MK5 Golf GTI
All Things Mk5 => Modifications & Technical Area => Sat Nav and Car Audio => Topic started by: pudding on January 13, 2017, 06:13:53 pm
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Was there ever a Dynaudio type upgrade package from VW for the MK5, like what was on offer for the MK6?
My mate has the Dynaudio pack in his MK6 and it sounds superb. Do MK6 speakers and amps etc fit in a MK5?
I want to improve the rubbish sound of the RNS510 but don't want aftermarket amps in the boot and wires everywhere. Any suggestions?
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I'm sure I've seen some used speaker kits on the bay that were touted as an oem upgrade, specifically for the mk5, although I don't think they were Dynaudio. I'm not sure if they were any good.
Problem is, to get any sort of decent SQ from the likes of a 510, you'll need an amp. Doesn't necessarily mean you need a huge 4 channel thing in the boot though - wasn't there an oem amp option that went under a front seat? As for speakers, the Gladen kit with 8" mids sounds like the sort of thing I'd be after. Apparently not 100% plug and play, but more plug and play than the majority of options.
I'll be in a similar boat at some point, so keep me posted if you have any success please!
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Cheers mate. I haven't had the chance to look into this but yep, an OEM amp under the seat and OEM harnesses is what I had in mind!
Good shout on Gladen. Just remembered I had the 8" woofer kit in my MK4 and yep, some minor chopping and stuff was required. Nice bit of kit and didn't need a sub with those bad boys!
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I had quite a 'home-built' setup in my old mk4. I'm sure the likes of anyone on a car audio forum would have scoffed at it in disgust, but it worked for me.
Alpine HU, touted as 4x50w but we all know that kind of power is unrealistic without an amp.
8" components and upgraded tweeters in the front with a crossover.
Monstrosity of a diy mdf parcel shelf housing a pair of those big old QB69s. Huge magnets. The thing weighed a ton, bowed in the middle, and caused all sorts of new creaks and squeaks in the back, which I duly silenced with bits of foam and stuff...
For my ears it was bloody good. Everyone always says you should only have the sound coming from the front, blah blah. But the Alpine let me fiddle with things and create a setup similar to you'd get with a small sub in the boot. Great sound from the components too considering it was all powered from the Alpine.
I can't help thinking a compact amp would be a wise move in the mk5 though, especially if I end up with an oem head unit!
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Lol, reminds me of my early days of ICE using domestic speakers etc :grin:
Exactly, if it sounds right to your ears, that's all that matters :happy2:
I did properly get into this in a previous project because I was mates with a ICE specialist, so got some tasty kit at cost price - Alpine 9835R head unit, Genesis Dual Mono Amps, SEAS Lotus speakers, some posh sub I can't remember the name of and loads of dynamat and tuning etc.
In the end I was conscious of lugging around £1000s worth of kit in a car not difficult to break into, and the all the extra weight was blunting the performance / handling, so I ripped it all out and flogged it!
The OEM HU (if you mean RNS510) sounds horrible. The bass is too bloated in the boxy sounding 120-200hz region, which you can't take out with the rubbishy 3 band EQ. I can tell the OEM speakers have some bass depth there, but are being held back by the HU. I reckon even just an offboard amp & EQ with stock speakers would sound pretty good actually!
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https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272526849091 is this radio an upgrade from rcd300?
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I've been considering the MB Quart Golf V speaker kit for ease of installation as it's meant to be an exact fit in the OEM positions.
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I'm getting an RCD510 DAB fitted soon, in place of the antique looking RCD300. So the next step will be looking at amps, components etc.
I'll have a look at the MB Quart set @loop
Gladen still firmly on the list.
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Is there any plug and play recommendations? I'm not too clued up on the audio scene but just wanted an improvement on the current speakers but something simple that can just drop in and no messing about
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Is there any plug and play recommendations? I'm not too clued up on the audio scene but just wanted an improvement on the current speakers but something simple that can just drop in and no messing about
I think the Gladen kit (and maybe that MB Quartz kit) is the closest thing I've found to plug and play. If I'm honest, I haven't done loads of research into it, but Gladen kept coming up in any threads worth reading.
It was all quite straightforward in the mk4, just a case of making sure something physically fitted. The more I read up about the mk5 though, the more it seems a little more involved. Again, I need to read up more!
