There was a time when the to-do list for a Volkswagen owner went like this:
1.) Suspension
2.) Intake
3.) Exhaust
4.) Chip
5.) Wheels
6.) Brakes
7.) Stereo
Vortex archives are chock full of threads going all the way back to the late 90s, wherein readers debated the merits of those modifications as fervently as the order in which they should be performed, but it always seemed like it was some variation of those few upgrades.
Beginning with the uniquely-shaped head units that debuted in the mkV and B6—which now lend themselves to supporting new features like Navigation and back-up cameras—and continuing with 10-plus speaker sound systems, VW gave us hope: finally, a manufacturer was paying attention to the common upgrades on our cars, and recognized the market demand for high-quality audio.
Names like Monsoon, Dynaudio, and, eventually, guitar-maker Fender became so common that we forgot all about that one item on the list. Though it’s hard to pinpoint the watershed moment, the days of thumbing through a Crutchfield catalogue (they still print those, right?) are pretty much done with a Volkswagen that’s less than 10 years old.
Not that we’re complaining, mind you. For starters, half of the functions of Volkswagen’s “multi-function steering wheel” control the factory head unit, so why make those buttons obsolete? And if the car features a NAV screen, or already has a factory AUX input for an iPod, then replacing the radio makes even less sense.
We’ve had the Fender or Dynaudio systems in most of our long-term cars of late, and we’ve sung their praises plenty. But cruising with the top down in our previous long-termer 2012 Beetle Convertible, we definitely noticed the limitations of Volkswagen’s entry-level systems.
Options and solution
So what is a VW owner to do when they don’t want to shell out nearly $1,000 for a Fender upgrade, or—as was the case with our donor car—the car was purchased second-hand and it wasn’t an option the original owner asked for?
The answer—to upgrade the interior speakers and keep the stock head unit—may be simple, but it’s not necessarily easy. What’s the OE speaker size, and is bigger an option? And what about amplifier wattage and resistance or cutting and soldering wires?
Soumatrix says they have a solution that not only eliminates the research and matching-up of speakers specs with factory head-unit output, but in a genuinely simple to install kit. Since winter weather means we’re more likely to work on cars than drive them, we asked Soumatrix to send over a kit to review.
Now Soumatrix says the Xtase kit they sent us will upgrade any factory-installed speaker system. But as the only cars in our stable at the time were a mk2 GTI and a GLI with a Fender system that was about to go back to VW, our donor car for this experiment came to us from one of our local readers, Nick, who recently purchased a 2010 Passat CC.
While Nick has never had many complaints about the factory sound system, he hasn’t had much praise for it either. At high volumes, the speakers tended to distort, and the sound quality decreased dramatically. It’s not usually an issue, but when the windows are all down on a warm day, who wouldn’t want to be able to turn the knob to 11 and still hear the lyrics?
Disassembly and installation
Removal of the panels is relatively straightforward and only requires a Torx screwdriver, a plastic pry-bar to remove the pop-tabs, and equal parts finesse and patience. The full procedure can be found here , and it’s legitimately simple. Once disassembled, we removed the factory speakers and held on to the old screws, as the instructions stated we would simply reuse them.
After delving into the big shipment from Soumatrix and opening the individual boxes, we noticed an awful lot of German writing both on the labels and on the parts. In the era of Chinese-made extras, it was a genuine pleasure seeing “designed in Switzerland, made in Germany” on something for a change.
Also nice to see was that the Soumatrix speakers used the exact same connectors as the factory units. “Plug and play” is a term that gets thrown around a lot, so truly being able to disconnect one speaker and reconnect another a nice feature. The instructions had us disconnect both the factory speakers, and the component tweeters, since the new speakers were coaxial and included a built-in tweeter.
Conventional wisdom has always argued that component is better than coaxial. We don’t necessarily argue with that, when completely overhauling a system. In this case, however, we were judging the kit on its simplicity, instant benefits, and ease of installation. Plus, by bypassing the factory crossovers (which we felt seemed to filter out too much low/mid-range), the new coaxial units get a full signal and allow the listener to have much more customizability.
