speaker upgrade for skoda yeti ?

[VAGCF]

Absolutely.

[jim100jam]

On 1/15/2017 at 04:41, dieselyeti said:

Mate, you respond with a crappy know it all attitude that quite frankly stinks. You offer no explanation on why you are such a wealth of knowledge on car speakers or why the Yeti has the best possible speakers supplied as OEM and cannot be bettered with any amount of $$.

 

The way forward involves one of two ways. You explaining some facts about the speakers and/or your knowledge/experience with audio or saying nothing and moving on.

 

And finally, yes I did think about my suggestion....quite awesome isn't it

since when did i have a crappy atitude ? and i see youve jumped in with your two pence worth judging me when you dont even know me..

i do know a good speaker sound from a bad one...in response i i thank all the members here with theyre helpful suggestion ...

[TruckbusUK]

9 hours ago, jim100jam said:

since when did i have a crappy atitude ? and i see youve jumped in with your two pence worth judging me when you dont even know me..

i do know a good speaker sound from a bad one...in response i i thank all the members here with theyre helpful suggestion ...

 

 

Think you may have misunderstood, dieselyesi, was quoting from a post by 137699.

[Andy916]

Could anyone tell me if the audio, 8-speaker setup in particular, was upgraded from series 1 to 2? After a couple of weeks in my 2011 Elegance (Bolero HU) both my partner and I are finding the treble a bit crude and harsh, despite multiple adjustments so far. It's not that bad, but shortcomings are evident at moderate (maybe half-way) listening volumes.

 

In previous cars I've had much better sound from a 100-quid set of Alpine components. I see that Pioneer TSA-172Ci have been tried a few years ago (below) and am wondering if the successor TSA-173Ci (54mm mid/woofer depth) might be worth a try. Anyone have experience of these or similar Pioneers or other 2-way components for the Yeti front doors? (with or without additional amplification)

 

 

Also, does anyone know the audio spec of the Bolero and other HUs? I can't see anything listed in the manual.  Am not bothered about any extra bells or whistles, just sound quality.

Edited 6 March, 2018 by Andy916

[sampo]

On 06/03/2018 at 15:11, Andy916 said:

Could anyone tell me if the audio, 8-speaker setup in particular, was upgraded from series 1 to 2? After a couple of weeks in my 2011 Elegance (Bolero HU) both my partner and I are finding the treble a bit crude and harsh, despite multiple adjustments so far. It's not that bad, but shortcomings are evident at moderate (maybe half-way) listening volumes.

 

In previous cars I've had much better sound from a 100-quid set of Alpine components. I see that Pioneer TSA-172Ci have been tried a few years ago (below) and am wondering if the successor TSA-173Ci (54mm mid/woofer depth) might be worth a try. Anyone have experience of these or similar Pioneers or other 2-way components for the Yeti front doors? (with or without additional amplification)

 

 

Also, does anyone know the audio spec of the Bolero and other HUs? I can't see anything listed in the manual.  Am not bothered about any extra bells or whistles, just sound quality.

 

Hi Andy,

 

I was just searching this top and came across this thread so though I'd add my two pence.  I can't recognise the glowing reviews of the standard system that others have been making either - I have a 2013 pre-facelift L&K and the standard sound is truly dire.  The treble is incredibly harsh; I had it reduced to about 2 steps above minimum, with a moderate boost to mid and bass and a strong fade to the rear, but to be honest this only helped a bit.  I have recently installed one of the new Kicker 'key smart' dsp/amp units - costs about £200 and works wonders on the standard EQ and soundstage.  It's a 4x45w amp with a 40 channel equaliser that self-calibrates using a microphone, and for the money the results are pretty astounding.  Even on the standard speakers the sound is night-and-day different, although now that the intolerable treble harshness is gone I do notice how muddy the mid bass is, particularly for rock and orchestral classical music.  I imagine this is due to the stock speakers, so will swap them out at some point.  The contrast between our experiences, and those of the earlier thread you linked to, relative to the posts others have been making makes me think there must have been changes made at some point during the Yeti production run.  My Yeti (which has the Columbus HU) had easily the worst sound system of any vehicle I've owned.  Even the guys at my (well regarded and long-standing) local car audio shop passed comment on how harsh the standard system was - they were surprised as most VAG cars of that age are actually half decent.

[Sad555]

Never had a problem in my facelift L & K thought it was pretty good for a std system,but I would think a good set of upgraded speakers could improve most systems.

Edited 14 October, 2018 by Sad555

[kenfowler3966]

There was quite an expensive option to upgrade the speakers when buying new. If they made the standard system too good, no one would have paid the extra.

