has anyone upgraded their stereos?

[rgvlee]

no standard units need the right keys or just rip it out like i did haha after market depends on how its mounted but if you put a photo up of your setup im sure i can point u in the right direction and how 2 remove you current unit

Mongoose Q222

Mongoose Q222 | INCAR

Previous owner installed it, not my cup of tea, I'd prefer a single din and use the extra space for a couple of gauges.

[scorp121]

Where's a good place to put the microphone for the phone in the car?

[seangti]

Where's a good place to put the microphone for the phone in the car?

Mine is mounted near the rear view mirror, top centre. Was done by an installer. Most will likely run up the A-pillar. When I've been on the phone and the back seats down, people have said it's quite hard to hear me with the cabin noise. So the microphone picks up a lot of noise from the rear. In which case mounting on the A-pillar would likely be more stable.

Long winded explanation for a simple answer

[flashpixx]

mine is above the mirror too. I think there is a pic a few pages back of it mounted atop the A pillar. A good spot if your passenger wont be joining in the conversation.

[kaanage]

Top of the A pillar was really easy on the install side of things and I never get complaints about noise from the other end

[scorp121]

Thanks for the input guys.

So to do this weekend:

1. Get the earth wire sorted out so I can go into setup
2. Get the accessories sorted out so it's not constantly on
3. Get the dimmer happenning when the lights are turned on
4. Get the phone microphone setup in a good spot

If I can get all that sorted I'll be happy

[scorp121]

Managed to do 1 & 2 last weekend which was great now I can actually use the new head unit.

4 would've been done too but it got too hot to work in the car with no shade so that should be done this weekend.

Now for point 3, does anyone know how this works? The head unit I have (Alpine ICS-X does have the option for auto dimming, but I'm not sure where the wire is (if it exists) on the harness.

Any ideas?

[jaz]

Guys got my GF's Eonon D5101 for sale. It been installed for about a 5 mins haha reason being during instalation the auto lock was disabled so we had to take the Polo to VW to get fixed and in the mean time we decided to sell the car and just keep my XR5.

$200 dollars if anyone is interested.

http://www.eonon.com/Car-GPS/Specific-Car-GPS/D5101.html

[bakedpeaches]

I've got a 2005 9n3 and I've changed my sound system to a point where I'm pretty happy!! This is what I've done so far:

- Pioneer AVH 2450BT double din head unit which I absolutely love, it's easy to use and I'm able to adjust basically everything to my liking!! Only thing that was frustrating was changing the wiring harness, and getting the stock head deck out but I used a little innovation and managed to get it out without buying the keys

- 12" Clarion Subwoofer in the boot (doesn't leave a lot of boot space but I don't mind) not sure what model it is but it kicks hard especially considering the car is like a little sound proof box

- 350v Kenwood amp, again not sure what model coz it's pretty old but it does the job, just running the sub off that for now though I'm looking to upgrade the amp soon

- Kenwood rear speakers (why does a Polo not come with rear speakers?) they were just $50 from Blacktown car audio, not split though coz I didn't want extra trebble in the back..

- Front speakers and tweeters are stock because they seem to sound better then anything else I can find, pretty sure they Blaupunkt like the stock headdeck, haven't pulled them out to have a decent look though..

Overall I love my sound system, all up it cost me less then $500 and it's kicks hard and is clearer then some people who spend thousands!!

[kaanage]

12" Clarion Subwoofer in the boot (doesn't leave a lot of boot space but I don't mind) not sure what model it is but it kicks hard especially considering the car is like a little sound proof box

Put plug connectors in your wiring so that the sub can be removed. Then you get the great bass for the 98% of the time you don't need the boot and you can yank it out for the 2% of the time when you actually need the load space.

- 350v Kenwood amp, again not sure what model coz it's pretty old but it does the job, just running the sub off that for now though I'm looking to upgrade the amp soon

Since you have crashing bass already, why?
My 90W amp cleanly powers my (10") sub beyond the accoustic limits of what I'm willing to endure.

