Hi Saj,

Did you go down the Alpine route in the end?

I'm also interested in the the Alpine SPC-200AU and SPC-100AU upgrade and would be interested to hear peoples thoughts.

Thanks

 

I think I will be the first ever to review this product because I did not find any other review on the Internet. So I decided to take the plunge and purchase the Alpine kit, both 100AU and 200AU. I've asked a local car audio install shop for the install because I did not have the time to mess with trim removal and cable runs... They said they will handle this, but they don't...They tried though! The manual provided with the Alpine amp and speaker is useless, there is not much detail how to remove the trim panel but this info is easy enough to gather elsewhere, but they also do no explain how to connect the amp to the factory system AT ALL! No cable are labelled, you have to figure this out by yourself... And the installer guy did, sort of. In fact, the Alpine amp goes AFTER the factory radio in the trunk, it does not replace it and it does not connect to the fiber optic cable, also not on any line level signal, instead it takes the SPEAKER LEVEL output of the factory amp as input, and you have to CUT the factory wires because no harness is provided (the harness does not exist anyway). At this point the installer guy found a way to mount the amp in the car, because the provided brackets does not fit my car (it's a B8 A5, it suppose to be 100% compatible, but nope, none of the provided installation brackets fits), he also tried to call Alpine for support but ended getting nothing, no ones know this system and nobody at Alpine gives support on it. So he gave up and told me the amp simply not work, and he charged me $700 for labor an a non-working system.

So I was ready to accept my loss and keep the car as is... but no, I am not this kind of guy, so I tried to make it work by myself. So yes, the amp is fed by a not so good speaker level input, it use only the front and rear channels, it does not use the sub input. At the output of the amp, you have some unlabelled wires you have to figure out what it does, it's the speaker output and it output the front at full range, the dash mids with the added cable with a hi-pass at 300hz and lower volume and the rear speaker output is subwoofer for a reason... So you can't connect your rear speaker unless you leave them on the factory amp. There is a subwoofer cable the comes out of the amp but it outputs nothing. Also the DSP rotary switches does not work on my car model, in fact, only the position zero on switch A works, switch B can be anything... is this a bug? can't tell... Also we do not have any control over the Apline DSP, not even sub volume (because you will lose the MMI sub volume option), that's a shame, I'm pretty sure there is a lot of potential with this little amp if we could log into it and do some tuning, not everyone will love the "Alpine Engineer's perfect calibration"...

Well, after all those discoveries the amp is usable but what a pain! In the meantime, since I had all the Apline speakers installed in my car, there is no way I will not try everything possible to get the best out of it, so I took a deep plunge and got the Audiocontrol D6.1200 the replace the Alpine amp. Install was pretty straight forward with all the wires has been cut but the installer (I can send picture of the Audiocontrol install if someone's interesting) and, well, I have to tell you the Apline speakers from this kit are REALLY good, it's a HUGE improvement over the factory system and the Audiocontrol amp is a power beast! I had to amp the mids independently of the woofers and tweeter because it's really have to phase align the dash mids with the door speakers. But once done, man, it's something... I only have the Aplines in front and the factory sub, all connected to the Audiocontrol DSP and it slam like never before. I have an aftermarket sub but it's a 2ohm sub and this is not compatible with the amp unfortunately. Maybe later.

Bottomline is: I would not buy this product again, although the speakers are realy high quality, this install complications, lack of plug and play, lack of support, poor documentation is too much pain to recommend this system to anyone. I had not tried the Apline amp on the speaker yet, I may do that just to see how it sound against the Audiocontrol.

I will recommend upgrading this car speaker at anytime though, the worst part is the door 8'' that can't produce adequate mids and distort as hell, put a 6.5'' there or find a way to add the dash mids and some door tweeters. Then the Audiocontrol DSP Amp s really a great upgrade if you have some quality aftermarket speakers, not that hard to install in the spare location on top of the factory radio in the trunk.

If someone has any question about the SPC-100AU or SPC-200AU, let me know.