[Sad555]

OH YES THEY DO

 

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Posted 15 January, 2017

   On 15/01/2017 at 10:50, muddyboots said: 

Correct I do have the 12 speaker setup. And if you read my previous posts you will see that i have compared the "upgrade" with the standard 8 speaker setup on multiple occasions having driven 3 or 4 yeti with the standard speakers. The difference is simply not worth the money. The extra speakers are just midrange speakers and they are not needed.

And again if you look through my previous posts I regularly advise against paying for the 12 speaker upgrade as it's not worth it.

Edited 14 October, 2018 by Sad555

[sampo]

So I've never heard a car with the uprated system, nor have I been in a facelift model, so can't pass comment there.  All I can say is that I agree with @Andy916 that the standard speakers on the pre-facelift have very harsh treble and very little mid-bass to bass - to the point of making it pretty difficult to listen to.  It's far worse than a golf of the same era, or the pretty lamentable base BMW systems, for example.  But then, when there are others in this thread singing the virtues of the stock system, it makes me think that they must have changed something at the facelift.

 

When I do get around to upgrading the stock speakers I'll add a comment to this thread - may be useful for someone searching for info in future.

Edited 15 October, 2018 by sampo

[Sad555]

Don’t bother ,most yeti owners to too deaf anyway

[bargee1759]

On 15/01/2017 at 16:18, 137699 said:

Correct I do have the 12 speaker setup. And if you read my previous posts you will see that i have compared the "upgrade" with the standard 8 speaker setup on multiple occasions having driven 3 or 4 yeti with the standard speakers. The difference is simply not worth the money. The extra speakers are just midrange speakers and they are not needed.

And again if you look through my previous posts I regularly advise against paying for the 12 speaker upgrade as it's not worth it.

Well that's the biggest load of tosh I've ever read! I've got the 12 speaker set up in mine & I've experienced several Yetis without. It's night & day! & 2 owners with cars not equipped both commented on how they wish they'd ordered it after they heard mine, they were that amazed at the difference. Mind you, unless you enhance the bass significantly on the "graphic" & turn up the volume, you won't hear any difference. It's enough of an issue for me that when I eventually upgrade my Yeti (which now looks increasingly like it'll be for another one) it MUST have the speaker package & a heated screen to replicate what I have now. That's how I came across this thread - looking into what to do about retro fitting if necessary as it seems to be quite a rarely specified option.

[scoobz]

VW use Dynaudio in thier top of the range sound systems. Try cross referencing speakers with the vw range and find dynaudio speakers to fit the Skoda.

It's sort of upgrading and staying stock within the VAG family.

[jimih]

Don’t know if this will help anyone but I have upgraded my system. I have 8” focals in the rear and 6.5” in the front. The standard size for both is 6.5 but due to the depth available in the rear with the door card it was easy to fit the larger speakers. It is also essential to fit sound deadening sheet all over the doors to get that sound going the right way and not getting extra unwanted noise. 

The sound now is excellent for more controlled base with proper impact a huge improvement on the standard plastic basket speakers. 

 

Extra point even if not changing your speakers put sound deadening sheet on your doors, makes the car so much quieter on motorways. 

Edited 10 March, 2019 by jimih
Spelling mistake

[Pinkwafer]

I found this thread after buying a 2014 F/L Elegance Yeti and finding the standard Bolero 8 speaker system lacking. I agree with the comments of Andy916 and sampo regarding the harsh treble. Retrospectively, I quite frankly disagree with the other members that advised to keep the stock setup 'who know a thing about audio'. It really is poor. 

 

Replacing the stock speakers was the first avenue for modification for me. Finding information was a little difficult but there are some useful threads on here. I removed a front and rear door card after following some clear instructions to take a look. A few car audio YouTube videos recommend using pre-installed design features to increase midbass. In the Yeti, these features include damping foam between the riveted speaker carrier and the door skin in both front and rear woofers and a rubber seal in the front door card that fits around the woofer carrier and a rubber cone around the rear woofers. I can only surmise that these features are there for directing the sound into the car rather than being lost inside the door and reduce vibrations into the interior card. 

 

A F/L Yeti is fitted with:

Front:165mm component speakers. 

Rear: 130mm component speakers. 

Both have passive crossovers soldered to the tweeters manufactured by mass production car audio company, Sonovox. 

 

Mounting depths: 

There was no information that I could find online regarding mounting depths for replacement aftermarket speakers in the Yeti. This was the primary reason for removing door cards prior to choosing make and model of replacement speakers. Here are a few measurements. 

Front :

With window glass fully down, from front edge of metal door skin to window glass is approx 50mm. 

51mm from front of metal door to front edge of speaker mounted on stock speaker adapter.

Stock speaker mounting depth, 77mm

Stock speaker adapter height, 40mm.

