[lebicicletta]

Hi folks...

Newbie with a 2002 Turbo S here. I'm trying to sort out a decent sound system. When I got the car, the original monsoon head unit had been removed and replaced with a pioneer CD player. The sound quality is lousy; the front (door) speakers do not work (but back ones do) and I am pretty sure the monsoon amp is not attached to the system.

The question is where to go from here. I did get the original head unit with the car; it looks like the wiring harness was chopped up somewhat to install the CD player, so it isn't a direct "plug and play" for putting back the orignal cassette head unit. Also, I will want to go with a CD player - if I install the original head unit then I must use a monsoon or panasonic CD changer in trunk, right?

Do folks have any idea why the front speakers on my car don't play thru the head unit? Is it tied in with the monsoon amp in a special way? Also, if I were to leave the existing head unit in the car - is there a way to get the monsoon amp to work with it?

Thoughts and advice to make the sound quality in my car a whole lot better would be appreciated!

 

[Toad]

Sounds like either the radio wiring wasnt done correctly, i heard it's almost as hard as rocket science when dealing with keeping the monsoon amp (i've never tinkered around with monsoon), or that your speakers are blown.

There is a way to use the monsoon amp with an aftermarket radio, i thnk you have to hook up the factory speaker leads to the pre-amp outputs on the aftermarket radio (just a guess from what i've read here) and you have to connect the turn-on lead to the monsoon amp also.

If the monsoon amp is dead or your speakers are blown (both are possibilities) then you could definately get a monsoon amp cheap off anyone here that ripped thier system out, or if it's the speakers, get some nice ones, it'll sound much better once you get everything else straightened out.

 

[r0nd3L]

There is a way to use the monsoon amp with an aftermarket radio, i thnk you have to hook up the factory speaker leads to the pre-amp outputs on the aftermarket radio (just a guess from what i've read here) and you have to connect the turn-on lead to the monsoon amp also.

So, you are saying that you have to connect Monsoon amp to aftermarket radio's pre-amp outputs? Because now I have connected them to speaker-level outputs since I didn't know that Monsoon amp takes in pre-amp instead of speaker inputs. I just had my Alpine radio installed for few days...

Can anybody verify the input of Monsoon amp?

 

[Toad]

So, you are saying that you have to connect Monsoon amp to aftermarket radio's pre-amp outputs? Because now I have connected them to speaker-level outputs since I didn't know that Monsoon amp takes in pre-amp instead of speaker inputs. I just had my Alpine radio installed for few days...

Can anybody verify the input of Monsoon amp?

Does it sound good? I'm still unsure myself as to what kind of levels go to the amp itself. I do know that there isn't a built in power amp in the monsoon deck. As to why i'm just assuming that it's line level. But i'm not 100% certain as to i've never tinkered with monsoon, at all.

 

[jdesigns]

snip.... The sound quality is lousy; the front (door) speakers do not work (but back ones do) and I am pretty sure the monsoon amp is not attached to the system.

My Monsoon system sound sucked too! The door speakers are only bass/midbass. No high freq's coming through them at all.

If you have the time and the means, I recommend re-doing the entire system. When mine runs out of warranty, I will be replacing what I haven't replaced yet. I have replaced the door and rear speakers and added a MTX Thunderform Powered sub.

 

[The Cheat]

OK, whoever wired your system up jacked it all the way to Mars. There's nothing fancy needed to wire the Monsoon speakers/amp to an aftermarket deck as the Monsoon uses speaker-level inputs. If you can, get us a pic of the wiring so I can analyze and tell you how to go about this.

 

[r0nd3L]

Does it sound good? I'm still unsure myself as to what kind of levels go to the amp itself. I do know that there isn't a built in power amp in the monsoon deck. As to why i'm just assuming that it's line level. But i'm not 100% certain as to i've never tinkered with monsoon, at all.

It definately sounds awesome! One of the best sounding radios I ever heard, but I haven't heard a lot.

And the door speakers supposed to be bass/midbass because mids are on top of the dash and tweeters on a-pillar.

 

[sb_beetle]

Assuming the Monsoon amp is still installed and the wiring is still somewhere in the dash all you need is an aftermarket wiring harness. The stock monsoon speakers are dependent on the Monsoon amp for crossover frequencies. Pics will go a long way to help you. I'm running an Alpine/changer/ipod through the monsoon amp and it's like butter.

 

[prettygood]

I would buy the 2006 headunit and try to get it back to factory. That would give you the CD player, MP3 capability with aux input and connect with the monsoon (I think it should). Then add a sub in the back and it will sound very solid. But I like the OEM stuff since the Beetle is hard to match with an aftermarket unit.