[TPG]

I meant this statement:

I meant adding an electrical coil in series so that it would form a low-pass / high cut filter with the rear door speakers. The link that I gave calcates the coil inductance for the speaker impedance and the chosen cutoff frequency. Looks like about 0.4- 0.55 mH is about right for a 2.5 - 3 kHz cutoff. You can get quality colis from a place like this.

That said, I find I can achieve a decent tonal balance with the Focal ICs in all 4 doors (no extra mods) by setting the focus about 1/3 from center toward the front, bass at -1, midrange around +1 or 2 and highs around +3 or 4. That works for people in the front seat, but it would be more treble-heavy in the back.

 

[nigela]

There's no low-passed subwoofer out in the head unit, as far as I know.

Guy in another thread who had the sub installed says he can control the sub from the head unit, which led me to believe that there is. I don’t know for a fact one way or the other.

 

[DrSteveBrule]

Guy in another thread who had the sub installed says he can control the sub from the head unit, which led me to believe that there is. I don’t know for a fact one way or the other.

Just using the 3-band EQ through the high-level outputs. I don't believe the head unit has anything besides high-level outs meant for the stock speakers.

 

[dg4prez]

That's most likely the case.

 

[Erhard]

This is so awesome - thank you!
I can't stand the stock audio, and I'm going to send your page to a local audio installer for a quote.

I am sorry to fully understand the mods. Tpg when u say u replaced only the speakers how much did it cost? The speakers alone on amazon are around $1100 . Do i see that right. Removing all the door panels is quite a work especially if one does not want to damage anything. So did u do it yourself or a shop. Could u please tell how much you paid for the super sound u have now?
Thanks

 

[TPG]

I am sorry to fully understand the mods. Tpg when u say u replaced only the speakers how much did it cost? The speakers alone on amazon are around $1100 . Do i see that right. Removing all the door panels is quite a work especially if one does not want to damage anything. So did u do it yourself or a shop. Could u please tell how much you paid for the super sound u have now?
Thanks

Check out what I did in posts #78 and #82 above. I used the Focal IC VW 165 and they were only about $180 per pair including shipping from Germany. I used the seller that @NorCar provided in post #62. These are more basic speakers than what @pro used, but all of us who installed them like their sound. I replaced all 4 door speakers in my car for a total cost of $750 including parts and labor (installed by a local shop on San Francisco peninsula).

That said, I would suggest starting with replacing only the front door speakers. @dg4prez found that the VW stereo boosts the high frequencies for the rear door speakers, and we found that causes a tonal imbalance when you replace the rear speakers with full-range ones like the Focals. As an alternative, you could try installing the Focal IS VW 165 woofer/mid driver instead in the rear - it should produce a better tonal balance with the VW ID.4 audio system. Please let us know how that works out!

 

[hilld]

I am considering going all in with this 6.2 kit

Volkswagen models – Focal Inside

Discover all compatible Volkswagen vehicle models and equip your car with premium speaker kits, subwoofers, and amplifiers for a powerful and immersive sound system.

www.focal-inside.com

View attachment 5010
It uses the same Impulse amp which is 4 channels so I am unsure about how this is all connected compared to driving only the Is and IC speakers….

Does it require a different harness to send the head unit’s power to the rear speakers and use the Impulse only on the fronts and subs?
I am quite handy but never installed a car stereo… Any info about this is welcome!

Where are you getting this kit from? A dealer in NA somewhere as I see you are in Canada. Also, how much is it? My googling came up dry.

 

[Badmat]

Where are you getting this kit from? I dealer in NA somewhere as I see you are in Canada. Also, how much is it? My googling came up dry.

I can get it from authorized Focal resellers but I also found them for cheaper on Amazon France, except for the subs…. They are a bit harder to find!

 

[dg4prez]

Ok this weekend I swapped the IS woofers to the rear and the IC coaxials to the front. As suspected, this is the sweet spot if you are on the stock radio amp or are using an external amp without using the front channels for all four speakers. There's no using coax with the rear channels without DSP correction.

I'll keep them back there, maybe even get a 4.320 amp in the future, but I'm not going to swap them back without the above correction.

For now I am much happier. The sound would definitely benefit from some external amplification but this will do nicely for the winter at least.

Also, fuck rivets. I am using bolts at this point instead because drilling that crap out sucks. Never again.

 

[Nai3t]

So am I to understand:

IC in front door
IS in rear door
IS tweeters... installed in A pillar, or discard?

 

[dg4prez]

Yes, yes and up to you. The tweeters are probably better than the cheap VW crap. I used the focal tweeters.

 

[Nai3t]

Yes, yes and up to you. The tweeters are probably better than the cheap VW crap. I used the focal tweeters.

OK but the Focal tweets and the ICs play nice together, when paired up in the front like that?

Or would it bet better to mounts ISs all around plus tweeters in the A's?

 

[dg4prez]

Yes they do. The ICs in front don't matter because there's probably a crossover splitting the high frequency sound off to the tweeters before the speakers so you're not getting more than normal. If nothing else they haven't had the treble set to 11. The rears have, which is why you need to put a woofer only back there with stick amp and DSP. You do not want the ICs back there.

 

[Nai3t]

OK, cool, thanks to you and TPG and everyone else who has worked this all out. Now my job is easy, or at least clear cut.

 

[ID.Furkan]

i dont think i have a 2-way at the rear.. will check it out

 

[Gtx2022]

Hi!

Got our new GTX this week and was suprised by the bad performance of the stock audio. Hit the searchbutton on my computer to se if any one had wrote about changing the speakers. How lucky was I

Great thread and unvaluble tips! Thank you all

If it would be possible i would like to pair a helix p six dsp (P SIX DSP MK2) with focal es 165/focal ec 165 speakers.

Anyone here know if it is possible to connect this dsp/amp to the id.4 system in a simular way as described with amps from focal?

 

[hilld]

I also just ordered all the parts today, speakers, amp and 1 wiring harness coming from Amazon Germany, 2 wiring harnesses coming from Crutchfield and the speaker adapters coming from Amazon US. It will be about 3 weeks before I have all the parts, giving me enough time to get some door panel clips from the dealer, just to be prepared. Thanks to everyone that has provided valuable input here, especially @pro for the detailed writeup with pictures and part numbers.

 

[dg4prez]

My dealer had no clips in stock, they're different from the ground clips, so I'd call in advance.

 

[pro]

Hi!

Got our new GTX this week and was suprised by the bad performance of the stock audio. Hit the searchbutton on my computer to se if any one had wrote about changing the speakers. How lucky was I

Great thread and unvaluble tips! Thank you all

If it would be possible i would like to pair a helix p six dsp (P SIX DSP MK2) with focal es 165/focal ec 165 speakers.

Anyone here know if it is possible to connect this dsp/amp to the id.4 system in a simular way as described with amps from focal?

Well I don't know this particular amp/DSP but having a look at the pictures of it, it has "High level inputs" ( aka amplified inputs ) so you can use the Focal cables that I listed to highjack the stock car audio output and either cut the ISO speakers input/output or by some ISO to bare cable adapters such as this and this (one for inputs and one for outputs )

You will need to take the power from the car battery or the fuse box because this amp is using way more power than the small Focal one and would blow the car audio fuse if you use the highjacked power from the Focal adapter.

I would use only the front speaker inputs and use the DSP to manage the fader because it seems VW send more highs to the rear speaker and that would disturb your DSP..

Hope this helps.

 

[DrSteveBrule]

Can someone tell me the part number of the door clips? Going to order door and pillar clips from my dealer.