Emphaser has recently been very active in the field of vehicle-specific speakers. The new EM-VWFX180 for many VW, Seat and Skoda models is an interesting set.
If you want to retrofit a vehicle from the VAG Group, Emphaser was the first port of call for drivers of the T5 and T6. Now the EM-VW-FX180 significantly extends the coverage. Our 18-piece set fits many Volkswagens from Passat to Tiguan or Touran. For Skoda, the Octavia II, Superb II and Yeti are covered and it also fits the Seat Alhambra II. An EM-VWFX155 is also available for VAG vehicles with 15 mm installation slots. Our EM-VWFX180 is cleanly manufactured and comes with a typical tweeter for mirror triangles, which fits into the original slots with the specific lugs on the housing. The 25 millimeter fabric dome tweeter is deliberately not ferrofluid-cooled, which promises a more lively sound, at least in terms of feel.
The crossover is housed in the supply cable, which of course makes contact with the wiring harness via the vehicle plug. For the many different vehicles, a level adjustment has been built in, which works via two different connectors. The 18 mm bass-midrange driver also has a crossover in the supply cable, which can be used or omitted as required; a good, low-distortion air-core coil is used here.
The bass-midrange driver comes in a precisely fitting basket made of fiber-reinforced plastic, it works with a paper cone, the front of which is coated with quartz crystals to tune the material properties accordingly. Emphaser has not skimped on the drive unit either, here we find a thick ferrite ring and finely machined pole plates that also lie flat against it, always a sign of high-quality speakers.
Measurements and sound
With the tweeter, the strongly pronounced resonance at 1.8 kHz is noticeable, which is within the normal range for a 25 mm dome tweeter. Even in the amplitude response, the resonance is quite unimpressed by the 6 dB crossover. The reason for this is the lack of ferrofluid in the air gap, which would dampen the movement of the voice coil. The large bass-midrange driver runs smoothly even without a crossover, once again demonstrating the excellent properties of paper as a cone material. The 6 dB separation attenuates the midrange only minimally, the coil value is small enough so that the 18 speaker does not lose any sound pressure in the fundamental.
In the listening test, the EM-VWFX180 then trumps with everything that makes for good music reproduction. Overall, it sounds balanced and harmonious, with excellent timbres for vocals and instruments. The tweeter never gets on your nerves and gives the system a sound that is suitable for long distances. Thanks to the woofer's generous cone area, there is plenty of bass, which is not only pleasing in terms of quantity, but also sounds quite precise. The bass response is outstanding for a two-way system, so that we would also confidently operate the EM-VWFX180 without a subwoofer.
Conclusion
The EM-VWFX180 is an all-round successful retrofit for many Volkswagen and sister models. The system runs smoothly and offers great sound improvement.
Source: hifitest.de
