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Mostly OEM Audio System Hurts my Ears at 1/3 Volume

Maiden69

Autocross Champion
Location
Texas
Car(s)
2020 GTI
The system in this car seriously sucks. Fender (first car I test drive) or OEM to me sounds equally harsh. I was able to change the frequency of the mid equalizer to 4K with OBDEleven, it alleviate the extreme mid-high harshness, but still too much for my liking. If I decide to upgrade the system in this car I'm just going with an Audio Control Matrix amp and aftermarket separates.
 

bobloblawGTI

Autocross Champion
Location
DC
Car(s)
19 GTI SE 6MT
The system in this car seriously sucks. Fender (first car I test drive) or OEM to me sounds equally harsh. I was able to change the frequency of the mid equalizer to 4K with OBDEleven, it alleviate the extreme mid-high harshness, but still too much for my liking. If I decide to upgrade the system in this car I'm just going with an Audio Control Matrix amp and aftermarket separates.
Do you have the changes you made via OBD11? Would be keen to try them on my SE w/ Fender
 

mrmatto

Autocross Champion
Location
Jacksonville, FL
Car(s)
2024 GTI DSG
The system in this car seriously sucks. Fender (first car I test drive) or OEM to me sounds equally harsh. I was able to change the frequency of the mid equalizer to 4K with OBDEleven, it alleviate the extreme mid-high harshness, but still too much for my liking. If I decide to upgrade the system in this car I'm just going with an Audio Control Matrix amp and aftermarket separates.
Possible with MIB1?
 

George Ab

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Pacific NW
@Adurm: ........and to add to @George Ab suggestion - don't forget about the same power issue with the new 2 ohm resistors - each resistor will dissipate V^2/R watts, or roughly the power consumed by the woofers (not the SAME power because the resistor is a passive device and the woofers are active inductive devices). So make sure that the new resistors are rated for the expected load

In truth, while the resistor solution will work, it's a fairly inefficient solution because the resistors are effectively electrical radiators heating-up the space behind the door panel. Probably better to get woofers with the correct matching amplifier impedance (no offense intended to @George Ab)

Don
Couldn't agree more. Maximum power transfer is achieved when the output impedance equals the load impedance. When the OP dropped in a 4 ohm speaker it halved the power to that driver and unbalanced the entire system. Passive crossovers commonly use resistors in line with tweeters in home audio. An L-pad is a divider network that provides a fixed load to the amplifier and taps off for the speaker. Usually they come in 8 ohms as seen here: https://www.parts-express.com/speaker-components/crossover-components/speaker-l-pads A non-inductive 15W resistor will be fine to balance the front tweeters to the new woofer. It still leaves you with twice the power in the rears which you could balance out with fader. Again all compromises to account for the design change the OP made to the system. Not addressing efficiency of new speaker as it may have a different Sound Pressure Level (SPL) for a given input compared to the last speaker. The most elegant solution is to use a 2 ohm woofer as designed.
 

George Ab

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Pacific NW
I have only started to play around with input setup on the the Audio Control D-4.800 but thus far it's very intuitive. It will be replacing my Helix (still using the Helix harness, which is convenient) but it provides DSP and amplification in one small box with . The plan is to take some pictures of where I end up as far as settings, we'll see how that goes. The full install is/will be done myself but I may end up having a shop tune it, then I can always go in and make small adjustments later.

At $500 for Amp and DSP (with the same logic as any of the other AC products LC2i, LC7i, etc.) it's a good deal I think.

Pardon OP for going off topic. @Cuzoe not sure how sophisticated the Audio Control D-4.800, but likely has a parametric equalizer. If so with a UMIK-1 microphone (around $90), computer, and Room EQ Wizard (REW) (free) you can dial in your system to the home curve (flat response as perceived by our ear at our listening position). This is an excellent video on how to perform.
I have not been motivated enough to perform on my car audio system that uses the Bit-10 DSP, but did do some rudimentary tests and DSP changes using REW. I do use the DSP dialed in to the home curve on my 2 channel home system and love it.
 
