# VW Up! Sound Quality Upgrade.



## Puffy5 (Apr 14, 2020)

Sound Quality Up!grade.

My build log for a simple budget system in our 2013 VW UP!:



















We bought it several years ago now. It was an economical runaround for myself and my wife to get to work and for school runs etc. 

After driving it for a while it became apparent that VW had really scrimped on the speakers - they were shockingly bad! I had a pioneer head unit left over from the previous car and so I devised a plan to upgrade the head unit and speakers.

Here is a short video on how the head unit was changed from the factory one:






I didn’t want to spend a huge amount of money on improving the sound so i managed to find some component speakers on ebay for about £30. They weren’t from a manufacturer i’d heard of before but they looked of decent build quality and had decent power handling and sensitivity. Here you can see the new speakers compared to the factory ones:



















I made some MDF mounting rings and installed them in the doors. Whilst the door panel was off i took the chance to put on some sound deadening to try and reduce vibrations/rattles:




























I modified the sail panels and mounted the tweeters in them:














































The speakers sounded much better than the factory ones and the head unit gave me the ability to listen to my favourite music from my ipod.


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## Puffy5 (Apr 14, 2020)

And so it stayed like this for about 3 years. Last year we bought a Hyundai Tucson which had a surprisingly good audio system in it considering it wasn’t a premium version. 
I got so used to plugging my phone in and using android auto that i soon missed it when i was back driving in the Up.

I decided to come up with something so that i could use android auto in the Up.

I found a phone holder that would hold the phone in the correct orientation whilst also holding it securely. I used an aux cable to output the sound from the phone to the input on the head unit:



















It’s not as slick as in the Tuscon but it does work and allows me to stream spotify etc.

This little project gave me some inspiration to carry on improving the sound in the Up. I’d always fancied sticking an amp on the components i’d installed years ago to see what they could do and of course a sub is a must if you want improved sound quality in a car!

Again, these upgrades were going to have to be based on a small budget and so the hunt was on for a 2 channel amp and active sub.

I won this amp on ebay for £12.50:










2 x 50w RMS (claimed)

It was definitely old skool but if i’d remembered correctly Jensen was a half decent brand back in the day. I thought that for the money it was worth a go.

The hunt was then on to find a sub. I’d got my mind stuck on an Alpine SWE-815. I’d seen a few reviews on Youtube etc. that said it was very good for its size and was more for SQ than SPL. This suited me down to the ground.

I managed to get a brand new one from facebook sellers for £65:










Now I had the main equipment, it was time to look at how to install it. 

First up, where to locate the amp? Under the seat was a no go as there wasn’t enough room, so the only options were either to mount it to the back of the rear seat or build some form of mount in the boot. I opted to build a mount.

First off was to remove the adjustable boot floor runners (we never use it anyway):



















I cut out a piece of MDF for the amp to mount on the side of the boot. I then inserted some T nuts into the MDF so that the amp had some strong fixings holding it on:










This shows the back of the board:










I then worked out a way of securing the board using the existing threads in the boot side:










Next step was to trim the board.










Amp trial mounted into position:










I wanted the build to be fairly stealth and to give some protection to the amp from items that would be put in the boot from time to time. I decided that I would build a box around the amp.


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## Puffy5 (Apr 14, 2020)

I built a template out of cardboard and then used it to cut out the shape in MDF:



















Once the side and top were cut out of MDF i set about joining them together with wood glue and dowels for strength:



















Once the glue had set carpet was stuck on with contact adhesive and then trimmed:










As you can see, I cut some slots in the front face of the box to help with cooling of the amp. To stop anything passing through the slots I attached some steel mesh to the inside:










It was then time to move onto the next big part of the install - the false floor. The original carpet was reinforced with thin mdf but it wasn’t up to the job of supporting the sub, nor would it have been the correct shape with the amp box being there now. So, I had to make a new floor that would be able to lift up once the sub was taken out - to allow access to the spare wheel. 

Once again, i created a cardboard template and then cut the basic shape out of mdf:










To ensure that the false floor didn’t bow under the weight of the sub (or anything else that went in the boot for that matter) i attached blocks of wood that would rest on the spare wheel to provide solid support - again these were doweled and glued:










The false floor needed to be secured in the car somewhere for safety reasons and so i created a securing mount and hinge in one:











I found a solid point to mount it to under the back seat:










I then fabricated a loop in the false floor to allow a bungee hook to attach to:










Attached underneath the floor:










And this is a loop i made for the other end of the bungie using a factory threaded hole and fastener:










Once the hinge/mount and sub mount was done it was time to carpet the false floor and cut in the flaps along the top edge to allow the floor to hinge up whilst hiding parts of the car that i didn't want on show:


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## Puffy5 (Apr 14, 2020)

Wiring Up!

