Replacing Monsoon

What do you hate about it? Did you know there's a TB for the Monsoon system (for maybe 1999.5-2002)? Two speaker wires going to the headunit may be backwards causing on of them to be out of phase with the others. This results in lack of bass and terrible sound imaging. Check this out:

Good luck!

--Andy

Looks like to me that the TSB covers only model year 2002 vehicles.

My monsoon sounds great on my 2000 gti glx.I am always getting compliments.What I hear the most is how clean the bass is when you crank it up does not sound distorted.

Maybe there's one for 2001 also. It's worth a check.

--Andy

I've done it on my '03 Passat GLS.

The Monsoon stereo at best is adequate. It's really an outdated unit - it doesn't even display the station's name/type you're tuned into, not to mention the names of the songs and artists the station is playing (no RDS! - even Chevy installs OEM stereos with Radio Data Systems these days, but I guess VW is a few years behind.) VW installs very good and advanced factory stereos into Passats in Europe, but I guess they think that the American consumer is not sophisticated enough. I disagree with that. US VW owners are pretty advanced - after all they did buy a VW.

Back to the subject...

You can get a wire harness at any electronics store, and you'll also need a set of keys to pull out the factory head unit - there are no screws, so you must use the keys. You can connect an aftermarket head unit to the existing connections and the monsoon amp (using the acquired harness) or you can rewire everything and put in your own amp.

I was mostly interested in the newly available features (such as RDS), but also in improving the sound. I got an aftermarket SONY unit with RDS. Installation took me about 4 hours. I also got a 10-disk CD-Changer with CD-TEXT(not available with the Monsoon unit), 10 sec skip protection (again, not available with the Monsoon). You could skip the CD-Changer and get an MP3 receiver only, or get one that can connect to Sirius or XM.

Everything together cost me less than if I were to buy just a 6-disk CD changer from VW. The sound has improved tremendously, not to mention the cool features.

Maybe if people stop buying VW crappy upgrades, VW will get a clue and bring some of their 'regular' OEM stuff the European have been enjoying for years.

This seriously bothers you? RDS is useless in most of the U.S., my father's

4Runner has it, as did his Audi and the stations here in Southern California rarely make use it.

Ha! When was the las time you listened to the factory stereo in a Chevrolet? Even the Bose system in the Corvette and their SUVs fails to be impressive. The Cavalier, Chevy's competitior to the Golf, has one of the worst sound systems I know of.

The American consumer simply isn't as willing to pay more money for anything with a VW badge on it. This is the reason Toureags aren't selling tremendously despite their many awards, and why the Pheaton continues to be ignored.

I follow broadcasting, and there's quite of bit of broadcaster interest building up for RDS. One of the major group owners has decreed that their hundreds of stations will install it. Wait a year and seen it the situation has changed.

I attribute this as an effort to compete with XM and Sirius which display title and artist for music.

Well, maybe not a Chebby, but the stereo in my Saturn LS2 was at least as good as the Monsoon I've got now. The radio, in particular, was clearer and had wider frequency response. The lighting wasn't nearly as cool though. ;-)

-- Mike Smith

Here in Boston, most of the radio stations have RDS now. This has happened only in the last 6 months or so.

Actually the premium GM stereos sound better than the Monsoon I had in my '03 Passat. I've rented a Pontiac Grand Prix and a Chevy Impala on one occasion when I was traveling near Dallas... But none of them compare to my girlfriend's Honda Element! That factory stereo beats everything OEM I've seen, well, maybe not the HK in the 3-series BWM...

Cheers,

impressive. The

My b/f used to have a '98 Grand Prix and its stereo was pretty damn good too. Had decent bass and the speakers handled it OK.

I think that the Monsoon stereo system is the best sounding of the OEM's metioned (Chevy, Pontiac, GMC, Saturn). I had a Saturn SL2 - the stereo was a piece of junk! I've rented Chevy Cavaliers and their OEM systems are crap - really muddy bass and distortion at volume levels of 5! Maybe only the Pontiac Sunfire premium package sound system sounds somewhat close...I can say that the Monsoon sounds better than the system in my mother's new S80 Volvo. Maybe the radio reception unit is a little better in the above mentioned, all I can say is that I get all my local radio stations crystal clear, even the ones that I cannot get at home (there's 2 talk radios). So as far as I am concerned - the radio kicks ass! Actually as an audio professional I can say that the Monsoon comes pretty close to realistic sound reproduction as opposed to a lot of the other stereos that are way overhyped. The bass is clean, not muddy which is a big difference for a car stereo. As far as tape available - I think it is a great option. What I did in mine was buy an aftermarket Panasonic 6 CD changer for the back, got a tape adapter to run my minidisk player and I have all options available at my fingertips. RDS display? Who cares! I want audio quality!

I find the standard sound systems in GM automobiles to be horrid. The "premium" Monsoon systems offered in select GM models are an improvement, but not much if any better than what comes in the VWs. The Bose system in the Corvette is less than impressive especially considering the price you must pay to get it. And RDS is still mostly useless, up and down the California coast, into Nevada and Arizona, it remains unused 90% of the time. If you want playlist information, get XM radio.

Definately agree with this!

Even the "Premium" stereo in the 99.5 Golf beats most new system for sound quality, it doesn't have the monsoon amplifier, just the 2X20W in the deck.

By upgrading the decent (adequate), but technically outdated Monsoon stereo, just as I did, you can have it all:

better sounding stereo, RDS features, XM or Sirius options CD changer MP3 options

All that without paying the OEM inflated prices.

My other point was that VW shortchanges US customers, giving the rest of the world a much more advanced products.