[pbussey1]

I started this build a couple of years ago after researching audio upgrades. The OE Dynaudio package is 12 speakers, and the drivers are actually quite nice! They seem to be polymer-framed versions of Esotec/Esotan drivers, with especially large tweeters for an OE application.

This thread will be mostly a copy/paste from my thread on Diymobileaudio.

First things, here's the car

And a little preview of what's coming in round 1... Overnight parts from Lithuania!

As far as the low-end goes, I've preordered a Wolfram Audio O-2400.1, which should supply anything I'd ever want as far as power. The real trick will be getting the full-range signal from this MOST bus, or hopefully by a thorough analysis of the analog audio signal that comes out with different codings via VCDS.

 

[pbussey1]

Slight update. I spent WAYYY too long last night trying to replace the rear door wiring. Mostly, disconnecting the door lock solenoid without removing the window and regulator also. Props to VW for making a super stout and sealed door design!

In the end, I got everything replaced, which it sorely needed...

Crusty and separated. All 4 woofers

 

[pbussey1]

Well, most of this down time has been spent finishing the other rear door (the surround on this mid was completely detached), ordering replacement trim clips, and finding pins and de-pinning tools for the OEM connectors. Since this truck didn't have the Dynaudio package installed, the body-side wiring isn't present for the separate speakers. Since I'm not a fan of drilling weather seal connectors, I'll be adding pins. The "premium" package has capacitors on the woofers and the wiring goes there first, then the door tweeters, while the Dynaudio has wiring for each individual speaker from the DSP/amp. So I have this wiring on the amp side, and the door side, but needed to connect them. Trying to find the VW part numbers was quite the task, but eventually I was able to identify that TE/Tyco is the manufacturer of all the connectors. Next was measuring, then realizing that Tyco doesn't use the actual dimensions of the m/f pins!

These male pins measure 3mm, but they're listed as 2.5mm, but you can only find them by searching for 2.8 Good news is they're rated for 24A and hold 14ga wire!

The female pins are included in the Dynaudio door wiring.

Not wanting to buy a set of $700 crimper jaws for ~30 connections, I started searching again. Funny enough, once I had these part numbers I was able to find the VW wiring repair parts! Yes, all the audio wiring in the door is yellow

Problem, these are $9 each! Found these pigtails for VW part no. 000979226 and ordered 30 of them delivered for the price of 2 from the dealer.

I won't be doing the front doors until I can confirm I'll be able to get the J525 DSP amp coded in and working, and for that I'll need a MOST extension cable and quite a bit more disassembly of the rear cargo area.

 

[pbussey1]

In addition, it needs to be determined whether or not the amp will function without this third connection for microphones...

 

[pbussey1]

Progress has been slow, but a few things have happened! It took 4 weeks for the MOST extension cable to arrive, and I was able to adapt it to become a loop with an extra component in the middle (Dynaudio Amp) so the communications path matches OEM. I've yet to get sound out of the amp, but I do know that the vehicle is confused by my actions! Having previously coded the radio to use the Dynaudio sound profile, I think the rest will be up to the vehicle to recognize the added component and give me the proper error codes. The audio adjustment menu now shows as "Dynaudio Confidence" with the amp hooked to power, and I'm getting a component protection error so I think I'm definitely on the right track.

Additionally, my subwoofer amp came in. The Wolfram 0-2400.1 is the smallest physical volume per watt I think I've ever held...

 

[pbussey1]

Found the appropriate connectors to tap switched power for the J525 amplifier. The big gamble was wiring harness differences, since VAG/Porsche make each harness to the individual vehicle. Luckily, the fuse location for the J525 amp has switched power, just no wire output to the amp. This connector is yet another piece to OE integration

 

[pbussey1]

My Photos get a bit sporadic from here, but I was really on a roll and didn't do much sightseeing while I had her apart.


In order to get the center speaker wired up, I pulled a connector off a door harness in the junkyard that matched the 4-pin connector of the speaker, and patched it to some 4-conductor speaker wire.

The door harnesses for the Dynaudio vehicles don't have matching wire in the chassis harness, so I utilized the pigtails I detailed in post #12 and inserted them into the body connectors. Since they're interior, I yanked the seals off. VW really makes this part easy for a change; just pop the purple lock tab and these slide right in! I carefully did this for all 4 doors where the wires were not present, using the same 4-conductor wire above.

 

[pbussey1]

Using the female tabs from the earlier post, I added the fused connection in panel C, location 48 (adjacent to the 10A fuse on the bottom row). I still need to double check the fuse rating that it should be (*edit, 30A). There's a body ground point just below here that is the OE ground for the Dynaudio amp (brown wires), but that's a solid 15-foot run of 12ga wire that I'd rather just ground at the back.

I didn't get a photo up here, but I stepped this 12ga wire up to 10ga that I had left over from another project and ran it to the cargo area.

It's basically rinse/repeat for the two drivers' doors afterwards.

 

[pbussey1]

I hate the setup in the floor of the TDI, with that stupid DEF tank hump. This amp is just a little too thick for the area forward of the spare, and just a little too wide to fit beside the spare tire...

Do I really need a collapsible spare that probably won't seal after 11 years? I do need to clean out all that dried up urea back there; the PO apparently couldn't figure out a funnel.

 

[pbussey1]

Found some more photos of the Center channel install...

Backside of the Dynaudio center combo

Why not a little bit of damping?

All buttoned up. Honestly, I think gaining a center channel is more exciting to me than functioning door speakers!

