R36 Audio upgrade

[Swallowtail]

Hi Swallowtail, Drew said he's been doing a fair few VW's and that you were pretty happy with the audio upgrade. I think you chose some good gear and sounds like a decent upgrade over stock.

The arc's are nice clean amps and my car has no noise or hiss at all. The line level inputs work great and I know of a few people using these with the OEM head unit but dont see why you'd need a LC6i as well, kind of doubling up (would be good for sub gain control then again the 500.1 mono block comes with a gain control knob anyway if you ever wanted to add one).

I think it is the right way to go about the audio upgrades as the VW RNS-510 HU is great in terms of functionality and integration (as is the MDI & fiscon/Skoda Bluetooth (i chose the Skoda), and not worth going to after market HU's in these cars IMO. I'm also using a Arc/Dynaudio & Image Dynamics with an Audison Bit One.1 in my Golf.

Thanks g-rig... I'm happy with it! Andrew's comment was that the RNS510 does not output line level, hence the need for the LC6i before the arc audio? I love the RNS510, it's a brilliant piece of equipment (apart from the SD-only reader! )

[G-rig]

Thanks g-rig... I'm happy with it! Andrew's comment was that the RNS510 does not output line level, hence the need for the LC6i before the arc audio? I love the RNS510, it's a brilliant piece of equipment (apart from the SD-only reader! )

Hi Swallowtail. I'm running high level (speaker wire) outputs from the RNS-510 to the Bit One which also accepts high level inputs (as would the LC6i).

Either way, it's a better solution than using a passive LOC as I tried that using the RCD-500 and a Sven2 LOC but was lacking detail and created noise in the process. The Audiocontrol LC6i is a good active LOC and gives you a sub gain remote if you ever did want to add a sub, but think it is a bit of a double up if the KS125.4 accepts high level inputs (DeanCorps Pirelli does).

I thought the KS125.4 could accept high level input but you have to make them into RCA type connections:

From the website:

KS125.2 states Hi Level speaker inputs for OEM integration onto most factory radios whereas the KS125.4 states Hi/Low Level balanced switchbladeRCA inputs for flexible integration into most applications .

Just something to check with them, but it's possible it doesn't work the way I thought.

Cheers,