Good buddy of mine brought in his Audi A4 for some bumps.
He got a killer deal on his Digital Designs 12" Shallow Mount Woofer and matched 850 watt amp....so now it was time to get everything installed.....normally amp/sub installs can be hammered out in a matter of hours....but this one was a bit different.
The A4 has an Airlift Performance V2 Air-Ride installed on it...which the owner installed himself.
The goal here was to achieve as much bass as possible while integrating in his air-ride setup and maintaining a decent amount of storage in the rear boot.
First thing first....clean up the existing install and make things more organized and easier to maintenance if needed.
Next was figuring out how I was going to mount everything and where they'd all go.
Fabricated a lower amp rack that would also double as a compressor mount....compressor was bolted down on vibration bushings to assist in noise-suppression.
After that, I integrated the aftermarket amp into the OEM Symphony system via an Arc Audio ALD module by tapping into the OEM Subwoofer output. I removed the subwoofer and sound deadened the entire rear deck lid to help suppress vibrations when that DD sub hits. I also did some sound deadening around the compressor to assist in quieting that thing up even more.
Next was on to the subwoofer box build. I was going to fiberglass this to sink it down in the boot more...but figured without moving/relocating the battery, that'd be a waste of time for minimal gains.....so a removable box that is also a false floor was the go-route. Everything was built out of 3/4" MDF and the box was tuned to 42hz with a 3" aeroport. The box top was then covered in black vinyl and the port was covered with a aoucustically transparent grill mesh to make sure nothing gets dropped down inside of the box/port.
Next was the false floor/box cover. This would be a challenge as I needed to make up for the 3" difference in height from the OEM panel to the beauty panel....so went old school and used 1/4" wooden dowels to make a brace structure, blended in a mesh material (read: t-shirt) then fiberglass the front of it and backside for structural purposes....popped the mold, reinforced, body-filled it smooth enough for carpet covering and she was good to go. This piece pressure fits into the boot and seals off all sides and mates up with the air tank perfectly.
Final piece of the puzzle was to light up this whole setup. I replaced the rear cargo light with a 12" RGb strip and wired it directly to white....I have a feeling Dova will want to put this on a control module that he can change colors in the future...but that will be easily converted over.
Impressions of Amp/Sub/Box.....
For a shallow mount box in an area designed to allow storage of things...this setup sounds damn good. SUUUPER deep, carrying bass. Nothing that will push you out of the seat...but definitely nothing that will sound distorted. Super clean, hard-hitting bass when needed. He's got room on that amp to add another subwoofer if he feels he needs it.....but I'll have to redo all the work I just did....so we'll see what happens there :-D
He got a killer deal on his Digital Designs 12" Shallow Mount Woofer and matched 850 watt amp....so now it was time to get everything installed.....normally amp/sub installs can be hammered out in a matter of hours....but this one was a bit different.
The A4 has an Airlift Performance V2 Air-Ride installed on it...which the owner installed himself.
The goal here was to achieve as much bass as possible while integrating in his air-ride setup and maintaining a decent amount of storage in the rear boot.
First thing first....clean up the existing install and make things more organized and easier to maintenance if needed.
Next was figuring out how I was going to mount everything and where they'd all go.
Fabricated a lower amp rack that would also double as a compressor mount....compressor was bolted down on vibration bushings to assist in noise-suppression.
After that, I integrated the aftermarket amp into the OEM Symphony system via an Arc Audio ALD module by tapping into the OEM Subwoofer output. I removed the subwoofer and sound deadened the entire rear deck lid to help suppress vibrations when that DD sub hits. I also did some sound deadening around the compressor to assist in quieting that thing up even more.
Next was on to the subwoofer box build. I was going to fiberglass this to sink it down in the boot more...but figured without moving/relocating the battery, that'd be a waste of time for minimal gains.....so a removable box that is also a false floor was the go-route. Everything was built out of 3/4" MDF and the box was tuned to 42hz with a 3" aeroport. The box top was then covered in black vinyl and the port was covered with a aoucustically transparent grill mesh to make sure nothing gets dropped down inside of the box/port.
Next was the false floor/box cover. This would be a challenge as I needed to make up for the 3" difference in height from the OEM panel to the beauty panel....so went old school and used 1/4" wooden dowels to make a brace structure, blended in a mesh material (read: t-shirt) then fiberglass the front of it and backside for structural purposes....popped the mold, reinforced, body-filled it smooth enough for carpet covering and she was good to go. This piece pressure fits into the boot and seals off all sides and mates up with the air tank perfectly.
Final piece of the puzzle was to light up this whole setup. I replaced the rear cargo light with a 12" RGb strip and wired it directly to white....I have a feeling Dova will want to put this on a control module that he can change colors in the future...but that will be easily converted over.
Impressions of Amp/Sub/Box.....
For a shallow mount box in an area designed to allow storage of things...this setup sounds damn good. SUUUPER deep, carrying bass. Nothing that will push you out of the seat...but definitely nothing that will sound distorted. Super clean, hard-hitting bass when needed. He's got room on that amp to add another subwoofer if he feels he needs it.....but I'll have to redo all the work I just did....so we'll see what happens there :-D
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