 

[pbussey1]

Well, I spent the time wiring today and got pretty much everything connected. While the driver seat was out, I went ahead and ran a 1/0 back to the cargo area. I connected to the input lug on the fuse box and broke a small tab out of the rear edge of the fuse panel. Really poor photos of the routing, but the whole wire was only visible for about an inch from the back of the fuse box to the carpet. It's still amazing to me how flexible this fatty wire is!

 

[pbussey1]

The OEM Dynaudio amp is located in the rear cargo area, driver side behind the trim panel. With the Executive trim level, there's a rear HVAC unit sitting in the body opening and the J525 Dynaudio amp is behind that, inside the quarter panel. To fit it there on the Lux trim level, you have to remove a lot of soundproofing insulation which makes it quite loud with regards to road noise. Soooo, I decided to relocate the amp closer to the radio wiring! I opted for a shorter MOST routing and easy access to the J535 CAN gateway on the passenger rear.

I switched the radio from the stock bracket into the plastic bracket , and tapped pin 11 on the radio connector for the CAN connection. There's plenty of slack in the OE harnesses for this relocation.

I cut the bottom off the bracket and put a couple of rivnuts through it in order to mount the amp.

Everything connected and TESA-taped, et voila! Dynaudio! Well, not exactly voila; I needed to change the coding with VCDS to Dynaudio and External Amplifier before it would output audio, but it worked!

 

[pbussey1]

Right now (4/12/2022) only the left channels are working with music, and the center channel for telephone, but that's probably due to VW component protection working its magic. It requires a visit to the dealer to contact the VW mothership in Wolfsburg for reprogramming.
There's also a CAN Gateway error showing the J525 unit as unregistered. "47 Audiosystem: Not Registered 0011" and I can't view coding for the module, though it is working on MOST and shows up in VCDS so I'll have them look at that too.

 

[Chippy12]

Well done - That's quite an impressive undertaking and a big investment as those components are expensive! Let us know what you think of the setup once you have it all sorted. I enjoy my Dynaudio system very much and am glad that I have it in the Executive.

 

[pbussey1]

Well done - That's quite an impressive undertaking and a big investment as those components are expensive! Let us know what you think of the setup once you have it all sorted. I enjoy my Dynaudio system very much and am glad that I have it in the Executive.

Thanks! It was a bit expensive, however several thousand dollars cheaper than buying Dynaudio speakers aftermarket and running plug & play DSP. Worst case, the car is wired for all the channels, and I can spend even more money later on a mObridge amp to really make it stand out!

 

[pbussey1]

Small update. I didn't know until today that I can change the registered modules in the CAN gateway, but VCDS is great! Here's how you register the J525 amp for retrofit.

Connect VCDS and auto-scan the modules. You'll get a list of modules with DTC's. The relevant gateways we are dealing with are 19-CAN Gateway and 47-Sound System

Double click the 19-CAN Gateway controller and clear the codes. Then access the Installation List

You'll see a list of registered modules, just select the FIRST 47-sound system then "Write Coding"

Once that is complete, you will see that 47-Sound System will show a malfunction status. Double click the module and you'll see that component protection is active, which I've got to visit the dealership to get sorted. There's also an adaptive microphone somewhere in the system that doesn't show up on wiring diagrams, so I'm not sure how to get that hooked up.

Also, note that in the module information screen, there is a button labeled "Output Tests". In this module, it will send test tones to each speaker, verifying proper connections for all your hard work! Output tests work even with component protection active.

 

[pbussey1]

It's also giving me a code for an open circuit in R74 microphone. Turns out, the Dynaudio package has some form of active noise cancellation... I'll probably skip this step until the headliner has to come out for reupholstering.

 

[pbussey1]

Quick update: I got the component protection removed! Weirdly, none of the dealers around here would do the coding, so I ended up spending way too much to have an independent VW mechanic do it (Black Canyon Performance in Denver).

Observations:
The speakers sound amazing, and very low distortion even at high volume! The Dynaudio amp definitely cuts low-end frequencies below about 60hz, maybe higher. Strange, since the Dynaudio coding passes full-range to the standard amp and speakers... Looks like there will be a subwoofer install thread coming soon.

 

[Chippy12]

Observations:
The speakers sound amazing, and very low distortion even at high volume! The Dynaudio amp definitely cuts low-end frequencies below about 60hz, maybe higher. Strange, since the Dynaudio coding passes full-range to the standard amp and speakers... Looks like there will be a subwoofer install thread coming soon.

Yes - IMO - the Dynaudio system has very tight controlled bass, punchy not boom boom bass. Also noticed the low end frequency roll off as well (not sure 60hz??) which would be better suited for a separate sub as you say. Completely agree with you.
I would also like a mid-range adjustment but we only get bass and treble adjustments. I always use 'Individual' mode with 'stereo' as my settings seem to work best for my tastes with the bass at 65%.

Glad that you got everything working and you're happy with it..

 

[pbussey1]

Yes - IMO - the Dynaudio system has very tight controlled bass, punchy not boom boom bass. Also noticed the low end frequency roll off as well (not sure 60hz??) which would be better suited for a separate sub as you say. Completely agree with you.
I would also like a mid-range adjustment but we only get bass and treble adjustments. I always use 'Individual' mode with 'stereo' as my settings seem to work best for my tastes with the bass at 65%.

Glad that you got everything working and you're happy with it..

I really am happy with the sound! I've also found that 'Individual, Stereo' and treble & bass at about 60% work really well, it's just missing the bottom-end. As soon as I get some resin funds freed up, I'll be addressing that...