Renault Megane Audio-it sucks

COL said:
I was thinking after reading your post, would it be possible to remove the entire Bose system from one of the Renault models that are Bose equipped and transplant that into a Megane Mk3?

My GT220 is the base model and does not have the control centre that is located just behind the gear lever.

There is also offerings from China with upgrades from companies such as Belsee. But after reading mixed reviews i'm not so sure if this is the right way to go.

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Hi Col,
The short answer would be likely yes - if Renault can do it from the factory then the hardware at least can be "fitted" aftermarket. The trickier part comes with retro-fitting to a non-Bose model as I am not sure if the looms are the same, where the mountings are, what extra fettling was done to the Bose cars (sound deadening/sealing etc) and what, is any, software, they had - I don't remember my Bose Meg having Arkamys.
Eg the woofer box underneath the (RHD driver's) seat has a plug but I wasn't looking for it when I had my seat out; I am not sure where the amp was mounted in the dash (plus associated wiring); whether the sub enclosure actually is a fouling issue for RHD cars... But all these things can be solved with enough time and patience. My concern with the RS265 still remains that if I stray too far with the head unit I will lose my R-Link and RS Monitor. As far as I am aware the Chinese head units do not interface with the Renault software so that is a show-stopper for me but I am happy to be corrected on that.
They may have other functionality that others want over the standard Renault-issue but that is not my situation. I note the website you linked says "Note: If your factory radio is TomTom, this head unit doesn't work in your car, because we have no special harness" - if is is anything like the reverse camera rigmarole then I would recommend saving yourself the pain.
The Renault software is the other big problem for me as noted. The single din fascia is tempting but whatever replaces the Renault head unit has to talk to the rest of the existing electronic jiggery-pokery. I don't like the idea of getting it wrong.
The short short answer therefore comes back to - well-installed Better Speakers and More Power! IME that addresses most global problems.
Cheers, Scott.
 
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Tickets said:
Hi Col,
The short answer would be likely yes - if Renault can do it from the factory then the hardware at least can be "fitted" aftermarket. The trickier part comes with retro-fitting to a non-Bose model as I am not sure if the looms are the same, where the mountings are and what extra fettling was done (sound deadening/sealing etc) .
Eg the woofer box underneath the (RHD driver's) seat has a plug but I wasn't looking for it when I had my seat out; I am not sure where the amp was mounted in the dash (plus associated wiring); whether the sub enclosure actually is a fouling issue for RHD cars... But all these things can be solved with enough time and patience. My concern with the RS265 still remains that if I stray too far with the head unit I will lose my R-Link and RS Monitor. As far as I am aware the Chinese head units do not interface with the Renault software so that is a show-stopper for me but I am happy to be corrected on that.
They may have other functionality that others want over the standard Renault-issue but that is not my situation. I note the website you linked says "Note: If your factory radio is TomTom, this head unit doesn't work in your car, because we have no special harness" - if is is anything like the reverse camera rigmarole then I would recommend saving yourself the pain.
Click to expand...
I have noticed that on many of the sites that if you have the controller behind the gear lever their system is not compatible, so I am assuming that this is the R-Link system with navigation etc.

I don't have any of that as my car is very basic. I did look under the front seats and there is no wiring for a sub woofer and either the drivers or passenger seats. So maybe the Bose cars you will need to fit additional wiring loom which would mean you would need to dismantle two cars (Donor and recipient) which would be a huge task. The only additional thing I found under the drivers seat was a little switch dangling on a cable, not sure what this is for.

My GT220 does not have the RS Monitor but have seen that with some of the Chinese units that you can fit a Blue Tooth OBD and get some functionality that way.

I suppose it depends on how much you want to spend dollar and time wise experimenting with all these different systems.
 
The Megane 3 has doors that respond well to proper audio fitment a solid inner door skin and good speaker placement. With proper speakers and deadening it will sound excellent.

Megane 2 is a nightmare, speakers are mounted to the plastic door car and getting good audio in a Meg 2 is very difficult...

The android aftermarket units can be good as they generally include a DSP so you can tune the sound. But you'll still need an amp if you are going to use decent speakers.
 
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Haakon said:
The Megane 3 has doors that respond well to proper audio fitment a solid inner door skin and good speaker placement. With proper speakers and deadening it will sound excellent.

Megane 2 is a nightmare, speakers are mounted to the plastic door car and getting good audio in a Meg 2 is very difficult...

The android aftermarket units can be good as they generally include a DSP so you can tune the sound. But you'll still need an amp if you are going to use decent speakers.
Click to expand...
All the videos I have seen have involved putting sound deadening into the doors. Lets face it steel is not the best material to build speakers and baffle plates from. Maybe I need to invest in some sound deadening material to go with the speakers.
 
