Bose Speakers With Aftermarket Head Unit?

[JohnDonovan]

Hi,

Have been a member of the forum for a while but am swopping my A6 for a TT in a couple of weeks and want to move my stereo to the new car!

I'm getting a Quattro (225) which apparently is one of the 2001 S-line TTs and has the BOSE speakers.

In my A6 I have an Alpine head unit which interfaces with my iPod including controlling it and displaying track info on the stereo.

I'd like to know if the wiring for the BOSE speakers is the standard kind of connector that will just click into the back of my Alpine or is it more complicated?

Does anyone have experience of installing a non-Audi stereo with the BOSE upgrade?

Cheers,
John

[bhb399mm]

i wouldnt mess with it. i know people who have gotten non-OEM head units to work with the bose system, and i know people who have had nightmeres trying to get it to work. its kinda hit or miss.

my two cents: sell the alpine stuff, and buy a dension icelink pluss to interface w/ the OEM head unit (concert I or concert II.. probably concert I if its a 01 car) you'll safe yourself tons of hassles. also, people sometimes have problems fitting aftermarket head units in the TT cause of the fold down face plate cover.

good luck

[rwm1370]

I don't have the Bose Speakers, just the stock speakers in my A4 but have a Kenwood Touchscreen running the speakers/subs. You are going to have to re-wire all your speakers to fit your deck i believe. I did do this myself I had a shop by my house do it all for me. Replacing all my door speakers soon with kicker ones.

[GrahamP]

Warning - Long Answer Ahead!

A friend of mine has a TT which is a 2000 and his concert head unit is the same as my old 98 A8 which was wired without Can Bus power sense, lighting control etc. If you're lucky your 2001 TT may be the same.

I have a 2001 A8 with Bose and couldn't wait to get it out of the car! Problem is that the newer (pre MMI) Audi head units are controlled by a CAN bus system which looks after the ignition sense, gal, lighting and reverse for GPS units.

If your new TT has Can bus control (you can tell because there's only a battery + and a ground on the larger black power connector) then to replace your headunit with the alpine you will probably need a CAN bus adaptor which can be bought on the internet or at your local store but are expensive. You can get two versions, 1 does basic ignition/speed sense and the other does everything as mentioned above.

You then have to make this work with your head unit which involves carefully matching the correct funtion cable with the correct pins. Some of the adaptors come pre wired for car and head unit so look around carefully if you aren't that good at electronics.

The next and most dissapointing thing is the quality of the BOSE amp. I am a sound engineer and wanted to get rid of the BOSE system because it is so unreal in it's reproduction of sound. Bose make systems sound good to Joe Public by adding copious amounts of EQ to the head units and sometimes amps. This gives huge bass (just tried the new A8 and it is impressive) but makes the whole thing very untrue and the aural equivalent of Gold plating as opposed to Gold. The OEM system in my a8 had no imagery whatsoever, even taking into account that it's in a car and no middle either, leaving you with a mushy bass and over present treble and no vocals!

When I connected my Becker head unit to the Bose amp it sounded very average and the amp is really noisy too. I have been told that the BOSE amps run at low input level which would explain the alternator whine that I used to get at high speed with the old unit, even with it turned off.

In my old A8 with a non Bose system, the Becker powered the front speakers and the rear were self powered. It sounded pretty good considering I just swopped the head units, but the Bose system is so much more complicated.

Your other alternative as mentioned in an earlier reply is to buy a Dension adaptor which wil plug into the OEM unit and control your Ipod as if it were a CD player but won't give you the track names and album unless your existing Audi unit is capable of displaying CD text, which mine wasn't. However, it's a 30 minute job and will sound pretty good with not too much work.



Hope this helps and isn't too confusing!

[Vassosk]

Got BOSE got aftermarket equip............. if i did it then it must be possible

Clarion lcd touchpanel/dvd/mp3...........ipod to be fitted soon, get your canbas adaptors, face panel, ipod adaptor and a pro to fit it for you and you're done"!

Get in touch if you need details.