My Touareg has an amp with 11 speakers coming into it. Front has 4ohm tweet,4ohm mid, 2 ohm woof. Rear has 4 ohm mid and 2 ohm woof. Plus one 4 ohm center channel. Each speaker is separately wired to factory amp. Line level inputs are FR,FL,RR &RL. I want to change to my Alpine MRV-307 4/3/2 channel amp. It has line level inputs but I dont know how to wire the speakers. I plan to disconnect the center channel speaker. FIRST TIME USER but serious music lover. Please help!
This will be a project, you need to determine if the speaker have passive crossovers or if the crossovers are built into the amp, if this is the case it just became a make work project. Find out about the crossovers first.
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Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.
I'll begin by stating I have not yet even seen the inside of a Touareg, let alone worked on the audio system in one. But, based on what you've posted, let me warn you about a couple of things. First, it sounds like the vehicle has a fairly sophisticated OEM system. How does it sound? If it includes a center channel, is it a 5.1 compliant system? Why would you want to eliminate the center channel?
It is very unusual for factory systems to include high power rated speakers, so replacing the factory amp but keeping the factory speakers is not usually a good idea. I usually recomend the first thing that needs to come out of most OEM systems is the speakers. Your Alpine amp is only rated at (conservatively) 30 watts RMS, but that may still overpower the factory speakers since most are rated for about 12 watts. Also, since the factory system apparently uses components, how are they crossed over? If the crossovers are electronic inside the factory amp like I suspect they are, then you will have to replace this system as well as the amp and your 4-cnannel amp does not have enough channels to support them all. If they use passive crossovers, you may be OK with a four-channel amp, but you must find this out first.
Perhaps your best bet is to purchase the factory wiring manual from Volkswagon. This would be the best $50 or so you can spend. Then your second step may very well need to be to take the vehicle, along with the wiring diagram, to a good independent car stereo shop in your area (not to a chain store) and pay for a pro to upgrade the system for you.
First, thank you for the replies!
I just bought the Touareg and the stereo sounds bad. In order to get reasonable sound, I have to turn the Bass, Mid and Treble down to almost zero and fade to 75% front. The system almost sounds out of phase, with alot of overlapping vocals and such. I am trying to upgrade with the minimum impact to the interior of the car. The "premium " sound system touts a 300w amp. I pulled it form the car and it weighs about a pound. I don't know what they use as a spec.
Is there a way I can detemine if the speakers have passive crossovers using an ohmeter. I have the wiring diagram and it states passive crossover, but it doesnt indicate anything in the wires from the amp to the speakers. Could the passive crossover be inside the amp? Wouldn't that mean a big issue when the car doesnt come with an amp?
I am planning to relpace the amp and see how that sounds, then if needed change speakers, and if needed, find a place to install my alpine head unit. I am a serious DIY installer and only want to go to a professional install as a last resort.
The cars diagnostic system runs through the system too, so I am trying to keep the head unit in. My last car, Audi A4, needed to have the old stereo reinstalled in order for the Audi Shop to diagnose the engine---big hassle.