 

Hei very good review a lot of details, I liked this, but to be onest i didnt understand a lot off it i guess that is probably because my bad English and that I'm new in car audio world 😉
I hve 2 questions for you and I hope that u can answer them for me
1 I planned to buy 100 au and 200 au but after reading your review I figured out that amplifier installation most likely will be to complicated for me, so I wonder if there is an option and point of cotecting speakers from 200 au into original amplifier

2 is atlist 100 au worth installing? I'm a home cinema audiophile and I want something better in my audi it doesn't need to be very spectacular if you now what I mean 😉

 

Another found on my Alpine install, the factory head unit output an highly equalized and time aligned signal that is different from the front and rear speaker, as well as a bass cutoff for the rear. With all this care for a proper tuned stock system, it's a shame the stock system sound so bad! With the Audiocontrol amp, I was able to sum the output of the front and rear and trick the time alignment to restore an usable full-range signal that can feed my Apline 3-way front speakers. The result is good so far but there is too much boosted bass in front because of the channel summing, still need some tuning, and this sadly make my rear speaker unsusable, I liked the rear fill even if the speakers are not high end, I always found the rear of my audi sounded better than the front in stock form...

 

Continuing this review, I manage to try to bundled Alpine amp on my SPC-200AU system, and I must say it sound really good... the Apline amp's DSP truly compensate the stock DSP, time aligment and EQ calibration and make the new system shine. It's a pain in this ass to make it work as anything make sense on wiring, it use front input for the door speaker and the rear for the dash mids... Also the sub output is on the rear channels of the amp, oddly...

Also to note, the bass output from the front door 8'' is very strong, it does not seems to have any low cutoff so if may rattle the door at high volume... It would be nice to have a low cutoff and the lower bass sent only to the sub... Also this system make is very hard to use an aftermarket sub since everything is time aligned, only way I found is to use the rear output of the Alpine Amp (that is sub output) and bring this into another amp to drive the aftermarket sub... But this mean it's a hi-level signal converted TWO TIMES to low level, it has passed THREE amp before reaching the sub so I don't expect the signal to be the best... And this make the sub volume adjustement of the head unit unusable.

 

Ok so final though, I do have kept the Alpine front midbass and the mids, as those speakers are high quality and perfectly fit the car factory location, but I did remove the tweeters from the door, I also removed the Alpine amp due to lack of flexibility. Final system is the Alpine mid-bass, mids, and some JBL tweeters I have installed just above the mids in the upper dash, facing the driver, and this was the best audio mods I've made so far, it sounded so clean with precise imaging and full detail. MUCH better than the door location (also Alpine tweeter are not that great). Also I use the rear signal to power the front since it is less factory equalized and sound better. I can post pic to show how I have done the tweeter install while keeping the 2'' mid in the factory location, so now I'm running full 3-ways on the Audiocontrol amp and I'm pretty much satisfied with my system. I've just done a full sound deadening of the front doors using Soundskins, mainly to prevent rattling, this was also a good improvement. Only thing left to do is to find a good 4 ohm sub that can work well with the 400W output of the Audiocontrol amp.

I still not recommend anyone going the Alpine route, it's much too expensive, too complicated and the sound improvement is not enough to justify the cost and hassle to install.

 

Hi,

I bought the complete system (SPC-100AU, SPC-200AU) and also the x703d-q5 CarPlay compatible head unit (I have a Q5, obviously).
I installed everything myself, the installation took about a week, mostly because of removing almost every internal trim to lead all the cables from the amp in the back to the front speakers (I had never installed anything in any car before this ‘experiment’, except a dash cam once).
The rest of the installation was easy as I had the basic (passive) audio in my car, and the cable harness was mostly plug and play.
All I had to buy was a simple converter from ISO to the Audi specific Quadlock connector, I don’t understand why Alpine did not include that in the kit, which already had like 100 parts.
I also installed the OEM subwoofer as I did not have one in my car.
I’m still experimenting with them, it’s not entirely clear how certain settings in the head unit (e.g. crossover, time correction) interact with the amplifier’s pre-tuned car specific defaults.
The only issue I have is some resonance/distortion coming from the front/center speakers in the dashboard around 500 hz with high volume. It might be something with the crossover settings, I’m not sure. Any advice is welcome.

thanks,
Csaba

 

