tell the system it doesn't have Bose so as not to look for it). 

Cheers!

-Per


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## subterFUSE (Sep 21, 2009)

You could also use the terminal strip for the amp remote wires. Just run the remote on from the Helix Pro into the terminal strip and then run both remote wires for the amps into the other end of that terminal. No Y cable needed.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Great call, and just thought of that after I posted seeing I have one terminal still open on said strip


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

Its good to have the on/off switch installed especially when you valet the car. I was at a wedding last month and the kid told me as he was getting out of my car, "hey your radio isnt working". As my wife was getting in I went around the back, opened up the cubby and flipped the switch 5 times. He was still running cars, so as we left i rolled the windows down with the system cranked up and waved to him...lol. He was like wtf??


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Nice

OK, tiny update here with some questions.
I'm cabling up my little 'rack' and am realizing that the Audison distro block's mini-ANL fuses are only available as low as 20A (that's the smallest I've found). Since I'm looking to power my DSP and DA1 off of it, that's probably a way bigger fuse than called for, and likely wouldn't protect that equipment at all.

Prior to realizing that, I moved forward with trying to get 4 gauge wire to fit into the terminal strip, since I don't have any of the 8 gauge adapters. That wasn't all that hard with the help of my dremel:

















So now she sits like this:









And I'm wondering if I need to change course. Questions:

Do mini-ANL fuses exist at 10A size? If so, I'd use that and be fine? (But I don't think they do)
Can I leave the wiring as is right now from the distro block, but on the 14/16 gauge power cables from the DSP and DA1, add an in-line 10A fuse? i.e. combine the power wires from the DSP and DA1, solder them to one end of an inline fuse holder, and the other end connects to the terminal strip opposite the 4 gauge powe wire. Seems like this would work?
I mention 10A fuse, but that's just a guess. Anyone know precisely what I should use for these two together (DSP & DA1)?

I'm trying to avoid adding another distro block if at all possible. Let me know what you guys think!

Thanks,
Per


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

OK, I went ahead and added the ATO fuse. I think that's legit? Am I committing any crimes against humanity or more likely - is Georg (Ohm) going to roll over in his grave on this one? 

I combined the two power wires from the DA1 and the DSP, soldered them to the in-line fuse holder and connected it to the terminal strip. 


















The only potential issue I can see is that those 2 (DSP and DA1) are combined and don't have their own dedicated fuses, but I know I've done similar things in the past without issue (but maybe I just got lucky?) What I like about this setup is that I don't need to add another distro block.

Thoughts?


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## JimmyDee (Mar 8, 2014)

Hmmm... I would put each unit on its own fuse. Maximum 2 amp fuse each (1 amp is better).
The items you are powering off it draw minimal current. 
I think the DA1 draws less than half an amp, and the DSP-Pro draws half an amp. 

For the remote amplifier turn-on sequence, I would do this: Mobridge DA1 remote wire (blue) into the DSP-Pro. Then Use the DSP-Pro remote out to the amps. 
When I first did my Audi S4 (my old system), I had the DA1 remote turn everything on at once (6to8 and amps) but I got a 'pop' when the amps came on. 
So, I changed the sequence to what I described above (DA1 to DSP to amps) and that eliminated the turn-on pop.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Thanks much for chiming in, jimmydee.
I had a 3A fuse handy, so put that in for now, and can get a 2A fuse soon. Unless you or someone else believes it's really dangerous to power the 2 together off of this one fuse, I'm going to keep it this way because the alternative would be some overhead.

For the turn-on's, I'm doing exactly that. DA1 into DSP Pro, then DSP Pro out to the terminal block (furthest to the right terminal below) and then hook up the amp turn-on leads both to the other side of the block. You can see that I've mocked it all up with the 1200.6 connected below (note, the power wires aren't really smushed though they kind of look it below). 










Aaand, carpet samples came in. None are a perfect match. I'll mull it over if I want to keep searching or go ahead with the one on the right.


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## JimmyDee (Mar 8, 2014)

Mmmm... Trader Joe's popcorn (on the bottom-right hand side of the picture)


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

lol. Cheese corn at that! It's rare I put a bag down before it's empty:/


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Noob question of the day: I just discovered that the way my ground cable attaches to the negative battery terminal, it does not allow for the addition of any other cables. On top of that, the negative terminal has some other electronic attachment to it which makes it pretty proprietary. I have a feeling this one may be out of bounds, but would it be an issue if I just attached the ground 0 gauge cable for my distro block to the grounding point on the car direct instead of the negative battery terminal? That grounding spot is 4 inches from the negative terminal.

Thanks as always!


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## Bluenote (Aug 29, 2008)

Looking forward to your impressions of the Ti 9's! Good work


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

I actually have my distro block ground to a common point in the trunk... Not directly to the battery. I will post a pic 

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Bluenote said:


> Looking forward to your impressions of the Ti 9's! Good work


Thanks, and me, too!



Hugg727 said:


> I actually have my distro block ground to a common point in the trunk... Not directly to the battery. I will post a pic


Sweet, I think I know which one I want to use then (the one the battery grounds to).

I started with sound deadening the trunk today. Took everything out that I could (the air suspension reservoir tank has some hard lines to it / not touching that). CLV, of course, is easy, but lord the MLV is a pain the ass...wouldn't wish that work on anyone! 

I used CLV and CCF from SDS, and as stated above, had some MLV of my own. Tomorrow I'll try to get the rest of the trunk done. I just wanted to get the wheel well which has tons of curves, threads that need to be re-exposed, etc. done, that hopefully being one of the worst. Test fitted the spare tire in at the end, and all is well! Note, I had to make one cut in the MLV right where the battery sits (nearest the trunk, the long way), as otherwise the battery 'brace' that goes above it would not fit at all. Not a big deal I don't think.

Empty:









CLV:









MLV and CCF with battery back in:









Everything back in and fitting:


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## carlr (Feb 27, 2011)

S6Per said:


> Noob question of the day: I just discovered that the way my ground cable attaches to the negative battery terminal, it does not allow for the addition of any other cables. On top of that, the negative terminal has some other electronic attachment to it which makes it pretty proprietary. I have a feeling this one may be out of bounds, but would it be an issue if I just attached the ground 0 gauge cable for my distro block to the grounding point on the car direct instead of the negative battery terminal? That grounding spot is 4 inches from the negative terminal.
> 
> Thanks as always!


Hi,

Should not be a problem at all - I guess most of us don't aim to ground to the negative battery post anyway. Just find a decent spot and make sure it provides proper ground, preferably clean metal so might require some sanding.

I would stay away from the negative post for more than reason. I know on BMW's the IBS (which manages charging of the battery etc.) is connected to the negative post, sure this is the same on Audi.


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

Here are the 2 ground spots that I know will worl

This one is in the left wheel well right by your "rack"


Thats where I had my first sub amp grounded.
I recently upgraded all of my wiring and I now have it grounded here:


Either way would work for you.

Youre doing a great job so far.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Cheers guys! 
@Hugg - thanks for all the help along the way, you've definitely been a core contributor for me and I've leveraged your build log for a lot of my ideas/implementation!

I'm going to use the main ground for the battery (the one to the left of your ground point in the 2nd pic). I'll ground the distro block there, and I'll also ground my 600.4 which will be in the same area as your Zapco in the pic.

Hoping I get the rest of the trunk done tonight!


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

My pleasure. Keep the pics coming!!!!


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## jmlvf (Sep 6, 2015)

Nice work and nice car S6Per!! I'm very anxious to see this trunk done! 
Please, if possible, post your impressions about the arc black 12. 
I'm curious about the signal improvements with DA1 + DSPpro.

Cheers!


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

jmlvf said:


> Nice work and nice car S6Per!! I'm very anxious to see this trunk done!
> Please, if possible, post your impressions about the arc black 12.
> I'm curious about the signal improvements with DA1 + DSPpro.
> 
> Cheers!


Thanks, and you and I both! I'll definitely post everything I do and impressions once all said and done, it just might take a while.

The trunk is my nemesis! We eye each other up as I walk by, lol...

Tonight, I made some progress, though, but man, it just takes time. Took some other pieces out and continued to lay the CCF/MLV down. I'm sure someone has figured out a systematic process on how to lay out the puzzle of pieces, but I just continued in whatever way felt best to complete the arc of the wheel well. I test fitted the spare tire once, and it feels like I'll still be able to get it in there, but who knows about getting it out!

After doing the missing pieces of the wheel well, I cut one large piece of MLV to cover the flat space. Then, took a good amount of time to cut back the overlapping pieces so as not to build up thickness, and then used the vinyl cement from SDS to seal the gaps. To the pics...


'Sealing strips' largely applied. Note I also removed the wiring harness on the right to get CCF/MLV underneath it, along with cutting close to all of the wiring/posts protruding:

















More things back in their place:









A little CLV applied, but didn't want to put on top of the OEM stuff (let me know if I should?):









Large piece cut. Now I (somewhat painstakingly) went around the edge and tried to minimize overlap as much as possible so the pieces just butt up to each other, then I applied the sealing strips.









Done for the night!









Until we meet again, trunk....Next time, I'll finish the story


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

BTW, two major concerns on the remainder of the build from me right now:

*Door baffles*. These door cards have some funky curves to them that will require a bit of work to create a sealed enclosure for the door woofers. @SubterFUSE, yours is the key example on how to do it right, but not sure I have enough info or skill to reproduce that. Looks like it runs the entirety of the opening and the ring sits on top of it, correct? Do you have any more info on how they created those baffles? I think it's HDPE? Thickness? Process?









What are alternatives to sealing up that space given the curvature needed for the door card? Make a mold from the Bose speaker enclosure with fiberglass??

*Speaker wires into the doors.* From others I've learned the trick of running these in via the Molex connector, but I'm concerned about a) running two sets of wires in since I'm using the mid-bass in the door still, and b) on top of that, the diameter of the sheathing around the KnuKonceptz Karma SS twisted pair wires, which is huge. Hoping that worst case is stripping that outer layer and being able to route both sets of wires in that way.









But, some more trunk fun to go yet before I get to all that.

Oh, and then there's getting everything back in and fitting after the CCF/MLV. :/


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## subterFUSE (Sep 21, 2009)

When I did those door-mounted midbass speakers, they were not sealed. They are IB.

The baffle was made from a plastic material and it had to be heated up and molded to match the contours of the door card. Then the trim ring for the woofer was made from wood, most likely MDF. I'm not 100% sure because I just pay the bills. :laugh:


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Fair enough 

If anyone has any other ideas on how to seal that door area up, I'm all ears 

Edit: hmmm, maybe this, though that's a 6.5" :/

Edit 2: pardon my internal dialog / thinking out loud here . Looking at those baffles again, I think I'll give 'em a go. Get some 1/2" HDPE, trace the outline of the door and make a cardboard template, then rough cut the plastic. Here's where I go making stuff up: start at the front end of the door, and bolt the straight as can be plastic piece into the stock holes in the door. Now, heat the plastic with - I don't know what - but my first try will be a propane torch (unless heat gun is a better choice)? Bend it to conform to the door, one bolt location at a time, all the way around. That would lake care of it bolting into the door and leave the indentation which - - yeah, not too sure: take the plastic off, heat the edges of where it needs to bend in, and quickly put it over the door card to get the right shape? Definitely some testing needed


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

I think the template idea is a solid way to go. I have made some stuff with hdpe and you can easily bend it with a heat gun. Keep the area well ventilated, the fumes are not good for you.