COL said:
All the videos I have seen have involved putting sound deadening into the doors. Lets face it steel is not the best material to build speakers and baffle plates from. Maybe I need to invest in some sound deadening material to go with the speakers.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. Best bang for buck audio component! Dynamat is the big brand, but cheap sound deadening on eBay or Jaycar just as good.

Don’t need to cover the whole of the inside of the outer and inner door skins (I went a bit overboard on the Alfa and reckon I added at least a kilo to each door!!), but knocking out the resonance for the metal sheets makes a big difference to mid bass performance.
 
COL said:
I have noticed that on many of the sites that if you have the controller behind the gear lever their system is not compatible, so I am assuming that this is the R-Link system with navigation etc.

I don't have any of that as my car is very basic. I did look under the front seats and there is no wiring for a sub woofer and either the drivers or passenger seats. So maybe the Bose cars you will need to fit additional wiring loom which would mean you would need to dismantle two cars (Donor and recipient) which would be a huge task. The only additional thing I found under the drivers seat was a little switch dangling on a cable, not sure what this is for.

My GT220 does not have the RS Monitor but have seen that with some of the Chinese units that you can fit a Blue Tooth OBD and get some functionality that way.

I suppose it depends on how much you want to spend dollar and time wise experimenting with all these different systems.
Click to expand...
If your 220 doesn't have R-Link (or RS Monitor) or has other Renault software integration that you are happy to live without then maybe one of the aftermarket head units and displays could be a good upgrade but I have no personal knowledge and chatting to a car audio installer might be the way to go.
Re the wiring loom - personally I wouldn't try to splice a Bose one into a non-Bose car (as mentioned I am not aware that any Meg3 Bose cars made it to Aust anyway) as that seems like a lot of work for something you can achieve by simply piggybacking the existing harness. My points above about the retrofitting a Bose system were more to highlight that it might not be a plug and play solution.
If you have some audio installation skills then you can identify the front speaker wires (because fronts usually have the full signal range unlike the rears which are commonly bass attenuated), run them to an amp/s and beef up the door woofers and install a sub at the same time. For example in my car I ran a 4AWG power wire from the battery to the spare wheel well down the driver's side with a switched trigger wire from the 12v socket and the speaker signal wires under the carpet under console to keep everything separated as much as possible.
If you're not confident to do that then as mentioned the first thing I would do is get a professional speaker/sub/amp upgrade which shouldn't break the bank, and then decide if you want to keep adding other components.
Cheers, Scott.
 
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2013 megane audio woes

Back again-the journey continues but MAY be approaching a solution.

As mentioned by several members above the audio is abysmal-no matter what speaker upgrades or sound deadening you are still stuck with a crap factory dsp system.

I have found it difficult to find any installer who has any insight/experience or interest in resolving the obvious issues.

They just want to sell stuff. Last guy said sure I can fix it with aftermarket-but then oh yeah will lose sat nat

Some willing to experiment at my expense.

So from my perspective the ultimate solution is to remove the cd/receiver which has the gps navigation built into it-replace it with a single din pioneer/sony/kenwood cd/dab/usb bluetooth and then replace the display unit with a apple/android touchscreen with built in navigation system-dont ask about camera system compatibility -although in theory it will be straightforward!!!!

thats gunna cost grand at least before install

The next best solution is a dsp/amp-you get what you pay for -price from $500-$1500 or more..

This will allegedly "correct" the inherent deficiencies in the existing amp/receiver without losing factory settings for bluetooth/steering controls /sat nav. Each speaker can be preset for specific gain and crossover point.

Have one in mind on special from $1k to $500 -OTHERWISE AM RADIO WITH NO BASS IS ABOUT ALL THAT SOUNDS LISTENABLE.
 
dwj said:
2013 megane audio woes

Back again-the journey continues but MAY be approaching a solution.

As mentioned by several members above the audio is abysmal-no matter what speaker upgrades or sound deadening you are still stuck with a crap factory dsp system.

I have found it difficult to find any installer who has any insight/experience or interest in resolving the obvious issues.

They just want to sell stuff. Last guy said sure I can fix it with aftermarket-but then oh yeah will lose sat nat

Some willing to experiment at my expense.

So from my perspective the ultimate solution is to remove the cd/receiver which has the gps navigation built into it-replace it with a single din pioneer/sony/kenwood cd/dab/usb bluetooth and then replace the display unit with a apple/android touchscreen with built in navigation system-dont ask about camera system compatibility -although in theory it will be straightforward!!!!

thats gunna cost grand at least before install

The next best solution is a dsp/amp-you get what you pay for -price from $500-$1500 or more..

