speaker sizes MK4

[ranton-inc]

Yeah not to get to picky here but if you where to put your outputs and get a reading I bet:
1: Your Alpine amp makes more than 115WRMS
2: Whatever it makes you are only giving half of that maximum to the speakers.

As you said its all about how they tuned. I'm guessing you didn't use a clipping indicator to check when the amp goes above 5%THD and hook your speaker up to that...

Hook up you RE's which are a decent set up and watch yourself go for the gains to turn it up... and better yet, listen to them handle that power.

Glidn is a human Clipping indicator lol


but yes cant wait to get the REs in

[balkanac]

Sounds like you guys know what you are talkin about, so naturally, i have a question
Is there any way that i can run a sub(s) and an amp for it off the factory headunit?

[Mr ©harisma]

Glidn is a human Clipping indicator lol

but yes cant wait to get the REs in

lol he sounds good, at least he is helping you guys out in NZ. 2 thumbs up
Those RE's will be a HUGE improvement. If you like your music loud, you wont be disappointed as long a your mount them correctly ( which I'm sure you will do ).

[Mr ©harisma]

Sounds like you guys know what you are talkin about, so naturally, i have a question
Is there any way that i can run a sub(s) and an amp for it off the factory headunit?

Simple answer is yes.

The only obvious problem is getting a signal from the factory deck and not having a remote turn on, like you would on an aftermarket deck. The way around this is to get either low level converters or a signal processor. You can get low level converter from Jaycar for like $15ea. Signal Processor is a bit more $$$, something like the Audiocontrol LC6 or even better Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.1. Both are RRP$399 and $499 respectively I think. Either way you will convert you 4 channel speaker outputs into the equivalent of 2 pairs of pre outs. With the RF it actually gives you 3 sets ( so you can run 5.1 ).

Now the problem with using your speaker outputs is that you will have nothing left to power your speakers. I did this in a Mazda 3 recently, he wanted a cheap install and factory looking. So what I did:
Use the cheaper low level converter
Used the Acc wire as the remote turn on
Got a 4x 50WRMS amp to run the factory speakers ( the amp has an RCA out )
Used the 2 sets of RCA's and plugged them into the 4ch speaker amp ( this allows for fade and balance control )
Ran another set of RCA's from the RCA out of the speaker amp to the sub amp
Ran a wire from the remote on the 4ch to the sub amp

Good thing is in the future when he can afford the RF 3sixty.1 he will be able to correct the EQ of the factory deck via a Palm. Also the amp is in ready for him to upgrade his speakers.

May I ask is there any reason why you want to keep the factory deck?

[zedub]

Sounds like you guys know what you are talkin about, so naturally, i have a question
Is there any way that i can run a sub(s) and an amp for it off the factory headunit?

yes you can, but you need to use line level inputs
(I've got some converters sitting on the back of my oem deck.. and the oem deck is conveniently out of the car for good clarion DXZ875USB in its place)

pm if you wanna have a look at how its wired (and I'll bring it to the next Perth meetup of VWW or ECCA) otherwise any car audio place should be able to do it. (I'm assuming the R32 has same deck as the GTI)

[glidn]

Simple answer is yes.

The only obvious problem is getting a signal from the factory deck and not having a remote turn on, like you would on an aftermarket deck. The way around this is to get either low level converters or a signal processor. You can get low level converter from Jaycar for like $15ea. Signal Processor is a bit more $$$, something like the Audiocontrol LC6 or even better Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.1. Both are RRP$399 and $499 respectively I think. Either way you will convert you 4 channel speaker outputs into the equivalent of 2 pairs of pre outs. With the RF it actually gives you 3 sets ( so you can run 5.1 ).

Now the problem with using your speaker outputs is that you will have nothing left to power your speakers. I did this in a Mazda 3 recently, he wanted a cheap install and factory looking. So what I did:
Use the cheaper low level converter
Used the Acc wire as the remote turn on
Got a 4x 50WRMS amp to run the factory speakers ( the amp has an RCA out )
Used the 2 sets of RCA's and plugged them into the 4ch speaker amp ( this allows for fade and balance control )
Ran another set of RCA's from the RCA out of the speaker amp to the sub amp
Ran a wire from the remote on the 4ch to the sub amp

Good thing is in the future when he can afford the RF 3sixty.1 he will be able to correct the EQ of the factory deck via a Palm. Also the amp is in ready for him to upgrade his speakers.

May I ask is there any reason why you want to keep the factory deck?

Pretty nice way of connecting the mazda's system.

As for using the factory radio.

You can actually use the factory radio, it has 3 plugs of the back of it. But 99% of VW only use the 2. One is for power and the other is for the four speakers.

The 3rd plug, gives you RCA outputs (2V), of front rear and sub (or non-fading preout) and also an RCA input so you can use it for ipod or similar (would not recommend it with a ipod nano, internal amplifier not strong enough).

The older Blaupunkt radio's use to have the 3rd plug available.
If i could find it then yes i would also have gone down the OEM radio, if it was not Japanese Frequency range.

But Alas i have 9887 to play with, and should be getting my 9887 hopefully in a couple of days.

[ranton-inc]

you will need a Amp that accepts Speaker lever input tho..

correct glidn?

[balkanac]

I thought so. Mazda install seems too complicated, i was thinking of getting am amp like Hitman said and use the signal off rear speakers for the amp. Can that be done?

[Mr ©harisma]

you will need a Amp that accepts Speaker lever input tho..
correct glidn?

Only if you choose ( and please don't ) to use your speaker output as the signal wire. If you get a low level converter, that converts your high level speaker signal into low level RCA. Hence like normal, you would hook your RCA's to the amp... Do yourself a favour and get a $300 deck. Then you wont have to worry about signal whine and all the other crappy problems that some people get with the converters. If you had a MKV, I would keep the factory dash and get the RF 3sixty.2.. but they are just under $1k.

Wow I just thought all MKIV's had a crappy tape deck.. but I guess not

[Mr ©harisma]

I thought so. Mazda install seems too complicated, i was thinking of getting am amp like Hitman said and use the signal off rear speakers for the amp. Can that be done?

Yeah if you don't want your rear speakers to work, which face it they are a waste of time for most people, then yeah. All you will need to do:
Keep the fronts as they are
use the rear speakers wire into the low level converter
run the RCA's to your amp
run a remote wire from somewhere ( as I said I used the Acc )
run your power and earth cables like normal
hook up your sub and presto!

Good thing as well you will have fading control over your woofer ( as they will be running off the rear channels ).

The Mazda install was done with the ability to upgrade in the future. Also he wanted all his speakers amped otherwise I would have just hooked up 1 4channel amp