[Scoot]

So I'm totally impressed with the quality of my audi a8 but I'd like to upgrade the sound system which is the standard set up. Tbh it does sound quite good but I miss the quality of the BMW pro logic set up of my previous cars.

What I'm worried about is the audi is built like a tank and to get to all the speakers the whole front dash ( I think ) would need to come out and the same for door and rear shelf speakers. Am I worrying for nothing letting a firm upgrade the amp and speakers and do you think that for a good installer it should be an easy job?

Secondly I know of a firm ( sextons) in Gloucester that does car audio but does anyone know of an excellent firm in the midlands that could do a professional job without fucking up my car?

What should I be budgeting for a good sound system install , the car has twelve speaker points ?

Thx

Scoot

[AWBimmer]

Speak to Lee at Platinum Car in Coventry. You can say that you know Sam, the one who bought the Hertz HDP4 off him few months back! He'll know me, hopefully! He is by far one of the most nicest, neutral, 'unsalesy' guy I know - genuinely passionate about car audio. He gave me endless advice and made nothing from it.... I didn't go to him since he's too far for me to go to but had I been living in those neck of the woods, I'd be all over his shop floor like a rash. He is really knowledgeable in acoustics / sound and seems to knows his stuff very well!

Just give him a call mate and speak to him, tell him what you have and what you're after and if anything, you'll only walk way gaining valueable knowledge

Sam.

[Palmnuts]

Ahhh Jeez....at least you haven't got some fancy overpriced branded shit that you need to upgrade

Following a similar recommendation, I have spoken to Lee at Platinum In Car this week about my audio system woes in my SLS and he seemed knowledgeable and competent on the phone. If my car isn't fixed by Mercedes this week then my next step is taking it to him and seeing what he can do.

As for budget.....mmm, thats could be almost limitless. It cost me £3k to upgrade the Bose system in my Maserati and that bought me 4 speakers, a sub and an amp (all reasonably top-end JL stuff).

It sounded shit.

I guess you weren't expecting that?

However, this is the unfortunate fact and it has made me a bit sceptical of the aftermarket so am being very careful in my choice of installer this time as I'm pretty sure it wasn't shit because of the quality of components, more I think a poor choice of components for given locations.

[Scoot]

I'm so Impressed with the car I was thinking of finding a used S8 but looking at the specs on the used audi site none of them have anything near a decent spec , and I certainly don't want to chuck £65000 into one.

My main concern is getting to all the speakers and not causing any damage and tbh I think £1500 would be enough and I would want a big improvement for that.

[peterg1965]

I take it the A8 was repaired to your entire satisfaction Scoot?

[Scoot]

Yes they've done a superb job.

I'm very pleased with it so far. It's powerful , extremely comfortable and feels very secure with the Quattro. I'd say its about 15% better than the F11 5 series.

What's poor is the Bluetooth sounds like a second generation system compared to the BMW, the interface doesn't seem as good as BMW either and I'm especially missing the buttons on the BMW that you can program to your desire.

It's averaging 33.5mpg which I'm a little disappointed with but I suppose as I've been giving it a lot of stick over the last week i would imagine that 35mpg will be the average but we will see.

The heated / air conditioned massaging comfort seats are superb, and that also goes for the safety features which is why I chose this vehicle.

I have an order in for the new RS6 but I'm seriously thinking of buying a used S8 but like above, the spec of the cars currently on sale seems very poor.

So hopefully it will be reliable as I've never been very successful with Audi ownership