This will allegedly "correct" the inherent deficiencies in the existing amp/receiver without losing factory settings for bluetooth/steering controls /sat nav. Each speaker can be preset for specific gain and crossover point.

Have one in mind on special from $1k to $500 -OTHERWISE AM RADIO WITH NO BASS IS ABOUT ALL THAT SOUNDS LISTENABLE.
Click to expand...

Nah, the factory headunit is fine if you treat it as just a signal source - you just need to correct the tune it has and thats what a DSP is for. And take amplification duties off it.

There are a bunch of very good DSP/Amp units, or you can get a separate DSP and amp. But its a simple system thats all thats needed.

Good speakers in the doors and proper mounts and deadening. Go for 6 inch in the doors, they will fit. Nice tweeters in the dash. Ignore the rear speakers, leave them running off the head unit as rear fill, theyre not important. And a small subwoofer in the boot.

And a DSP/Amp feeding it. The real trick will be tuning it - thats an insane rabbit hole you can go down if you want to learn a lot of new things and get super nerdy, or find an audio shop to tune it (and then retune to your personal preferences ;) ) .

renault-megane-stereo-upgrade
 
COL said:
I like that setup, but the only problem that I have is that I have a full size spare wheel in the spare wheel well, so would have to locate the sub woofer somewhere else.
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Pioneer make nice compact subwoofer boxes that take up minimal room in the boot.

But also depends on your music tastes and whether you want a really nice system or just a not shit one! The woofers I linked are just lovely without a sub - warm and deep and make the rear view mirrors dance just fine!

Front door speakers only as an upgrade with a good amp and DSP will sound spectacular if done well.
 
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I found most modern cars have crap sound in spite of the expensive systems they do have sometimes. Old Falcons (I think AU?) were the last cars I thought had a great sound system, not sure what make because they were simply badged Ford. It may have something to do with the volume of the car, who knows?

One thing however that can be confirmed objectively by the professionals today is that modern music is just mastered to be stupidly loud, which takes away the quality at least inasmuch as we, old timers see it.

On the other hand I think it is unrealistic to expect too much from in car entertainment. Unless you have one of those hideously expensive limos maybe. A Maybach or whatever.

That said, decent quality is probably easier (and cheaper) found in the car systems of yesteryear, before they were optimised for being as loud as possible.
 
Haakon said:
Nah, the factory headunit is fine if you treat it as just a signal source - you just need to correct the tune it has and thats what a DSP is for. And take amplification duties off it.

There are a bunch of very good DSP/Amp units, or you can get a separate DSP and amp. But its a simple system thats all thats needed.

Good speakers in the doors and proper mounts and deadening. Go for 6 inch in the doors, they will fit. Nice tweeters in the dash. Ignore the rear speakers, leave them running off the head unit as rear fill, theyre not important. And a small subwoofer in the boot.

And a DSP/Amp feeding it. The real trick will be tuning it - thats an insane rabbit hole you can go down if you want to learn a lot of new things and get super nerdy, or find an audio shop to tune it (and then retune to your personal preferences ;) ) .

renault-megane-stereo-upgrade
Click to expand...

(y)
 
thanks for that-i think you are right-Sound advice-pun intended-anyone have experience with a dsp/amp they would recommend?
oh and money is an object.
 
dwj said:
thanks for that-i think you are right-Sound advice-pun intended-anyone have experience with a dsp/amp they would recommend?
oh and money is an object.
Click to expand...
Now we get to the fun part :)

This is not super high powered, but with some efficient speakers (JBL are good for that) and door sound treatment this will do nicely. About as budget as you'd want to go.

www.pioneer.com.au

DEQ-S1000A - Pioneer

Universal Sound Processor 4 x 50w output 6ch High-Volt RCA Pre-Outs Smartphone app (Pioneer - Sound Tune) 48bit Dual-Core DSP
www.pioneer.com.au www.pioneer.com.au

Then you'll need to tap into the speaker feeds - you'll need these for the male and female speaker connections at the factory head unit.

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Beyond that, you can spend well north of a grand or two with ease on a DSP/amp - they will have more power and more tuning options.
 
Also remember that speakers are very subjective - they all have their own spin on sound quality. Focal for example are amazing, and many love them for their impressive clarity - but many (me included) cant handle their focus on high frequencies and theyre hard to enjoy. So go to a few car audio shops with some music you're familiar with and enjoy and get some demonstrations. They wont sound like the demo wall when in your car, but its good for getting a rough idea and comparing.
 
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