Rear speakers in a 5 door (or lack there of!)

[ellie]

The more good things I discover about my new found polo, a find an equal amount of disappointment. I know these are entry level VW's but no rear speakers? Really?
Can someone please give me the inside line on some questions =
1. Is there wiring already in the door for them? If not -
2. Is the R200 headunit capable of running rear speakers?
3. Can you purchase rear speakers from VW? (I am aware there are other options)
4. Was there ever any form of factory audio upgrade offered? (Pacific models come with rear speakers and tweeters mounted mid door)

I know that there are any number of aftermarket options available but I bought this car as young and as low Km as possible so that I wouldn't have to work on it. With that in mind, I don't want to have to rewire/install a whole new system. I really just want to have some sound from the rear so it sounds like the quality car it is and not a ute.

Any answers to my questions would be most appreciated
Matt

[Buller_Scott]

dude, where do you live? you need to hook up with someone in the know-how in your city....

im after the same info you are, but luckily for me, a forum member has come to the rescue....

[ellie]

but luckily for me, a forum member has come to the rescue....

Please do share? How have you solved this issue in your circumstance?

I'm in brisbane and more than wiiling to meet someone with a 4 door that has solved some of the short comings of the polo. I Know Jmac is up here but he is also running a business and I'm sure he would get tired very quickly of the amount of technical questions I have currently as the car is new to me.

[ellie]

There is a rear speaker upgrade (retrofit) kit for the rear of a 5 door. I'm getting the dealer to sus it out for me as it isn't on file (never been bought in Aus I suspect = prohibitively expensive usually). He will let me know what is involved and what the damage is.

It would appear that the rear speakers (168mm co-axial 180W), a trim (wether that is the speaker mounting or a whole new door card with tweeter position) and a wiring kit (wether that is all the way to the head unit or just to the door plug - as most euro cars come pre-wired for accessories for easy installation) is needed .

Would still appreciate the feed back of someone who has rectified this themselves to expand the base of knowledge

[Buller_Scott]

Please do share? How have you solved this issue in your circumstance?

hey mate, im not sure just yet what i am going to do to ''optimize'' the sound in my car, as the bloke i will be discussing it with, will be at the maroondah dam cruise in vic in december, where i will check out his set up and pick his brains...

[kaanage]

1. Is there wiring already in the door for them? If not -
2. Is the R200 headunit capable of running rear speakers?
3. Can you purchase rear speakers from VW? (I am aware there are other options)
4. Was there ever any form of factory audio upgrade offered? (Pacific models come with rear speakers and tweeters mounted mid door)

1. Dunno - mine's a Pacific so it's all been done
2. Yep. But I ditched my RCD-200 to get extra features that it doesn't offer.
3. I'm sure you could get them as spare parts but I'm not sure why you wouldn't consider other brands since the OEMs are likely to cost a mint and get rivetted in so DIY is harder. That said, they sound pretty good although I don't spend too much time in the back seat.
4. Sorry, I dunno again.

The standard speaker drivers in the Polo (in the Pacific, anyway) aren't bad at all but I don't think the RCD-200 is that great a head unit. I upgraded to an aftermarket head unit and found an immediate improvement in sound but what really made the system clean, detailed and balanced was the addition of a sub (+ amp).

As well as adding extension, this got rid of the boomy mid bass from the door enclosures, stopped buzzing from the door trims (and pocket contents) and reduced distortion from the drivers themselves. All this allows the system to play louder while not inducing a head thumping migrane. To get this full improvement, however, you need to remove the bass signal from the speakers, either with passive filters (in a previous car , I ended up using 300 uF caps for a 6dB/octave cutoff to match my cheapy amp's fixed 120Hz 12dB/octave upper filter) or with a head unit that provides sub cross over filtering - the latter is far easier and much, much more flexible.

