Looking for some spaceship action !

[Unomelodica]

thanks @ Bit_evl - I hear you about the size but i am coming from a car which is over 5m in length and it isn't even an estate !

Ive read multiple posts comparing the Bose vs B&O, the latter isn't worth 6k+, i get that. Confession time, i'm a bit of an audiophile, more importantly also a realist, how effective is the bose in the car. I've seen post's where people have parted out the sub in the boot and replaced it with a more beefed up design - whats peoples opinions, yay or nay ?

G

[shanek]

Just a quick thought, if your using the beast as a motorway mile muncher, would you not be better on air suspension than DRC? Comfort mode on DRC is just about bearable on a long run but on air suspension the miles just fly by!
Also, you wouldn't have any of the issues experienced by DRC owners.

Have you driven a DRC car much? I have used both on all types of roads and DRC is just as comfortable on motorways as air in Comfort (or Auto for that matter) - to be honest I would be hard pushed to tell which I was in if I wasn't told.
DRC would be a must for me on the twisty stuff though - there you can tell the difference.

If ride is your main concern get 20s not 21s.

I have spent time in both and own an air speced performance. I agree with Bit_evl on the comparison between the 2.
Saying that, as I needed a tow bar on my RS6 to tow my track bike I had to go air suspension, if I didn't need to go that way, I would have speced DRC for that extra body control it offers in the twisties.
Air doesn't give as tight body control but there is no lack of grip available when pushing on, it just rolls about a little bit more.

[MikeFish]

thanks @ Bit_evl - I hear you about the size but i am coming from a car which is over 5m in length and it isn't even an estate !

Ive read multiple posts comparing the Bose vs B&O, the latter isn't worth 6k+, i get that. Confession time, i'm a bit of an audiophile, more importantly also a realist, how effective is the bose in the car. I've seen post's where people have parted out the sub in the boot and replaced it with a more beefed up design - whats peoples opinions, yay or nay ?

G

The headunit is the same as far as I can tell with Bose and B&O so the only difference are the amps and speakers (along with any equialisation). The units can play FLAC via USB or SD card so keeping your entire librabry in the car at CD quality or higher is not an issue (I can't remember how high sample rate of FLAC it will play though). I can't remember when FLAC compability started though, it might have been FL or even MY2016.
Pre-facelift cars have a digital input to the Bose amp in the boot so a Mobridge or Audison MOST convertor will give you a usable digital output to input into a aftermarket amplifier or processor so with the battery already in the boot this gives you a really easy upgarde path to some real high quality gear which will smash the B&O in terms of quality. However, facelift cars converted to MOST150 which the Mobridge and Audison cannot handle so currently if you want an aftermarket amp you will need to take a high level output from the Bose which is far from ideal. Plush have a facelift car and used the highlevel output from the Bose to feed a load of small Audison amps that they have managed to install behind the trims so not lost any boot space. My single sub amp is realatively big so take up a lot of space but it is under the floor with the battery.

So if I am mistaken and pre-facelift cars can handle FLAC then this would be the best combo for an audio upgrade.

As a cheap and quick upgrade I disconnected the centre speaker in the dash as it really distracted from the stereo imagery and muddied the sound (crappy little speaker making all the noise). This made a huge difference to the soundstage and then coupled with an aftermarket amp and sub in the boot actually sounds really good when fed with decent material.
If only I could use the digital output for my processor and aftermarket speakers I would be in heaven.

[Unomelodica]

Thanks mike that's very comprehensive .I thinks it fair to say £6300 for the B&O is a lot of coin - I know , 2nd confession time, when i were a yuth having spent a considerable amount of my hard earn't on my then car a Golf Gti 16v .Today, tech with its advances in digital , i.e. Audison bit ones etc integration is potentially made so much easy -

I will be looking to seek out just a little more performance - I guess by adding an external amp the system should sound better, as it isn’t been stressed as much all conjecture on my part mind.

I suppose asking for MQA or DSD is gonna be too much ! , I'm still a vinyl guy, slowly converting to the dark side.

G

[MikeFish]

I suppose asking for MQA or DSD is gonna be too much!

No need for it from MY2016 (pretty sure this was when it started supporting FLAC); it will play 24bit 96KHz. MQA is only CD quality isn't it? And DSD is SACD quality? Which is prety much covered by 24bit 96Khz, the only files it won't play are 192Khz I think. And no need to worry about streaming, you can store it all in the car on hard drives.

Earlier cars have alternatives like Audison Bit Play HD so a pre facelift car has great potential to support these files and still make use of the digital output.