As far as the Molex plugs...2 pairs of wires will be tough. Jimmydee had a great idea where he actually added pins to the speaker wires and added them to the plugs. H had to but a speacial tool to add them into each side of the plug. If I had to do it again, I would look into that. I still have night sweats from drilling into those plugs.....


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Cool on the HDPE.
I'm wondering if our plugs are a bit different, i.e. I saw on SubterFUSE's install that he already had some holes in the plugs that were there for the B&O system (which neither of our cars had), and maybe those are a bit easier to get 4 wires through. Maybe :/

Here's pic and commentary...










> I found that it was actually an easy process to run wire into the doors thanks to the Bang & Olufsen upgrade system that has fiber optic running into the doors. John's S6 didn't have that upgraded option so the optical location within the door's molex plug was open. It was this space that I used to run the wire into the doors.


Maybe that's big enough once the outer shielding is removed, maybe it'll be big enough if it gets drilled out just a bit more.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

OK, spent a couple hours on the car tonight.

What occurred to me yesterday is that my nifty little mounting of the Audison distro block to the backside of the amp 'rack', was a bad idea for 2 reasons. First and foremost: impossible to see if fuses are blown or not without taking out: back seat, seat bolster, trunk 'ledge' near lock, and left side of trunk interior, then taking the rack out....i.e. dumb, and 2) having it up there forces me to run 0 gauge power wire to it which I have no doubt would interfere in some stupid way of getting the interior back in. So, mainly because of reason 1, I went to plan B.

I moved it here:









I held it there first to make sure it would fit, and then needed to figure out how to actually mount it. As typical for me (my wife calls me MacGyver ) I found some stuff laying around the shop...a simple right angle that I bent once to widen the angle, secured it to the car via the little amp board I made prior, and found a screw that was larger than the mounting hole for the distro block, and screwed it in backwards. It's in there solid as a rock.

























Finalizing that location, also let me finalize the main fuse location:









Blurry, but that's the main power going to the fuse to the right:

















RCA's going to the DSP:









I also finished the back side of the trunk with CCF and MLV. Test fitted the spare tire again, and with some effort, I can make it fit. Worst case of getting it out: I yank the plastic trunk 'ledge' with it, which isn't a big deal at all. Note, I used some Gorilla tape to help keep the top of the MLV flush (in addition to 2 strips of Velcro). Gorilla tape is pretty hardcore.









On the topic of getting things to fit, I had to modify the OEM jack holder in order to get it in again. It had some raised plastic on the bottom which I simply dremelled off. No issue fitting after that.

































I also needed to add a washer to one of the 2 screws that holds it down, as with it lifted up a bit, the OEM nut (even with small washer attached) slipped through the plastic:









Finally, I looked in the rear quarter panels which are pretty well filled with some 1/2" thick carpet like material. Pulling that down, I knew I had the right car when I saw this  I never knew the Audi factory guys were Black Flag fans, too!!









I added a few pieces of CLV on either side, and laid some MLV on top of the foam in the outer wheel wells....and that's all I had time for. 

Next: finish the wheel wells, and get the hell outta' the trunk!

Cheers,
Per


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

Good job...yes I found out quickly that it was a bad spot for fuses in the wheel well of the car. I should have mentioned that, good move on your part. I still have a distro back there but I fronted it with my main fused distro block and it serves as more of a power splitter back there. Havent blown a fuse back there yet.

Nice deadening job....looking forward to the speaker runs.


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## JimmyDee (Mar 8, 2014)

S6Per said:


> I'm wondering if our plugs are a bit different, i.e. I saw on SubterFUSE's install that he already had some holes in the plugs that were there for the B&O system (which neither of our cars had), and maybe those are a bit easier to get 4 wires through. Maybe :/
> 
> Here's pic and commentary...
> 
> ...


When I took my Molex plugs out, I found that the only one that looked like the above picture (with the big hole in the top) was my front passenger door... the other three doors didn't have that big hole. 

Just for info, I also used Knu Karma SS twisted speaker cable, and there is no way you will fit two sets of cables through that hole (even with the jacket stripped off). This is why I replaced the Molex pins. 

To be honest... putting in new pins was a lot easier than trying to drill out the plug.

If you look at the above picture, you can see that there is 4 empty spots to put new pins (dead center of the plug). This will accomodate your bass and mid-bass speakers.

http://www.te.com/usa-en/product-1-968851-3.html

http://www.te.com/usa-en/product-2-964296-1.html

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...41-audi-sq-build-wish-id-taken-more-pics.html


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## delurker (Jun 10, 2016)

Re: door baffles

For the front doors on my S6 that came with Bose, I purchased the baffles for the A6 with basic audio...makes a perfect template that covers up the hole in the door skin - I don't have a pic and the door cards are already re-installed, but I'm pretty sure my installer used them (like SubterFUSE, I'm just paying the bills while someone else gets the fun of installing).


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## bilbo6209 (Oct 12, 2015)

Hello to all the other Audi nuts on here. I havent started my build yet but have almost everything planned out for my 2012 A5. 

How much difference did you notice with adding deadening to an already quiet Audi? I ask because I didnt want to go nuts on my install, but wanted to deaden the spare wheel well where I am hoping to put my sub. But I also have a feeling that if my build sounds good I will end up doing something in our 2010 Q7 also


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

bilbo6209 said:


> Hello to all the other Audi nuts on here. I havent started my build yet but have almost everything planned out for my 2012 A5.
> 
> How much difference did you notice with adding deadening to an already quiet Audi? I ask because I didnt want to go nuts on my install, but wanted to deaden the spare wheel well where I am hoping to put my sub. But I also have a feeling that if my build sounds good I will end up doing something in our 2010 Q7 also


In the doors it will make a huge difference. There is some deadening, like one strip centered. That's nothing compared to a properly lined door like we see here. It will make your mid hit harder and fuller. 

We all started " not going nuts" but that quickly changes. 

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

jimmydee said:


> When I took my Molex plugs out, I found that the only one that looked like the above picture (with the big hole in the top) was my front passenger door... the other three doors didn't have that big hole.
> 
> Just for info, I also used Knu Karma SS twisted speaker cable, and there is no way you will fit two sets of cables through that hole (even with the jacket stripped off). This is why I replaced the Molex pins.
> 
> ...


Cheers, jimmydee. Good to have it confirmed that there's really no way to get two sets in there. I just went ahead and ordered those exact part numbers and will go that route. Do you have a link to the tool you used to remove/insert the pins?


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

bilbo6209 said:


> Hello to all the other Audi nuts on here. I havent started my build yet but have almost everything planned out for my 2012 A5.
> 
> How much difference did you notice with adding deadening to an already quiet Audi? I ask because I didnt want to go nuts on my install, but wanted to deaden the spare wheel well where I am hoping to put my sub. But I also have a feeling that if my build sounds good I will end up doing something in our 2010 Q7 also


I've wondered the same thing as I'm getting sick of even seeing MLV! 
As stated, I'm sure doors will make a huge difference. Some trunk work is required to just not have it rattle. The rest? Don't know. But I'm too far in to question that now


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Hugg727 said:


> We all started " not going nuts" but that quickly changes.


Love it


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

delurker said:


> Re: door baffles
> 
> For the front doors on my S6 that came with Bose, I purchased the baffles for the A6 with basic audio...makes a perfect template that covers up the hole in the door skin - I don't have a pic and the door cards are already re-installed, but I'm pretty sure my installer used them (like SubterFUSE, I'm just paying the bills while someone else gets the fun of installing).


Very interesting. I just spent some time researching, including calling my local Audi shop. It does seem like that would work, and while Audi wants $120/each, good old genuineaudiparts.com has them for $52/each. 

I'm just a little hesitant because while I can find these parts easily for 'standard audio' - - which seems like the right one (i.e. seems like it's just the front baffle, no port in it either) I don't see any mention of 'for Bose' at all in the catalog or elsewhere, i.e. what's currently in the car. I'd feel better about buying these if I saw a clear distinction between the two. It might just be cataloged differently, though...

Item #13 below...certainly seems like it's the right one:









Part #'s and links: 4G0837103A (left), 4G0837104A (right). Note there's 2 version available of each, one 'to 11/12' the other 'from 12/12'. I'd take the leap of faith that I need the later.

This might just be the way to go! A little more research, but I may just go ahead and order


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## bilbo6209 (Oct 12, 2015)

S6Per said:


> Cheers, jimmydee. Good to have it confirmed that there's really no way to get two sets in there. I just went ahead and ordered those exact part numbers and will go that route. Do you have a link to the tool you used to remove/insert the pins?


I just ordered 8 of each pin, male and female, form Mauser.com for $11 shipped
part numbers are 
571-2-964296-1
571-1-968851-3

And Hugg727 by not going nuts I mean, Morel sw6 mid bass, Morel CW88 mids, Morel Mt22 tweeters, active 3 way, JL fix and twk all integrated with the factory non-most radio all in my first real system and that has grown conciderably form when I started planning OH ya also adding in a video input back up cam and carpc to play my FLAC library. so not too complicated ;-)

But s6per your car is looking GREAT so far and will be my inspiration as to what to do to mine. (and I cant wait to go Stage 2 on my lowly 2.0t and then have a 6 speed that is a lot of fun and sounds great too.


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## delurker (Jun 10, 2016)

S6Per said:


> Very interesting. I just spent some time researching, including calling my local Audi shop. It does seem like that would work, and while Audi wants $120/each, good old genuineaudiparts.com has them for $52/each.
> 
> I'm just a little hesitant because while I can find these parts easily for 'standard audio' - - which seems like the right one (i.e. seems like it's just the front baffle, no port in it either) I don't see any mention of 'for Bose' at all in the catalog or elsewhere, i.e. what's currently in the car. I'd feel better about buying these if I saw a clear distinction between the two. It might just be cataloged differently, though...
> 
> ...


Yeah those are the ones I purchased for my Bose-equipped S6: 


> The items you ordered:
> Qty	Product # Price EA
> 1	Speaker housing 4G0837103A	$56.00
> 1	Speaker housing 4G0837104A	$56.00


They are for the "standard" audio. I wanted the flat driver mounting surface and basically a block-off for the rear part of the cavernous cut in the door skin (I did *not* want the ported monstrosity attached to the back of the puny little midbass drivers that came with the Bose system). 

I plan to head over to the shop in a couple hours to check progress and hang out; I'll confirm whether he used the housing or fabbed something himself & reply again here.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

bilbo6209 said:


> I just ordered 8 of each pin, male and female, form Mauser.com for $11 shipped
> part numbers are
> 571-2-964296-1
> 571-1-968851-3
> ...


I just ordered, too, though I got a few more in case I screw up 

Thanks for the compliment, too, and yeah - it's always fun going faster 



delurker said:


> Yeah those are the ones I purchased for my Bose-equipped S6:
> 
> 
> They are for the "standard" audio. I wanted the flat driver mounting surface and basically a block-off for the rear part of the cavernous cut in the door skin (I did *not* want the ported monstrosity attached to the back of the puny little midbass drivers that came with the Bose system).
> ...


