Low powered SQ install in a MkV GTi.

[simplicityinsound]

well, fresh back from vacation and boy the relaxation was worth it, cuase this MkV GTi was surely one of hte more annoying cars i have done recently. Ask many installers and they will tell you they dont like germans cars, this MKV was a bit peculiar, in someways, it was easier than the MKIV, but in others, more annoying...hehe

anyway the goals:

1. great a nice sounding SQ system with the gears supplied by the customer (whcih is why its low powered)

2. very simply looking in the back with fully stealthiness

3. figure out osmeting for the front midbass location

anyway, lets get started. everything except hte subwoofer and the midbass amp, was provided by the customer.

the singal starts with an aline 505 dvd headunit. now here i want to make a suggestion to anyone who has one of htese cars or is going to work on them.

DO NOT GET THE METRA DASH KIT!!! it fits HORRIBLY. at first i thought it was me that did something wroing,until i took it apart, got another one, and just put the kit in place without the HU, and it was the same. notice the HUGE GAPS top and bottom, not tomention the sides dont match the contours of the dash either. i then confirmed this by going on golfmkv.com...apparently AI makes a kit that fits much much better, whcih is interesting cuase i usually avoid AI's kits. but for this car...i ugess they make the best fitting one. again, DO NOT GET THE METRA DASH KIT FOR THE MKV! until you findout they have revised it. lol we are getting the AI kit to swap it out asap.



the front stage consits of a pair of Zapco Competition 6.5" two way components. the tweeters were molded off axis into the stock A pillars, again, VW's A pillar proved to be annoying to work wtih, its very thin and too flexible to sand and wrap easily...and the vent makes things harder, but it came out okay.





here are two quick build pics:

first after its molded



and then after they were wrapped with vinyl:

[simplicityinsound]

now comes the midbass, whcih of course, as you know, is one of hte most intersting install challenges. the stock midbass location is at the BACK of the front door, firing into the side of your butt...WTF (rumor i guess is the MKVI are going back to the normal front lower door location)...some people have put in a relatively large mid in the stock mid location, playing it as low as possible, to drag the stage forward, but to me, that seems still like a bandaid solution.

so we decided to build kicks for them. whcih is annoying of course beucase of hte driver side hood latch in the stock kick. took a bit of delicate molding and a lot of sanding and cursing

so here they are, each kick is SEM texture coated and SEM painted since you cannot wrap that shape of the driver side kick.









so some build pics...first the kicks were molded and sanded smooth:



then the inside went on first a layer of modeling clay to kill resonance:





then a layer of dampening to add more resonance killing but also, to keep the clay in place when the temp rises, i have found thiscombination to work really well in preventing a slopping droopy mess.

[simplicityinsound]

here they are, texture coated, and then wet sanded with 400 grit to get hte texture to where i want...



and then sprayed with SEM paint, and speakres mounted





here is a shot of the laptop tuning of the DC reference amps via the USB cable in the glovebox:



and finally the front portion as a whole:

[simplicityinsound]

moving onto the trunk...

as mentioned before, just very simple and stealthy, here is the normal view, virtually 100 percent stock looking with the cargo mat in place



pull out the mat and a fake floor trimed in carpet with a center cut out greats you:



remove the carpet and here is hwta you see, a white vinyl rack with poenings for two zapco DC amps, and a Exile XT10 10" shallow mount subwoofer.

[simplicityinsound]

here is a view of the wiring. the DC350.2 on the driver side sends 2x100 watts to the midbass, the DC360.4 on the passenger side sends 50 watts to each tweeter, and bridged 180 watts to the sub. a total of just shy of 500 watts

the XT10 sits in a .5 cubfeet subbox thats only about 4.25" deep. whcih is the reason i chose it, as the spare tire well has a huge hump in the middle of it.



now a quick word on the XT10...i just picked up Exile recently, after hearing reviews from my peers and talking to them presonally. and i am acutally very impressed wtih the XT10. it blends into the music very well, with exceptional transients, toanlly very good, and impact is suprising good as well, not the loudest sub nor going the deepest, but it certainly is one of hte best, if not the best, shallow subs i have installed within the sub 200 dollar price range. look for more Exile stuff from me in the near future

here is the sub it self, hasa nice quality feel to it







overall, the car sounds quite good, for only a coupla hours i had to set it up and with speakres i am not that famliar with. midbass is nice and snappy, nice and high staging, the cneter isnt as focused as i want, but just needs more tuning time. over tonally is good, with no major problem areas, and i dont have that many bands altered on the EQ...

overall, not a bad car acoustically speaking, but i am sure glad i got this one out of hte way...waht a PITA...and for my next act...i have....oh wait, anothe MKV GTI coming in next week for a bigger SQ install...bleh...

[lyttleviet]

installation looks great! Nice choice in amps!