 

Rear:

 

Tweeter clearance 40mm

Tweeter diameter 33mm

50mm from front of door metal to window glass.

Spacer depth 30mm

Mounting depth of stock speaker 50mm (56mm with lip)

 

I went with the Hertz ESK 165L.5 speakers in the front and Hertz UNO k130 in the rear doors. With cutting pliers I removed the stock speakers from the carriers and made mdf rings to mount the woofers to the moulded OE carriers. This way, I was able to keep the fitting of the front door card with the rubber seal around the carrier and maintain the rear rubber 'funnel' type pieces. I then took these pieces to my local car audio shop for the chap there to remove and glue in the tweeters and wire in the crossovers/fit dynamat sound damping insulation. This work was carried out for £90. Reasonable I thought.

 

Music in the car now is much more pleasurable. With regards to volume, having speakers with a higher sensitivity the stock 4x20 RMS is ample.

 

Ultimately with the design of the 8 speaker configuration in the Yeti, the bass drivers are towards the back of the door pointing into the driver's and passenger's hip while the tweeters are more focused at ear level. The addition of a 100mm midrange speaker (found on the 12 speaker configuration) would definitely help this. A good sound can be achieved with the Hertz speakers, especially if the crossover switch is set to the - 2db that feeds the tweeters but if I was buying again I would probably choose aftermarket speakers with a silk soft done tweeter rather than a metal tweeter to soften the treble further to compensate for the Yeti layout.

 

Quite a lengthy and geeky post, but hopefully it might help someone choose /fit aftermarket speakers in their Yeti should they wish. 

[pab567]

I have also changed audio setup in my MY16 Yeti. it left production site with Bolero MIB STD2 PQ unit 5L0035200B and standard 8 passive speakers. Speakers have been replaced with Gladen One 165 SQX series. They have been installed in factory mounting places and  powered from 8 channel processor / amplifier STEG SDSP8 which perfectly fits under the left front seat. Each speaker is driven separately, directly from amplifier. IMHO the result is outstanding

[Sjrcass]

Pinkwafer, that write-up is one of the most helpful and comprehensive I've seen on this subject.  Your advice about using the good parts already built into the sound system is excellent.  The only question I'm having-- and forgive me if it's a dumb one-- is how one attaches/anchors those mdf rings into the OEM carrier basket after removing the old speaker with cutting pliers (as I have done)?  I suppose it could be glued in, but wouldn't that quickly detach from the carrier given the speaker vibration?  Any advice or help would be much appreciated! Having just acquired my 2016 Yeti, this looks to be a great forum and resource!

[Expatman]

The question you need to ask yourself is whether the effort to upgrade is worth the improvement. Yeti’s are not the most refined of vehicles and cabin noise from road, wind etc. is pronounced to the point that sound upgrades can be swamped by the volume of intrinsic cabin noise.

[Sjrcass]

Hello Expatman, and many thanks for the reply.  While I do appreciate that you're trying to be helpful to a new member, if I needed to ask myself that question, I wouldn't have posted my as yet unanswered question.  I've done speaker upgrades on several cars which were all less refined than the Yeti-- the last one being a 2001 RAV4!  In every case, a small amount of effort generated many additional years of enhanced enjoyment in driving the vehicle.  

 

With a reasonable amount of dynamat insulation and time (a few hours), which I've already done on my Yeti, the road noise is less than any previous car I've owned.  I work as a professional musician as well as a sound engineer and can safely say that the Yeti speakers can easily be improved with an upgrade.  I appreciate that there are others in this forum (one who seems to emphatically and often rudely post on every Yeti forum about the futility of upgrading the sound system! :-) who will value different aspects of their vehicle-- and they may see no point in something that is "good enough" for them or their ears, particularly in relation to the additional work and cost (although that is pretty small) involved.  

 

With an answer to my question to Pinkwafer, I should be able to have sorted and upgraded the speakers in something less than 3-4 hours.  On the other hand, I'll enjoy the vastly improved sound for the many years I hope to own this great car.  Thanks again for the advice and trying to be helpful, as I appreciate it's hard to know what each owner is going to value in their particular Yeti-- and I look forward to getting to know more folks here. 

[Expatman]

As I said you just needed to ask the question of yourself. You obviously have done and decided the upgrade is worthwhile for you - and that is the only thing that matters!

Enjoy your music for the years you own the car.

[Pinkwafer]

I ended up using a grab adhesive for my mdf rings. Specifically it was Nemesis used in a mastic gun. 

 

The glue is massively strong, suitable for interior and exterior use, so will resist moisture and dries to a rubberised consistency thus eliminating unwanted vibrations. 

 

A year later and I've had no problems since installation. 

 

Yes, it did involve work but every time I drive the car I have no regrets. It sounds loads better and music is enjoyable.