Nice and definitely looking forward to hearing whether they used them or not / if they can work (so I can cancel my order if needed....yeah, didn't take long to pull the trigger on 'em  )


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## delurker (Jun 10, 2016)

S6Per said:


> ...
> Nice and definitely looking forward to hearing whether they used them or not / if they can work (so I can cancel my order if needed....yeah, didn't take long to pull the trigger on 'em  )


I'm the same way - I ordered up everything I thought my installer might not have on hand (including the speaker housings) while I was waiting for him to get back from vacation & install my stuff.

He did indeed use the speaker housings and said they worked great - you'll just need to fab some mounting rings as would be expected. No need to canx that order, they should make the job a bit easier.

Any of you Audi guys have issues getting the Bit DMI/MObridge integrated with the MMI? Only thing we could get today was a whine until my g/f called and the Bluetooth phone functionality worked fine. No Radio or iPod through the MMI->MOST->Bit DMI, though. We're letting it sit overnight & hoping it gets whatever reset it needs during that time. 

I have a Fiio X7 HI-Res DAP I'm planning to use (as transport) through the coax connector, with the MObridge connected to the optical HEC module (instead of a Bit Play HD or some such) on the Helix DSP Pro. We haven't gotten that far, though, as the MMI & Bit DMI are not communicating properly yet.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Thanks much for reporting back. Definitely glad to hear that those will work! Should save other folks a lot of time and money, too, vs having a shop custom fab.
Hoping others chime in / you're able to resolve the Mobridge issues. I'd help ya' if I had a clue...I'm just hoping that when I plug mine in, things work! I know that if the car came with Bose, things should just work. You have the radio/GPS hardware unit still plugged in, correct, you only removed the Bose amp from the MOST ring?


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

delurker said:


> Any of you Audi guys have issues getting the Bit DMI/MObridge integrated with the MMI? Only thing we could get today was a whine until my g/f called and the Bluetooth phone functionality worked fine. No Radio or iPod through the MMI->MOST->Bit DMI, though. We're letting it sit overnight & hoping it gets whatever reset it needs during that time.


This has happened to me a few times, but keep in mind I have the standard audio and it came without an amp. Occasionally, like 2 times a year, I will have the audio come out of the stock center speaker in the dash only. In my set up, I dont even heave that speaker hooked up to my amp.
What I have done to reset everything is this:
First of all, have everything connected. You dont have to disconnect the MOST cables. Have it all connected like normal.
Start the car normally and wait for the mmi to start up...screen up ,sat radio initialized, etc
Go into the back left cubby where the "radio" is in the shelf and disconnect the large square connector that has the power, gnd and , for me, speaker wires. You will now see the mmi screen shut down and retract back into the dash. Wait 5-10 seconds and reconnect it. Nothing should happen when you reconnect it...screen will stay down.
Now turn the car off and give it time for everything to shut down...interior lights, courtesy lights etc. 30 sec - 1 min
Start the car . Everything should boot up as normal and you should have audio. If not go through the process again.

This was some trial and error for me to figure this out but it has worked. I looked into finding a better way and saw in an Audi forum that you could recode via VagCom to tell the car that you have or dont have an external amp. I have a VCDS cable and did look in to this but my car didnt have the option to change it. I am wondering if you have the option because the car came with the Bose amp from the factory.


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

S6Per said:


> Very interesting. I just spent some time researching, including calling my local Audi shop. It does seem like that would work, and while Audi wants $120/each, good old genuineaudiparts.com has them for $52/each.
> 
> I'm just a little hesitant because while I can find these parts easily for 'standard audio' - - which seems like the right one (i.e. seems like it's just the front baffle, no port in it either) I don't see any mention of 'for Bose' at all in the catalog or elsewhere, i.e. what's currently in the car. I'd feel better about buying these if I saw a clear distinction between the two. It might just be cataloged differently, though...
> 
> ...


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## JimmyDee (Mar 8, 2014)

S6Per said:


> Cheers, jimmydee. Good to have it confirmed that there's really no way to get two sets in there. I just went ahead and ordered those exact part numbers and will go that route. Do you have a link to the tool you used to remove/insert the pins?


Don't waste your money on the tool... it's expensive, and you can do the same thing by bending a paper clip into a U-shape. The two ends of the paper clip will fit into the little holes and unclip the barbs of the pin.


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## delurker (Jun 10, 2016)

Thanks for the help, guys; still stuck though. Hugg727's workaround didn't resolve it, so it looks like Vag-COM time. My installer knows a guy at one of the local Audi dealerships who says he can get it going no worries (Monday morning). Kind of wishing I had the cable now.

Meanwhile, my system can still be tuned using my DAP over coax into the DSP Pro, so I should be good to go Monday morning by simply getting the MMI->Bit DMI working.


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

delurker said:


> Thanks for the help, guys; still stuck though. Hugg727's workaround didn't resolve it, so it looks like Vag-COM time. My installer knows a guy at one of the local Audi dealerships who says he can get it going no worries (Monday morning). Kind of wishing I had the cable now.
> 
> Meanwhile, my system can still be tuned using my DAP over coax into the DSP Pro, so I should be good to go Monday morning by simply getting the MMI->Bit DMI working.


Sorry that didn't work. Did you have the Bose system? 

Buying the vcds cable and software was a great investment. I have added many useful mods to the car. 

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk


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## delurker (Jun 10, 2016)

Yep, it was Bose. I'm going to place that VCDS cable purchase now; I plan to keep this car (at 3+ years, I'm already way past my average) and will surely need it again.


...and just placed the order.


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## delurker (Jun 10, 2016)

Got the Bit DMI working (had to choose non-Bose audio selection, sacrifice a virgin, say helix 3 times with one eye closed, etc., and wait). Now I've got another issue - my Arc KS1000.1 has died (again). Going to need to replace it before I can hear my subs. Fun.


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

delurker said:


> Got the Bit DMI working (had to choose non-Bose audio selection, sacrifice a virgin, say helix 3 times with one eye closed, etc., and wait). Now I've got another issue - my Arc KS1000.1 has died (again). Going to need to replace it before I can hear my subs. Fun.


Glad to hear that you got it working. I assumed it was something like that because you have the bose system and that is a much cleaner install than mine. When I first installed mine it was wonky more often, then it seemed to calm down and has been solid.

You will appreciate the vcds cable. My favorite mods are the gauge sweep on start, auto open/close all of the windows/sunroof with remote, gear indicator on dash, video in motion and disable the seatbelt warning. If you have the air suspension you can actually lower the car via vcds.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Indeed. Lots of fun stuff to do. Take a look here for what I did and for link to what's possible.


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## bilbo6209 (Oct 12, 2015)

S6Per said:


> Indeed. Lots of fun stuff to do. Take a look here for what I did and for link to what's possible.


Vag-Coms are wonderful things  I have used them on every vw/Audi I have owned to Ummm teach certain things like EGR valves to behave more better, tweak lights etc. Great tool that any VAG owner shouldn't be without!


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

I picked up a VCP and while it's less intuitive than my VCDS, it will somethings my VCDS can't. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

bilbo6209 said:


> Vag-Coms are wonderful things  I have used them on every vw/Audi I have owned to Ummm teach certain things like EGR valves to behave more better, tweak lights etc. Great tool that any VAG owner shouldn't be without!


Not to mention logging the car!


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## delurker (Jun 10, 2016)

I'm definitely looking forward to turning off the annoying chimes & nav/phone warning at speed and turning on gear position display; mine already does gauge sweep at startup and I had my speed shop lower my car using it the last time I was there.

I should have a new KS1200.1 on Wednesday - I expect a 5-minute install given that it's the same size as the KS1000.1 (half an inch longer) with the same layout and the KS1000.1 was already installed. A couple hundred more watts of headroom can't hurt.


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## JimmyDee (Mar 8, 2014)

bilbo6209 said:


> Vag-Coms are wonderful things  I have used them on every vw/Audi I have owned to Ummm teach certain things like EGR valves to behave more better, tweak lights etc. Great tool that any VAG owner shouldn't be without!


Agreed... I've owned three VW's and two Audi's, and the VCDS is the best gadget I've bought for these cars. Had one for many years.

Although, I will say that as you start to step-up in VW/Audi models, there is less and less you can (or need to) do with a Vag-Com. 
In my current SQ5, it already does most of the cool little things, from the factory (like needle sweep, etc.) 
The only thing I think I've used it for is to enable the 'Video In Motion' feature.

Apologies to the OP, as I realize this is beginning to derail your topic...


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

OK, back to work. I'm happy to say that after a few hours today, the trunk is now done.

MLV all along the wheel wells. I took off as much wiring as I could, put it down, then put wiring back in place. One place I chose not to do MLV: quarter panel skins.


































Tried to go as high as I could...will likely clean that up a bit more later but want to test fit the interior piece first.









Tackled the wheel wells from the front side, too:









Then I started taking the rear deck apart. Actually amazing how much space there is within it! With no speakers in there, you could fit a few amps in there.


















Big hole left without the Bose sub in there:









Here she is in all her glory:

















The deck...not a lot to it:

















Grills that each have a surround speaker in them, and one the opening for the sub:

















That was it for today. I think I'm going to get a bunch of foam to fill the space between the metal part of the deck and the top deck itself. There's honestly about 4-5 inches of space in there. I'm also now wondering what my strategy should be regarding the big open holes left by removing the sub and the other speakers. Should I just leave them open? Should I close them with CLV or something? Not sure what best practices are here knowing the sub will be sitting in there in a sealed enclosure. Thoughts?


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## JimmyDee (Mar 8, 2014)

S6Per said:


> regarding the big open holes left by removing the sub and the other speakers. Should I just leave them open? Should I close them with CLV or something? Not sure what best practices are here knowing the sub will be sitting in there in a sealed enclosure. Thoughts?


When I did my (previous) S4, I removed the factory sub, and left the hole open.
I don't think it makes much difference, since the aftgermarket sub will be felt more than heard...


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

delurker said:


> Got the Bit DMI working (had to choose non-Bose audio selection


 Just for clarity, you did this in the mmi via vcds or in the BitDMI?


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## delurker (Jun 10, 2016)

Did it with the BitDMI software. In the "Configure" section.


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

Thanks delurker.

Now back onto to the op topic......Dont you have all of this free time to finish the build starting on the 20th??


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Indeed! I'll have each evening and the weekend available to work on this. 
Been trying to get the last materials in that I think I'll need to finish:

Run speaker wire. Ordered a bit more today as I was going to be short. Question: From the trunk, I'd like to run wires up the left side as it does look like the majority of the power wires (granted, they're not big) run up the right side. If doing so: any suggestions for the ideal spot to switch the ones needed to the right?
Carpet for the sub. Struck out again at a high-end custom upholstery shop. Briefly thought about spray painting carpet via SEM paint, but don't think I'll like that either. Going to try a couple more spots, but may have to surrender to it not matching.
Tuning mic is on its way (UMIK-1)
Door baffles on their way
Molex pins on their way
HDPE came in (1/2") for speaker rings
I think I'm going to run out of my MLV, so will order some from SDS today.
Need to decide what I want to do with rear deck: do I get some foam just to force some rigidity between the upper and lower panels? Something else?
Custom mounting the Helix Director, along with my radar and laser mutes and hopefully also a USB port for the DSP...that might all have to wait a bit. I have 10 days to work on stuff now, then I'll be on vacation for a bit.