Sadly, the RCD-200 does not have subwoofer crossover nor outputs so you would need to cram 4 line level converters and capacitors (and maybe some inductors and resistors to further tune the bass cut if a simple 1st order rolloff doesn't quite work) behind the head unit to get a fixed bass redirection. Far better to get a head unit with a sub output and crossover + a pocket to full the extra DIN slot (or you could get a double DIN unit to fill the entire space).

Wiring in a new head unit is dead simple - you can either splice into the wiring behind the Quadlock connector or even easier, buy a Quadlock adapter (mine was from fleabay since I couldn't find one locally) to wire into before you install the unit into the car. You do lose the radio shutdown on key removal and you will need to splice into the cigarette lighter cabling to get the unit to shut down when the ignition is off. I've left mine powered on all the time until I can dig further into the wiring (detaching the face powers the unit off, anyway). The last thing you need is a Fakra-DIN converter for the antenna - preferably an amplified one.

[ellie]

Thanks for the very detailed info Kaanage, god damn pacific owners with their fancy shmancy upgrades.Plenty of good info for those wanting an upgrade.
I know the factory option is likely to be hidiously expensive (highly unlikely I would buy it) but If it supplies me with the knowledge of what the retrofit kit contains and what is needed to fit it, then I know exactly what I need to get the job done. Besides, Sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised buy how reasonably priced some dealer options are for the factory quality finish you get. Refer post #4
I should eplain that I am going down this route because it all comes down to your personal ethos for your car. Being a true car enthusiast, I could right several pages on what I have had in the past and why I now have this car. But the long and short of it is = This is the first car I have owned because it is an outstanding car perfectly suited, 98% of the time, to my driving habits. The first car bought purely with the head and not the heart. Completely clinical - top gear has built an empire distinguishing between the cars that do everything right (polo) and the cars you love(something fast that handles and stops, preferably rear wheel drive).
So, All I want from this car is the have an equal amount of quality/quantity of fill from the rear speakers as the front while maintaining a factory quality install using the factory head unit with a factory I-pod interface (which is what I will be using the majority of the time).

[kaanage]

Fair enough. An alternative to sourcing new is the enquire if any have been wrecked in your area - it would be a massive accident that would damage the speaker drivers and door trims. If the wiring isn't run through in yours, then hopefully, someone can advise you on how to remove the B pillar internal trims as that would be the only really tricky part.

I wouldn't regard altering the sound system as seriously deviating from the car's design principles, though.

And yes, the cars I have loved the most have been the ones with the most irritating faults as well as being fun.

[ellie]

Fair enough. An alternative to sourcing new is the enquire if any have been wrecked in your area - it would be a massive accident that would damage the speaker drivers and door trims. If the wiring isn't run through in yours, then hopefully, someone can advise you on how to remove the B pillar internal trims as that would be the only really tricky part.

Now we are on the same page. Only, considering the pacific was the only version to get the rear speakers, It would be close on impossible to locate a smashed one after only 1 year on the road. Another option is to get someones front splits they have discarded for an upgrade (5 or 3 door). I have a brand new set of 6" 3 way mid range quality component speakers I will most likely use to install with MDF mounts but will still explore all other options until it comes time.

I wouldn't regard altering the sound system as seriously deviating from the car's design principles, though.

Nor would I in relation to subtle upgrades, like well chosen speaker upgrades, fitting speakers where there should be, but isn't or even an amp. But my opinions are neither here nor there, Lets keep this informative and on track. I will keep this updated with what I find and still, If anyone has done this themselves and would like to share = Please do!

[kaanage]

You could try to find an older (9N), upspec 5 door Polo (the Match, I think) wreck rather than just look for the Pacific, since the speaker drivers probably wouldn't be different. I was told that in the last couple of years of a model's life, VW rename the specification packages (apart from the GTi) and increase the content slightly to help shift the remaining stock while preventing the previous buyers from comparing directly and getting pissed off at the better deal offered on the newer packages.