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Yet Another Front Speaker Upgrade

runriot95

New member
Stupid question, but are those the same as the clips that have the little spiral deal on the back? The clip section looks identical, but the one you posted is a bit shorter. Just wondering if it will still work properly.

They don't have the little spiral but they seem to work just the same.
 

chanthing

Passed Driver's Ed
Okay, I decided to take the plunge (sort of) and I've ordered a Pioneer GM-D9500F, 4 channel Class D, speaker-level inputs, less than $200 and very small. I'll probably mount it somewhere in the rear, near the spare, Initially I'll just be using it to drive the door speakers, which means I have to pick up another set of components. I'll probably relegate the Infinity Kappas to the back. Still on the fence about how much to spend on the next set of speakers.

Thanks to everyone who photo-documents their builds so well. That definitely helped give me the confidence to try it myself. To keep it simple and the price lower, I'm omitting a sub for the moment. If I change my mindI guess I could think about running each side (front and back door) as a pair in parallel, but the Kappas are already 2 ohms so that'd put me on the ragged edge.

Stay tuned. And if you come across and Focal VR's at a discount price, let me know. (I placed a minimal bid on a a pair that's being auctioned at Ebay and was outbid in minutes.
 

Johnny Two Tone

Ready to race!
Okay, I decided to take the plunge (sort of) and I've ordered a Pioneer GM-D9500F, 4 channel Class D, speaker-level inputs, less than $200 and very small. I'll probably mount it somewhere in the rear, near the spare, Initially I'll just be using it to drive the door speakers, which means I have to pick up another set of components. I'll probably relegate the Infinity Kappas to the back. Still on the fence about how much to spend on the next set of speakers.

Thanks to everyone who photo-documents their builds so well. That definitely helped give me the confidence to try it myself. To keep it simple and the price lower, I'm omitting a sub for the moment. If I change my mindI guess I could think about running each side (front and back door) as a pair in parallel, but the Kappas are already 2 ohms so that'd put me on the ragged edge.

Stay tuned. And if you come across and Focal VR's at a discount price, let me know. (I placed a minimal bid on a a pair that's being auctioned at Ebay and was outbid in minutes.

Go on DIYMA.com in the classifieds to find some sweet deals. Focals are easy to find with a deal.
 

chanthing

Passed Driver's Ed
A random questions before I switch over and create a "real" build thread.

Some searching of past forums here and elsewhere produced conflicting information as to whether one could use VAGCOM to change the outputs of the RCD510 HU to line level. Has this been proven to work? Does changing the level mean you have to feed the outputs to an amp that accepts balanced inputs (that was suggested in at least one place)? I was really surprised to be seeing this mentioned as a possibility for the first time. Seems like it should be in a sticky somewhere.

The Pioneer Class D amp I ordered ended up being out of stock at onlinecarstereo and pretty much everywhere else but it's replacement, the GM-D8604 with almost identical features and even a slightly lower price is around. But if I can reprogram the HU so I don't need an amp with speaker-level input, I'd like to look around a bit more before deciding. Maybe my impression is incorrect, but it seems like I'd be more likely to get a clean signal path by getting line out of the HU. If that makes sense, please suggest a 4 (or 5, though it's doubtful I'm going to be getting a sub) channel amp (preferably class d for less heat, more efficiency). I haven't definitely decided on the amp location, but I'd like it to be possible to mount under one of the front seats. Oh, and at least 75 watts into 4 ohms, preferably > 100.

Also over the weekend I ordered a pair or Morel Tempo 6 2-way component speakers. I feel really stupid buying speakers I've never heard, but based on web reports I finally concluded that the Focals were most likely brighter than I like. The Morels were described as not strictly accurate, but warm and open. I could be crazy but I get the idea that they are similar in sound to my Tannoy PBM 6.5 II's that I listen to all day at work. I'd be interested to hear if people think there is a better mounting location for the tweeters than in the stock sail panels. I guess if I can angle the tweeter within the panel so that it points at the opposite passenger (right points at the dirver, left points at the usually vacant passenger seat. :)

BTW, it was a pretty good Buy It Now Ebay deal on the Morels. $205.95 delivered. The average price I could find on the web was around $340. They're coming from Israel, where they're made, so it may be a wait, but the claim was that she would use EMS express shipping for this order. How difficult will it be to know if I get counterfeits?

