Audio Upgrade Stage-1 . . . . Blam Relax 200rs Speakers From Skipton.

[coopso]

Thats the pull handle catch.

The beldon cable that goes to the lock assembly.

Thanks!

Can anyone (e.g @Pauly ) provide a part number please?

 

[Pauly]

? 7E0837085A

 

[coopso]

Although my passenger side install went well, on removing the drivers side front door card, the detachable catch for the internal door opener broke, it snapped. I'm not sure what I did differently to make it break, but that's life! I was able to stick the two plastic bits together with some gaffer tape but assuming that is not going to hold, does anyone know a part number or even the correct name for the part? Here it is, there's quite a big bit missing which I later found on the ground

To my amazement, I was able to get enough rigidity to clip the pull handle cable mechanism back into the door card and it held whilst I manouevered the door card back into place in the door. I am highly doubtful that it will last, but at least the door is back together so I can enjoy my new speakers for a while before I have to dismantle the door and replace the cable properly.
Meanwhile thanks folks for the information.

 

[coopso]

So a few observations:

• If you get reasonable plug and play speakers, then actually swapping out the speakers is relatively easy;
• The difficult part is prising the trim off (e.g. the handle covers on door and grab handles) without breaking it, pulling the door card off without breaking the pull handle mechanism, and manouvering the door card and the A pillars back into their correct positions;
• Having spare trim fixings for the door cards, and the tool to reset fixings which didn't break is vital;
• Rain covers for the rear of the speakers may not be enough - I had to remove my speakers after leaving them in the door overnight as I had forgotten to sound deaden the exterior panel of the door, and discovered that rain had found a way in. I am hoping that the extension to the top of the rain cover which I made from a spare bit of adhesive sound deadening is enough now

Due to the complications with the pull handle mechanism and the general difficulty of the job, it took me a day and a half to do this.

 

[coopso]

So a few observations:

• If you get reasonable plug and play speakers, then actually swapping out the speakers is relatively easy;
• The difficult part is prising the trim off (e.g. the handle covers on door and grab handles) without breaking it, pulling the door card off without breaking the pull handle mechanism, and manouvering the door card and the A pillars back into their correct positions;
• Having spare trim fixings for the door cards, and the tool to reset fixings which didn't break is vital;
• Rain covers for the rear of the speakers may not be enough - I had to remove my speakers after leaving them in the door overnight as I had forgotten to sound deaden the exterior panel of the door, and discovered that rain had found a way in. I am hoping that the extension to the top of the rain cover which I made from a spare bit of adhesive sound deadening is enough now

Due to the complications with the pull handle mechanism and the general difficulty of the job, it took me a day and a half to do this.

...and having spent most of the day in the car yesterday, some thoughts on the sound (factory head unit (Discovery Media), 8" Blam RS plus the tweeters and Vibe PowerBox 65.4M):

• Sound is better than factory, but not acceptable - yet
• Tweeters are way too prominent
• The midrange is not great
• The bass "booms" all too often
• Good bass at low volume is bad bass at middle-high volume and vice versa
• The best compromise I have found in terms of the head unit treble/mid/bass is treble down to minimum, mid right down almost to minimum and bass flat

So as a noob, from what I have read, perhaps an equaliser or DSP and/or a sub might be needed to improve things. I'm not looking to make my ears bleed or neighbours windows rattle, just to have nice sound across a volume range.

My remaining budget is only £100-£200 and I'm thinking an equaliser would be good to try first.

From the looks of things I could add a JL Audio FiX-82 by taking the front speaker outputs from the head unit as inputs to the FiX82, and connecting the line output from the FiX82 to the PowerBox amp. The rear speaker outputs from the head unit would still be connected at high level directly to the PowerBox. Would that work? My thinking is that this would give access to a 10 band EQ to tune the new Blams. I'm not concerned about tuning the rears which are set to minimum gain on the amp.

 

[Howzat]

Due to swap my speakers at the weekend and as usual I've been trawling the forum for pre installation tips.
The water is my biggest concern as I know water is getting in so I'll fit a rain guard using some sound mat but was thinking......might cling film wrapped around the rear of the speaker provide additonal protection?

