Family Values (pg. 36)

Any parent will tell you that compromise is a big art of raising a family. Some changes are foreseeable-having less personal time for example, and getting little or no sleep in the early stages of parenthood-and some aren't. One change that totally took yours truly by surprise was giving up one of my most sacred pleasures: driving and listening to music. Since I began driving at age 16, one of my greatest joys in life has always been listening to my favorite tunes as loud as I wanted-and for as long as I wanted-from behind the wheel. Even after getting married 5 years ago, my unfailingly patient wife Gretchen understood that my time in the car was for listening (thought I always told her I was "working")-and she even tolerated my occasional "no talking" rule.

However, with the birth of our daughter Olivia in 1998, things slowly started changing. At first, or course, I only had to be concerned with damaging her hearing, and I couldn't crank gnarly Neil Young guitar solos the way I used to. Yet I could still listen at moderate volume levels with the system faded all the way forward on family trips. But when Olivia became old enough to form her own tastes in music, she began dominating the playlist. While I'm proud that she shares her pop's passion for music, I'm not pleased with (thought I'm begrudgingly accommodating) with having to listen to Raffi's Baby Beluga about 100 times a trip. And now that I also have an infant son, Phineas, I fear it's going to soon be two against one.

Fortunately, my entry into parenthood has coincided with an explosion of Mobile Entertainment options for families like mine. The last few years have seen a proliferation of mobile DVD players, LCD screens in a variety of sizes, and the advent of separate entertainment zones within a vehicle. Personally, it couldn't have come at a better time. So after my wife got a 2001 VW Passat GLS wagon in late 2000-and after our first long ski trip last winter, during which I listened to Toddlers Sing over and over and over-I started making plans to outfit the Passat with a full-blown mobile-entertainment system.

Visor View

The system I envisioned would have a separate entertainment zones for each of the four passengers. I wanted it to include CD, DVD, and videocassette sources, plus I would have to incorporate a DVD-based navigation system. I brought my rough concept to Isaac Goren, owner of Sounds Good Stereo, Security and Marine in Woodland Hills, California, and he ironed out the final system design. Since it's both my wife's car and our primary kid-hauler, it was important that the Passat system be easy to use, able to stand up to wear and tear, and not take up too much space. Most of the system also had to be installed out of sight to protect it from prying eyes. With the components picked and an installation layout agreed upon, I left the car with Goren for almost 7 weeks while he had his top installer Shawn Enright work on it, with assistance from assistant installer Matt Milstein.

Heading up the system is an Alpine IVA-C800 Multimedia Station head unit with a CD tuner and a foldout 6.5-inch LCD color monitor. Besides serving as the command center for much of the audio/video system, the IVA-C800 also controls an Alpine NVE-N851A PowerNav DVD navigation system. The head unit fits in the stock-radio location and, with the exception of the green lighting, cosmetically integrates really well with the rest of the Passat's dash. Since I wanted my wife to be able to watch a DVD or video from the passenger's seat at the same time I listened to music while driving, the Sounds Good team integrated an Alpine TME-750A 6.5-inch widescreen LCD monitor into the passenger's-side sun visor. To do this, the monitor had to be disassembled so that only its screen was mounted in the visor in place of the lighted vanity mirror. Enright even rigged it so the monitor uses the stock switch that turns off the light for the vanity mirror to also turn off the monitor when the visor is folded up. The rest of the monitor (its power supply, circuitboard, etc.) was stashed behind the glove box. Finally, a local upholstery shop re-covered the sun visor once the screen was installed.

Rearview Mirror

Two more Alpine TME-750A monitors are secured in the back of the Passat's front-seat headrests. A similar process of dissecting the monitors was employed so that only the screens were fitted into the back of the headrests; Enright used the existing upholstery on the headrests to fit around the screens. The guts of these two monitors were tucked underneath the seats. To hide the headrest monitors from thieves (as well as my video-on-demand daughter) when they're not in use, Goren had fabric covers that slip over the headrests fabricated by the same upholstery shop that recovered the sun visor. An Alpine SHS-N251 dual-source wireless headphone system allows my wife and kids to privately listen to audio from a DVD or videocassette of their own choosing. The hockey-puck shaped wireless transmitter is attached to the roof, about a foot behind the rearview mirror.

One of the coolest non-A/V aspects if the system is the Audiovox Voyager AOM28MR rearview mirror with a built-in 2.8-inch color LCD monitor. The AOM28MR is designed to provide a view of what's behind the car when it's backing up via the accompanying Audiovox voyager AOC-100 color camera. But instead of positioning the camera at the rear of the car, the Sounds Good crew installed the lens in the back of the center-console armrest so that it provides a full view of the Passat's back seat-and hence, the kids. Any parent can tell you how frustrating (and dangerous) it is to have to turn around to see what the kids are up to in the back seat while driving. With the Voyager system, I now have an unimpeded view of the back-seat area when I glance up at the rearview mirror-and more peace of mind.

Space Case

Only about 3 inches of space in Passat's rear cargo area were sacrificed to mount the amplifiers and power-supply components on the rear of the split-bench back seat. A JL Audio 250/1 mono amplifier is attached to the back of the seat on the driver's side along with a Scosche EFX power-and ground-distribution block. On the back of the passenger's-side seat is a JL Audio 300/4 four-channel amp, and below it is a Scosche EFX PSCIFP 1-farad capacitor. Mounting the amplifiers was the easy part, however, since the Sounds Good guys planned to fit the rest of the components out of sight in a pair of small storage compartments on each side of the car near the tailgate. "The challenge was to find areas to store the electronics," notes Goren, "and to run cables. There are so many cables in the system, and we didn't want to have bulges in the carpet where the wires are. Accessibility was another issue. If you have to, for example, change a taillight, you can still get to it."

