[eddiehaug]

As probably many of you know, the sub in the trunk of the i4 with the HK system is simply not good enough. Most of the bass ends up being delivered by door woofers, which takes care of the punch but it leaves out all of the lower frequencies, which is what you mostly feel and helps create a bigger soundstage.

Some people have asked me whether I get "more" bass with this upgrade and the answer is a big "it depends". You can get a lot more bass, but that's really not the point, at least not for me. What you do get is a nicer, rounder sound, bigger soundstage, you get to listen and feel the lower frequencies and you get to enjoy the music a lot more. If you want a lot of bass, then it's just a matter of increasing the gain in the amp, but I've found that with a little bit of gain is enough, and then I control the bass mostly with the Bass setting in the HK EQ in iDrive, in the range of -3 to 0 depending on the music.

The 10'' sub I chose works well with electronic music, pop, jazz, electro-acoustic music, etc. For rock, maybe a good 8'' would be better, but I would have to try it first. Maybe the same 10'' with a DSP could do the trick as well.

With the upgrade below, sometimes I even think I'm listening to a Live album when it's actually an studio one.

After this, I'm considering to add a DSP but there isn't yet a plug & play cable harness for the i4. Anyway, the sound with this small upgrade is night and day vs with the stock 8'' HK sub.

Total cost in Norway (25% VAT): ~1300 USD (1K for materials + 3K for installation).

Sub: JL Audio 10'' CS110TG-TW3
Amp: Kicker Key 500.1 (500W)

I hope this helps of inspiration for those of you not really sure about whether the upgrade is worth the cost or haven't even thought about it yet. If you like to listen to music in this car, I'd say this is a must have upgrade that you will not regret.

[gs6456]

Did your installer have any issues unique to an electric car? Were they hesitant to take on the job?

[eddiehaug]

Originally Posted by gs6456

Did your installer have any issues unique to an electric car? Were they hesitant to take on the job?

No, nothing, and not at all. The only thing with the it is that it has a different connector or something and there aren't any harnesses available for installing a DSP, in case of that you wanted to do that. Doing it manually would just take too much effort.

For this specific setup, no issue at all.

[alexcd]

What an inspiration! I am performing the same-ish install on my i4. I went with the Keyloc and separate amplifier, but otherwise it's the same. Did you use the DSP tuning program inside the Keyloc? I haven't been able to get it to finish the final tuning! Any tricks you can share would be appreciated. (emailed Kicker and waiting for a response)

[jpuffmasterpuffpuffpuff69]

You should measure the sound so you can see the actual response in the car and then use a DSP to tweak the sound to get a proper flat or somewhat sloping downturned graph in the driver's seat. This is a lot of work to do properly.

[eddiehaug]

Originally Posted by alexcd

What an inspiration! I am performing the same-ish install on my i4. I went with the Keyloc and separate amplifier, but otherwise it's the same. Did you use the DSP tuning program inside the Keyloc? I haven't been able to get it to finish the final tuning! Any tricks you can share would be appreciated. (emailed Kicker and waiting for a response)

Follow the instructions here (from 5:22):

And here (from 11:20):

Those video shows how to setup the amp, it's actually very straight forward once you see someone do it.

Originally Posted by jpuffmasterpuffpuffpuff69

You should measure the sound so you can see the actual response in the car and then use a DSP to tweak the sound to get a proper flat or somewhat sloping downturned graph in the driver's seat. This is a lot of work to do properly.

That's kind of the beauty of the Kicker, it auto-tunes the DSP:

[jpuffmasterpuffpuffpuff69]

Ah cool.

[SAF665]

I found personnaly that adjusting the fade halfway to the back, pumping the bass all the way up and the treble (and some tuning in the EQ for best results) I can pump up the volume up 1/2 , 3/4 and the bass is much more balanced from the rear sub and the door speakers. I turn off the suround as well, but I have high quality audio files in my phone. maybe best to keep it on if you have mp3s.

[eddiehaug]

Originally Posted by SAF665

I found personnaly that adjusting the fade halfway to the back, pumping the bass all the way up and the treble (and some tuning in the EQ for best results) I can pump up the volume up 1/2 , 3/4 and the bass is much more balanced from the rear sub and the door speakers. I turn off the suround as well, but I have high quality audio files in my phone. maybe best to keep it on if you have mp3s.

I do the same with the fade, and I have also biased the balance to the right (passenger seat). And yes, I also use lossless files using Android Auto.

[jeppe5432]

I'm considering the i4. One disappointment I had driving the car was the Harman Kardon sound system. The bass seemed to come from the door speakers and I could very well feel the vibration in my left leg while driving.

In my current car, 2016 Audi A7 with a Bose audio system and a separately adjustable (stock) subwoofer in the trunk, I do not feel any such vibrations in my leg, instead the bass just seems to appear from no specific point and surrounds me in a pleasant way. Sorry I don't know how to describe this better. Of course the A7 is a much roomier car and my leg isn't as close to the door speaker but still.

Would this sort of upgrade help with the vibration in the leg issue?

[eddiehaug]

Originally Posted by jeppe5432

I'm considering the i4. One disappointment I had driving the car was the Harman Kardon sound system. The bass seemed to come from the door speakers and I could very well feel the vibration in my left leg while driving.

In my current car, 2016 Audi A7 with a Bose audio system and a separately adjustable (stock) subwoofer in the trunk, I do not feel any such vibrations in my leg, instead the bass just seems to appear from no specific point and surrounds me in a pleasant way. Sorry I don't know how to describe this better. Of course the A7 is a much roomier car and my leg isn't as close to the door speaker but still.

Would this sort of upgrade help with the vibration in the leg issue?

I've never felt that vibration. Maybe you had the bass adjusted too loud? I play music very loud and I've never had that issue. Sometimes people have bottles in the door's bottle holder and that vibrates.

Anyway, upgrading the subwoofer allows you to relax the equalisation and that could help with the rattling you describe.

[jeppe5432]

Originally Posted by eddiehaug

I've never felt that vibration. Maybe you had the bass adjusted too loud? I play music very loud and I've never had that issue. Sometimes people have bottles in the door's bottle holder and that vibrates.

Anyway, upgrading the subwoofer allows you to relax the equalisation and that could help with the rattling you describe.

I tried playing with the settings. It wasn't a huge issue, just something I definitely noticed compared to my current car. Glad to hear you haven't noticed any rattling, I'll have to test drive another i4 just in case it was an issue with the one I drove.