Thread: VW Monsoon

what year is your vw and is your radio and single din or double din..(a single din radio is like this http://www.k9spud.com/vwcdpic/img/sdmonsoon.jpg and a double din is twice the size)...i am using this http://www.k9spud.com/vwcdpic/ which plugs into the trunk prewired adapter for the vw optional cd changer....if u have the deck i pointed out earlier...then from the line out on your comp sound card(looks like a headphone jack it is 1/8 and says obviosley line out)....so get a 1/8 head phone jack into rca converter at radio shack or whatever......these rca then plug into the above adapter......so u hit cd on your head unit and u will hear what your computer is playing mp3 ect threw the car stereo....now u can also interface it with your buttons on your stereo ..prev..next track..back track ect using winamp as your music software and the com port of your comp....most people replace there head units but i love my vw head unit as I can preset the volume so it every time i turn on my car it is at the same volume so i dont blow my ears out when i get back in the car after playing it loud.. and it fades the volume inbetween station and song changes) great overlooked little features if u ask me...plus it still looks factory and its a good lookin unit....and still uses the steering wheel controller....but the best part it saves u money so u can maybe splurge on something else like a nice power supply.....just a side note if u wanted to say put a screen in ur dash u can move the head unit if u can god forbide give up the tape deck....u can take the face plate off the stereo and hide the body of the unit just extend the wires from body to face plate put the controls anywhere u want the faceplate is not even an inch thick.......just some ideas oh by the way i have 2001 gti vr6...so i hope this helps you if u have any questions about ur car i can surrelly help... I will not help however if u drive a bug as no dude should be driving 1.. jk....no im not...i also have speakers inside my headrest easly done in a vw i can help

I have a VWCDPIC. I was one of the original customers back when it was pretty new. I used to use it all the time with my IPOD.

It plugs into the CD changer plug in the trunk, but that does me no good since I am NOT running the VW stock headunit, or any sort of headunit in the front.

I tried using the stock monsoon amp but ended up replacing it with an Alpine. It turns out the Double-din radio does most of the amplification already and the monsoom "amp" is more of a crossover.

I had to get passive crossovers to deliver the appropriate range to the tweeters.

CarPC in 2003 Passat

Cheers,

I'm planning on ditching my Monsoon HU unit soon myself.

There's a lot of good info on the Monsoon HU and amp here:
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=215919

Apparently, it should be as simple as getting a stereo-out to RCA adapter,
then getting a pair of RCA splitters and splicing them directly onto
the grey connector on the amp.

The thread also mentions that amp expects speaker-level input, not line-level-- but I think your internal soundcard should be adequate to power it.

volume will be an issue, get a head unit with aux in, life will be simple, run rca from card to deck and your done, kenwoood makes a cheap deck with AUX-in, you can how ever buy a canger adapter for that radio that will allow you to add another after market changer, i think but cant rember it has a optional aux-in opertaed by a switch, but you have to have the changer conected if not you can interupt its audio signal with a switch and inject your own audio. ditching your head unit is the best answer though

Thanks for all the info. I just got sick of it. Shelled out the extra dollars, put in an APA450 Clarion amplifer. Costed me around $110, but the sound improvement is definetly there, even thought I'm using stock speakers.

Originally Posted by Alric

I had to get passive crossovers to deliver the appropriate range to the tweeters.

Did you make those crossovers yourself or buy something?

I used crossovers included with Metra composites.

Good morning, I was reading some of your posts and I noticed you are very knowledgeable on the Stereo system in the VW's. This is my first VW and I was wondering if you could tell me if they make or if I can make an adaptor for my 2nd generation Ipod, so I can use it using my monsoon head unit? I have a 2002 GTI. I purchased this adaptor from Blitzsafe, however, I still had to use the controls from the ipod. I want to place my ipod either in the trunk or in the glove box and use the radio controls to control the Ipod. Preferably, I'd like to plug in the Ipod to the cd harness in the trunk just so I don't have to pull the radio out of the dash. I've done it before with the blitzsafe product but I noticed that the alarm was affected by it. If you can give me any info on this I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much.