- Front speakers and tweeters are stock because they seem to sound better then anything else I can find, pretty sure they Blaupunkt like the stock headdeck, haven't pulled them out to have a decent look though..

Yep, I've demoed my car, with all the speakers stock, to many people and everyone is flabbergasted at the sound and volume that they can output (because my head unit allows redirection of the bass signals to the sub - mine is set to cross-over at 80Hz with a 12dB/octave slope)

Overall I love my sound system, all up it cost me less then $500 and it's kicks hard and is clearer then some people who spend thousands!!

You must have already have most of the components on hand from previous cars or got some good secondhand deals to achieve that but well done on an eminently sensible approach.

[noone]

has anyone upgraded their stereos?

I'm happy with my 8" boxed, I'd be upto probably $450 spent all up on sound (not including sound proofing).

Stock speakers are quite good, no where near good splits, but fine for budget system.

[flashpixx]

- Pioneer AVH 2450BT double din head unit which I absolutely love, it's easy to use and I'm able to adjust basically everything to my liking!!

Same as mine. Yep great unit. I'm running stock speakers tho. Had it professionally installed using a proper (expensive!) harness. Best thing for me is bluetooth phone. Excellent integration and a decent noise cancelling mic comes as std.

[flat6]

Yep, I've demoed my car, with all the speakers stock, to many people and everyone is flabbergasted at the sound and volume that they can output (because my head unit allows redirection of the bass signals to the sub - mine is set to cross-over at 80Hz with a 12dB/octave slope)

Heard it myself, pretty impressive for the price, still loving my kenwood unit

[diarx]

Finally ditched the Eonon and had a Parrot Asteroid Smart installed in the missus GTI today - you were totally right about the sound quality of the Eonon flat6, the initial novelty/price of that unit kind of distracted from the mediocre sound quality . The Parrot is back to sounding better than the stock unit.

As for the unit itself:

The GUI on this thing is really nice and fluid. Of course not as smooth as the latest and greatest Android v4.x on my current phone (Nexus 4), but definitely feels as good as lets say v2.x Android on my previous Samsung Galaxy S2. It's really fast, but it's hasn't got that buttery smoothness you find in the lastest android.

Had it installed at Metrosound Artarmon - they did a pretty nice job of putting all the USB and GPS cables ends in the dash cubby and using a rubber grommet to hide the rough edges of the hole they drilled - everything sits in there hidden away rather nicely.

The bluetooth A2DP music playback from the missus phone works well, she plays back Audio books on her Nexus 4 from Audible and she's pretty much ecstatic at just being able to do that above anything else. The phone side of things works quite well too.

Not sure if phone internet sharing is working on it yet - I gave it a try in our underground parking, but her phone is on voda and I'm thinking I'll have to go outside to get enough reception for it to work. Will have another try over the weekend when I have more time to play.

Will have to suss out navigation apps too, I think the iGo nav app currently preinstalled on there is American maps. Once I get internets working on it and hack it to install the Google play store I'll have access to Google maps and other nav apps on the Android market.

Sound quality - It a bit better than the stock polo unit, and WAY WAY better than the Eonon unit I just replaced. There's some sub woofer and bass curve controls in the menu too. I don't think it's ever going to be a top Audiophile quality unit, but it does have 6 pre-outs rated at 6v (I recall 3v pre-outs were all the rage back when I was into fully sick sound systems) so hooking up and amp and getting good sound shouldn't be a problem. The onboard amp output is rated a 23w rms x 4 (55w x 4 max), from what we've played on it through the Polo's stock speakers it seems pretty reasonable, not that we listen to much loud/doof doof music these days though.

The only other thing is the screen looks a little shiny - which could become annoying in low sun - but even with the Eonon that was a problem, and was pretty easily rectified with an anti glare screen protector.

Here's some install pics, should have a short vid up soon too.

[diarx]

Vid,

Excuse the crashing noises from someone nearby chucking out stuff in the garbage room.. and powderfinger