Helix Sound System in the UAE

[Moez]

Hi all, wanted to check if anyone had experience with installing the Helix sound system as an upgraded solution provided by VW and got it fitted via the dealer here in the UAE? and what was the cost?

http://www.volkswagen-accessories.com/en/product-ranges/infotainment/plug-and-play-soundsystem.html

http://www.volkswagen-dubai.com/en-...n-genuine-accessories/golf/communication.html

what is your feedback on the system and how is it compared to Dynaudio and to the stock system?

If you have upgraded to another sound system, can you let me know please which one was it, its performance, cost and where you got it installed?

many thanks in advance for your feedback

 

[mukuljuria]

The helix is only a tiny subwoofer. That goes in the trunk like the stock Dynaudio subwoofer. It has like two 6" drivers and is not that great but enough to fill in the low end/bass. I doubt Nabooda fits it, they dont bother with anything....at all! Even if you offer to pay.

Its not that powerful, but it could suit your needs as the Gti is a hatch and the bass has enough room to travel due the trunk being open to the car. The stock speakers are fairly decent....and a little bass wont hurt. On a jetta or something that would not be enough as the sub would be in the trunk that is separate. It comes down to personal preference. For me, yes the intergration and look was nice, but for the price you can get much much much better. So depends on what you want.

On the other hand, I had a subwoofer installed in my Gti, and that was enough to improve the system for the time being. I had a 12" rockford 300W enclosed active subwoofer. It was actually a little too powerful and on a scale of 1 - 10 I would keep the bass at 3.5, and that was more than enough LOL

http://www.golfmk7.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3396 <-- my post

This allowed me to keep the speakers at 0 bass (right in the middle) so that a little bass goes to the speakers too and creates a surround effect.

If I had not sold my car I would have upgraded the speakers too and used my sub to its full potential.

Check out gulf wireless in al quoz. They are right after VW showroom(towards Dubai) - pass nissan and mitsubishi and then its in the building with exotic cars and 3m tinting. Their other name is Car Audio People (its a building that is curved so the road curves with it). You won't believe it but they were recommended to me by a VW sales guy, who has since left Nabooda.

Anyways...They had a subwoofer that I wanted, it was flat, 12 inch, 300 W power and by Hertz which makes amazing speakers.

http://www.hertzaudiovideo.com/car-audio-subwoofer_box-energy-ebxf25_5/

Don't be fooled by their shop and how shit it looks. They do top notch work!

I only found out how good they are after getting my sub installed at Yellowhat and I did regret it, not that Yellowhat was bad. They are just a rip off.

Gulf wireless can do a full system for AED 5000 which is what I would have done if I could turn back time. I even had the full system mapped out. Hertz Energy 6.5" components front and back. 5 channel amp and Sub. Or a little more expensive but a 4 channel amp for speakers and a mono amp for the sub. The sub alone + amp and install was 2000....Same as I paid at yellowhat for a sub that not need an amp....see what I mean by rip off lol - Also yellowhat charges a butt load for installation (150 per door and 300 for sub in addition to all cables and stuff). Gulf wireless will give you a flat fee of 500 for the full car. And they do bargain. I am not affiliated with them, I just did my research and I am telling you exactly what my plans were

A friend of mine with a Gti as well has installed the Hertz Hi-Energy series of speakers from gulf wireless and he said they are bloody brilliant. The last time we spoke he had already installed the speakers and paid close to 4500 or 5000, without a Subwoofer..He was going to install the sub at a later stage (dont know which sub) but I have not spoken to him about it since... But...they are ofcourse more expensive. Energy series would be more than enough in my honest opinion.

Adding a subwoofer did not affect my warranty and I even had a flat battery once and they replaced it under warranty even with the sub installed.

Either way, my recommendation is the 12" flat subwoofer from Hertz as it does not take up much space at all. If I could go back to the day I installed my sub, I would stop myself and get the hertz.

All the best! (Sorry for the long post, I like to cover all points in one go )

Edit: Someone I know from the vdubz UAE group got his FULL CAR done at fos concepts so check that out too if you like, they can even do a custom install just like Gulf Wireless (i.e. build an integrated sub etc.).

I just know gulf wireless and have seen their work first hand.

