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malarcy · 02-12-2008, 06:15 PM

I think we are 100% in agreement - the variation is that the A4 CAB has amped rear speakers as standard - the wiring looms you refer to are available in 2 flavours - A4 without BOSE and a4 with BOSE but both are specific to the saloon.

The loom adapters available for the a4 convertible/cab are for earlier models - and none cope with the rears being amped.

So - the sound quality issue I has was the rears need power that the standard head provides (possibly by telling the s-bus to power them possible directly - either way) they don't wake up - the workaround was to wire the power antenna output into the loom (hack job on the loom adapter - not the original wiring) - problem with that is the alpine unit tells you not to use that power output for amps and in this case you need it for the antenna and the rear speakers.

Result was to hear everything "good" you had to drive the head unit flat out - and that was no good as soon as you dropped the roof.

I spent over £600 on this system (with the ipod adapter) and in my case, it sounded bogus.

When I got the shop to remove the system I found they had added wires to the fuse box to deal with ignition on/off (turn the unit off when the key comes out) and lights (dim the display at night) - none of the loom adapters present these wires because they are provided over the "bus" to the original unit (that's why the standard head unit stays on with ignition off until you remove the key - same signal that says - light up the interior says - turn of head unit).

I agree someone who had done it properly before could make this work (I don't know what the left speaker trick is) - but after 4 goes at it and it still sounded rubbish - I decided enough was enough and I pulled the unit.

As I said at the top of the post - everybodies mileage varies - I just found I spent a lot of time and a lot of money on something that sucked. If someone knows the left speaker trick or has a part number for an adapter that works then I might try again .

As previous poster says - good luck - hope it works out for you.

Malarcy

02-12-2008, 06:15 PM	#5 (permalink)
malarcy Newbie Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 17 Gallery: (0)	I think we are 100% in agreement - the variation is that the A4 CAB has amped rear speakers as standard - the wiring looms you refer to are available in 2 flavours - A4 without BOSE and a4 with BOSE but both are specific to the saloon. The loom adapters available for the a4 convertible/cab are for earlier models - and none cope with the rears being amped. So - the sound quality issue I has was the rears need power that the standard head provides (possibly by telling the s-bus to power them possible directly - either way) they don't wake up - the workaround was to wire the power antenna output into the loom (hack job on the loom adapter - not the original wiring) - problem with that is the alpine unit tells you not to use that power output for amps and in this case you need it for the antenna and the rear speakers. Result was to hear everything "good" you had to drive the head unit flat out - and that was no good as soon as you dropped the roof. I spent over £600 on this system (with the ipod adapter) and in my case, it sounded bogus. When I got the shop to remove the system I found they had added wires to the fuse box to deal with ignition on/off (turn the unit off when the key comes out) and lights (dim the display at night) - none of the loom adapters present these wires because they are provided over the "bus" to the original unit (that's why the standard head unit stays on with ignition off until you remove the key - same signal that says - light up the interior says - turn of head unit). I agree someone who had done it properly before could make this work (I don't know what the left speaker trick is) - but after 4 goes at it and it still sounded rubbish - I decided enough was enough and I pulled the unit. As I said at the top of the post - everybodies mileage varies - I just found I spent a lot of time and a lot of money on something that sucked. If someone knows the left speaker trick or has a part number for an adapter that works then I might try again . As previous poster says - good luck - hope it works out for you. Malarcy