3 each door.


.

 

Mr Hotspur has confirmed the total speakers to be 3 in each door.
Can I ask how's your installer wiring up the after market amp ? to coincide with the factory stock amp ...

 

You guys are great, thanks so much for helping a new owner who doesn't even know what he doesn't know. I appreciate you all taking the time.

Let me point the discussion in this direction: my stereo is horrible, so bad that clearly there is something wrong with it. I've seen that the NAIM (which I don't think I have) amps go bad and the installer said that the foam edges to the larger speakers degrade (I've seen this). But m stereo is BAD. When I ran the VAG ODB codes, I found the codes below, but after I cleared them, they didn't show back up.

I took this to be that someone worked on the stereo at some past time and the faults were no longer present. But a short to ground for a speaker is a big deal and whatever "single wire operation" is sounds bad too.

Before I spend $4k on new speakers and amp, is it possible that my system now just has some damaged bits? Do your stereos sound terrible? I have nothing to compare this too. I mean, with 12 speakers, it looks designed really nicely, with bass, midrange, tweeters distributed, a big amp...I find it hard to believe it came from the factory this bad. Could the speakers have deteriorated? Or is the amp bad, or is "single wire" the cause of everything?

Thanks for the discussion. The installer gives me few details on his bids, although he is willing to go through everything with me via telephone, but I really need to have a firm idea of what I want. As I've said, he works on Bentleys, I just was in last week to see his most recent Ben Hur, the shop is clean and full of exotic cars getting worked on, with a really good online reputation. Really the weak spot here is me, he'll do whatever I want, but I also suspect he's used to rich guys just letting him do it "right". He's given me two quotes, one with four middle-of-the-road Alpine replacement speakers and a small amp, and one with six Focal speakers and tweeters (don't know how many) and a big amp and sub. He knows about the backup sounds, and I haven't asked him about the stock. power amp.


Remember: these codes came with the car, don't know the last time they were cleared. I cleared them, they aren't there now:

Address 47: Sound System Labels: 7Lx-035-4xx-47.lbl

Part No: 3W0 035 456 C

Component: 12K-AUDIOVERST 4121

Shop #: WSC 00000 000 00000

VCID: 34311DE842295E374A5-5161



2 Faults Found:

00874 - Treble Speaker Front Left (R20)

007 - Short to Ground

00871 - Bass Speaker Front Right (R23)

011 - Open Circuit

Address 17: Instruments Labels: 3Wx-920-xxx-17.lbl

Part No: 3W0 920 841

Component: KOMBIINSTRUMENT RB8 0520

Coding: 0023203

Shop #: WSC 03220 104 72655

VCID: 72BDDBF078BD1007989-5161



3 Faults Found:

01325 - Control Module for Tire Pressure Monitoring (J502)

004 - No Signal/Communication - Intermittent

00469 - Infotainment Databus in Single Wire Operation

012 - Electrical Fault in Circuit - Intermittent

01305 - Databus for Infotainment

004 - No Signal/Communication - Intermittent

 

 

Obviously, this is crazy expensive. I think I need to specify exactly what I want him to do, from the 12 speakers to the amp and sub. Focal is great, but I don't think I need to pay for "great", the Alpine 6.5' were $70 each, the Focals are $399 ea.

Do I want to replace all the tweeters? what's a good high-end brand that isn't all marketing?

 

 

Seems overkill?

 

The OEM system at best was mediocre. My two cents: Any audio file system is only as good as its weakest link. Obviously you're not going to replace the whole system so only replace the broken components. There will always be other opportunities to spend money on a Bentley.

 

It's no good asking us what we think you want, It's down to you what you want & how far you want to go with this system. Do you have any pictures of the system ie Speakers, what condition they in.
What do you mean by single wire operation ...
If your going to do this upgrade then do the whole thing, otherwise its not going to sound nice.
The Bentley system isn't a bad system, ok the the head unit is now out of date & needs upgrade but the amp & speakers are good. obviously we can't hear your system but you could upload a video of what it sounds like ...
How old is your car ?

 

It's 2005, I'll get a recording next time I drive. The stereo sounds like it has blown speakers or a bad amp, it's hard to explain. I have a very good system in my Cadillac and compared to the two, I don't even want to turn on the radio. Very tinny sounding is the best way I can specify. i'm not sure a recording is going to do it justice, it's just plain awful. Like the old days of speakers on top of the dash. the "single wire operation" is reference to the ODB code I got, I have zero idea what it means.

What I really need to do is to first specify what I need to buy/specify. I'm going to take your advice and replace all speakers. So the next step is (thanks for the printout) finding speakers that actually fit, then deciding on the best price/value to buy. Same with the power amp, although I don't know enough about this and have to research more, I understand the basics, but modern stereo systems have a lot of paths to go down.

It looks like the doors have one 6x9, one tweeter and one 6.5", but on the other thread you said it looks like I have my speakers all mixed up, so this is what I need to confirm first. the tweeters on the A pillars and by the rear seats are obvious, the tweeter in the door less so, but I assume it's the same as the front and rear.

So far, I'm at this point:

- Ben Hur (already ordered0
-Alpine Halo 9" receiver(if it looks ridiculous, installer will change it to flush Alpine 6.8")
-Rear subwoofer

What's left is deciding on brand and style of door speakers and rear seat armrest speaker. The specs you posted were in mm, I can do the conversion, but am I wrong to think for each door a 6x9 and a 6.5"?

 

You need to have your installers design a system for you on paper, see if it works for you, don't start buying speakers then finding out they no good. Your installers should know the sizes and what fits.
Ive posted the sizes of all speakers that are in your vehicle and how many there are on my post ... have a look, Also you guys should know how to get round the PDC Beeps, if not read my post which includes Johnny's recomendations ...

 

Hello British,
As Rico had posted in his thread, I have added to it and post it here, yes you do have your speaker layout all messed up , there are no tweeters in the doors, you have 1- 1" tweeter in each A-pillar (2), the doors each have a 3" midrange (2), a 6"X9" bass (2), and a 6.25" bass (2), in each of the rear side panels you have a 3" midrange (2), and a 1" tweeter (2), for a total of 12.

2 x Front Tweeters----4 OHM------25mm /1"
2 x Front Mids-------4 OHM------80mm / 3.14"
2 x Front Bass-------2 OHM------150mm X 230mm / 6" X 9"
2 x Rear Bass-------2 OHM-------160mm / 6.3 "
2 x Rear Mids------4 OHM------- 80mm / 3.14"
2 x Rear Tweeters--4 OHM--------25mm / 1"

 

Hello Johnny
Thanks for the follow up ...

 

 

Oh, and what in the world do I do with non-standard size 3.14", and 6.3" speakers? Do those translate into something easy, like Eurospec speakers or something? I'll get back on Crutchfied.