Calling all MKIV Audio Enthusiasts

[Alex]

Hi All,

1. Anyone know of a particularly good maker of Subwoofer boxes to fit a
MKIV's tea tray of a boot? Thinking about putting in either a pair of 10inch
DDDrive Alpine (wide response range) sub's or a pair of 10inch SQUARE Kicker's!
I may also want a box that includes an amp slot which would house the Sub
only amp - probabley an Alpine MRV-T757. I'll stick another 4-way amp under
the passenger seat to keep my girlfriend warm on cold days!
Anyway going back to the rear sub box - who can make it, and make it look
like OEM equipment?

2. The rear speakers in the MKIV are 6x9 arn't they? Will a 7x10 fit in
the standard hole (i've some on an American Web site - infinity speakers,
i think) or is it too small a space in the back?

3. The front speaker covers are massive but I have a feeling that the speakers
themselves are not nearly so large. How big are the standard front speakers
and how large a speaker can be fitted with either none or slight modification
to the mount.

4. Anybody got a clarion Multi changer going spare?

Cheers for any and all info/suggeations


Regards

Alex H

93TT MKIV
Norwich

[Ash]

The big problem with the MKIV is space. So anything that is really worth listening to has to be tailor-made to suit.

A couple of years ago, I set about designing what I (at the time) considered was my ultimate MKIV sound system. The criteria was to create a system with the best possible sound, yet to keep the car looking as stock as possible.

Firstly, I discovered that getting some quality component system in the doors is a PITA. There's this huge grill and when you take the inner panel off there's this tichy 4" speaker complete with plastic sound box.

Now, I just want to make something clear and that is... if you are a member reading this and have a stock MKIV system, and you think it's the bees-knees, then I wish you every success with it. Frankly, for a stock system, it is rather good. But people, such as myself, have this "thing" about their in-car music systems and will go to extraordinary lengths to produce what they consider to be their idea of the perfect in-car sound.  

The quarter panels, either side of the rear seats, will easily hold some decent component speakers from the likes of Focal or Clarion. I had a pair of SRS 1651's and I toyed around for a while between the Clarions or the Focals. In the doors, I made a fibreglass panel that filled the gap normally occupied by the stock plastic speaker box. The new speaker mounted to this panel at a point that is immediately behind the stock speaker grill. Again I toyed with the Clarions and the Focals. The tweeters I mounted on the inner door panel about 11 0'clock to the grill. The stock tweeters on the dash were retained.

Head unit was an Alpine 7944R and the 4 component speakers were driven by an Alpine MRVF407 amplifier. The amp was mounted in a custom fibreglass enclosure to the left of the spare wheel, and covered by the boot carpet.

I had 2 bass speakers, JL Audio 8" units, flush with the boot carpet, and located in a custom fibreglass enclosure made to fill the space between the back of the rear seats and the spare-wheel well. These were driven by an MRV-T503 amplifier located underneath the passenger seat.

Power was provided by an Optima yellow-top battery in place of the stock offering.

The system looked about as stock as one could make it and sounded remarkably good. Problem is, though, if you want to progress from this setup (as I did) then something has to give... space-wise.

I bought a couple of 12" Solo-Barics thinking their shape would fit more readily in the boot space, and toyed with the idea of junking the spare and creating a bass-box flush with the boot carpet. But I found that the one big, big problem is the long shallow shape of the boot.

What happens is, all you basically end up doing is vibrating the boot lid. Sitting bass-boxes in the boot can be very effective in some Fiat hatchback. But, with the MKIV, the distance between the boot and your ear is quite a long way by comparison.

For me, I decided to junk the rear seats. I've never had to use them. But I have, many times, been thankful of the boot space (in spite of its funny shape). My wife and I have a "weekend away" case that fits perfectly. :)

So I'm currently building on a concept which I term my "panoramic sound wall"; which will place a multi-speaker system right behind the front occupants. Plus, the inner panels of the doors will be re-worked to hold 2 component systems... in order to boost mid-range towards the front of the car.

HTH,
J

[Phil Offord]

Wow Ash (I assume you are the chap that was on the other mailing list that used to go under different names every few months, cos you have described the exact same system that he had in his car) i would like to see and hear that when you have finished.........I have just done a similar front end to your first attemp, apart from i have used Diamond 6" mids in the door and mounted the tweeters down at the rear of the kick panels so as to keep them as far away as possible, and it seems to work v.well. ^I have found that with the 6" mids in the stock door position it is quite hard to get the imaging right from both seats...did you have these problems? ^How are you going to tackle the vibrations problem....I haf filled my car with dynamat and the bloody thing still vibrates when i give the system any welly? ^I fitted 4.5" Heco mids in the rear quarter panels as infill and a 12" Celestion sub in the boot firing into the back seat, all is being driven by 2 Rockford Fosgate punch 200 amps at the moment, but am seeking another so that i can run the system completely active.

Do you ever go to the boxhill meets or any others?

Phil

[Ash]

Yeah, that was me (well some of the names were). It seemed at the time anyone who was anyone was dreaming up all kinds of crap and publishing it to the list. But we've decided not to piss about any more doing wind-ups and stuff. And even though the situation between myself and TDI will perhaps never be resolved, publicly, I'm going to put that whole issue aside and concentrate on making a serious go of this new list.

Yours,
J

[Ash]

As regards your post, I found all that happens when you put subs in the boot is you simply end up vibrating the whole boot section. I only had two 8" subs so the bass was not *that* low. But it still would vibrate like an Ann Summers sex toy.

What I feel is the bass should be brought more into the actual cabin area. That's why my next ICE stage will see the junking of the rear seats in favour of a couple of 12's and some 8's. And I'm going to re-cover all the plastic panels in leather and stick high density foam to the rear of each panel (where poss.) which should make them much less sensitive to vibration. My idea is to also fit two of the Clarions in each door instead of just one. As I'll be re-trimming the inner panel, that gives me scope for a little cutting and shutting. Plus, for the rear quarter panels, where the speaker grill is normally inset into the main panel: I'm thinking of making a larger panel that'll hold at least 2 Clarions (or Focals) and some tweeters; and having the new panel not inset so much, i.e. more flush with the main quarter panel. That way you create more surface area to mount more speakers. As I'll be recovering the dash too, that'll give me a lot of scope for fitting more tweeter pods.

The way I see it, the way to making a good sound in a MKIV is to develop the space to get more types of speakers into the actual cabin area. Although my previous setup was quite good, what I found was rather than being enveloped in sound... you'd hear the bass from one direction, the high notes from another, and the mid-stuff from somewhere else. So my task is to simply get more variety of speakers in the car. Then I can start tweaking it, in order to balance the whole setup.

Yours,
J  

[dmx75]

hiya guys, does any 1 know if there is a way of converting a touchscreen LCD from japan into bleedin english, cos it says when i first saw the car it was working but in japanese, then when i went to collect it, it was sayin insert appropriate disk?? its Pioneer by the way! :)

[SonicSoop]

http://www.versello.com/funnay/resurrection.jpg

[spidermonkey]

PMSL :d :d

[ultra_supra]

:rlol: :amen:

[michael]

My word, Alex will be gutted, he's a bass cadet at heart and now we all know!

;)

[AndrewOW]

It may well be a nearly dead thread, but its still got relevance today methinks! I'm referring to a dead thread from yesterday that probably should've remained that way.

At least dmx did a search before posting. It saved a 'repost' at least!

I for one have a boot build that keeps it looking stock, but have had to lose the space saver wheel.

[JamieP]

:d