jakealake18
New member
- Location
- Seattle, WA
- Car(s)
- 2018 GTI SE A/T
I bought a 2018 GTI SE from Carvana and got it about a month ago. I love the car but the purchase was a nightmare and the car continues to be filled with small problems. My newest problem is with the speakers and I could really use some help from people who know more about the infotainment system than I.
The short story is that the previous owner installed aftermarket speakers (6.5" Hertz Pro MP 165.3). I didn't figure this out until today. The front passenger woofer also sounds like it's blown. The speakers sound like garbage right now - they sound empty and hurt my ears at moderate volumes. To make things worse, I purchased and installed the Helix sub upgrade a couple weeks ago assuming I had stock speakers.
I now have a lot of questions about what to do next:
1) Does anyone have a suggestion for how I can confirm that the woofer is blown? I only tested it out by setting the Balance-Fader to front passenger and the Bass to +9 and the Mid & Treble to -9. I got distortion coming from these settings, and not from any other speaker. Is there some other way I can verify this? On a side note, when I got the car the stereo was set to Bass+9, Mid+9, Treble+9 .
2) What should I do from here? Should I try to continue to use the Hertz speakers (which apparently is a $500 pair of component speakers) or do I swap a set of stock speakers back in (which are only $16 each from my local dealer)? I've already sunk $500 into the Helix sub upgrade. I've read that the stock speakers pair very well with the Helix sub/amp and there's little point in upgrading them. I've also read that the Helix amp is very sensitive and can burn itself out if hooked up to non-stock speakers.
3) The previous owner lived in Arizona where I assume rain isn't much of a problem. I live in Seattle where it rains a lot. I've heard there are issues with water intrusion with non-stock speakers and it doesn't look like they did much to prevent this. Any thoughts on how panicked I should be about water damage coming through the speaker openings?
I've installed aftermarket stereos in about a half dozen cars over my life. My last car was a 2014 Mazda3 and the upgrade was a nightmare, so I swore it off on modern cars unless there was an easy off-the-shelf solution.
The short story is that the previous owner installed aftermarket speakers (6.5" Hertz Pro MP 165.3). I didn't figure this out until today. The front passenger woofer also sounds like it's blown. The speakers sound like garbage right now - they sound empty and hurt my ears at moderate volumes. To make things worse, I purchased and installed the Helix sub upgrade a couple weeks ago assuming I had stock speakers.
I now have a lot of questions about what to do next:
1) Does anyone have a suggestion for how I can confirm that the woofer is blown? I only tested it out by setting the Balance-Fader to front passenger and the Bass to +9 and the Mid & Treble to -9. I got distortion coming from these settings, and not from any other speaker. Is there some other way I can verify this? On a side note, when I got the car the stereo was set to Bass+9, Mid+9, Treble+9 .
2) What should I do from here? Should I try to continue to use the Hertz speakers (which apparently is a $500 pair of component speakers) or do I swap a set of stock speakers back in (which are only $16 each from my local dealer)? I've already sunk $500 into the Helix sub upgrade. I've read that the stock speakers pair very well with the Helix sub/amp and there's little point in upgrading them. I've also read that the Helix amp is very sensitive and can burn itself out if hooked up to non-stock speakers.
3) The previous owner lived in Arizona where I assume rain isn't much of a problem. I live in Seattle where it rains a lot. I've heard there are issues with water intrusion with non-stock speakers and it doesn't look like they did much to prevent this. Any thoughts on how panicked I should be about water damage coming through the speaker openings?
I've installed aftermarket stereos in about a half dozen cars over my life. My last car was a 2014 Mazda3 and the upgrade was a nightmare, so I swore it off on modern cars unless there was an easy off-the-shelf solution.