common audio problem with Monsson system?

I bought a CPO 2002 passat with the Monsoon Sounds System installed.
The audio has PLENTY of bass but the mid and upper frequencies are
very... shrill or tinny. I find myself turning the mid and high
adjustments down quite a bit. Is this typical of the Monsoon systems
or should I take it in to be looked at?

By the way, I was on the fence about the Phatbox system until I
received as a gift, a portable MP3 player. (Creative Nomad 30 GB
memory).

I bought an FM transmitter to send the signal to the car system. It
was terrible. Absolutely terrible. I took it back.

I got a cassette adaptor. After playing with it for a while, it sounds
pretty darned good !.

What REALLY helps is the MP3 player has an equalizer built into it.
After turning down most of the high end, it sounds really good.

The Monsoon system has plenty of power and plenty of bass, however,
overall it's sounds pretty bad. Again, is this normal?

Thanks !

"Rich" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> I bought a CPO 2002 passat with the Monsoon Sounds System installed.
> The audio has PLENTY of bass but the mid and upper frequencies are
> very... shrill or tinny. I find myself turning the mid and high
> adjustments down quite a bit. Is this typical of the Monsoon
systems
> or should I take it in to be looked at?

Pretty well describes the unit in my 2002 Golf. No matter how far
down I turn the mid and upper freqs it still sounds shrill and tinny.
In fact the controls seem to have little effect at some of the peaky
audio frequencies. 120 watts of boom-boom is useless if the mids and
highs sound so bad.

They must have used a "jury" of dudes who liked BOOM BOOM CRASH CRASH
"music" and shouted vocals rather than more traditional bowed string
instruments and ordinary horns.

That's MY take, YMMV

There's no richness/fullness to the sound on the more basic systems either -
the radio/tape deck (6 speaker) in our 12 year old Volvo sounds better then
the radio/tape/CD in my Golf (1999.5), and it's suppose to be the "premium"
setup (8 speakers)... The audio in current Audi's sounds great tho, I think
VW should just go with whoever Audi is using for speakers and headunits....
The radio in my dad's Golf CL (2003) is even worse then mine - lacks a lot
of power, hardly any bass... tho the midrange is fuller it doesn't have any
warmth to it... There are proper controls for low,mid,high on his where mine
only has low/high (tho his radio looks basically the same, both are single
DIN).... I found that by tweaking the sound rearward +2 turning the bass to
+5 and the trebel to +8 you can get it to sound decent.... Try something
similar with your monsoon systems'.


"Robert J Carpenter" > wrote in message
news:FdMVd.74225$uc.65432@trnddc04...
>
> "Rich" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
>> I bought a CPO 2002 passat with the Monsoon Sounds System installed.
>> The audio has PLENTY of bass but the mid and upper frequencies are
>> very... shrill or tinny. I find myself turning the mid and high
>> adjustments down quite a bit. Is this typical of the Monsoon
> systems
>> or should I take it in to be looked at?
>
> Pretty well describes the unit in my 2002 Golf. No matter how far
> down I turn the mid and upper freqs it still sounds shrill and tinny.
> In fact the controls seem to have little effect at some of the peaky
> audio frequencies. 120 watts of boom-boom is useless if the mids and
> highs sound so bad.
>
> They must have used a "jury" of dudes who liked BOOM BOOM CRASH CRASH
> "music" and shouted vocals rather than more traditional bowed string
> instruments and ordinary horns.
>
> That's MY take, YMMV
>
>

It is the same thing in my Jetta. The sound in the radio is just bad
and not very detailed. As you say bass sounds good, but that's it. And
listening to CDs is MUCH better than listening to the radio.

I changed mine to a Blaupunkt Lausanne, that I have. It sounds great,
much much better than the Monsoon radio. But unfortunately I can't use
my CD-changer in the trunk :-(

It is sad that VW puts a ****ty radio like this in the car, and I don't
even think there is another VW-radio alternative. You can buy the
phatnoise system for VW, but you have to live with the blurry sound
from the Monsoon amplifier.

Best,

Carsten

Actually, I didn't mention it but that is the only way (besides the eq)
I was able to balance the sound. I suppose it is because the highs
from the rear don't make it to the front.

Yea, that's why i was on the fence. The Phatbox system is a GREAT idea
but I just couldn't see pushing all my music through the factory
system. With the (limited) EQ built into my Nomad MP3 player, it
sounds pretty darned good now. Kinda sad but at least I have ALOT of
audio that sounds fairly decent now.