I think that's it...but I'm probably forgetting something


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

I ran my speaker wires out on the Left side of the trunk as well. As soon as you get to the front of the rear seat, there is a plastic cable management box that routes the wire across the car to the passenger side. This is where I split the Left and Right wires. There are several other plastic cable management pieces as you go, so it keeps all of the wires tidy when you put the back seat back in. Once you get to the far right side make a left at the B pillar and your are good.

I would also go to your audi dealer and buy a few bags of the small metal clips that hold the door cards and plastic door sill parts to the body of the car. They tend to bend a break quite a bit.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Hugg727 said:


> I ran my speaker wires out on the Left side of the trunk as well. As soon as you get to the front of the rear seat, there is a plastic cable management box that routes the wire across the car to the passenger side. This is where I split the Left and Right wires. There are several other plastic cable management pieces as you go, so it keeps all of the wires tidy when you put the back seat back in. Once you get to the far right side make a left at the B pillar and your are good.
> 
> I would also go to your audi dealer and buy a few bags of the small metal clips that hold the door cards and plastic door sill parts to the body of the car. They tend to bend a break quite a bit.


Sweet, I'll use that.
And yeah, I've bought some of those from the dealer in the past. Not a bad idea to get some more now.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Spent just a few minutes downstairs last night...
Went to Joann Fabrics to search for carpet match there, also a bust. But, taking another look at the SEM paint, that's actually really close. Plan is to carpet the box with the fabric I got, and then paint it. To the touch, it feels similar to the OEM finish when painted. I'm going to make sure I don't put it on too thick so it doesn't feel that crusty to the touch.

While at the store, I saw some batting meant for comforters. $10 for queen sized, similar in feel to what's on the deck already, I went ahead and grabbed it.

Laid out on back seat, it's folded over about 4 times here:









Some CLV on the deck:









These are the speaker hookups wrapped in CCF and secured with tape so they don't rattle:

















I then tucked them in between the layers of the batting prior to putting the deck back on.

Small squares of CCF that I pushed over each of the clips on the deck:









Deck back on:

























Having the batting in there puts a good amount of pressure on the deck itself, which will hopefully help eliminate rattles. Genius that I am, I didn't block off the subwoofer hole from below, so it's bubbled out into the trunk below for now. I'll probably put some CCF over the hole from above.

Hoping those door baffles come in soon!


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Got the sub box done tonight.

For my first time of building and carpeting a box, I'm satisfied. The perfectionist in me realizes it's not perfect  ....but it should do!

I gave myself a lot of time carpeting this shape. Lots of curves and a blade that went dull fairly quickly made it a bit of a hassle. I made sure that the sides that you would actually see when it's installed (front, and right) saw the fewest imperfections. Once I got to the left side, patience had left me a bit, as did it with the top  But, I still think it's respectable...

























Yes, the piece of fabric I got was not actually long enough to go all the way around :/

















Top added:









On to the speaker terminals. Pre-drilled small holes for these, and coated the base with some silicone. Pushed it in a ways, and then used a rubber mallet to pound it in all the way.









Mounted...









And, uh, yeah...the drill traveled on the second one and I didn't stop..so it has a bit of character by not exactly being even, lol  (did I mention it's my first box?  )









Added some silicone from the inside, too..









Time to get the big guy out...









Personally, I love the understated look.

























Wiring up to 4 ohms to be powered by the bridged 5&6 channels of the 1200.6 pushing 600w rms:









I used the 3M 90 spray (as I did for the carpet) to secure some Polyfill to the inside. The box is about 1.17 ft3, where Arc recommends 1.2 ft3 with +/-10%, so I think I'm just fine here. I used about 8 ounces of fill.









Looks like I missed the pics for securing the 10 gauge Karma SS speaker wire to the terminals. The wire was too big to get through the hole for soldering on the piece for the terminal post, so I used crimp terminals - which were really hard to get on i.e. nice, tight fit, and then soldered them to each other, too, which worked out really well.

Aaaand, finally, voila..

















To finish this piece, I need to find a grill yet, as I'm a pretty active trunk user. Any recommendations on where to find a classy looking one? 

Tomorrow: finish power wiring in trunk and speaker wire runs to just outside of the trunk so I can start putting it back together. 

Cheers,
Per


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## bilbo6209 (Oct 12, 2015)

Sub enclosure looks GREAT!


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Thanks!

Currently knee deep in taking out the interior, but stuck trying to get the center console out. @Hugg727 or anyone else - any pointers? All the documentation states to take out the AC control unit (above center console) but I can't find the instructions on how to do that anywhere :/

Anyone? Bueller?

Thanks,
Per


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

Yes, it's not that hard 

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

I used the panel removal tools very carefully. I saw in one of your pics that you had the same tools. Just start on one side, slide the thinnest tool between the controls and they dash. They dash has a cushion like feel like it, so it helps. Pop one side out then the other. 

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk


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## JimmyDee (Mar 8, 2014)

Knowing that you're a perfectionist... and being one myself, I'm going to make a suggestion; 

You should get a piece of black fabric, to cover those holes, before you put the speaker grilles back on. 
I'm telling you this from experience, as I did the exact same thing as you on my previous car (S4). 

The problem becomes, when the sunlight shines through your rear window, all you get is a big white reflection from the batting underneath the speaker grille.
On a sunny day, it REALLY reflects onto the rear window, and if you're OCD like me, you will keep looking at it in your rear view mirror... it'll drive you crazy.
To be honest... having that white batting protruding into the trunk would annoy me too (just thinking about it is making my eye twitch...)

Spray some glue onto the steel part of the rear deck, and stick the fabric onto the metal, to seal the OEM subwoofer hole with the black fabric.
For the top side (inside the car), you won't need to glue the black material... just lay it flat on top of the batting, then put the rear deck cover back on.

I realize all of this requires that you pull the rear deck shelf out again... but you might as well do it properly, since it's apart right now anyways.


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## Huckleberry Sound (Jan 17, 2009)

Great tip!!! I have some al black fabric if need. Just pay for the shipping.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Hugg727 said:


> I used the panel removal tools very carefully. I saw in one of your pics that you had the same tools. Just start on one side, slide the thinnest tool between the controls and they dash. They dash has a cushion like feel like it, so it helps. Pop one side out then the other.
> 
> Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk


Perfect. Not knowing if there were screws or something, I was afraid to apply too much pressure there. Did it right now, and it popped right out. Thanks (again) for the timely answer!




jimmydee said:


> Knowing that you're a perfectionist... and being one myself, I'm going to make a suggestion;
> 
> You should get a piece of black fabric, to cover those holes, before you put the speaker grilles back on.
> I'm telling you this from experience, as I did the exact same thing as you on my previous car (S4).
> ...


Great tip, and I'm definitely going to do that. I'd been thinking about what I do to seal up the bottom side (no way I could live with that protruding into the trunk either  ), so I'll take it off again and use the leftover fabric from the sub box. No idea it would reflect like that, glad you mentioned it!


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Long, but very satisfying day.
I started around 9 am with a full interior, by 1:30 pm it was gutted, and by 10pm it was all CLD'ed and MLV'ed up, along with speaker wires run up to the doors, and carpet back in. Tedious, but actually really enjoying being able to do this work for myself. 

Yesterday, after work, I got all of the wiring and cabling done from the trunk, too. Here are some pics...

Got some speaker pants...partly because the words 'speaker pants' are fun, and also to have a bit cleaner look  (on this one, they were kind of loose, so I added some heat shrink)









Wrapped the Bose connectors, that won't be used, in CCF secured with some packing tape, so they don't rattle.









Main ground on right all setup. I'm using 2 grounding points. This one for the distro block and the Mobridge/DSP, and another spot on the left side of the trunk (pic later) for the 1200.6.









Final wiring from here, running the speaker cable away from the power lines:









1200.6 all hooked up, and speaker wires making their way out of the trunk. Had to check/re-check to make sure that no cables come close to touching when closing the trunk.

















Sub speaker cable routed out of the way.

















Final, final over here...









Cut to this morning. At 9am, I started taking stuff out of the car.









By about 1pm I was here. A good amount of CLD already included from Audi:

















Ducting out:

























Added my own CLD, choosing to get rid of some Dynamat Extreme that I've had laying around for quite some time:

























Adding in the MLV. For this part, I would take the CCF into the car and cut a piece to size, then trace that onto the MLV outside of the car, bond the two, and install in car. I used Velcro to secure in just a couple of spots along the transmission tunnel.

















Cleaning up the CCF/MLV running up the transmission tunnel.









Ducting back in place. And yes, I took off wires, put MLV/CCF down, and reattached 

























Ran it pretty high up the sides of the transmission tunnel










Time to run some speaker wires! Leveraged the OEM cable management for the majority, and zip tied about every 6 inches.


















































Now to getting the carpet back in. It was pretty dirty in a couple of spots.

















So I tried the old steam cleaner.









Didn't get detailed after pics, but it helped a good bit (though not perfect).

And so finally: voila! Carpet back in  Called it a night here. 









Again, very happy with progress. I took my time, and didn't break a bunch of stuff, which is nice  Only casualties were early in the day losing two of the omega clips...not a big deal.

Tomorrow: put the center console and seats back in, and start on wiring into the doors. I'll be going the route that jimmydee did, but haven't even looked at the details of the Molex connector, where/how far to run into the doors, where I actually need to route the wire to get to the tweeters, etc. That'll be a good one to get acquainted with tomorrow. The baffles won't be here until Tuesday, so I I'll have plenty of time to prep the doors and have everything else ready to go.

Fun stuff 

Nighty, night.


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

Very nice work so far. As I am reading the posts I am getting that same feeling that I got when I was close to finishing my car.

If I had to do it again, I would also be using Jimmy's pin method instead of drilling out the Molex plugs. Once you get them open then you can see if you have to reposition some of them to give your speaker wires some real estate.

Question....Are you running a usb cable from the Director to the center console so you can have easy access for PC tuning?


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## JimmyDee (Mar 8, 2014)

Nice work so far... I bet you're getting pretty excited, as you're in the home stretch now.

I love it when you can spend a full day (or weekend) on an install, with no distractions (I recall you saying your wife / kids were going to be away this week).

Keep it going. I'm re-living my install vicariously through your posts.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Thanks guys! Yes, having that uninterrupted time is quite a treat 

@Hugg - yup, forgot to mention that. On a couple of pics you can see the black cable along with the speaker wires, and that's the cable for the Director. I'll be locating it in the front storage compartment, and will be looking to consolidate a couple of other things in there: ALP control head, Escort Livewire (mute button), USB for Director and also potentially for ALP, along with the exhaust flap control button that's already in there. Getting that all mapped out and sorted might take some time, so I'll probably mostly toss those in there for starters and perfect it from there.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Ooh man, I'm exhausted..and I lost count of the number of cuts on my hands 

Good day, some casualties, and it's going to be close in terms of getting things to a relative 'done state' prior to me leaving on vacation on Saturday.

Anyway, main goal was to get the car mostly back together again today, leaving only the doors to attack. Eyeing the center console to go back in, the prior owner spilled a cup of coffee or two, so I used the steam cleaner on that. In person results look even better than the pic.