The only issue we had with installation came from what we think is a cross-model discrepancy. There were tabs on the speakers themselves that center them in the front doors. While the kit is specific to the CC (we could tell by the shape of the panel), the speaker itself is likely used in other kits. As such, there was one tab that stuck out just a tiny bit too much and had to be trimmed. Not the end of the world, really. As this is a new kit, it was understandable and a quick email to Soumatrix later, and we’ve been informed that they’re now ensuring that future kits are built accordingly.
How they stack up
By far, the most noticeable improvement with Soumatrix’s Xtase kit can be seen when placed side-by-side with the factory parts. The Xtase speaker magnets are so much larger, the whole unit feels is nearly twice as heavy. Like Bowers & Wilkins, Soumatrix also uses cones made from Rohacell, making them far sturdier than the flimsy paper cone in the OE speakers. Soumatrix even included four panels of two-stage sound-deadening material for the inner door skin. A very nice, easy to install extra, it’s a little step that any audiophile will testify to making a big difference.
Altogether, the installation took about 25-30 minutes. Granted, that was while two people were working on the car simultaneously—one on each side—so if done solo, we figure it’s more like 45min to an hour.
There’s no amplifier upgrade in the kit, so we didn’t expect a big increase in volume. And speakers are same size, so hitting lower frequencies wasn’t in the cards (though we might add a subwoofer box later for grins). But what we did get is a genuinely noticeable increase in sound quality.
The midrange no longer feels flat, and the high frequencies are much clearer. Overall, the most noteworthy improvement is the clarity at higher volumes. When cranked up, the new speakers never sound distorted or fuzzy, and after nearly a month of break-in and tweaking of the settings, we’re still impressed.
As impressed as if we were to replace the entire audio system—amplifiers, components, and wiring—in the car ourselves? Of course not. But between the time saved by having a truly plug-and-play kit, and the money saved by not piecing together a system one component at a time, the Soumatrix kit is well worth it. Adding a subwoofer might happen in the future, but for now our CC owner is pretty happy with it.
Now...on to the rest of that upgrade list.
1.) Suspension
2.) Intake
3.) Exhaust
4.) Chip
5.) Wheels
6.) Brakes
7.) Stereo
Vortex archives are chock full of threads going all the way back to the late 90s, wherein readers debated the merits of those modifications as fervently as the order in which they should be performed, but it always seemed like it was some variation of those few upgrades.
Beginning with the uniquely-shaped head units that debuted in the mkV and B6—which now lend themselves to supporting new features like Navigation and back-up cameras—and continuing with 10-plus speaker sound systems, VW gave us hope: finally, a manufacturer was paying attention to the common upgrades on our cars, and recognized the market demand for high-quality audio.
Names like Monsoon, Dynaudio, and, eventually, guitar-maker Fender became so common that we forgot all about that one item on the list. Though it’s hard to pinpoint the watershed moment, the days of thumbing through a Crutchfield catalogue (they still print those, right?) are pretty much done with a Volkswagen that’s less than 10 years old.
Not that we’re complaining, mind you. For starters, half of the functions of Volkswagen’s “multi-function steering wheel” control the factory head unit, so why make those buttons obsolete? And if the car features a NAV screen, or already has a factory AUX input for an iPod, then replacing the radio makes even less sense.
We’ve had the Fender or Dynaudio systems in most of our long-term cars of late, and we’ve sung their praises plenty. But cruising with the top down in our previous long-termer 2012 Beetle Convertible, we definitely noticed the limitations of Volkswagen’s entry-level systems.
Options and solution
So what is a VW owner to do when they don’t want to shell out nearly $1,000 for a Fender upgrade, or—as was the case with our donor car—the car was purchased second-hand and it wasn’t an option the original owner asked for?
The answer—to upgrade the interior speakers and keep the stock head unit—may be simple, but it’s not necessarily easy. What’s the OE speaker size, and is bigger an option? And what about amplifier wattage and resistance or cutting and soldering wires?