Too bad. I LOVE the Passat (I never knew you could cruise at 100 MPH
and not really realize it!) but the stereo tained my otherwise perfect
car.

"Carsten" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> It is the same thing in my Jetta. The sound in the radio is just bad
> and not very detailed. As you say bass sounds good, but that's it. And
> listening to CDs is MUCH better than listening to the radio.
>
> I changed mine to a Blaupunkt Lausanne, that I have. It sounds great,
> much much better than the Monsoon radio. But unfortunately I can't use
> my CD-changer in the trunk :-(
>
> It is sad that VW puts a ****ty radio like this in the car, and I don't
> even think there is another VW-radio alternative. You can buy the
> phatnoise system for VW, but you have to live with the blurry sound
> from the Monsoon amplifier.

Have you all not heard about these Monsoon units being mis-wired from the
factory? VW had some harness wires swapped around wrong. The thread was on
the Vortex a few years ago. maybe this is what you all are suffering from?

Here's the thread:
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=266872

The excitement starts around pages 3 and 4 of the thread.

"Matt B." > wrote in message
news:JyUVd.126457$Yu.64943@fed1read01...
> "Carsten" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
>> It is the same thing in my Jetta. The sound in the radio is just bad
>> and not very detailed. As you say bass sounds good, but that's it. And
>> listening to CDs is MUCH better than listening to the radio.
>>
>> I changed mine to a Blaupunkt Lausanne, that I have. It sounds great,
>> much much better than the Monsoon radio. But unfortunately I can't use
>> my CD-changer in the trunk :-(
>>
>> It is sad that VW puts a ****ty radio like this in the car, and I don't
>> even think there is another VW-radio alternative. You can buy the
>> phatnoise system for VW, but you have to live with the blurry sound
>> from the Monsoon amplifier.
>
> Have you all not heard about these Monsoon units being mis-wired from the
> factory? VW had some harness wires swapped around wrong. The thread was
> on the Vortex a few years ago. maybe this is what you all are suffering
> from?
>
> Here's the thread:
> http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=266872
>
> The excitement starts around pages 3 and 4 of the thread.

did some more digging in the thread and this is the VW TSB:
http://www.hirobotechnique.com/kenwood/tsb.jpg

Matt B. wrote:

> "Matt B." > wrote in message
> news:JyUVd.126457$Yu.64943@fed1read01...
>
>>"Carsten" > wrote in message
groups.com...
>>
>>>It is the same thing in my Jetta. The sound in the radio is just bad
>>>and not very detailed. As you say bass sounds good, but that's it. And
>>>listening to CDs is MUCH better than listening to the radio.
>>>
>>>I changed mine to a Blaupunkt Lausanne, that I have. It sounds great,
>>>much much better than the Monsoon radio. But unfortunately I can't use
>>>my CD-changer in the trunk :-(
>>>
>>>It is sad that VW puts a ****ty radio like this in the car, and I don't
>>>even think there is another VW-radio alternative. You can buy the
>>>phatnoise system for VW, but you have to live with the blurry sound
>>>from the Monsoon amplifier.
>>
>>Have you all not heard about these Monsoon units being mis-wired from the
>>factory? VW had some harness wires swapped around wrong. The thread was
>>on the Vortex a few years ago. maybe this is what you all are suffering
>>from?
>>
>>Here's the thread:
>>http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=266872
>>
>>The excitement starts around pages 3 and 4 of the thread.
>
>
> did some more digging in the thread and this is the VW TSB:
> http://www.hirobotechnique.com/kenwood/tsb.jpg
>
>

If your dealier is anything like mine, they won't be familiar with the
TSB however (and they're one of the more helpful VW dealers I've
dealt with...) My '02 had that problem and I had to tell them the fix...

nate


--
replace "fly" with "com" to reply.
http://home.comcast.net/~njnagel

"Nate Nagel" > wrote in message
...
>> http://www.hirobotechnique.com/kenwood/tsb.jpg
>If your dealier is anything like mine, they won't be familiar with the TSB
>however (and they're one of the more helpful VW dealers I've dealt
>with...) My '02 had that problem and I had to tell them the fix...

Doesn't surprise me. Hopefully people will just print that out and take it
w/them.