Before:









After:









BTW - pro tip: use CCF to protect the car as you take seats in and out 









So, as I was going in to add fabric to the rear deck holes, I also wanted to tackle another piece. I saw some videos of people adding LED's for trunk lighting, and have never been happy with my trunk light, so I went for it. Forgot to take pictures of where they are (they're taped in a relative square around the perimeter of the trunk, result pics down below), but I did document how to power them.

Took apart the lone trunk light and soldered wires:









Drilled a small hole to the back of the housing.









Fabric down, wiring on top.









Fabric from the bottom. A little overspray on the sub hole (OCD me almost made me start over....almost.)

















Connector in place. Note, I didn't add the bulb back in because in comparison to the LED's, it looked really yellow.









Wire run.









Final result a bit later, and yes, I also laid down some fabric on top of the batting, underneath the grills, to prevent the glare...thanks again for the tip, Jimmydee!

Making good time, and determined to get the car back together prior to attacking the doors, I had a couple of casualties. Putting the left trunk piece back in, and having lined the connectors pretty damn well, I thought, I give the clips a hit to secure, and BOOM! I hear cracks and plastic goes flying. Not one, but both clip holders for this piece shattered.

















Irked, I hurriedly threw some fiberglass at it (an adventure that would last most of the day) and carried on with other stuff.

















This was my second attempt for this clip.









If I would've had a bit more patience, I'm sure they could've turned out great. As it stands: I got one to live through being put back in, and the panel seems to be on pretty damn securely.

Another flash from the past, I had some Dynapad laying around. Pretty good stuff with foam sandwiching a layer of MLV. Fairly easy to fit to the bench, though I haven't put the seat back on yet, so who knows how it'll fit 









With that done, and fiberglass still curing, I took some time to think through the Director placement, and what else I might be able to fit into the front storage compartment. I was way off in my prior post re wanting to fit the ALP and Escort controls here, too. With the Director, there's not much room for anything else.

Mocked it up with cardboard first for the Director and my exhaust flap control button.









Thinking about USB for Director and also one for ALP.









Cut some HDPE, drilled out as much as I could, and got on with the dirty task of dremeling away. Fitting this thing is really tricky, as the storage compartment gets progressively skinnier. I used a 45 degree angle bit on my router to get started, and it's really hard to make it fit well so the lid can still close. Painstaking work.

















And this is how she sits now. Pain in the ass to dremel ,file, test fit, dremel, file, test fit, etc. ...and within that I somehow managed to still get it really rough...it isn't hitting the mark right now. Curious if people have some ideas on what surround I could add here, to hide/negate the rough edges???









Back to getting the car back together....here's the trunk in all her LED glory! 









A couple of notes for fellow Audi guys in terms of getting the molded trunk liner pieces back in: I could not get the metal cargo net holders in place again without doing a couple of things:

Get longer bolts. I bought some M6 bolts that are about twice as long as the standard ones (forgot exact length). Without these, the stock ones would not reach the threads due to the MLV/CCF.
Used an exacto knife to shave off probably about an 1/8" of the outside facing holes on the left and right trunk liner for each of these holders. With the MLV/CCF in place, everything gets pushed out a bit, and it was impossible to actually put the screws into place without doing so. So far, I did it on the left side and it works great (no gaps or anything). Will go back and do the right side (nearest front of car) as that one is kinda' jacked right now.

I added back the various trim pieces, and was ready for a test fit of the sub box.

















Fits pretty well, and I'm still thinking about painting that fabric for a closer match in the future.

And that was it...another long day. Thought I'd get to working on the speakers up front, but that'll have to wait just a bit longer. Aside from doing that, I just need to add sound deadening in the trunk lid, tidy up a bolster in the back before putting the bench back in, and after the speakers are installed - tune!

Honestly not sure if I'll finish before vacation. It's been a ton of fun so far, but like I said at the beginning of this post: I'm exhausted! Getting old, I guess 
Doesn't matter to me really when I finish it, just want to enjoy the journey as well as the outcome.

More tomorrow,
Per


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## JimmyDee (Mar 8, 2014)

Ahhh... the joys of car audio installation work; 'cut hands and sore back'.

it's coming together nicely!


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Lol, no doubt...and thanks!

Just thinking I'm going to try some body filler for a surround for the Director. Similar to what was done here


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Mellow, and short night tonight.

Put on the seat bolster right that I couldn't get to fit properly yesterday, noticed I need new clips from the dealer to lock the back seat into place (but that it fits otherwise), cleaned up the garage/workshop some, and got my first taste of working with bondo to fit the Director.

I think this will end up working, but I also think it's going to take many, many hours for someone as inexperienced as me to make this look great. That said, I have time 

I went ahead and taped off the ashtray and the Director in full, put the HDPE in that I worked on yesterday, and just started applying body filler.

First pass - where I learned that this stuff can harden quickly! (and that I probably put too much hardener in)









Second pass, just doing some 80 grit in between, but really just experimenting to see where this might take me.









Pulled it out and this is what I had:









Added the hole for the exhaust flap button.









More layers applied, and though it doesn't look like much, I did make holes for 2 USB ports, where I'll clean up the bondo later and make it look nice.

















It's obviously looking very rought right now, but since I'm not in a race to complete this, I think I'll take some time after I return from vacation and make this as good as I can get it.

That said - the door baffles should arrive tomorrow! Which also means I should finally get the door cards off, and inspect how to mount the speakers there, do some sound deadening, make some mounting rings, etc.

BTW - jimmy or hug - for the tweeters, is it pretty easy to run the wire up there? Any tips/tricks on that?

Cheers,
Per

Oh, and - the LED's are acting up. They go on for a bit, shut off earlier than they should, and don't turn on again unless I hit the start button up front. Kind of annoyed with that, not sure if they're trying to suck too much voltage, or what, but I'll figure that out some other day.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

All right, I had a pretty good night.

But first: the LED's are no longer acting up, but in exchange, the drivers side seat heater shuts itself off after about 10 seconds :/ I haven't looked at codes yet, but I did check the seat connections and they're fine. I'll check out VAGCOM in the coming days...

I got home, and these had arrived!









I started taking apart the door...









Test fitted, and they seem to fit perfectly. 









After that test, I went to add CLV on the outside and inside skins of the door, the door card, and the baffle.

































Then I moved on to making the rings. I had bought some 1/2" HDPE a couple weeks ago and cut the inner circle to 7.56 inches per Morel's documentation, only to find out that that's not correct. It doesn't clear the woofer. After a little trial and error, I figured out the correct diameter of the inner circle for these Ti MW9's is 7 and 13/16 th's, and outside diameter should be 10 inches.

I noted that the baffles had a couple of plastic 'poles' extending outward, and after double checking the door card and the Bose enclosure, it seems these aren't important at all, so I went ahead and dremeled them off, as they interfered with the rings.

















I then test fitted the ring and figured out that it wasn't tall enough. I need 1" HDPE, which is now on order arriving on Thursday.

So I moved on to the Molex connectors. 

















Note, to get the Molex housing off: get a screwdriver and press up on the housing (you'll see on the top of the connector where you can do that). It's damn tight, so be careful, but give it some strength, too.

As advertised, there are 4 open spots in the middle of the connector:









But, d'oh! the part numbers that were passed along are for the bigger pins (like you can see at the bottom of the connector here), and the open center ones are the smaller ones :/ Not wanting to deal with ordering other ones, I took a closer look at the open spot where the optical goes for the B&O setups. I ALMOST could get all 4 wires through without doing anything, and after taking a 5/16 th's bit to it, they went through with no problem...and the connectors don't look all that different.

















For the rest of the path to the door, things aren't too bad. I had to unravel some tape temporarily but the only pain the ass was getting the wires through the last large grommet. I pushed up the rubber as close as I could to the larger end, and was able to get one cable through. After that, I did the ole' "tape the next cable to the one already through, and pull" trick, and that ended up working for all of them.

























New zip tie put in place, and you can also see how the connector 'opens up', i.e. my point above about using a screwdriver to release it.









On that note: you need to clip off the original zip tie, and pry out the plastic cover going into the door from the connector (reach arm around on the inside of the door and push up and out from the bottom) in order to get any type of working room with these.

Here is the inside of the car connector with the white cover back on (another tip: the white cover simply slides up (from this perspective), took me a few minutes to figure that out). But I actually removed it again, because when you end up putting everything back in place, you need to pull the cables tight, remove any slack between the connectors, so that they can mate up. The only way I was able to do so was by removing the white cover which allowed me to pull the speaker cable taught. For now, I've left it off because it's a pain to get back on once mounted in the door.









That was it for tonight! I'm glad I figured out the speaker rings and the Molex connectors...that'll make the drivers side door that much easier. I do wish I could've just gone with the pins, as I think that's easier all around, but I did want to move forward/not wait for the right pins to come in. Maybe I'll get back to it in the future some time.

My only two unknowns that I have left right now:

How do I mount the mid-bass driver? I've heard 'to the door card' and these Morel's have 2 options, see details here. Anyone have any input?? I guess I use the screw clips??
Less concerned, but still unknown: the tweeters. Are they plug and play? How does the speaker cable get up to it? Any pointers appreciated.

Anyways...getting closer


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

For me, getting the wire through the molex plugs and into the doors was the only part of the job that I really did not like. You did a very good job.....For the tweeters, I have this 5ft long piece of white plastic that is just a little bit wider than a large zip tie. It basically acts as a snake . I think I got it at the electrical dept at home Depot. I taped the wire to it and fed it up to the the tweet location, then you just carefully pull it through slowly. Being careful that it doesnt get hooked on any other wires or cables.

Not sure what mounting option your new tweets have, but you will probably need to make a small adapter out of hdpe that matches the bolts inside that location. When you pop the covers off you will see how the stock tweet attaches...mine were 3 small screws I believe. Sorry, thats all I have....I had pods made for my tweets.


The mid bass is an entirely different issue........


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Hugg727 said:


> For me, getting the wire through the molex plugs and into the doors was the only part of the job that I really did not like. You did a very good job.....For the tweeters, I have this 5ft long piece of white plastic that is just a little bit wider than a large zip tie. It basically acts as a snake . I think I got it at the electrical dept at home Depot. I taped the wire to it and fed it up to the the tweet location, then you just carefully pull it through slowly. Being careful that it doesnt get hooked on any other wires or cables.
> 
> Not sure what mounting option your new tweets have, but you will probably need to make a small adapter out of hdpe that matches the bolts inside that location. When you pop the covers off you will see how the stock tweet attaches...mine were 3 small screws I believe. Sorry, thats all I have....I had pods made for my tweets.
> 
> ...


Cheers, sir. My equivalent of that plastic snake is my trusty coat hanger  A priceless addition to my toolbox  I'll give that a shot, and see how the tweets line up.

For the mid-bass, I might have to hit my Arc dealer / installer up and see if he can begrudgingly give me some info.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Progress.

Was thinking about how to mount that midrange, and figured I'd give making a ring a shot, and fastening it to the surround on the door card.

First off: this is how far back the stock one sits. I figure that's the worst case scenario.









Next, here's the opening for the speaker. The stock speaker gets mounted to the door itself and has a nice little bracket. I wondered if I could somehow pry the Bose speaker out of it and fit this one, but it's either one piece, or held together with the world's hardest fastener: I chipped away at it for a bit, but got nowhere.