As @Pudding alluded to, there's probably a better gain in sound quality from amping up the OEM speakers than powering upgraded speakers directly from an OEM HU. And obviously better still amping up some upgraded speakers.
The OEM headunits simply couldn't do any justice to any speakers worth buying without being amped. A lot of decent aftermarket HUs have a much better power output than the oem units, and better EQ control, so it's in some cases possible to achieve decent SQ without an amp. As I did in the mk4 - see my earlier post.
Bottom line, if you want good SQ from an OEM HU, you really need to bring an amp into the equation. If you want decent SQ from an aftermarket HU, you have a bit more scope.
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The 8" 3-way Gladen kit would absolutely be the one I'd go for, if I could spare the cash.
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The 8" 3-way Gladen kit would absolutely be the one I'd go for, if I could spare the cash.
It's a few quid isn't it. Last time I looked it was around £300?
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I had the 510 DVD/Nav Head Unit in my last 6R with Dynaudio upgrade, Basically the top of the range.
I have the 510 DVD/Nav Head Unit in my current 6R without the Dynaudio upgrade....Cannot tell the difference.
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The 8" 3-way Gladen kit would absolutely be the one I'd go for, if I could spare the cash.
It's a few quid isn't it. Last time I looked it was around £300?
More like £350! Did read about one guy on one of the forums who installed it and said the improvement wasn't really worth all the hassle in the end!
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I do miss the sound of my sound system in my gttdi as i play a lot of hard house so the bass on the standard speakers is horrodous
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I will be watching this thead with interest. I am shocked at how bad the audio is when playing via MDI from my ipod. I was using spotify or some songs in the itunes library and constantly had to keep turning the volume down to prevent the sound breaking up. Even my 6 year old son asked what was wrong. It was slightly better when playing voice audio via tunein radio but still really down on quality compared to my other cars which are a Landrover Discovery with Logic sound system and Volvo v70 with it's well respected audio system. (both use a factory amp I believe)
I really want a plug and play type option like the OP. I'm not after top quality but just want to be able to play music loud enough for the kids to enjoy without distortion. However I'm hearing that an amp is really required as the RNS510 simply doesn't have much power.
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Bit of info here:
http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=171368.0
Mentions the JBL MS-8 processor, which seems to come up alot in similar discussions. Silly money though, if it's even still produced.
Seems the right kind of solution though.
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Would just amping the stock speakers be an option worth exploring and would this result in much of an improvement? RNS-amp-OEM speakers? Is there a special adapter needed to connect the RNS to an amp? Thanks
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Would just amping the stock speakers be an option worth exploring and would this result in much of an improvement? RNS-amp-OEM speakers? Is there a special adapter needed to connect the RNS to an amp? Thanks
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Yes, I think so. I'd bet my ballsack you'd get much better results than fitting fancy speakers and expecting the low wattage of an OEM headunit to do them any justice.
As for connecting it up, I'm not entirely sure. But one thing you'll definitely need in the circuit is some form of processing; to achieve some sort of passable sound quality you'll need to dial out the oddball OEM EQ. Amps with this feature built in are available, but at a cost.
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Would just amping the stock speakers be an option worth exploring and would this result in much of an improvement? RNS-amp-OEM speakers? Is there a special adapter needed to connect the RNS to an amp? Thanks
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Yes, I think so. I'd bet my ballsack you'd get much better results than fitting fancy speakers and expecting the low wattage of an OEM headunit to do them any justice.
As for connecting it up, I'm not entirely sure. But one thing you'll definitely need in the circuit is some form of processing; to achieve some sort of passable sound quality you'll need to dial out the oddball OEM EQ. Amps with this feature built in are available, but at a cost.
It's funny you should say that as I've just bought an Audison Bit Ten for exactly that purpose. Now I have to find a small but reasonable amp to pair it up with and work out how to install them! :)
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Would just amping the stock speakers be an option worth exploring and would this result in much of an improvement? RNS-amp-OEM speakers? Is there a special adapter needed to connect the RNS to an amp? Thanks
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Yes, I think so. I'd bet my ballsack you'd get much better results than fitting fancy speakers and expecting the low wattage of an OEM headunit to do them any justice.
