I have owned an MY14 GTI since new and at the time there was no factory upgrade in AU so DIY was the only way forward.

I liased with Audiotech Fischer the importer of plug and play systems manufactured out of the factory that was providing the VW upgrade kit overseas at that time. I also worked with the manufacturer in Europe to overcome/examine issues with their kits and was going to be an agent they could use to conduct the in-vehicle acoustic analysis that their processors come pre-configured with on a per-model basis. Like tuning the system to sound best in each vehicle. Many of you may have a setup on your home cinema AVR that is similar... use a mic in different locations and the processor analyses the frequency, phase and delay issues to give an optimum outcome.

SOme issues with VW that still exist:

Firstly, none of the head units have low level outputs. YOu need to work with speaker level outputs from the main unit in the glove box. THis sucks as you can't just get a signal that hasn't been fiddled with or has a low noise floor.

Secondly, VW sources speakers and electronic units from between 9-14 manufacturers that all use the same part numbers but the configuration can be different. This means variation in the plugs that you need to use for the plug and play harness as well as ridiculous situations like different speakers on L / R of the car having difference impedance.
THe stock speakers are ****.

Dynaudio… I'll know more soon. I've used them extensively in home cinema and hifi but not car audio (my forte is cinema design)

In the end I went for some off the shelf components and built a custom sub (likely soon for sale - it's 100% a 1 off).

Reference material - initial threads and worklog:
Fitting an aftermarket Sub-Woofer - bass roll-off and signal sources

Sub worklog: Custom Sub enclosure for MK7 GTI Boot - worklog


My setup:
Mosconi processor to take speaker level front outputs, process based on an in-vehicle acoustic assessment, then output 6 channels - EAch for left and right - tweeter, mid, sub. Mosconi 4 channel amp for the front stage, 2 channel amp (bridged) runnign the sub.

The sub was the challenge. I did not want to lose boot space. I turned the space saver over, created a mould of its inside with spacing then built a rigid fiberglass shell moulded into the base of an MDF enclosure designed to sit under the boot floor when it is in the upper position (level with the seats folded down).


This enabled use of a full depth 10" Image Dynamics sub and optimum sealed enclosure volume to create a very musical sub.
A great outcome given too many subs for cars are poorly designed enclosures and or compromised by a flat design with limited excursion that results in boomy or one note subs that are only good for rattling panels or doof doof music.
I did build a new boot floor with a round hole over the sub and permeable steel cover to give it room to breath more but it has more than enough punch to fill this car with ease anyway.


On selling my GTI the new owner had no interest in it so I removed the sub and the sub amp, re-tuned the Mosconi processor to manage just 4 channels for the full audio spectrum (too much effort to remove all of the wiring from the fuse box and speakers etc).

I have just bought A Golf R MY18 with Dynaudio. I will likely be doing the same as I did to my GTI and stripping the interior to line with Dynamat extreme, dynapad in the boot and floor, and the foam product in the door cards to absorb mid frequencies. It made a massive difference in my GTI to reduction of road noise (especially the boot and rear arches), and improved the audio substantially by removing resonance from many vehicle surfaces. Internal reflections you can't do anything about.... that's just life.

My thoughts in writing this thread were to share that the quality of life upgrades as someone who enjoys quality audio but is not an anal audiophile - it is well worth it.

Also, I'm interested in seeing how the dynaudio sub performs and may swap in mine to see if it sounds nicer .

Im in a loaner Golf at the moment and it has been an opportunity to re-experience how tinny the back end is. The spare tyre well resonates like a drum when you tap it. I don't expect the sub can perform at it's best in that setup and will need to be driven harder to overcome losses as well as increased road / exhaust noise.

I'll advertise In the classifieds if I do sell my sub and amp. Anyone interested in looking at it or examining how I went about it... I'm in Brisbane and you can come have a play with it. Happy to answer queries on here as well - in thread or via PM.