Went to Lowe's to do some foam shopping. $12 total.









Applied the smallest stuff to the back of the door card.









Also put some on the side of the mounting area.









Here's the mid mounted onto the ring. Outer diameter 4", inner is 3".
















(yeah, I have a couple extra holes there  )

After holding it onto the back of the door card at various angles (door card is rounded, not flat), I figured out the seemingly best one, and drilled holes into the door card and into the ring.









Fastened with a couple of screws.









Front side view:


























I was a little concerned about not having anything holding the speaker down on this back side. But, it's rock solid in place. I can't jiggle it at all, so I think I'll be all right.









All that said: does anyone see anything that may cause me issues? Seems like I'm good, but let me know if you see anything to the contrary.

That done, I got back to the unfinished task of securing the subwoofer box. Found a pre-drilled hole on the frame, and found a right angle piece in my workshop that I put in the vice to straighten.









Attached to sub box, which is as flush as it can be to the back of the seats and the side:

















I called Charles, owner of Systems Unlimited who sold me the majority of the gear and also chatted with me a bunch about my ideas, saying I needed a grill for the sub. He said he had one and I could come on down. A nice surprise to me was that after he handed it to me, he didn't want anything for it. I know, they're dirt cheap and I spent a bunch of money with him, but still a nice gesture. Regardless, I highly recommend him and his shop to anyone local to the Seattle area!










Finished trunk view (and still toying with the idea of painting the carpet for a closer match):









I'm happy I figured that mid-range mounting out, and tomorrow I should have the 1" HDPE to make the rings for the woofers. I'll try to make the 2 rings, another mid-range ring, and potentially deaden the drivers side door, with bonus points for running the speaker wires into the drivers side door.

That would leave me with Friday for the tweeters (still not sure what's in store for me there), and Saturday - -the day before I leave for vacation - with actually turning it all on (er, hoping it actually turns on  ) and starting the tuning process. 

We'll see how it goes.


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## bilbo6209 (Oct 12, 2015)

WOW coming along nicely! looking great!


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## delurker (Jun 10, 2016)

Pretty impressive that you got the mid in there; I went two-way on mine in large part because I wanted to stay stealth in the cabin and it looked impossible to get a decent driver in that small spot.

Sub looks great too and nice tight fit; is there room to connect your speaker wires to the terminals with the seat up?


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

Nice job, what's mids are they? 

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

bilbo6209 said:


> WOW coming along nicely! looking great!


Cheers!




delurker said:


> Pretty impressive that you got the mid in there; I went two-way on mine in large part because I wanted to stay stealth in the cabin and it looked impossible to get a decent driver in that small spot.
> 
> Sub looks great too and nice tight fit; is there room to connect your speaker wires to the terminals with the seat up?


Yeah, that was my worry going in, and almost had me going to use a speaker terminal box recessed into the sub box. As dumb luck would have it, no issues at all with fit.



Hugg727 said:


> Nice job, what's mids are they?
> 
> Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk


I'm running all Morel Elate's except for the sub. MT350 tweeter, CDM880 mid, Ti MW9 woofers


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## tconners (Aug 10, 2009)

Per this is Terry Conners.... Remember me?
Glad to see your still at it with the Audi's. I'm still at it with the Jeeps.
I left MS and went to Texas. Nice build!


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Hot damn, how's it going Terry!  Long time.
Send me a PM and let me know how you're doing.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

I'm happy to report I have a woofer mounted in the door 

Here's how I got there...

1" HDPE got delivered today:









You can call me crazy, or maybe inefficient with my circle making setup. I just drill a couple of holes on the inside and outside, make sure the heads are sunk down, and then route away without having to worry about leaving tabs. Challenge with this one was, though, that I couldn't get all the way through the 1" plastic without the end of the router bit (nearest the router) hitting the top and deforming it. So, I flipped it over and did one more cut from the other side. Theoretically, should be all good, in practice, you can tell that there were two cuts made, but it doesn't make a lick of difference except for the OCD in you and me 









Just prior to flipping over...









With the ring done, I countersunk some holes for the screws to disappear in so as not to interfere with the speaker:








(you can see the slight misalignment of the cuts on the inside of the ring in the above photo)









Bought some longer M5 screws and used washers, too:









There's the star of the night in for a test fitting:

















As I did another test fit of the ring to the baffle, I noticed this raised bit was interfering:

















So, I dremeled it off (forgot to take pic), and then also saw that the first row of 'ribs' on the baffle also got in the way of the ring sitting nice and flat:

















How to get the speaker wires into the door cavity? I dremeled a very slight curve into the back of the ring. The wire still receives some pressure, but it's not squished.









Soldered up the connectors...









Ring in place...









And, done!









A question I had along the way: should I have put anything between the baffle and the ring mount? Like butyl rope or anything like that? It seems very tight as is, so I didn't (the baffle itself comes with some material like that to make the seam to the door, though).

Aside from that, I just need to now look at the tweeter and see if any special mounting is needed there (crosses fingers for it to be straight ahead mounting). For tomorrow, I'm thinking I'll get both doors done (need to do CCF/MLV on this passenger side, then rinse and repeat everything on the drivers side door. If the starts align, I get started on the tweeters, if not they wait until Saturday. It's going to be real tight to actually get to hear some sound out of these before vacation!


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

I would add a gasket between the ring and baffle, yes. 

Also, why did you bring the wire out of the door just to run in back in? Why not just bring it in through the Molex then leave it in the door to connect to the driver? If you leave a little slack it'll do two things, not interfere with the window and create a natural drip loop so water won't follow the wire the driver. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

quality_sound said:


> I would add a gasket between the ring and baffle, yes.
> 
> Also, why did you bring the wire out of the door just to run in back in? Why not just bring it in through the Molex then leave it in the door to connect to the driver? If you leave a little slack it'll do two things, not interfere with the window and create a natural drip loop so water won't follow the wire the driver.
> 
> ...


Cool, thanks for the feedback! And, uh, I was just wondering the same thing about running wires out and back in  I think I started down that path so as not to interfere with the window, but I like your thinking. I'll take another look tonight when I add the gasket. Thanks much!


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

S6Per said:


> Cool, thanks for the feedback! And, uh, I was just wondering the same thing about running wires out and back in  I think I started down that path so as not to interfere with the window, but I like your thinking. I'll take another look tonight when I add the gasket. Thanks much!


Anytime! 

I like to go for simple, when I can. 

Oh, you can also zip tie the speaker wire to the other wires that stay inside the door until it get to the driver then make a drip loop and attach them. A few different way to skin that cat.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Got it. I zip tied a bit within the door already, but can probably add one a bit higher up.

I'm glad I went through that pain in the ass of fishing the wires through the thick grommet


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## Hugg727 (Sep 17, 2009)

Great work on the rings/mids/ You shouldnt have much of a problem with the tweets


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Thanks for the encouragement and confidence there, I needed that after Friday. Why? Well, I love learning, and that's a big reason why I'm doing this in the first place, but sometimes there's a thing as too much learning at once 

Long story short: was starting to go insane trying to get the passenger door card back on, which uncovered that my nice round mounting ring needed to get customized a bunch in order for things to fit...and then when I was all set to wrap up the tweeter mount, I found out it was 1/8" too high. I ended up figuring both issues out, but got pretty frustrated for a piece of it. All better now  , and here's the play by play...

The plan on Friday was to likely get both doors done, leaving the tweeters and start of tuning for Saturday. First I pulled off the ring to reroute the speaker cables as discussed above, and added some butyl rope for a gasket.









Tangent: gratuitous carnage shot of my ring making exercises 









Next, I started with getting the MLV/CCF set for the passenger door.

















Trying to get the door card on, this was my first problem:

























The trusty dremel helped.









Now, that wasn't the only place, but the entire bottom of the ring needed to be shaved down. What drove me mental is that I tried to do it all with the ring attached, not knowing that it didn't need just a bit trimmed, but that it needed a lot. So on and on I went dremeling some off, trying again, rinse and repeat. That it was the bottom where the problem was also took some time to figure out (it wasn't a hard hit, i.e. just not obvious). I also tried cutting a bunch more holes in the MLV thinking that might be it, retrying, etc. It essentially took the whole night to actually get it to fit. And on that note, I'll have to go back and redo that door a bit later, because the MLV went a bit too far to the edge where there's a big gap between the door and door card. Having done the drivers side, which went swimmingly based on all of my learning , I know I can make it better. Anyway, some foam up front on the woofer, too, and it was on as best as I could get it.









Here's the drivers side ring, which I trimmed prior to installing. I'm happy to say it didn't need any on car adjustments 









Installed.









Note on the left side of the below pic: on the passenger door the MLV extends further, which is why the door card barely fit back on with a big gap. For the drivers side I trimmed it back as shown and had a much easier time getting it back together, with no gap. Where the MLV stops here is just before the door itself makes a curve up and then flattens out for the clips to mount.









And done.









I got some different foam for this door. The other stuff stunk, adhesive was really weak and it kept on falling off. This is actually expandable window seal, very strong adhesive, and the expanding piece is a bonus to fill in the gap to the door card. Also from Lowe's, though a bit more expensive ($16 vs $3).


















On to the tweeters! Here's what's under the grill:









To fit the left somehow like the right..









I started cutting 1/8" plastic, using the stock mount as a template.

















And mounted...









All done, right? Nope. When I went to put the grill back on is when I figured out it was all about 1/8" too high. 

So Friday night was the passenger door struggle, and ended on that test fit. I was not a happy camper. Saturday I did the drivers side door, and was thinking about how I could recess the mount a bit as I was at Lowe's to grab some other stuff. I thought some plastic junction boxes or similar might actually offer something up, and my hunch was right. 

Here's the $1.50 part. I thought it might work by having the flat top, and then the downward extension for about 1/4".









I used the stock mount as a template to make the holes and cuts (via dremel).

















Test fit.









Now, how to secure the bottom plate? I was starting to think about some L type brackets and using small screws, when I thought about at least giving glue a chance before doing anything more elaborate. Super glue on hand I tried it out on a couple of the discarded pieces, and it was holding super strong. So, I went that route. Note also that on the bottom of the blue piece, I dremeled away just a bit so the tweeter surround could extend, otherwise this whole setup wouldn't have worked.

Frankenstein complete..a true hack job  (and I thought about painting it for the same reason as putting fabric over the batting in the rear deck, i.e. just in case the blue gave off some weird reflections).









Test fit with plenty of clearance.









And that folks, is all she wrote for the next 3 weeks. I was bummed at first about not being able to fire it up yet, but then I remembered it's not a race  I did drive the car when it was buttoned back up (though I still need to put in the lower door sill trims and lower C pillars), and damn, it's pretty damn quiet!  Can't wait to hear some tunes in this.

When I get back to it, I'll redo the passenger side door, connect the sub, set amp gains, do crossovers in the Helix, and then do some tuning with the miniDSP mic I got. Finally, I'll take my time on the mount for the Helix Director...plenty of hours of sanding ahead of me there to turn that thing into something presentable 

Reflecting on the work so far: I'm exhausted, and also feeling proud of being able to do the work, going the full distance, trying to do it as best as I can for the first time based off of everything I've read and watched and heard from many of you here. It feels good learning what it really takes to do stuff like this, and yeah, being able to say, "Yeah, I did that" feels good, too. Aside from Friday, it's all been a ton of fun 

Enough philosophical stuff....again - thanks everyone for your input! Couldn't do it without all of your insights and experience.