[ChicoOG]

Bing, looks great!!! Have to say though, his kicks look better than mine He's coming by tomorrow, so I'll get to hear it personally. Did leon do the tuning?

[simplicityinsound]

no real tuning on this one mike, was so short on time...good thing the back was really simple to pull off

i hope his kicks look better than yours hehe, 4 whole days was spent on them pretty much other htan running wires...my hands are still sore from the sanding lol you will get your turn soon

[ChicoOG]

Originally Posted by simplicityinsound

no real tuning on this one mike, was so short on time...good thing the back was really simple to pull off

i hope his kicks look better than yours hehe, 4 whole days was spent on them pretty much other htan running wires...my hands are still sore from the sanding lol you will get your turn soon

I'm looking forward to it...

[strong*I*bumpin]

dude dont u ever stop working,jk...nice installs but u heard it b4

[AAAAAAA]

Love it, looks awesome. Very clean.

[lashlee]

Good looking install, as always!! I've got one of those subs in my truck and have enjoyed quite a bit!!!

[simplicityinsound]

yeah, the next GTI is going to be like this but with more than twice the power, twice the sub, and different spekares...should be interesting hehe

[Pantani]

I've heard people say that by mounting the tweeters and woofers so far apart you can have problems with imaging and overall SQ.

What am I missing, have I been I'll informed? I'm asking just to educate myself, obviously you know what your doing and I'd like to learn a thing or two about this choice before I tackle the install in my Mazda 6.

[Ge0]

Bing,

Once again you make a totally stock looking professional easy. Golf clap!

Ge0

[simplicityinsound]

Originally Posted by Pantani

I've heard people say that by mounting the tweeters and woofers so far apart you can have problems with imaging and overall SQ.

What am I missing, have I been I'll informed? I'm asking just to educate myself, obviously you know what your doing and I'd like to learn a thing or two about this choice before I tackle the install in my Mazda 6.

IMO, that impression, which is also the same impression i grew up with, and held until about 2-3 years ago...i think a lot of today's tuning abilty, with full DSP, TA, XO etc helps facilitate differential mounting between mid and tweet. if you look at my intsalls prior to that, you will see two way kicks dominate.

but as i always say, i am no expert in SQ theories, if you are asking me to explain this, i cannot, and a ton of people on this board can do it better than me, but what i do know is, in the set ups i have done now with this kind of desing (maybe about 20-25 total installs), with the right tuning, it has sounded very good.

it hink a lto of it depends on also the speaker used (having a tweeter thcan go lower IMO helps), car's interior, and as i mentioned mostly, tuning. i still favor two way kicks keeping the tweeter closer to the mid in simple, passive straightforward installs, but it hink when a full DSP is involved, doing it like this can present a higher stage with less rainbowing, and more precise center image

[simplicityinsound]

Originally Posted by Ge0

Bing,

Once again you make a totally stock looking professional easy. Golf clap!

Ge0

if you can feel the aches of pains in my fingers and wrists the next morning after the sanding, you wouldnt call it easy by any means haha

[Ianaconi]

Awesome mate!

I can't wait to see your other MKV install.

Damn I am not sure why they changed the door speaker location.

MKIV doors are awesome!

I have a POLO GTI that I am going to start building pretty soon!

The interior is similar to the Golf MKIV.

[kiko]

really really nice work bro, like you always do...

[ChicoOG]

Originally Posted by simplicityinsound

if you can feel the aches of pains in my fingers and wrists the next morning after the sanding, you wouldnt call it easy by any means haha

You need a shop helper to do that manual labor for you...you're the master designer, lay-out, wiring guy...division of labor can be your friend

[Mless5]

I LOVE you style and execution! I keep seeing open kick panels on the back, seems like I will have to try that when I build my set.

[dogstar]

I hate Bing installs....
What can you say for comment? "It's awesome" and "Great work" get too repetitive
Screw up once in a while dude

[60ndown]

nice work,

but im guessing the owner will be very disappointed when he cant feel the bass on the freeway, 200 watts on a single 10? when there are 700 watt amps for $100?.

Honest 700 rms clean power for $99 shipped

what a pita to upgrade

[simplicityinsound]

Originally Posted by 60ndown

nice work,

but im guessing the owner will be very disappointed when he cant feel the bass on the freeway, 200 watts on a single 10? when there are 700 watt amps for $100?.

Honest 700 rms clean power for $99 shipped

what a pita to upgrade

but 100 bucks is still way more than 0 bucks as in the amp is a hand me down from his dad remember everyhting was provided for me exept the sub (whcih was matched to his amp) he he he

as far as not hearing it, maybe if we all drove older stripped out vans that would be a problem mhehehehe

[bass_lover1]

Nice looking install, Bing. Great work as usual.

IIRC, Exile Audio was started by a few guys that left Phoenix Gold.