98 Jetta Gl: Aftermarket Audio

Now that I have a tiny bit of discretionary income, I'm looking to fill the void left by the previous owner when he/she removed the factory AM/FM radio.

I am not an audio "perfectionist" when it comes to car radios or cd players. I just want something that¹s pleasing to the ears (low or no distortion) and has a digital tuner rather than a sliding analog bar. While window shopping at the local Wal-Mart I seen an AM/FM/ CD/MP3/SD/USB/Ipod capable radio unit for 90 dollars. 180 watts max power output. A little higher is the AM/FM/CD/MP3 that¹s rated for 220 watts radio for 134.00 us$. I figure I cant go wrong.

Now the only thing is to ensure that I don¹t screw up the computer or anything like that. I'm not planning on yanking out the factory speakers, but I am curious to know what your aftermarket radio experiences were and if you had to do over again, would you have made the same choice.

Thanks in advance

Terrence

Reply to
Terrence
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AFAIK The original VW radio is wired to the Engine Control Module. If you install an aftermarket radio you will need to make sure that the wiring going from the radio to the ECM has been disconnected. This might damage scanners if not properly installed. crutchfield.com and related VW radio posts might provide you with more information on radios and what you might need to install.

Reply to
One out of many Daves

Dont get the Walmart brand radios. I got an ilo cd/mp3 with about

40 watts rms/channel. Real crapper and others have had similar experiences. I think the other Walmart brand (to avoid) is durabrand.

Basically the sound was great but there was no tolerance to bumps at all, especially on regular cd's, and the switches we're crap, a real headache just turning it on or adjusting volume, on a related note the faceplace didn't anchor very solidly.

It was about $100 a year and a half ago. I recently replaced it with a cheap pyramid cassette unit (I'll never go back to CD's) from ebay. The great thing about this head is that, although it has a removable faceplate, all controlls are just *mechanical* links into main unit! You wouldn't want it because it's got slide tuning (with digital readout). Unit only has enough power for dash speakers. Unit is underpowered so I got an amp, and while I was at it, a subwoofer that runs off 1/2 the amp. The pyramid head has an imput jack, and I use it with a 'streamline' brand mp3 player with a gig of memory on SD card.

My music is encoded at 64k so I can cram a lot on there. Someday will get a head with integrated front panel SD card port, for playing mp3's a little more sexily...they are at the $100 mark now. I spent about 35 on the head, 50 on the woofer, 65 on the amp. Wire is getting expensive though.

So, I have a 90 Jetta with the 2 stock dash speakers, kicker 6x9's in the back, an audiovox 4 channel 300 watt rms amp and a Visonix single

10" sub (with single voice coil). Like you, I'm not a perfectionist, in fact I can't hear a thing over 8k.

I also have a 98gl with the stock system, and my daughter has a stock 96, which I added an Infinity basslink powered subwoofer to, with no problem whatsoever, just running a + wire to the batt and getting signal from the rear deck speakers, which had deteriorated surrounds, i noticed, as I did the installation. I think it sounds ridiculously good with the

8 interior speakers and sub in the trunk...and her ipod jacked into the factory cassette.
Reply to
IR

I'm curious to know.. Are all factory installed radios in Jettas/Golfs manufactured by Blaupunkt?

Reply to
Terrence

Wow. I should have paused before purchasing this unit from Wal-Mart and yeah. Its a Durabrand model DB1210, a 60 watt am/fm/cd player.

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I've got it wired up on an adapter harness so that I don¹t have to butcher up the Jetta's harness. I'm on a pork n beans budget so, 55 dollars didn¹t sound too bad and if it is crap, then I can always put it on the local Freecycle group and give it away. If I cannot stand it, then I will go here and get a refurb'd Blaupunkt unit here:

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Terrence.

On 8/27/06 3:53 PM, in article uDnIg.1828$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe06.lga, "IR" wrote in part:

Reply to
Terrence

Well hey if it works OK and you use it for a year then you got me beat, this $35 Pyramid I got appears to be mono!?!?! I've been playing with it, one more test, but it appears to be mono. I'll keep it for a year anyway i guess. I've been having bad luck with cheap head units for a while... so I went even cheaper. But that $55 gizmo you got may hit the sweet spot, might just be a tad weak in the power dept- the manual says 5 watts rms/channel, i gotta think you'd want the 10-15 you thought you were getting. "peak power" isn't worth anything. My Pyramid claims

40 watts/channel but I know it's about 5 watts rms.

Heh, I could send you my ilo, nice sound and power, just everything else blows, I'd hate to be responsible for an accident though, with the crap controlls.

Les

Terrence wrote:

Reply to
IR

The stock radios I believe are panasonic and mostely clarion.

Les

Reply to
IR

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