 

[Moez]

The helix is only a tiny subwoofer. That goes in the trunk like the stock Dynaudio subwoofer. It has like two 6" drivers and is not that great but enough to fill in the low end/bass. I doubt Nabooda fits it, they dont bother with anything....at all! Even if you offer to pay.

Its not that powerful, but it could suit your needs as the Gti is a hatch and the bass has enough room to travel due the trunk being open to the car. The stock speakers are fairly decent....and a little bass wont hurt. On a jetta or something that would not be enough as the sub would be in the trunk that is separate. It comes down to personal preference. For me, yes the intergration and look was nice, but for the price you can get much much much better. So depends on what you want.

On the other hand, I had a subwoofer installed in my Gti, and that was enough to improve the system for the time being. I had a 12" rockford 300W enclosed active subwoofer. It was actually a little too powerful and on a scale of 1 - 10 I would keep the bass at 3.5, and that was more than enough LOL

http://www.golfmk7.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3396 <-- my post

This allowed me to keep the speakers at 0 bass (right in the middle) so that a little bass goes to the speakers too and creates a surround effect.

If I had not sold my car I would have upgraded the speakers too and used my sub to its full potential.

Check out gulf wireless in al quoz. They are right after VW showroom(towards Dubai) - pass nissan and mitsubishi and then its in the building with exotic cars and 3m tinting. Their other name is Car Audio People (its a building that is curved so the road curves with it). You won't believe it but they were recommended to me by a VW sales guy, who has since left Nabooda.

Anyways...They had a subwoofer that I wanted, it was flat, 12 inch, 300 W power and by Hertz which makes amazing speakers.

http://www.hertzaudiovideo.com/car-audio-subwoofer_box-energy-ebxf25_5/

Don't be fooled by their shop and how shit it looks. They do top notch work!

I only found out how good they are after getting my sub installed at Yellowhat and I did regret it, not that Yellowhat was bad. They are just a rip off.

Gulf wireless can do a full system for AED 5000 which is what I would have done if I could turn back time. I even had the full system mapped out. Hertz Energy 6.5" components front and back. 5 channel amp and Sub. Or a little more expensive but a 4 channel amp for speakers and a mono amp for the sub. The sub alone + amp and install was 2000....Same as I paid at yellowhat for a sub that not need an amp....see what I mean by rip off lol - Also yellowhat charges a butt load for installation (150 per door and 300 for sub in addition to all cables and stuff). Gulf wireless will give you a flat fee of 500 for the full car. And they do bargain. I am not affiliated with them, I just did my research and I am telling you exactly what my plans were

A friend of mine with a Gti as well has installed the Hertz Hi-Energy series of speakers from gulf wireless and he said they are bloody brilliant. The last time we spoke he had already installed the speakers and paid close to 4500 or 5000, without a Subwoofer..He was going to install the sub at a later stage (dont know which sub) but I have not spoken to him about it since... But...they are ofcourse more expensive. Energy series would be more than enough in my honest opinion.

Adding a subwoofer did not affect my warranty and I even had a flat battery once and they replaced it under warranty even with the sub installed.

Either way, my recommendation is the 12" flat subwoofer from Hertz as it does not take up much space at all. If I could go back to the day I installed my sub, I would stop myself and get the hertz.

All the best! (Sorry for the long post, I like to cover all points in one go )

Edit: Someone I know from the vdubz UAE group got his FULL CAR done at fos concepts so check that out too if you like, they can even do a custom install just like Gulf Wireless (i.e. build an integrated sub etc.).

I just know gulf wireless and have seen their work first hand.

Many thanks Mukul for the detailed helpful feedback and taking the time to write it, much appreciated.

I wanted to get the Dynaudio with the car but waiting for a 6 month delivery only for that was not logical, also i checked with the service center but i didnt get any clear feedback from them it seems that they don't know about the helix upgrade,, so I'll definitely be visiting Gulf Wireless for a solution.

My main concerns is that i don't want to lose any boot space or the spare wheel, i liked the idea of dynaudio and helix in that you can fit the sub in the spare wheel, so hopefully i can find some solution for that. also i wanted something that looks like an OEM in sense that i don't want to remove off the interior of the car, so something more like a plug n play.

on a side note, does these aftermarket solutions can be integrated with MIB2 infotainment? for example Dynaudio will have it's own related menus and controls on the screen, so can the MIB2 be coded to have the same for aftermarket solutions?

 

[mukuljuria]

Many thanks Mukul for the detailed helpful feedback and taking the time to write it, much appreciated.

