Newbie ICE questions

[Simkid]

Hi all,

I'm new to the forum and new to Golf ownership, having just bought a '95 Mk3 GTI 8 valve. The car is totally standard, and very clean, so at present I am keen to keep it looking that way, but as it will be my daily driver the sound system needs upgrading as subtly as possible.

I have installed a Kenwood CD tuner head unit, and have a small active sub which I am hoping to hide under the one of the front seats, but hear are the questions:-

1. I have connected the ariel amp lead to the remote power supply lead on the head unit, and tested to ensure that it is getting power, but the radio reception is still very poor, does anyone know how to test the ariel amp itself? Is it built into the ariel or seperate? Is it a common failure?

2. Is it easy to access the standard speakers, and does anyone have any recommendations for upgraded units that will still fit behind the standard grilles?

I am hoping that upgrading the speakers in the standard locations, and my little under seat sub will give a big improvement in sound quality, without altering the internal appearance at all. Any advice and recommendations will be welcome.

I also need to say how impressed I am with this car, I came to it from a Porsche 944, and was expecting considerably less than this car delivers, it's totally exceeded my expectations and I think I could become hooked on Golf's for some time!

[Bazzer]

Hi there
I'm interested how this one works out for you mate - I've just got a mk3 and I think the standard speakers on their own are a bit cack... IIRC 17cm speakers will fit int he doors and you can go to Halfrauds and see loads in that size. You might need a small connector block thing for some of them if you don't want to mash the wires in the car.
As for the Aerial wire on the back of the Kenwood - you might have another wire labelled 'REM', which will be a better one. The thing is the aerial output might cut off when you switch sources - what I mean is the output is designed to keep an electric aerial up, so when you switch from radio to CD, the headunit says 'ok I don't need the aerial now, down it goes!'... Of course, some Kenwoods had this and some didn't. So you might end up ignoring what I just said!
I've noticed my radio reception is crap since I put my headunit in this car. I think it's an amplified unit and it might need something I haven't done yet, but I can't figure this sodding ElsaWin program out to see!!!
If I find anything of interest I'll post it here...

[golfpro]

would be interested to know how ur gettin a sub under a seat. I had an amplifier under both fronts before-one for front speakers and one for sub which worked but i doubt there'l be enough roo to box the sub inder a seat tbh.

Iv got focal polyglass front speakers, theyre a 17cm component speaker and to keep things lookin standard iv put them behind the standard grills and hid the crossovers behind the glove box.

My sub is in a carpeted box in the boot and iv made a false floor which iv hidden the amp under, just left the genisis logo poking through coz i think its cool. Im PGA golf professional and have a lot of equipment to carry round in my boot so i need the space and with it set up like this I hav no problems.





cant see too much from this one but speaker grills are standard and no sign of crosovers!

[Len]

Under front seats!!!!
No way you will get any decent sub under there.

Yes replace both sets of door speakers first. All of the aftermarket people do speakers that will fit without any mods.
I've got Infinity's.
If you dont want a big sub in the boot, ala golfpro, there is an enclosure to take a 10" sub beside the rear nearside wheelarch/shock. Then the amp is fixed on the opposite side.
Or you could make an MDF back shelf and put a couple of 6 x 9's on it!

[Simkid]

Thanks for the info guys, I'll look out for some decent 17cm units to fit in the doors, Golfpro - I'm assuming that you fitted the tweeters behind the dash grilles?? I'd prefer components fitted this way if possible as they are bound to give better performance than co-axial units.

The sub I'm hoping to use is a little, purpose made under seat unit, I think the driver is only about 5", fitted in a ported, plastic moulded enclosure, and it comes with it's own seperate 50W mono amp and adjustable low pass filter. OK, so I'm not going to get crisp megabass or serious SPL's, but I have used a similar unit previously in a Opel Manta with surprising results, nice amount of bass added at reasonable listening levels, with minimal disruption to the car's interior.

Still haven't got to the bottom of the poor reception problem yet though. Bazzer - I've checked the power supply connection and it stays live as long as the head unit is on, regardless of which source is being used, so it isn't that, thanks for the suggestion. Apparently the ariel amp is located in one of the rear pillars, behind the trim, so that's my next check. May take me a while as I don't have much spare time at present, but I'll post results when I get to the bottom of it!!