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GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
Location
FL
It’s your tweeters on the a pillars… that pain you’re referring to is a “harsh sound” and creating listening fatigue. Because the way you are using the oem harness you really don’t have a way to control the signal to the tweeters in the apillars, without manually adding some resistors in line to the tweeters to drop thier output.

To test if it’s the tweeters put some cloth over Them and see how that affects the feeling in your ears.

This, the stock tweeters are turrible. I have JL C1 components in the front and the tweeters no longer make me want to stab myself in the ears with an ice pick at high volume.
 
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Diggs24

Autocross Champion
Location
de plains! de plains!
Car(s)
2015 GTI
The system in this car seriously sucks. Fender (first car I test drive) or OEM to me sounds equally harsh. I was able to change the frequency of the mid equalizer to 4K with OBDEleven, it alleviate the extreme mid-high harshness, but still too much for my liking. If I decide to upgrade the system in this car I'm just going with an Audio Control Matrix amp and aftermarket separates.
yes, please elaborate. thanks
 

GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
Location
FL
After looking back at the OPs post

The speakers he has replaced the tweeters too and has a passive crossover.

OP- I’m assuming you had a shop install these? The crossover has a DP slope for the tweeters - hood chance the shop has them on the 6db slope if you switch to 12 you may like it better.

https://www.audiotec-fischer.de/en/product-archive/speakers/ms-62c-vw.1

You'd be surprised how many people swap woofers and don't do the tweeters, because they're a bit of a pain to do.
 

El_bigote_AJ

Autocross Champion
Location
Las Vegas
Car(s)
2019 GTI bunny
Maximum power transfer is achieved when the output impedance equals the load impedance. When the OP dropped in a 4 ohm speaker it halved the power to that driver The most elegant solution is to use a 2 ohm woofer as designed.
did he though? What are the non fenders OEM speakers, 4 ohm or 2 ohm.
 

George Ab

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Pacific NW
did he though? What are the non fenders OEM speakers, 4 ohm or 2 ohm.

Yes, we should verify that the OP does indeed have the Fender system. The non-Fender speakers are 4 ohm. The OP mentioned it is an SE. My MK7 GTI SE came with the Fender system which uses 2 ohm speakers. The OP stated he replaced his woofers and inserted Match MS 62C-VW.1 which are 4 ohm per the manufacture.
 
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El_bigote_AJ

Autocross Champion
Location
Las Vegas
Car(s)
2019 GTI bunny
Moot discussion, 2018 and up SE didn’t get fender…. You had to go autobahn to get that in the mk7.5s in the US. Became rare in GTIs cause no one wanted to pay 38k for a GTI.

After looking back at the OPs post

The speakers he has replaced the tweeters too and has a passive crossover.

OP- I’m assuming you had a shop install these? The crossover has a DP slope for the tweeters - hood chance the shop has them on the 6db slope if you switch to 12 you may like it better.

https://www.audiotec-fischer.de/en/product-archive/speakers/ms-62c-vw.1

Yes, we should verify that the OP does indeed have the Fender system. The non-Fender speakers are 4 ohm. The OP mentioned it is an SE. My MK7 GTI SE came with the Fender system which uses 2 ohm speakers. The OP stated he replaced his woofers and inserted Match MS 62C-VW.1 which are 4 ohm per the manufacture.
 

Adurm

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Fl
Just my observation, the audiocontrol dsp software is complicated vs audison bit. I'd suggest anyone looking for a dsp to try the software before you buy.
 

Maiden69

Autocross Champion
Location
Texas
Car(s)
2020 GTI
Do you have the changes you made via OBD11? Would be keen to try them on my SE w/ Fender

yes, please elaborate. thanks
I did it at the dealership with one of the techs. He plugged my OBDEleven and changed the "Medium note frequency range" to 4000kz (5F>Adaptation>Developer Mode), then ran a test using the green screen in the MIB. That part I don't remember how to get to.
 
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