I wanted to get the Dynaudio with the car but waiting for a 6 month delivery only for that was not logical, also i checked with the service center but i didnt get any clear feedback from them it seems that they don't know about the helix upgrade,, so I'll definitely be visiting Gulf Wireless for a solution.

My main concerns is that i don't want to lose any boot space or the spare wheel, i liked the idea of dynaudio and helix in that you can fit the sub in the spare wheel, so hopefully i can find some solution for that. also i wanted something that looks like an OEM in sense that i don't want to remove off the interior of the car, so something more like a plug n play.

on a side note, does these aftermarket solutions can be integrated with MIB2 infotainment? for example Dynaudio will have it's own related menus and controls on the screen, so can the MIB2 be coded to have the same for aftermarket solutions?

No worries bud. It says plug and play, but its not, you still need power cables and tapping into the fuse box for ignition (turn on with push button start), after that its plug and play haha.

As for integration, no. You have a separate bass controlled Knob to help you adjust the bass. I put mine in the little compartment under the headlight switch (mini drawer like thing) so make it invisible lol.

As for a good solution, there are many if you are willing to pay. On this forum you will find a solution for "Stealth box". The box itself is 250$ lol, but it goes in the OEM dynaudio location and you can run something like a 10" sub. In an ideal world I would do that. But shipping it here for that cost + shipping and maybe damaging it isnt worth it.

You can visit gulf wireless or fos and see if they can offer a hidden solution. Show them the stealth box and ask if they can make it for you. If I knew all this 2 years ago I would have taken a different route lol. If they truly are specialised in aftermarket I would see no problem for them to help, but this is Dubai afterall, no such specialisation here. Our trunk space is awesome as its two levels, so you can easily run the sub underneath near the spare wheel as theres a lot of space. Even an 8" sub can help. All this based on a custom box setup. Entirely possible! Another option is the side mounted sub in a custom box (see below).

http://www.golfmkv.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=78&pictureid=3422

Aftermarket options and ideas are endless.

If you something similar to the Helix, might I suggest Audio tech Fisher OEM upgrades available at Yellowhat. Its more expensive as its a direct OEM swap. They also have the spare wheel sub and speaker upgrades too. These are marginal improvements though. Nothing beats an aftermarket amp running your speakers and subs, trust me.

I would still suggest aftermarket and once you see how the Audiofisher is done you will feel the same (based on cost and sound output). They make it sound amazing, but its crap.

 

[Moez]

No worries bud. It says plug and play, but its not, you still need power cables and tapping into the fuse box for ignition (turn on with push button start), after that its plug and play haha.

As for integration, no. You have a separate bass controlled Knob to help you adjust the bass. I put mine in the little compartment under the headlight switch (mini drawer like thing) so make it invisible lol.

As for a good solution, there are many if you are willing to pay. On this forum you will find a solution for "Stealth box". The box itself is 250$ lol, but it goes in the OEM dynaudio location and you can run something like a 10" sub. In an ideal world I would do that. But shipping it here for that cost + shipping and maybe damaging it isnt worth it.

You can visit gulf wireless or fos and see if they can offer a hidden solution. Show them the stealth box and ask if they can make it for you. If I knew all this 2 years ago I would have taken a different route lol. If they truly are specialised in aftermarket I would see no problem for them to help, but this is Dubai afterall, no such specialisation here. Our trunk space is awesome as its two levels, so you can easily run the sub underneath near the spare wheel as theres a lot of space. Even an 8" sub can help. All this based on a custom box setup. Entirely possible! Another option is the side mounted sub in a custom box (see below).

http://www.golfmkv.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=78&pictureid=3422

Aftermarket options and ideas are endless.

If you something similar to the Helix, might I suggest Audio tech Fisher OEM upgrades available at Yellowhat. Its more expensive as its a direct OEM swap. They also have the spare wheel sub and speaker upgrades too. These are marginal improvements though. Nothing beats an aftermarket amp running your speakers and subs, trust me.

I would still suggest aftermarket and once you see how the Audiofisher is done you will feel the same (based on cost and sound output). They make it sound amazing, but its crap.

Many thanks Mukul for your valuable feedback, i guess aftermarket solutions and ideas are indeed endless and everything is possible, i will be visiting gulf wireless and yellowhat soon and decide a solution...