I plan on installing the Mk 2 in my 2000 Jetta GLS. I have the Monsoon system with the 6 cd changer. Any kind of input as to how I can do this would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Donato
Reg. #14196

Edited by ricin on 19/6/00 10:15 PM.

More Details Please

____________________________
Murray

Sure thing, what details do you need?

Can you lay your hands on a digital camera?

The Monsoon's not a unit used in UK spec cars, but it's possibly the same as one of the UK units - if you can mail me a couple of pictures of the front and rear of the unit, I might be able to make a few suggestions.

Dominic

Cambridge Car Audio
http://www.cambscaraudio.co.uk

Killer, thanks!

I will borrow my friends digital camera today.

I'll post a URL to the pictures when I have them.
Might take me a while, because I don't want to break anything and I've never taken the unit out before.


Donato

Current Equipment (taken from vw.com specs.):

Monsoon Sound System 8 speaker with amplifier, Premium IV radio with AM/FM cassette w/ 6 disc CD-changer, trunk mounted.

As far as budget, it doesn't really matter at this point, I just want to get an idea of what can be done and maybe rough estimates as to how much it will cost me.

Ideally, i'd like everything in there now to continue working, and have the empeg work with as much equipment as it can. My reason for this question was to get some insight as to what I can do with this equipment, what options I have, etc.

Any other info needed?

Donato

Well, in hopes that this doesn't sound rhetorical or anything:

The empeg is gonna work like any other after-market head unit (more or less). What you can do is limited only by the size of your car and the amount of money you want to spend (and possibly the amount of interior work if you want to fit speakers everywhere).

The empeg is only going to give you 4 channels (front and rear pairs of left and right), which I believe is pretty much typical anyway. The average set up is probably with a 4 channel amp for the speakers and a 2 channel amp bridged for a sub. If you have eight speakers, and your amp is 2-ohm safe, you could probably hook them up to the same 4 channel and 2 channel amps (assuming there is nothing special about your speakers).

If you are an audiophile, you'll probably have speakers for your lows, mids and highs, and I'm not certain if that even include subs (but I suspect it doesn't) of which you might have 4 or more. You'll also have cross-overs to separate your lows, highs and mids into their appropriate channels. With an abundance of speaker gear, you can throw in several amps, and probably an additional power source (extra battery, perhaps even an extra alternator). Finally, for the tweaking, you can toss in an equalizer. There are other car audio toys you can install that I've never heard of before, but I think most of them may actually make the audio sound worse instead of better.

All of that stuff will work with the empeg.

What you probably WON'T have is the empeg and 4 speakers with no amps. As far as I know, the empeg is not amplified in any way so an amplifier is required.

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In your case,

The amplifier is probably fine including the eight speakers. You probably won't even have to touch them. If you want the 6 disk CD-changer you are probably going to have to keep the casette deck. At the moment, I don't believe the empeg will interface with a CD-changer (unless the CD-changer is one of those "tuner" ones).

If you keep the 6 disk CD-changer, you can run it's line outs into the empeg line ins. I'm not sure what the best way to do this is, since there are probably 4 line outs on the casette deck, but only 2 line ins on the empeg. Perhaps a Y-splitter/merger? Or just run in the front channels.

Or, the empeg can run into the casette deck if it has line ins, but then you can't use the cool empeg features when you are using the casette deck (visualizations, eq, etc).

Chances are, you won't be able to fit both head units into the same space. Either you "special mount" one of the units (some surgery may be required), or the casette deck will have to go. If that is the case, your CD-changer may have to go too (unless one of these other fine BBS visitors know of a better solution ... Tony knows everything ).

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I think the simplest solution for you might be to chuck the casette deck and CD changer (you'll never use em anyway), and just install the empeg as a new head unit. The amp and speakers should be fine untouched. If you want to install the empeg yourself, get yourself the Crutchfield guide and wiring harness if necessary (which reportedly will save you a crap load of time and headaches).

Anyway, that's my understanding of it all. It was a mouthful. Hope it is helpful in some way.

Kureg

This spelling checker REALLY sucks the big one

That's definately helpful, thanks.

One more thing:
There is room on top of my current cassette deck, which appears to be room enough for a whole other unit. I was hoping I might fit the empeg there and not have to rip anything out.

True, I might not use the cd changer/cassette deck as often, but I'd like to leave them in and not rip up my dash for the sake of aesthetics. And if they're going to be in there, they might as well work

If you have room, great! No problem. To be sure, check the dimensions of the empeg on the home page http://www.empeg.com. It is standard DIN sized, but the exact dimensions are in there somewhere. With a measuring tape, you can find out for sure if the empeg will fit in at the same time.

Kureg

There is room on top of my current cassette deck, which appears to be room enough for a whole other unit. I was hoping I might fit the empeg there and not have to rip anything out.

If you're not comfortable with doing the work yourself, then have a professional installer look at the dash and make sure he can fit another full DIN-sized unit in that space.

As has already been said, adding the Empeg to a current system is no different than adding any other aftermarket DIN-sized unit. For instance, if you wanted to add a minidisc player, you'd be asking all the same questions.



___________
Tony Fabris

if you wanted to add a minidisc player, you'd be asking all the same questions.

Just that the Empeg is a bit more flexible.

I still use a CD player in my dash with my empeg which is really handy for listening to CDs on the way back from the store.

____________________________
Murray

So how did you end up installing you empeg into your volkswagen? What connectors are on the bacl of the factory deck?

Thanks
CT

Haven't gotten it yet. Haven't even ordered yet actually, they haven't gotten to my number in the queue. Judging from all the other 2000 Jetta posts I've seen, I'm expecting some trouble getting it to work properly. It'll all be worth the trouble in the end though. So we'll see how it goes when I get it (soon, I hope :).

Donato