The next phase of the build was the wiring. I’d worked out what size cable i’d need to use from a calculator on the Crutchfield site. It said i needed 10 gauge but i wanted to go to the next side up just in case i wanted to upgrade the amp in future. I got an 8 gauge kit from ebay.

I used a factory threaded hole near to the amp for the earth. I scratched a bit of paint off first to ensure a good metal contact:



















Next job was to run the power cable to the back of the car. Had to make a mounting plate for the fuse holder first:












Fuse holder in position mounted to the plate which itself was attached to a factory bolt near the headlight:










Cable and fuse in:










One end connected to battery:










Run through a factory hole/grommet in the firewall:










Under the car trim panels to the amp:










It was then just a case of getting the sub wiring in along with running the phono cables and remote turn on from the head unit to the amp:










I didn’t have much space to work with so it does look a bit cramped around the amp. I might look at tidying it up a bit more soon.

Final boot build:










So that brings me up to present day. I’m very happy with how the boot build turned out. It protects the amp, allows access to the spare wheel and still provides us with a bit of space for shopping etc. It’s clean and simple.

Sound wise, I'm really impressed with the alpine sub. For the size it really does kick out a decent amount of tight bass. I’ve got the x-over set to 80hz at the moment which is a bit of a trade off between having a decent amount of midbass and being able to localise where it is coming from in the back (some songs are worse than others to be fair). I might have a play with the x-over a bit more to see if I can bring it down a bit.

The old-skool Jesen amp is doing me proud for £12.50! Even though it’s only rated at 2 x 50rms it really brings the components alive. The stage is higher, the highs are crisper and there is a decent amount of bass available.
There is still more tinkering to be done but I'll need a new head unit to do that, one with time alignment and more pre-out’s etc. I’m thinking of an Alpine UTE-92BT in the near future.


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## imickey503 (Dec 16, 2015)

Now this is a Nice sensible build. Great clean install.


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## ejeffrey (Oct 8, 2015)

Great job on the sails!


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## Puffy5 (Apr 14, 2020)

Thanks for the positive comments guys.


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## imickey503 (Dec 16, 2015)

There are some things I just love about a Simple, clean install. * And that's what I like about your build so much. *

Its pure. Simple. Clean. And done right. 

Its very Properly British.


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## Twonks (Nov 10, 2007)

Hi fellow brit. Looks good although I'd be wanting something much more substantial holding the sub down.
The bungee won't hold its own weight in a crash, never mind the amplified force of 7 or 8KG trying to release itself and potentially smack you or your passengers on the head.


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## Puffy5 (Apr 14, 2020)

Twonks said:


> Hi fellow brit. Looks good although I'd be wanting something much more substantial holding the sub down.
> The bungee won't hold its own weight in a crash, never mind the amplified force of 7 or 8KG trying to release itself and potentially smack you or your passengers on the head.


Hi, yeah you're probably right. I plan on getting a proper strap soon.


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## Puffy5 (Apr 14, 2020)

Replaced the bungie for something more substantial to hold the sub in place, as recomended by Twonks:


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## Puffy5 (Apr 14, 2020)

Installed a new Kenwood head unit over the weekend:








My main reasons for upgrading were to enable me to stream music via bluetooth and to be able to use the in built dsp to get some time alignment sorted. The TA has made a world of difference!. The soundstage has lifted above the dash and is centred above the steering wheel (where i personally prefer it). I can hear the spread of the different instruments across the soundstage. Sub bass has been brought forward and sounds like it is coming from the general area around the front seats. 
There is more work to be done with EQ settings and levels etc. but i'll get into that a bit deeper at a later date. 

In the mean time, i'm going to be tidying up my wiring. I've made a start already, i'll let the pictures do the talking:


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## Puffy5 (Apr 14, 2020)

So, i’m now running active! Swapped the Jensen for a 4 channel Class D Kenwood. I picked this particular amp as it gave me enough watts per channel for my needs and was small enough to fit in the side of the boot - the Class AB 4 channels were just too big!

I’ve been watching a lot of videos on Youtube from 5 Star Car Stereo and so i naturally picked up some tips on how to lay out amp racks properly. I took what i had learnt and set about redoing my amp rack with the new amp.

First off i cut and painted a bigger piece of MDF to mount to the side of the boot. Then worked out roughly where the distribution blocks were going to go:










It was then time to start the wiring up:










Amp rack fixed in position in the boot:



















Earth, +ve and remote wires run in:










Speaker and RCA cables run in:












Fully finished:










First impressions of the amp are good. Plenty of power and detail for my needs. I’ve got more tuning to do with a pink noise CD that i found from many moons ago, but it’s getting there. Being able to properly time align the tweeters has made a big difference to the staging. Once the levels are sorted i’ll look at RTA’ing and tweaking the bands to get rid of any major peaks or troughs.


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## toneloc2 (Nov 29, 2015)

nice build log bud.... its all coming together for ya...


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## knever3 (Mar 9, 2009)

Very well done!

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk


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