As for connecting it up, I'm not entirely sure. But one thing you'll definitely need in the circuit is some form of processing; to achieve some sort of passable sound quality you'll need to dial out the oddball OEM EQ. Amps with this feature built in are available, but at a cost.
It's funny you should say that as I've just bought an Audison Bit Ten for exactly that purpose. Now I have to find a small but reasonable amp to pair it up with and work out how to install them! :)
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I've just had a read up on that - sounds like a lovely piece of kit.
Any ideas on the amp you'll be using?
Keep us updated mate. There are a few of us who'll be keen to hear how you go about this.
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Nice! I didn't know such a thing existed. That should definitely improve the dulcet tones the RNS belches out.
Agreed on amping the factory speakers. I can tell they have decent enough extension in the bass and a keen mid / top end, but they just lack a decent punch from the shonky RNS to carry it through. The metaphorical equivalent of needing a HPFP :grin: But we all know this is a deliberate ploy from VW to get buyers to tick the "Premium audio" option box. My mate has the Dynaudio package in his MK6 and it's epic. They must do something to the doors / door cards as well because there is zero rattle and vibration at max chat.
I think it's the thought of running 0 gauge down the car and screwing amp boards to the back seats again that's putting me off :grin: I did all that 10+ years ago and can't really be arsed with all that again, hence a nice OEM solution would be cool.
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Would just amping the stock speakers be an option worth exploring and would this result in much of an improvement? RNS-amp-OEM speakers? Is there a special adapter needed to connect the RNS to an amp? Thanks
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Yes, I think so. I'd bet my ballsack you'd get much better results than fitting fancy speakers and expecting the low wattage of an OEM headunit to do them any justice.
As for connecting it up, I'm not entirely sure. But one thing you'll definitely need in the circuit is some form of processing; to achieve some sort of passable sound quality you'll need to dial out the oddball OEM EQ. Amps with this feature built in are available, but at a cost.
It's funny you should say that as I've just bought an Audison Bit Ten for exactly that purpose. Now I have to find a small but reasonable amp to pair it up with and work out how to install them! :)
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I've just had a read up on that - sounds like a lovely piece of kit.
Any ideas on the amp you'll be using?
Keep us updated mate. There are a few of us who'll be keen to hear how you go about this.
Absolutely no idea yet, just want something small and not too expensive as I'm sticking with the OEM speakers for the time being. Any suggestions welcome. Yes I will update the thread once it's all installed with my views on how it sounds etc.
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Might try the Audison Sr4 amp, a bit bigger than I would like but hoping it matches up easily with the Bit Ten. I think I will change the front speakers too, playing around with the fader/balance settings this morning the stocks sound terrible when you just play front right/front left etc so I think the new kit would probably only be fully utilised with better speakers.
Potentially looking at the MB Quart/Gladen Audio drop in sets once funds allow.
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Also did some search on this to upgrade my VW 10 speaker system. (I've got a 5 door that has 3 speakers each front door and 2 in each rear door) - Actually play fine but they are getting old these days and since I'm doing everything else to upgrade the car why not upgrade the speaker system hehe..
didn't find any that swapped over directly though ..
Was looking at a complete set from a german brand named Rainbow? - Anyone know what they are like?
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Also did some search on this to upgrade my VW 10 speaker system. (I've got a 5 door that has 3 speakers each front door and 2 in each rear door) - Actually play fine but they are getting old these days and since I'm doing everything else to upgrade the car why not upgrade the speaker system hehe..
didn't find any that swapped over directly though ..
Was looking at a complete set from a german brand named Rainbow? - Anyone know what they are like?
I had Rainbow speakers in my old Polo. They are very well regarded, and make some really high end stuff as well.
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Also did some search on this to upgrade my VW 10 speaker system. (I've got a 5 door that has 3 speakers each front door and 2 in each rear door) - Actually play fine but they are getting old these days and since I'm doing everything else to upgrade the car why not upgrade the speaker system hehe..
didn't find any that swapped over directly though ..
Was looking at a complete set from a german brand named Rainbow? - Anyone know what they are like?
You can get a direct fit replacement from Eton, but you might have to order from a German website.
Also MB Quart and Gladen do front sets that fit the exact speaker size, they just have different crossovers.
The Rainbow set you mention is very expensive, and the speakers they use are only the base model from their range, but would still be much better than the VW equivalents.
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