 

[Dellmassive]

Rain guards defo.

Not seen cling film used before..... But suppose it wouldn't be an issue on a standard system.?

 

[Pewt]

@Howzat for the sake of around £25 get some proper rain guards. Fitted some to mine last weekend, they are worth it .

 

[tomcollins]

...and having spent most of the day in the car yesterday, some thoughts on the sound (factory head unit (Discovery Media), 8" Blam RS plus the tweeters and Vibe PowerBox 65.4M):

• Sound is better than factory, but not acceptable - yet
• Tweeters are way too prominent
• The midrange is not great
• The bass "booms" all too often
• Good bass at low volume is bad bass at middle-high volume and vice versa
• The best compromise I have found in terms of the head unit treble/mid/bass is treble down to minimum, mid right down almost to minimum and bass flat

So as a noob, from what I have read, perhaps an equaliser or DSP and/or a sub might be needed to improve things. I'm not looking to make my ears bleed or neighbours windows rattle, just to have nice sound across a volume range.

My remaining budget is only £100-£200 and I'm thinking an equaliser would be good to try first.

From the looks of things I could add a JL Audio FiX-82 by taking the front speaker outputs from the head unit as inputs to the FiX82, and connecting the line output from the FiX82 to the PowerBox amp. The rear speaker outputs from the head unit would still be connected at high level directly to the PowerBox. Would that work? My thinking is that this would give access to a 10 band EQ to tune the new Blams. I'm not concerned about tuning the rears which are set to minimum gain on the amp.

Hi @coopso. The OEM head units appear to have hidden, additional filters and EQ that we can not change without coding. This includes boosts to low and high that vary with volume, a high pass filter, other banded EQs.

Something like Fix-82 could help with this to some extent, but couldn't recreate information that is missing from the head unit output, I've not actually heard how well this approach works myself. It would be nicer to remove the hidden EQs and get a flatter output form the unit itself.

Some useful info here:
- VW Discover Pro flat output?
- Research of MIB2 Sound Datasets

There are examples of people removing the EQs etc through OBD / coding:
- VW Discover Pro flat output?
- Enabling *** & subwoofer control without VCP - FL success

I've been trying but have been unable to read the Mib2 5F data as yet.

 

[Howzat]

Fitted the new speakers today. Each woofer came in a bag so I just used those as rain guards by placing them at the front of the hole in the door then fitted the speaker as normal so the whole rear of the speaker is protected. Time will tell if it works OK but I dont see why not.
Sound deadened the doors and I even used the foam that was holding each speaker inside the box around the front of the speaker to direct the sound through the door card grilles.
Sounds absolutely brilliant. Not a single rattle even at silly volume. Beer time!

 

[Absolut5]

Fitted the new speakers today. Each woofer came in a bag so I just used those as rain guards by placing them at the front of the hole in the door then fitted the speaker as normal so the whole rear of the speaker is protected. Time will tell if it works OK but I dont see why not.
Sound deadened the doors and I even used the foam that was holding each speaker inside the box around the front of the speaker to direct the sound through the door card grilles.
Sounds absolutely brilliant. Not a single rattle even at silly volume. Beer time!

Make sure the rear of the speaker vents into the door , otherwise it will affect the sound

 

[General-Monty]

Just fitting my Vibe Optisound 8” today, but had to stop, as I had to go and get rivets. I also realised my 'baffles' weren’t included in my kit, they’ll arrive tomorrow after a phone call. I now realise the 'baffles' are in fact rain covers. Great thread to read through, just in time. I’ll be taking additional precautions to stop water ingress.
Also fitting a Vibe Powerbox 65.4M.

 

[lolope96]

Sorry about the silly question but how can i know which one is the positive+ and negative- in the picture of the OEM speeker connector, i have Red and white / Brown and white on the right side and Red and blue/ Brown and blue on the left side... Don´t have the tester now and the van fully exploded both sides.

 

[Absolut5]

Sorry about the silly question but how can i know which one is the positive+ and negative- in the picture of the OEM speeker connector, i have Red and white / Brown and white on the right side and Red and blue/ Brown and blue on the left side... Don´t have the tester now and the van fully exploded both sides.

Red/white and red/blue is positive