Soumatrix says they have a solution that not only eliminates the research and matching-up of speakers specs with factory head-unit output, but in a genuinely simple to install kit. Since winter weather means we’re more likely to work on cars than drive them, we asked Soumatrix to send over a kit to review.
Now Soumatrix says the Xtase kit they sent us will upgrade any factory-installed speaker system. But as the only cars in our stable at the time were a mk2 GTI and a GLI with a Fender system that was about to go back to VW, our donor car for this experiment came to us from one of our local readers, Nick, who recently purchased a 2010 Passat CC.
While Nick has never had many complaints about the factory sound system, he hasn’t had much praise for it either. At high volumes, the speakers tended to distort, and the sound quality decreased dramatically. It’s not usually an issue, but when the windows are all down on a warm day, who wouldn’t want to be able to turn the knob to 11 and still hear the lyrics?
Disassembly and installation
Removal of the panels is relatively straightforward and only requires a Torx screwdriver, a plastic pry-bar to remove the pop-tabs, and equal parts finesse and patience. The full procedure can be found here , and it’s legitimately simple. Once disassembled, we removed the factory speakers and held on to the old screws, as the instructions stated we would simply reuse them.
After delving into the big shipment from Soumatrix and opening the individual boxes, we noticed an awful lot of German writing both on the labels and on the parts. In the era of Chinese-made extras, it was a genuine pleasure seeing “designed in Switzerland, made in Germany” on something for a change.
Also nice to see was that the Soumatrix speakers used the exact same connectors as the factory units. “Plug and play” is a term that gets thrown around a lot, so truly being able to disconnect one speaker and reconnect another a nice feature. The instructions had us disconnect both the factory speakers, and the component tweeters, since the new speakers were coaxial and included a built-in tweeter.
Conventional wisdom has always argued that component is better than coaxial. We don’t necessarily argue with that, when completely overhauling a system. In this case, however, we were judging the kit on its simplicity, instant benefits, and ease of installation. Plus, by bypassing the factory crossovers (which we felt seemed to filter out too much low/mid-range), the new coaxial units get a full signal and allow the listener to have much more customizability.
The only issue we had with installation came from what we think is a cross-model discrepancy. There were tabs on the speakers themselves that center them in the front doors. While the kit is specific to the CC (we could tell by the shape of the panel), the speaker itself is likely used in other kits. As such, there was one tab that stuck out just a tiny bit too much and had to be trimmed. Not the end of the world, really. As this is a new kit, it was understandable and a quick email to Soumatrix later, and we’ve been informed that they’re now ensuring that future kits are built accordingly.
How they stack up
By far, the most noticeable improvement with Soumatrix’s Xtase kit can be seen when placed side-by-side with the factory parts. The Xtase speaker magnets are so much larger, the whole unit feels is nearly twice as heavy. Like Bowers & Wilkins, Soumatrix also uses cones made from Rohacell, making them far sturdier than the flimsy paper cone in the OE speakers. Soumatrix even included four panels of two-stage sound-deadening material for the inner door skin. A very nice, easy to install extra, it’s a little step that any audiophile will testify to making a big difference.
Altogether, the installation took about 25-30 minutes. Granted, that was while two people were working on the car simultaneously—one on each side—so if done solo, we figure it’s more like 45min to an hour.
There’s no amplifier upgrade in the kit, so we didn’t expect a big increase in volume. And speakers are same size, so hitting lower frequencies wasn’t in the cards (though we might add a subwoofer box later for grins). But what we did get is a genuinely noticeable increase in sound quality.
The midrange no longer feels flat, and the high frequencies are much clearer. Overall, the most noteworthy improvement is the clarity at higher volumes. When cranked up, the new speakers never sound distorted or fuzzy, and after nearly a month of break-in and tweaking of the settings, we’re still impressed.
As impressed as if we were to replace the entire audio system—amplifiers, components, and wiring—in the car ourselves? Of course not. But between the time saved by having a truly plug-and-play kit, and the money saved by not piecing together a system one component at a time, the Soumatrix kit is well worth it. Adding a subwoofer might happen in the future, but for now our CC owner is pretty happy with it.
Now...on to the rest of that upgrade list.