Thanks as usual. Look for the premiere of the actual build thread shortly.

-- Chanthing
 

Johnny Two Tone

Ready to race!
^If I were looking for a 5 channel amp that I could fit under a front seat, and that had at least 75watts RMS per channel and no high-level inputs, I'd get the Alpine PDX-5 (which is, in fact, one of the two amps I have in my car, under the driver's seat) - keeping in mind that there is no remote sub control. Alpine's PDX series is often under-rated, so you'll get at VERY least 75watts (plus the 300watt fifth channel, of course). You can get them on eBay, basically new (or at least NOS) for under $300 (not the marine version). And, sometimes you can find them on eBay, well used, for around $200 (not often, though. But, I'm sure you could look in car audio classifieds of various forums).

The best way to know if an item you purchased is counterfeit or not is to take a photo or two of the item and send it to the makers' company. They should be able to identify the driver as the real deal or not.
 

chanthing

Passed Driver's Ed
Thanks for all the advice. That Alpine looks like a sweet amp, but I'm going to stick with my original plan (the Pioneer GM D8604). It's already on its way here and is half the price, even if I was able to get a good deal on the Alpine.

Just out of curiousity, what are you using for the remote power-on signal in the under-seat location? One of the minor attractions of the Pioneer is that it will do power up on an input signal. It'll be interesting to see how well that workds.

== Thing
 

Johnny Two Tone

Ready to race!
^I'm using a processor in the car (Rockford Fosgate 3Sixty.3) which has power sensing turn on and it's works exactly as advertised; press the radio's power button and everything comes on as expected.
 

nadams5755

Ready to race!
my audison bit-ten's power-on from signal pickup is good. i imagine others are the same.

you can use the vagcom software to set your signal levels of the rcd510. i know for a fact you can't on the rcd310 though. i'd avoid mounting the crossovers in the doors because of moisture. there seems to be enough room inside the kick panels. maybe mount them back with the other electronics?

i used nuts and bolts to hold my door mounting rings in place. i 'clocked' the speaker so its mounting holes wouldn't overlap with the factory ones, then used machine bolts and t-nuts to hold them in place.



 

Intenz888

Ready to race!
Whats the largest size speaker ring or baffle that you can make without having to cut the rear support in the back and not hit anything in the front?
 

Johnny Two Tone

Ready to race!
Whats the largest size speaker ring or baffle that you can make without having to cut the rear support in the back and not hit anything in the front?

I'm not sure I fully understand your question, but here are a couple of tips that may be relevant.

1)For the fronts don't use any speaker ring with a depth greater than 1". Even that's cutting it close and many people that use that ring depth use a dremmel tool to cut away the weird edging that is on the inside of the speaker grill portion of the door card. Doing so will ensure that should the speaker push out too far it won't bash into the poky edges of the inside of the speaker grill.

2)the deepest speaker you can comfortably use in the front woofer spots, with a 1" baffle, would be 2.75". Obviously, if you use a shallower spacer ring you will need to reduce the speaker depth by the same amount.

3)You absolutely cannot cut any of the obstructive supports that block the front speaker holes. The brackets that are back there are part of the window regulator. There's imply no way around it, unless you plan to remove the regulator and then re-fabricate new braces. The rear doors, on the other hand, do not have these obstructions and can therefore take a much deeper speaker. You still need to be aware of the depth to allow the window to roll down all the way. I've had a speaker with a 2.95" depth in the rear doors before and it was fine (though, I can't remember if I used a 3/4" ring or a 1" ring).
 
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