Rock on,
Per


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## JimmyDee (Mar 8, 2014)

Enjoy your holiday! We'll see you back in 3 weeks.

I feel like an ass... because when I saw your post about making the round rings for the woofers in the door, I started thinking back to my own install, and wondering; "hmmm... I wonder if he'll need to trim those rings, to accomodate the door skin plugs". Then I didn't say anything. I probably could have saved you a bunch of headache, had I spoken-up.

With regards to the tweeters... you got them in there, but based on the depth and the extra room you have in there, it'd be cool if you could fabricate something out of a bent piece of metal, just to angle the tweeter toward you a bit (so it's not firing straight up into the windshield). Don't go obsessing over this while you're on vacation, but it's something to consider.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Ha! You've been super helpful all along, no worries at all. Thanks for all the info to date.
Interesting point about the tweeters. I'll chew on that a bit


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

...aaaand I'm back  Had a great time on vacation and started getting back to this a couple of days ago with minor stuff.

Got all of the interior panels back in for starters, got some new clips for the rear bench and put that back in, too. Which brings me to today and wanting to set gains on the amps (something I should've done earlier seeing it's hard to reach now with all the trim panels back in. So much for forethought on that one :/).

So, I went ahead and did the basic crossover settings in the Helix as per Morel speaker specs...just so I don't blow any speakers up, and now I'm, um, scratching my head, because I can't get any sound out of the system whatsoever. Oh the joys of being new at this 

I have the Bose optical connector going into the DA1 going into the Helix Pro, and from there to the amps. Re-reading the DA1 instructions, which were confirmed by a support tech there, I should NOT have to do any coding since I had a Bose system installed prior. So I don't think it's there.

In terms of the Helix - I went into the IO pages and selected the appropriate outputs on the first page to correspond to what I have plugged in where (i.e. 'Front L High' for the Left tweeter channel assigned to output A, etc.). I believe the only inputs I need setup are the ones on the Digitial page, correct? And for those, it's just Digital left and right for speakers on either side, right?

I also validated that the input switch is set to optical (vs coax), and the DSP light correctly shows that my setup is loaded (it's orange, and I've been working on setup 2).

EDIT: the DA1 is configured for "Audi MMI/MMI3G+ w/Bose or B&O" and "North America".....which feels right.

Not sure what I should be checking now? Help is appreciated 

Thanks,
Per


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

BTW, to my Audi friends: when we say you should remove all EQ from the HU, does that mean that, within MMI, the knobs for sub, bass, treble are turned all the way to the left, or to the middle (i.e. noon in terms of clock position)? ...i.e. I'm not sure if the middle is 0 and to the left is cut, or if it's all boost moving right.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

OK, I have sound....at least on the right side 

I needed to add the digital inputs on the main routing tab, too, where I thought I'd just need them on the digital tab.

Now, if I drag the left digital input to where they need to be on the main routing tab I get a high pitched sound...like a 4k tone. That happens no matter what output I associate it with.

Any thoughts on that one? 

Thanks,
Per


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## subterFUSE (Sep 21, 2009)

S6Per said:


> BTW, to my Audi friends: when we say you should remove all EQ from the HU, does that mean that, within MMI, the knobs for sub, bass, treble are turned all the way to the left, or to the middle (i.e. noon in terms of clock position)? ...i.e. I'm not sure if the middle is 0 and to the left is cut, or if it's all boost moving right.


EQ, Balance, Fader should all be at the center or zero position.

Gala should be turns off.

If you have a DSP volume controller, then you should run your MMI volume at 1 tick below maximum. If you don't have a DSP volume, then use the MMI volume.


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## subterFUSE (Sep 21, 2009)

Your routing will be done in the Main tab, not the Digital tab.

Drag the Digital L and R inputs to your outputs on the main tab.

In the Digital and AUX tabs , just delete any routing there.

Here are my setup screens...


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Thanks for the help!
I reset the routing, clearing everything out of the Aux and Digital tab, but I'm still just getting that tone when I assign Digital Left to anything. Maybe it's cabling?

JFYI - I spent a few minutes on the phone with support this morning and am sending in the Director to see if they can get it to work.


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## AccordUno (Aug 7, 2009)

The joys of working on VAG products.. Nice car and way to take it slow during the process..


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Well, I'm a bit stuck. 

On the main routing tab, if I assign the Digital Left input to ANY output, that output puts out a high pitch noise (~ 4k-5k tone). That, in itself, really takes downstream cabling (RCA's or speaker wires) out of the picture, right?

I tried a different Toslink cable: same result.

I software reset the DSP. Same result. Haven't done a hardware reset (hold the button) yet, but I guess that's one more thing to try.

Outside of that, I don't know what else to try, which would leave me needing to figure out which device I need to have looked at, i.e. how do I figure out if it's the DA1 or DSP? I highly doubt it's upstream of that since the stock system was working just fine.

Anyone have any thoughts here? Any total n00b things I might be doing to cause this? Anything other ideas?

Thanks,
Per


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Full details posted here. Looking like I have zero luck with Helix products :/


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## nadams5755 (Jun 8, 2012)

In case you need some backup/replacement door panel mounts/snaps/trees.  Bold-Sport.com :: Door Panel Clip


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

PROBLEM SOLVED! Unbelievable, it was a setting in the DA1. Read all about it here 

The short of it: in the configuration of the DA1 I had to pick "Audi MMI3G/3G+", NOT "Audi MMI3G/3G+ w/Bose or B&O", even though that second one is actually what my car came with. I took the long road to figure that one out, but at least it's solved 




nadams5755 said:


> In case you need some backup/replacement door panel mounts/snaps/trees.  Bold-Sport.com :: Door Panel Clip


Cheers! I ended up picking some up at the local dealer.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Small update...

Got the DSP back and got it installed, and voila, I have sound 

I went the oscope route to set gains, but left that a bit perplexed: once I adjusted gains to be just prior to the wave going flat up top, it seemed the system was entirely jacked up way too high based on the tweeters having audible hiss when nothing was playing. Afraid to put any music through it at that point, I turned all the gains down to minimum, played some music, and then turned them up just a little bit. Right now, I seem to be getting clean power, and considerable power at moderate volumes (gettin' damn loud at 17 of 34 on the MMI). I'm thinking of leaving as is now, and only revisiting if during tuning I sense something's off.

Now, the car is all put back together, and for physical things left to do, I just have to disassemble the passenger door one more time to redo the MLV to fit better so I can get the doorcard to sit tight again (currently 1/2" gap), and fix the door handle release as apparently I forgot that the 32nd time I had the door card off  From there, I'll be following Kyle's YouTube series on tuning and see where that takes me!

The Director is on its way to ATF (again) after someone there received it, updated it to latest version, and sent it back to me...that'd be all good but speaking with Joey there it was clear that for some reason we couldn't get it recognized on my PC and he was supposed to look at it when it got there. He reversed shipment (from the local hub) and should have it hopefully today. In the meantime, I did a bit more sanding on the piece that will hold it, but I'm not sure if my novice attempts there are going to get me a satisfactory result  I'll go a bit more on it and see.

That's it for now. It definitely is nice having it all together and music going through it. Even un-tuned it sounds way better than what I had before 

Cheers,
Per


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## Bluenote (Aug 29, 2008)

How do those 9's sound?


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Bluenote said:


> How do those 9's sound?


Like I said, no tuning whatsoever yet (minus initial TA and crossovers) but they already sound and feel as meaty as they are.


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## Bluenote (Aug 29, 2008)

Nice!


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

...skip ahead to 1 year and 8 months later 

Last I reported, I was going to tune the system, and keep working on the Director custom mounting. Here's what really happened...

*To tune or not to tune...*
I chose to have the shop from which I got the equipment actually tune it. I think at the time I wanted to just enjoy the damn thing and not struggle to get something that sounded great after putting all of that effort in (I have tuned exactly zero installs in my lifetime). They had it for day or so and I've been enjoying the system, problem free, ever since. All this time later, I'm now getting ready to tune it myself for the first time. Since I have what I feel is a good tune on it already, I can take all the time I want to play around with my own, while always being able to switch back to the existing one.

*I added a center channel*
I didn't push back too much when they brought up the idea. Tough thing was that I was out of amp channels, so we added one more: a small Arc Mini, bridged @125w driving a Faital Pro 3FE22. Not the highest ROI decision of the build, but it certainly does help out with solidifying the stage!










Room is at a premium, so simply have it on end secured with this one bracket. Has been solid for as long as it's been in there:









That was it for a very long time. I left the Director mount in, in all of its glorious crappy fashion , and just enjoyed the system.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Rewind a month or so from today when I got reinvigorated in this area

*Finalizing the Director mount…* (posted in Fabrication forum also)

I got turned on to 3D printing by a co-worker who pointed out the fact that we get to print things for free (bonus!). I had been living with a failed fab attempt for probably a year, having given just one swing at cutting out a shape and then using bondo. It just was no good from the start, and I didn't have the energy to dig in deeper at the time.









Core problems were: I've never done any type of work like that before, and I also wanted to have more than just the Director in here. I wanted to fit all of the following:	
1. Director, and critically: angled, not perfectly horizontal	
2. Button for exhaust valve open/close	
3. USB port for connecting to Director / DSP	
4. USB port for updating my ALP laser jammer setup	

I used www.tinkercad.com which is free, super easy to use / learn online 3D modeling software. After watching a few tutorials I was off and running. It was super fascinating for me to learn how to make rounded corners, etc. through the use of just simple objects that act as either solids or 'holes'. Anyway, the Director mount is my first ever creation, and I'm sure people other than me could do a much more awesome job creating it, but in the end: it fits like a glove! ….after about 6 iterations 

Here's a pic of the model:










And a link to the file should anyone want to play around with it (i.e. Audi owners). 

A tricky piece was that compartment that it goes into is angled on the sides, the Director needed sufficient depth, and as mentioned above - I wanted it at an angle...and of course the top had to be able to close. Turns out a millimeter here and a millimeter there can actually matter quite a bit when doing this stuff  One fun thing to highlight on the overall design that I initially worried about is: how will I secure the USB ports? The USB extension cable I bought has an indent halfway down its side. I measured the exact distance down to that indent, and correspondingly, on the inside of the Director mount USB port holes, added to the thickness of the walls for just the height of that indent so that the plug just clicks into place at just the right level (you can see this in the 3D model pic above - the small little blue lines). It works perfectly: those ports aren't going anywhere accidentally no matter how hard I have to press or pull to get USB stick in/out.
​
After several attempts and test fittings, I finally had all of the dimensions right, wet sanded with 1500. 










As you can see, based on the density that it was printed at (40%, which is actually quite dense) there still are printing remnants visible i.e. lines across the surface. I probably could've sanded for a few more hours and tried to get these out, but after also putting it in the car, I saw that the finish / color just didn't work that well with the surroundings. I then tried painting it a matte black (no picture, sorry) and that didn't really work either. Final answer? - I wrapped it in the same material as the roof is wrapped in (3M 1080 Brushed Black Metallic).










