The Ever-Changing HT - Page 55

Yeah, definitely going to keep it clean, but make a few changes to give it just a bit sportier look and feel.

The clear bra is a transparent 3M film that is wrapped around the nose of the car so you don get rock chips. Works very well and it is nearly invisible.

You can see it being installed on car here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-LO95vkNqg

Go to about the 2 minute mark in the video.

Yes, the clear bra protection film is semi-permanent, in that you could have it removed at some point if you no longer wanted it on the car, but it is intended to stay on there for as long as you own the car. The only reason to remove it would be if it got gouged and you needed to replace part of it. It is a few mils thick and resilient so it works really well at preventing rock chips. And as you noticed, it is virtually invisible so you can retain the look of the car.

Full body wrapping.... yup, if you go onto any of the car enthusiast forums, you are bound to see a few of these. While I can appreciate the creativity of the look, it isn't personally something I would do. That is, I really like some of the crazy mods people do to their rides, but at the same time I would feel silly driving one.

Hey Al -

Good to see that there is another member here that can appreciate my new ride. I am very impressed with the quality and performance of the GTI, especially with the ECU reprogramming that boosts the HP. This car is downright scary at times in its acceleration now.

Yours still looks brand new, which can only mean that you really do like it enough to take great care of it.

Hi Scott -

Good to hear from you and thanks for the words of encouragement. Sorry I didn't get this message until now, but I have been spending a lot less time in this hobby and on these boards.

I love using my Mac as a music server, and I highly recommend it. You might get a small gain in sound quality by going from the RCA connection of your ipod to the digital connection on the Mac Mini, but I wouldn't expect it to be night and day. I've come to find that the sound quality provided by even small or inexpensive sources is quite good these days (as long as the media isn't overly compressed).

The bigger gain for me is the sheer convenience of using a music server vs single disc listening. It's great to have instant access to all of my music and the ability to shuffle ALL of the content. I'm still hearing music that I didn't even know that I owned.

This temporarily became a car enthusiast thread when I ran out of interest in constantly changing my HT set-up. A guy needs something to keep him busy.

Now all we need are pics of hot chicks and we'll have all the boy's toys covered.

PS: Check out page one of this thread if you need an AV fix.

Looks fantastic! I actually like the body style of the MK5 better than my MK6, but financially it worked out better for me to go new, plus I really wanted a warranty.

I'm very happy with the power I currently have, so at this point all I'd like to do is lower it and maybe get some different wheels. I really like the stock "detroits" though.

You say you have "decent" power. What sort of HP are you getting with your performance mods?

Are those rocker panel covers stock, just painted?

3in -

Don't sweat the car talk. This is my thread and I'm fine with it. It won't last forever.

So what motor type is in your MK5?

Nice work on the color matched lower trim bits. Looks much cleaner than the flat black that come stock.

I'm leaning towards these rims when / if I go that route.



Thanks for the link to the tattoo'd naughty hotties. Oh and the truck is cool too.

Yeah, that is a pretty popular wheel choice of GTI owners, which is why I hesitate to even bother. Thankfully, the stock "premium" wheels (the Detroit model) is already a head turner for most normal people (not hard core GTI fans). Some cars really need a wheel change to get them to come out of their shell, but the GTI really isn't one of them IMO.

They've changed to a "TSI" motor for the current model year, but from what I understand, it is largely the same as the FSI.

Over the past few nights I've been powering up the Mac Mini and letting the tunes flow as I enjoy my new found freedom as a bachelor, but something was off. I could crank the crap out of the volume and yet the sound seemed so flat and lifeless-- like all of the dynamics of the music had been squashed. And why was it that I had to set the volume as much as 12 dB higher than I used to to get to what sounded "loud"?

I checked the volume control within iTunes and that was fine, I went into iTunes preferences to see if I had sound leveling on, checked to see if the input level in the AVR was low, checked the Audyssey EQ settings, and everything seemed to be as it was supposed to be.

I was just about to do a CPU reset on the AVR, when I noticed a little light on the face of the unit that read "night".

Yup, a while back I had engaged the nighttime dynamic compression feature for my wife and totally forgot about. Dug through a few of the set-up menus in the AVR until I could find the night mode function. Turned it off and all is well in the world of audio again.

Phew!

Looking back on the sound quality with the night mode engaged, it is surprising the effect that dynamic compression has on the sound. All of the musical information is there, but the bass has no impact, the highs sound muffled and lose all "sparkle", the mids have no bite, and the sound stage is two-dimensional.

Funny that even after 15 years in the hobby, that my system can be brought to its knees with just one small thing out of place. There are so many functions / variables in performing set-up of a modern sound system that it is no wonder that so many people struggle to get it all firing properly.

Anyway, just a funny little story that I felt like passing along.

Hey Drew -

Yeah, as of late this has turned into a thread about boys toys in general, though there is still plenty of interesting reading about AV if you don't mind wading through 54 pages.

Ha! Well so much for trying to get this thread back on track. So tell me about your toy. Any mods or secret compartments?

Good man. My GTI came with a Dynaudio system, so no pressing need to replace it. I might add a sub, but that's about it.

Hey Corbo -

I don't know if you saw it when I posted it in this thread a while back, but eventually ALL of the edgy / shouty quality of the C1's I owned did go away. Right at the 300 hour mark, they became, as you put it, "perfectly balanced".

Looking back at it, I should have probably kept the C1s, but unfortunately, at the time, I was so burnt out on analyzing the sound quality of my system, I think I had mistaken the new found neutrality of the C1's for being boring / un-involving. I've certainly heard more dynamically expressive speakers than the C1's, but I don't think they are below average in that area.

I'm still not a cable believer, and based on all of my experimentation in that area over the years, I don't think I will ever be.

Oh sure, just when I'm trying to get out of this insatiable hobby, there is always some new toy trying to pull me back in!

Do we have price yet?

You gettin' one to replace your Lex?

edit: looks like the MSRP is $14000. Youch! Might be a while for me before I take the plunge on this guy.