I'm thinking about the speaker upgrades for my 2014 A4. I have the Alpine X701D-A4 head unit installed and was looking for a simple plug and play upgrade. I have the installation manual for the SPC-100AU and SPC-200AU kits but it's not very clear about the wiring. It appears that the harness supplied with the SPC-200AU just connects the new amp to the three dash speakers and doesn't mention anything about the rest of the speakers in the car. The crossovers supplied with the SPC-100AU kit has the option to connect it for either a 2-way or 3-way system but doesn't show any other connections. I assume that the crossovers just have a low pass and high pass setting for the door speakers and the dash speakers only get the midrange frequencies from the new amp with the door speakers getting the audio signals from either the factory amp or the Alpine head unit. The OP was talking about having to cut some wires and I don't see that happening with this kit if it's installed properly. Did you run into any wiring issues like the OP described and, if so, what were they specifically? Right now all speakers in my A4 are receiving a signal with the new head unit installed so I'm hoping that will still be the case with the two upgrade kits as well.

 

Thanks for the reply. Do you have a link where I can purchase the ISO to Quadlock adapter? I just purchased both the SPC-100AU and SPC-200AU kits on ebay from the dealer in Italy, but I haven't heard back from him yet. Is this adapter actually needed with the X701D-A4 head unit? I believe the wiring harness for the X701D-A4 has the quadlock connector to interface with the car's wiring.

 

I also bought it from Italy, so you have a good chance to get it eventually.

I bought this converter:

MATCH PP-AC 88

Car-specific radio adaptor cable - VAG Quadlock (40 pin)

www.audiotec-fischer.de

Later I found out that there was an Alpine one for the same purpose and it is significantly more compact. Unfortunately I cannot find that link anymore

 

How does this adapter work? I looked at the one in the link you provided and it appears to insert inline with the existing wiring. I assume that some of the connectors in the wiring harness supplied with the SPC-200AU plug into some of the connectors in the quadlock adapter harness. I looked on ebay and these things are expensive. I have contacted the Alpine Support center in the UK to ask about the adapter to see if I need it with the X701D-A4 and where I can buy one.

 

Yes, you insert it inline as you described. Then connect the female and male ISOs from the Alpine harness into their appropriate counterpart in the converter. The only trick is, that now you have two unused connectors on the converter (a male and a female), those you have to plug into each other to close the circuit.
I ordered my one for 40 EUR including the shipping.
The Alpine converter was a little bit cheaper and more compact as it has only one pair of ISO connectors (as the other pair does nothing to do with audio).

 

This is the original Alpine adapter you need:

Alpine KWE-FR1AU - Sound Adapter für Audi

KWE-FR1AU Adapter for Audi Sound Upgrade with Fact The KWE-FR1AU enables the installation of SPC-200AU + SPC-100AU speaker sets in a car…

www.carfeature.de

This works in a little bit different way. The strange connectors at the end of the cables are the male/female counterparts of one of the sockets of the Quadlock (Quadlock is really three different sockets bundled together into one big connector). This also goes inline, but only between the wires that matter. You remove the Quadlock, take it apart, connect the wires, put the patched Quadlock back into the head unit.
Much compact solution, as you do not need the two huge Quadlock connectors and all the wires connecting them.

 

I just ordered the KWE-FR1AU adapter from Alpine. Are you saying that I do not need the PP-AC 88 Quadlock adapter if I use this one? Can you provide me with more detail about how to use the KWE-FR1AU? Perhaps a link with instructions on how to install it?

 

Correct. You need only either one of those. The Alpine adapter simply converts the iso connectors that come with the SPC-200AU's cable harness into the special Audi type ones. So instead of a pair of male/female ISO connectors you end up with a pair of these Audi connectors.
Now you remove the Quadlock from the back of the radio. The Quadlock connector is actually a set of different connectors bundled together. You replace the matching one piece of the Quadlock with the male end of the KWE-FR1AU. You plug back the Quadlock into the radio.
Last step: you plug the connector you removed from the Quadlock (that comes from the car) into the other piece of the KWE-FR1AU.
That's it. It might sound confusing, but it is quite self-explanatory when you see it yourself. And it is hundred times easier than removing the car's different trims without breaking them.

