Durham Client Upgrades His Wife’s Convertible VW Beetle Audio System

A client from Durham, North Carolina, approached Adrenaline Autosound to inquire about installing an amazing audio system in his wife’s 2005 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible. She loved the car, but it was missing a stereo system that would play loud and still sound great. This was especially true when the top was down. The client did not want to give up much storage space in the car’s tiny trunk. We worked on a design that would sound awesome but remain compact. The client loved our design proposal and gave us the greenlight to start work.

Subwoofer Solution

The Audiomobile subwoofer fires forward, just behind the center ski pass opening.

With the center ski pass opening door closed, the subwoofer is hidden, but the bass is still very audible.

Our matching carpet subwoofer enclosure took up very little space in this trunk.

To start this VW Beetle audio system off with a bang, we choose an Audiomobile GTS 2110 subwoofer. Audiomobile has put a lot of effort into building a subwoofer that will play loudly from a very small enclosure. We built a 0.45 cubic foot sealed enclosure for the sub and secured it to the back wall of the trunk with nutserts and stainless steel socket-head cap screws. We sealed the face of the enclosure to the trunk pass through to improve energy transfer to the interior.

Front Stage Speakers

We installed a set of JL Audio C3-650 component speakers in the front of the car. We treat every speaker we install with our standard fanaticism. We fabricate custom adapter rings out of HDPE plastic to provide a solid and stable mounting surface. We use sound deadening on the door panels to reduce vibration, eliminate back-wave cancellation and make the interior of the vehicle quieter. Finally, we install foam coupling rings to focus the output of the speaker into the vehicle interior.

For rear speakers, we used a set of JL Audio C2-650x coaxials in the stock rear location. As this is a convertible, it is important to ensure that there are enough speakers to let the system play loudly.

Equipment Mounting Location

The amplifier and crossovers are securely mounted in the spare tire well, taking up none of the usable trunk space.

As with all our installations, the equipment was neatly organized and the wiring tidy and secure.

With our mandate to keep as much trunk space available as possible, we created a mount for a JL Audio RD900/5 amplifier and the passive crossover networks from the C3 components in the spare tire well. Everything is completely out of sight when the access panel is in place. With the shallow subwoofer enclosure, the access panel can still be lifted easily in the event we need to adjust anything.

As a source unit for this VW Beetle audio system, we installed an Alpine CDE-163BT head unit in the dash. We also mounted a JL Audio RBC-1 remote bass level control in the front of the vehicle.

Beetle Audio System Blows Client Away

The client returned to Adrenaline Audio to pick up the car. He was blown away by how great it sounded and loved that we could retain so much space in the trunk. Contact us here for information about a similar system for your vehicle.