On the driver's side, a compartment covered by a stock panel housed the amplifier for the factory sound system. It was gutted, and Enright packed a total of four components in the tight area. First he installed the Alpine TCS-V430A combo TV tuner and A/V controller in the forward section of the compartment. Then, just behind the A/V controller, he mounted the "brain" for the IVA-C800 head unit as close to the car body as he could. Stacked next to it are an Alpine DHA-S680 DVD/CD changer and an Alpine VPE-V180A VCR, which is closest to the outside edge of the compartment. Enright built a shroud to cosmetically isolate the DVD/CD changer and VCR from the head-unit brain. The shroud was shaped using wood and fiberglass and then covered with the black carpet. The unmodified stock cover still fits in place over the compartment to hide everything.

Speaker Easy

On the opposite side of the car was a similar compartment designed to hold a first-aid kit and other emergency supplies. It too was gutted and the resultant space was used to mount an enclosure for a JL Audio 8W3-D2 8-inch subwoofer. The sealed enclosure, which was contoured to fit into the allotted space, is made out of fiberglass and contains approximately 0.5 cubic feet of air space. A metal-mesh grille for the subwoofer was incorporated into the compartment's factory cover and then finished in carpet. (The same type of carpet was also used to finish cover panels made out of medium-density fiberboard (MDF) and perforated aluminum that fit over the amplifiers on the back seat to hide them.)

Enright still had to install the DVD-ROM drive for the Alpine NVE-N851A navigation system, but he had run out of room. His only option was to attach it to the underside of the stock cargo-area floor panel, which lifts up for access to the spare tire. The spare is still in its original location, and there was even enough room left over to squeeze in the tire tools.

Installing the rest of the speakers in the Passat wasn't much hassle. A set of MB Quart QSD 216 component speakers went into the front doors. The set's 6 ˝ inch midranges dropped into the stock location at the bottom of each door, while the 1-inch tweeters fit in the factory pod in each sail panel. A set of MB Quart PSC 216 components for the rear doors received similar treatment; the 6 ˝ inch mids replaced the stock speakers in the bottom of each door, while the 1-inch tweeters took the place of the factory tweeters near the door handles. Enright added Scosche Accumat sound-deadening material to the metal skin of each of the wagon's doors and mounted the MB Quart speakers' passive crossovers behind the vapor barrier.

No Compromise

The engine compartment remained unchanged except for swapping out the stock battery for an Optima Yellow Top battery outfitted with Scosche EFX battery terminals. A Scosche power-distribution black and a main stereo power fuse are adjacent to the battery. To protect the Passat, and Alpine SEC-8028 security system was given the nod.

Because the car is a daily driver, no performance mods were made, and my wife decided to forgo aftermarket wheels and keep rolling on the stock rims and tires. But the important thing is she gave the finished system the full thumb's up when she finally got her car back. My daughter loves it too, especially since she gets to watch movies in the car. And it's only a matter of time before my son will be able to chime in with some entertainment choices of his own….

But nobody is as pleased as I am with the Passat system. Once again, I can look forward to a long road trip and not spend most of the time looking back to make sure the kids OK, or hearing my daughter's kiddie CD's on permanent rotation. Thanks to the latest mobile-entertainment technology, giving up my listening time on family trips is one compromise I no longer have to make.

THE SIGNAL PATH (additional material)

The signal for the audio system in the Newcomb family 2001 VW Passat GLS wagon starts at either the Alpine IVA-C800 Multimedia Station head unit or the DHA-S680 DVD/CD changer. From there it travels full range to the two JL Audio amplifiers, a 300/4 (75 watts x 4 into 4 ohms) and 250/1 (250 watts x 1 into 1.5 to 4 ohms). The electronic crossover in the 300/4 that powers the MB Quart speakers limits the signal going to their passive crossovers 75 Hz. The passive crossovers for the QSD 216 components in the front doors send 2,500Hz and below to the 6 ˝ inch mids and 2,500 Hz and up to the 1-inch tweeters, while the passives for the PSC 216 components split the signal between the 6 ˝ inch mids and 1-inch tweets in the rear door at 3,000Hz. Each MB Quart speaker gets 75 watts. The 250/1 amp sends 55 Hz and down to the JL Audio 8W3-D2 8-inch subwoofer. The sub's dual voice coils are wired in series, which creates a 4-ohm load. In this configuration, the JL amp puts out 250 watts.

The Passat wagon's video system has almost as many sources as the Amazon River-and just as many tributaries. Audio and video can start at either the Alpine DHA-S680 DVD/CD changer or at the Alpine VPE-V180A VCR. The signal first goes to the TCS-V430A A/V controller, which has a built-in TV tuner. The Alpine TCS-V430A controller handles signal trafficking and sends audio and/or video to the Alpine TME-M750A monitors in the headrests and the IVA-C800 head unit, all controlled via one remote. The TME-M750A monitor in the front-passenger's sun visor receives its video signal from the auxiliary output of the IVA-C800, and it can display any video source as well as graphics from the IVA-C800, including those from the Alpine NVE-N851A navigation system. Audio that accompanies the video program material is sent from the TCS-V430A A/V controller to the IVA-C800 head unit so that it can be played over the sound system. Audio is also sent to the Alpine SHS-N251 wireless headphone system to allow the Passat's passengers to listen to their own selections privately. All signal, speaker, and power wiring in the system in Scosche EFX.