 

Thanks. It does sound a bit confusing, but I should be able to figure it out from your description. I bought the SPC-200AU from a dealer in Germany on ebay, but I haven't been able to find anyone that has the SPC-100AU that is willing to ship it to the U.S. None of the Alpine dealers I've talked to will do it because there's a regional issue with dealers here in the U.S. Right now I'm torn between trying to install just the SPC-200AU or go with my own amps and speakers using the preamp outputs from the X701D-A4. I'd like to see if I can just use the SPC-200AU for the dash speakers and try my own setup for the door speakers and subwoofer.

 

Good luck! If you are stuck just let me know, I will try to help you.

 

Thanks. You've been a great help already. If you happen to know of any Alpine dealers there that would be willing to ship to the U.S. that would be great. In the meantime I'm still keeping a lookout to see if anyone posts the SPC-100AU on ebay.

 

Try writing to hifigarage. According to their website they ship to non-eu countries, but you need to write them for a shipping quote. I hardly speak any German, but I could communicate with them very well with Google translate. Also, I'm pretty sure they speak English as well.

Alpine SPC-100AU

Alpine SPC-100AU - High End Austausch Lautsprechersystem Audi A4/A5/Q5 für folgende Fahrzeuge: Audi A4 (8K) Audi A5 (8T, 8F) Audi Q5…

www.hifigarage.de

 

Thanks. I've been in touch with the folks at HiFiGarage and got the shipping quote from them. I've been going back and forth trying to figure out how to get my address straight and trying to add in the shipping costs they quoted. Hopefully we'll get it worked out soon. For some reason the website was only showing up in German and it finally gave me the option to translate everything to English, which made things a lot easier.

 

Great to hear that! Btw, I also did not know that there was English version of their website when I ordered my x703d-q5.

 

Neither did I until I accessed the website for about the 15th time, then I got a drop down box with the option to translate it to English in Google Chrome.

 

Hi guys!
I have in my A5 already SPC-200AU built-in. Unfortunately SPC100AU is not avaible to buy. I try to found alternatives for this speakers, but I am not able to found even parameters for this speakers.. dont you have any idea where I could find it? Or what would be alternative ??

Thanks for any suggestion!

 

Check the previous posts for the link to the HiFiGarage in Germany. They apparently have them available.

 

Well, I just got an email from HiFiGarage today and apparently the SPC-100AU is no longer in stock. I asked them to check with Alpine for availability and to cancel my order if they can't get it. Looks like I'll have an SCP-200AU available if anyone's interested.

 

I get the same answer from all the eshops I asked. Looks like is finish with this product.

Thats bring me back to my question, Is there alternative to SPC-100AU?

 

I'm sure there are lots of alternatives, but none that are direct plug and play like the SPC-100AU. Any aftermarket door speakers would require an adapter ring to extend the speakers about 2 inches from the door panel and the pillar tweeters would probably require modifying the grill. You might also have to get a different amp to drive them as well as a crossover. You might have to use a Line Output Converter to tap into the speaker connectors from the factory amp and drop the signal down to a line level output to feed your own amp. The Audio Control amps have built-in line output converts that allow you to connect speaker inputs to them directly. I'm sure there are other amps that do it as well. The thing is, I'm not sure how the SPC-200AU could be integrated into the system if you don't have the SPC-100AU since the crossover for the dash speakers is provided with the SPC-100AU. I have a feeling that the door speakers are fed the full frequency range and the crossover that comes with the SPC-100AU is used to divvy up the signals to the door and dash speakers using the amp and wiring harness supplied with the SPC-200AU. I believe the amp that comes with the SPC-200AU has eight channels, but I'm not sure which speakers it powers on each channel. I'm thinking the left and right woofer, midrange, and tweeter have their own channels with the two rear door speakers getting the other two. I believe the subwoofer is till powered by the factory amp. I would guess that the center speaker in the dash gets a summed signal from the left and right midrange drivers in the dash. You could go with a full aftermarket amp setup as well as new speakers in the doors, but it seems like a lot of money to pay for three midrange drivers for the dash and not end up using the amp that comes with the kit. I'm still waiting to hear back from HiFiGarage about the availability of the SPC-100AU so I'll keep you posted as soon as I hear back from them.