Once I put that into the car, I realized the black plastic surround of the compartment looked kind of meh next to it. I then took the compartment out of the car, and wrapped it in the main wrap of the car (3M 1080 Brushed Steel) to complete the look. It fits into the compartment purely via pressure fit, and is solidly in place. Works perfectly, and I like how the wrap colors look by themselves, and in context of the carbon fiber surround. (Pics below show some wrap imperfections that I'm addressing this weekend).


































Only thing I wish was different: that the Director did not have beveled top edges...just doesn't look as smooth/elegant as it could, but oh well.

BTW - my Director's screen had become pretty washed out: (https://photos.smugmug.com/S6/Interi...Issue-1280.mp4) so I took a chance and mailed AF, who now are doing repairs in the US with 'MSC America' in AZ. Main tech, Doug (@dobslob on here) is a great guy and took care of me ASAP. Pictures above show the repaired screen.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

Going off of the success of the above, I thought about what else I could 3D print, which brought me to:

*Custom 3D Printed Tweeter brackets*

Here you see the old stock tweeters and mounts next to my Morel MT250:











If you've followed this thread, you'll know that I had come up with some crazy hacked-up (but functional!) mounts for the Morel's from a $5 Lowe's part:















































And that's how I left them for over a year or so, having thought about, "It'd be nice to have them on an angle" but never getting around to doing anything about it. Enter 3D printing world, and after a much more streamlined 2 tries of measure / fit / repeat, I got this:










(File available for download here, and that's at a 37.5 degree angle...for those that might care about that  )










Tweeter mounted, just some butyl rope between it and the mount:










And in she goes...









Original grill's fit on top of it, no issue. I can already tell a difference and expect to get some more benefit once I retune.

And that's where this build is today 

Next step: take my crack at tuning


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## justin30513 (May 2, 2018)

Well let my first post on diyma.com commence!

I've spent the last 3 hours admiring and studying you build. 
First off, great write ups and pics! You did this in a way that so easy to understand and replicate. Simply put, I knew what the heck you were doing and talking about!

You took diy to whole new level to me and then you teach yourself how to design and print out two bad a$$ pieces on the 3d printer! Those tweeter brackets are intense! You even included the file.

Thank you for documenting and of course, building your dream system!
I know how I need to do my build log now.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

justin30513 said:


> Well let my first post on diyma.com commence!
> 
> I've spent the last 3 hours admiring and studying you build.
> First off, great write ups and pics! You did this in a way that so easy to understand and replicate. Simply put, I knew what the heck you were doing and talking about!
> ...


Aww shucks...thanks! Happy to hear it's useful to you, and that it helped inspire you writing your first post  It's been a blast to learn and do, and I do my best to document and share so others might benefit...again - glad it resonated and thanks for letting me know that.

So, when do we get to read about your install?


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## mikey7182 (Jan 16, 2008)

Excellent build, particularly the center console piece for the Director! I have a 2014 S4, and am wondering if our consoles are the same? (They appear to be) and what it would take to get you to print me one of those?  I'll be using a 6to8 Aerospace with the controller and could get you dimensions for it, and otherwise would use the same two USB ports (although I don't have the exhaust open/close switch). At any rate, great job!


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

mikey7182 said:


> Excellent build, particularly the center console piece for the Director! I have a 2014 S4, and am wondering if our consoles are the same? (They appear to be) and what it would take to get you to print me one of those?  I'll be using a 6to8 Aerospace with the controller and could get you dimensions for it, and otherwise would use the same two USB ports (although I don't have the exhaust open/close switch). At any rate, great job!


Thanks!

If you can take measurements of the opening of that storage space (in mm, please) I can see if it's indeed the same size. If so, I'm happy to provide you a file that would work for you after you give me specs of your controller. Unfortunately, I can't print for others, but I know there are shops that you could take / send the file to and have it printed.


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## mikey7182 (Jan 16, 2008)

S6Per said:


> Thanks!
> 
> If you can take measurements of the opening of that storage space (in mm, please) I can see if it's indeed the same size. If so, I'm happy to provide you a file that would work for you after you give me specs of your controller. Unfortunately, I can't print for others, but I know there are shops that you could take / send the file to and have it printed.


Awesome, much appreciated! I'll take some measurements this weekend.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

All right...on to the next chapter: re-attacking the front doors with the big ole' 8 3/4" Morel's and their tendency to want to shake, rattle and roll. 

I got back onto this topic as I was starting to develop my own tune. I had actually never heard any rattling in the doors before but when soloing just the woofer on some tracks (Drake 'The Motto' has a few notes that really brings it out) I found out that around 60Hz there's lots of resonance. I figured I'd open up the door again and see if I could quiet it down.

Some research and findings in the ensuing process:

I wish I would've never followed the recommended '25% coverage for CLD' approach from the start, and instead gone 75% right off the bat. Working on this aspect now, I don't have a lot of open real estate to put down an end-to-end layer and it's all smaller pieces. Regardless, I added more CLD on outer and inner door skin, focusing more on the inside of the inner door skin as that's where I had done the fewest prior.
I could tell that the back of the driver was likely too close to one of the window braces where it was making a minimal amout of contact. Probably not good for containing resonance, so decided I needed to build on the 1" ring I had installed already, i.e. add another 1/4".
I stumbled across this thread discussing fiberglass batting as a sound absorber along with some rave reviews of that approach. So, decided I'd give that a shot to further quiet the cabin and help break up the backwaves of the woofer.

For #3, I went with Rockboard 80 as it seems to have the overall best absorption characteristics for the intended purpose. In the referenced thread, people were focusing on 1" thick, but I could tell that I could make 2" work in my doors.









I got one sheet 4' x 8' at a fairly local store (no $45 shipping costs, yay!) and had them slice it into 4 pieces to transport. Also got some second skin damplifier pro and some more HDPE for the added rings for the woofers.










Temporary stuff out that I put in last week (already heard a bit of difference with it)...









Templates...









Wrapped in 1 Mil plastic..









Split up the upper door piece into two as it was really hard to get in otherwise. 









After fitting the lower piece, I tested closing the window and saw that the mechanism would rub on the plastic just a bit so it was time to get McGyver on it:

















I followed up with securing them to the metal with CLD. Now - yes, they're wood, and I'll likely replace with some plastic, but I'm not sweating this right now: it's been 3 years up here in the rainy PNW and I have not detected an ounce of moisture in these doors, so I know these will be fine for a while. Those are in nice and sturdy and hold back the material perfectly. Pic here with window down (there's space between the meachanism and the wood, i.e. zero touching): 









Securing the first of the upper pieces...









And the final piece in...









Added the 1/4" ring to the existing 1" ring also:









Crazy looking bottoms, right? Well - they need to be that way in order to clear some door card goodness. I cleaned it up a bit with a file after that pic.

So - net/net - what's the end result? Well, I think it's good  Did I get rid of all resonance - - I did not  Is this door a lot less resonant than the right door? Absolutely! Does the car sound much more like a listening room, even with just one door done? - - I kind of think so. There's more of a billowy feel to it, it seems more peaceful/quieter, and there's much better mid-bass response.

Sorry that I have no scientific data to present on this otherwise...I didn't have a lot of time for this. 

I will next do the passenger side door and then also the rear doors. I think - my hunch based on what I've seen and experienced - that the Rockwool and similar are likely much better at taming (road) noise in a car than MLV. I only say that because I think it's much easier to reap benefits from this because MLV really requires you to install it with zero holes for maximum effectiveness, and it suffers in impact when even just small holes are present. With this stuff - you get benefits wherever you put it...period. That said - my CCF/MLV combo is still in there.

Hoping for another update later in the week.


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## GreatLaBroski (Jan 20, 2018)

Love the update, thanks for keeping us in the experience


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Awesome build!


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

GreatLaBroski said:


> Love the update, thanks for keeping us in the experience


Thanks, and you bet!



BP1Fanatic said:


> Awesome build!


Thanks much!


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## Saleen S7 TT (Mar 2, 2020)

I have a 2013 Audi S6 and this build looks incredible. Probably tons more than I'm looking to spend. Any idea on the investment if you don't mind me asking and all the parts used so far? I'm unsure of my budget yet, but probably nothing near this level ha.


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## avantagg (Oct 23, 2016)

Really impressive build! I am about to redo my B8 S4. Did you ever figure out what the part numbers were for the smaller molex pins? 

I ask because I would like to avoid drilling my plugs if possible and my car didn't come with the B&O hole in the plug.


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## S6Per (May 22, 2016)

avantagg said:


> Really impressive build! I am about to redo my B8 S4. Did you ever figure out what the part numbers were for the smaller molex pins?
> 
> I ask because I would like to avoid drilling my plugs if possible and my car didn't come with the B&O hole in the plug.


Hi, thanks for the compliment! Unfortunately, I did not ever figure that out. It was a really simple piece to drill (I wasn't feeling that great going into it, but it ended up not being a big deal at all), but not sure if it'd work without the B&O hole. Since they're pretty cheap, perhaps a trial and error approach could work, especially if you have a local electronics shop?

All the best,
Per


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## avantagg (Oct 23, 2016)

Thanks for the reply! I found a useful thread for the smaller pins on Audizine here: Repair wire part numbers

Going to try a few of these.


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## 01LSi (Jul 27, 2012)

avantagg said:


> Thanks for the reply! I found a useful thread for the smaller pins on Audizine here: Repair wire part numbers
> 
> Going to try a few of these.


Buy 20 or 30 of each male and female part on that website via Mouser. That's what I did for my VW harness and it worked out 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## avantagg (Oct 23, 2016)

01LSi said:


> Buy 20 or 30 of each male and female part on that website via Mouser. That's what I did for my VW harness and it worked out
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Nice! When you say 20 or 30 of each do you mean each size? There are like 4 different sizes lol. I just know I don’t need the larger ones that were quoted in jimmydeez SQ5 thread. Which ones worked for you? I’m guessing they might the the same for an Audi door plug?


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## 01LSi (Jul 27, 2012)

avantagg said:


> Nice! When you say 20 or 30 of each do you mean each size? There are like 4 different sizes lol. I just know I don’t need the larger ones that were quoted in jimmydeez SQ5 thread. Which ones worked for you? I’m guessing they might the the same for an Audi door plug?


Ah I didn't see it was for a door plug. I just recognized that screenshot from a website I referenced to buy male and female terminations. There's a chart out there on some website that lists them I'll try to find it tomorrow. I just bought all of them bc I didn't know which size and style would be behind the harness

Yes there are like 3 or 4 sizes like you said and there are 2 styles of female terminations for certain sizes 

Here's what Im gonna call the medium size lol











Here's the 2female options for example (not sure the bag has the right the part number anymore)



















I did it for a 2019 VW underseat amplifier but the harness and pins inside after depinning was the exact same as the donor I bought from an earlier year Audi. This is the donor Audi harness I bought to test de pinning which had all three sizes in it 

















The smaller ones also worked for tweeter connections elsewhere in the car like this OEM tweeter harness for example. 











Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## avantagg (Oct 23, 2016)

That is super helpful! Basically, I’d like to use those pins on a few empty slots on the molex plug to run some speaker wire to the door for tweeters. Unfortunately there’s only one unused slot for the larger sized pin, so I know the ones that were referenced earlier won’t work (sounds like the OP had the same issue as well). Would love to figure this out.


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