One Man's Junk Is Another Man's Treasure

By: Richard Vedvik, Keep_Hope_Alive, SoundDomain Mod

How cool is this? I was surfing eBay the other day when I stumbled on an Alpine DVA-7996 and won the auction for $56. The guy lives in my town, so I even saved on shipping. The owner says there is almost no signal on the preouts, only a very small amount at max volume. The unit came into a local shop, and the previous owner just bought a new HU. The shop owner didn't want to hassle with it (they don't sell Alpine), so he was going to throw it away. An employee decided to try out eBay to make some money on the deal. This guy knew that it was an expensive piece in its day but had very little experience with Alpine gear.

After the jump is a narrative of my findings, my thoughts, and how I will approach this repair. You never know what you're getting on eBay, so this may turn out to be a larger project than I initially anticipated. But with such a little investment, I can't go wrong.

Go To 2 Channel Bridged vs. 4 Channel With the Flip of a Switch!

By: Richard Vedvik (keep_hope_alive)

Many people on SoundDomain are told to eliminate their rear speakers. It seems like a foreign concept, and many people are very reluctant to give it a try. Why would you do this? Because in the real world, like at a concert, the audio mainly comes from in front. I was constantly playing with my fader to find a good place, but after a while I just kept the fader all the way to the front.

My next question was regarding volume. Is it louder to run all four speakers at 50W each or bridged at 200W to the front only? So I decided to use some standard Bosch 5-pin relays to give myself the ability to switch between bridged to the front versus the four channels front and rear. For safety I would power the system down between switching (so the amplifier couldn't be harmed from any switching transients). (I recommend using ignition voltage for the control so the coils aren't left on and end up draining your battery.)

My end product was a relay board that's easily wired between a four channel amp and four speakers. One switch located at the dash allows for quick and easy comparisons. Try it for yourself and see what you think is better - bridged to the front only or front and rear.

Follow the jump for details on how to do this for yourself and the results of what I found after trying out my new toy.

2008 VW Jetta has 3-ways in front doors

By: Richard Vedvik (keep_hope_alive)

A 3-way speaker system makes an excellent front stage, when done correctly. Many winning competitors have a tweeter, a midrange, and a midbass driver up front, with a sub to round out the frequency spectrum. The largest challenge is finding a location for each of those drivers because most factory systems provide space for a midbass/midrange and a tweeter. The size of the midrange/midbass driver varies wildly from 3.5" to 6"x9". Very rarely does an auto manufacturer provide a 3-way setup in the front doors from the facotry, it's almost always an aftermarket solution. 

However, that's not hte case with the new VW MKV Rabbit, GTI, and Jetta. I recently had the opportunity to drive a 2008 VW Jetta 'S' for three days. In that time I added 250 miles to the clock, listened to several dozen artists, and even tore some of the panels off to give it a full evaluation. While I was not impressed with the sound quality available in the base model, i did notice that there is a good opportunity for a nice 3-way setup using factory locations. And with a base price of $17K it is very affordable new car. While the midrange isn't available in the base 'S' model, you can always add your own speakers.

I decided to give the Jetta's sound system a closer look. Follow the jump to check out a small gallery of pics showing how to disassemble the Jetta doors. I took plenty of pics for your enjoyment.

How-To: Alpine CDA-7930 Display Repair

By: Richard Vedvik (keep_hope_alive)

The display on my CDA-7930 was busted, like many LCD’s they are fragile and easily broken, for instance; if you try to secure the faceplate by pushing on the display.

Luckily a replacement display is cheap - $20, and like all Alpine parts is available through pacparts.com. This faceplate was worth saving for that price. It helps to have a service manual for any project like this. They're around $10 and worth every penny.

Before the project:

Read on for the whole process...