JustJeff

I'm doing some audio work on my Roadster, and I discovered something interesting. I had been wondering where the amp was for the rear speakers, and for the sub-woofer.
I do not have the "Bose Upgrade" with the CD changer. I have known for awhile that the front speakers are powered by a small amp in the head unit.
I have seen the pictorials showing the position of the speakers in the roadster and coupe, and they have also shown where the amp is.
No one could tell me where the amp is, in the roadster.
While taking apart my car, over the past few days, I made an interesting discovery.
This is the amp for the rear speakers and the sub-woofer, in the non-Bose upgrade roadster.
It's on the back of the sub-woofer.

<img src="http://mk1tt.montebellopark.com/images/rearamp.jpg">

Here is the whole set-up.

<img src="http://mk1tt.montebellopark.com/images/oemsub.jpg">

It is a dual amp configuration of a Philips TDA8563Q 2x40W amp chip. There are two of these "chips" on this board. One amp runs the sub-woof, in a dual voice-coil mode, the other, runs the two cheap-o rear speakers. These guys.

<img src="http://mk1tt.montebellopark.com/images/oemremved.jpg">

Here is the OEM Sub-woof, a real cheap 8" basic speaker.

<img src="http://mk1tt.montebellopark.com/images/oemsub2.jpg">

I had bought a pair of MB Quart PKC-116 6.5" speakers, with an integrated 1" tweeter. These are supposed to fit the TT, but they did not tell me it was for the coupe. I had to do some fancy modifications to make them fit the roadster rear area. First I had to fabricate some brackets, to mount the speakers in the same area as the OEM's. I used an aluminum strip I found at Home Depot, and cut and bent it to make the speakers fit. Look closely here at the left and right speakers, and you can see how they are installed.

<img src="http://mk1tt.montebellopark.com/images/lftrear.jpg">

<img src="http://mk1tt.montebellopark.com/images/leftrear2.jpg">
<img src="http://mk1tt.montebellopark.com/images/rightrear.jpg">
Once I got the speakers installed, and the wires routed in the back, I went to work on the grilles.
The OEM grilles are meant for the miniscule 4" speakers, and the grilles are set up for them. I used a cutting tool on a Dremel to route out the OEM fitting. Here it is in progress, and the completed routing.

<img src="http://mk1tt.montebellopark.com/images/modgrille2.jpg">
<img src="http://mk1tt.montebellopark.com/images/modgrille.jpg">

Here is a shot of the new sub-woof, a Fosgate 8" model.

<img src="http://mk1tt.montebellopark.com/images/subwoof.jpg">

It was a fair amount of work, and I'm not done yet. The car was down for a day and a half. I had virtually the whole set of plastic parts removed from the interior, including the lower dash, glove box, left and right kick panels, dead pedal, left and right sill panels, the whole are behind the seats, the roadster trunk liner and cubby hole. I did not need to remove the seats.
I'm now waiting for the amp, and will be building a slide-out platform for it, that will occupy the cubby hole space.

Stay tuned.

hoTTub

What size are the rear speakers originally?

You were able to fit a 6.5' speaker in there?

wow...that just upped my costs on speaker replacement, I thought they were like 3.5 or something =)

JustJeff

OEM's are 4". Yes, 6.5" fit, but it's snug. Sorry, pics seem to work.

John P. (TT 225)

isolate the front part of the cone of your rear 6.5"s from the rear part, lest you have midbass/bass cancellation probs.

hoTTub

pics are working now....thanks

JustJeff

They are, it's a hard-backed surface on the tweeter that is on the main spkr.

raVen

So Jeff, what amp are ya getting?

raVen

BTW, you weren't out at Tekla today were you?

JustJeff

Nope, playin' with the car. What's that?

JustJeff

<img src="http://www.techtronics.com/uk/images/sony/sony-xm-405eqx-X.jpg">