Date:         Wed, 20 Apr 94 14:21:43 -0400
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         jrp@widcat.widener.edu
Subject:      Reply to Sweeter "tunes" for the Vanagon 


Hello,

> Now my Vanagon is running better I'm interested in making some other
> improvements.  Unlike the other two I've owned, the '87 I have now came with
> a pretty nice looking "VW Design" radio/tape player combination.  Is it any
> good?  The stock speakers in Vanagons are so lousy it hard to tell !  I
> don't like the front panel design with all the little buttons either,
> cuz I can't see 'em conviently when driving (forget it at night, then it's 
> completely touchy-feely & as luck will have it).

The are literally thousands of head units that you can purchase and 
install in your Vanagon.

> Anyway, I'm not interested in an amplifier and all that, just better quality 
> speakers. Could new speakers possibly be as large as 6x9, fit the depth of 
> the door and still remain flush with the front so the window crank handle 
> passes by smoothly (no jammed fingers for me)?

Most 6"x9" speakers have quite a large cone and magnet and will definitely
hit your window gear on the inside, let alone your window. However, if you
split your sound up a bit you might be able to sticks 6.5" coaxials lower
in the door. If you want to get fancy, replace the 4" drivers with nice
tweeters, and use a passive crossover to send midbass frequencies to the
6.5" lower on the door, and the high frequencies to the tweeter. 

Getting perfect sound is a common goal (that is never reached) in car 
audio. There are thousands of issues that affect the sound in subtle
ways, but when a car audio installation is done properly can make a big
difference. Since the folks here seem to be hardy do-it-yourselfers, I
will point you to the rec.audio.car FAQ that is featured on my gopher at
windoze.widener.edu (port 70) as well as tell the story of my no-holds-
barred installation in my Volkswagon Fox.

To start it all off, the Volkswagon Fox as delivered has that VW design
principle well in hand. It had a basic cassette + four speaker arrangement
that got the job done and nothing more. There were 3.5" speakers up front
and 6.5" speakers in the rear. Perhaps 20W per channel at best.

After a year of fiddling, tweaking, and occasionally forays into a local
shop called "Circuit City" I found that my expertise was lacking, simply
on the things that I didn't do often: cabinet-making, solder jobs, the
nice trim work that makes a car look good. 

Luckily, I had a friend in Minneapolis named J.C. Hamlin that has a car
audio business of his own and will let you work alongside him on your
car turning it from a quacking duck into a car sound experience.

After 6 months of email back-and-forth design, and the beginnings of
possible legal action with Circuit City (they were in way over their
heads. Those guys should stick to selling things and not trying to do
custom work) I went to Minneapolis from my home south of Philadelphia
in order to get some training at Control Data and to work on my car
with J.C.

To make a long story short, we replaced practically all of the electrical
components involved in my previous system, spent a week undoing the
damage the Circuit City had done installing my alarm, and installing a
"competition quality" stereo in my vehicle. I didn't go far enough, i.e.,
I didn't upgrade the alternator, but we went a long way in most other 
regards.

Summary:
  1140 RMS watts split up like this:
    Front stage: 1" MB Quart tweeters at 55W per channel
                 4" MB Quart midranges at 55W per channel
                 6.5" MB Quart midbass drivers at 55W per channel
    Rear stage:  6.5" MB Quart coaxial drivers at 35W per channel
    Subwoofer:   2x10" Kicker F-10 subwoofers
                 2x15" Kicker F-15 subwoofers (400W total, over four drivers)
  Amplifiers:
    a/d/s/ PH-15.2 6x55W
    Sony XM-3520 2x35W
    Orion 225HCCA high current amplifier. 1x400W into a 1ohm load.

  Signal processing:
    AudioControl 4XS Crossover (split the front channels)
    AudioControl 2XS Crossover (split the rear channels)
    AudioControl EQQ (separate equalization for 4 channels: FL, FR, RL, RR)
    Sony XE-8 mk II (graphical equalization with presets)

  Source units:
    Kenwood head unit with 10 disc changer
    Hirchmann power antenna
    Winegard signal booster

A lot can be said about the installation of this and of the alarm, but
I'm not sure that you folks really want to know all that. :)

However, the rec.audio.car FAQ anf J.C. Hamlin and his shop can answer
a lot of questions (he DOES read his email) and I can answer a lot of
questions too. The primary things to find out first are: 1) What don't
you like about your current system? 2) What would you like to do to your
system? 3) How much are you willing to spend?

> I'm real interested in hearing what others of you did to get better sound
> and what brand names you recommend.

I believe the stock Vanagon system, at least the one in my '89 Vanagon,
was made by Blaupunkt. You can tell mainly by the blue dustcap in the
4" speakers, and that Blaupunkt is a common European manufacturer of
car audio.  MB Quart is another that makes specific parts for European
car manufacturers... and it's good, if expensive, stuff.

Let's keep the thread going... I can compete with the walking dictionary
(Joel) on this particular subject. :)

--JRP

PS, I'll post more information about aftermarket alternators later. I have
to dig up my 1994 directory in my mounds of magazines at home.

PPS, If you want to reach J.C. Hamlin directory, send email to jch@cs.umn.edu
or call his shop at 612/683-9723.