After 3 years of Superb Elegance ownership, I wanted a hatch or an Estate. The lease ran out (April) before the new Superb came out, and I settled on a Octavia II L&K Estate.

I've had some ICE installed at Car Audio Innovations in Markyate, near Dunstable. Photos of my car are on their site:

Alpine Scoda

Hope you all like it

I'll get some of my own pics posted up soon.

holy moly that looks sweet. Im looking forward to more pics :P

Nice one! very clean install, hope it sounds good as well. Was it very expensive kit + install?

will you be doing a write up for anyone interested in attempting this? i personally wont be, but its always helpful for others!!

Looks great!

Not sure the blue lighting is quite me (!), but I am very interested in the sounds it makes.

What sort of investment are you looking at here (if you don't mind me asking!) and what specifically were you looking to achieve over and above the standard kit?

I also have an Octy L&K (c. 3 years old) and I spec'd an Elegance and the (now discontinued) 12 (?) speaker option.

It sounds great, apart from pretty lousy FM reception in dodgy hilly areas (such as where I live), and some vibration on bass-heavy tracks (eg. most Radiohead).

Sometimes I wonder whether this vibration is just a speaker which needs tightening, but I think it is probably an amp/head unit which can't cope with that register.

I thought the days of retrofitting head units like your Alpine were numbered with the bigger units now fitted to most modern cars (I put several "standard"-sized Alpines in earlier cars), so I am really interested to see someone still prepared to go down this route.

Cheers

Neil

Is the ICE worth more than the car??

Nice job.

Looks great

Nice to see your still about Atsu,

I hope everything is ok

Looks great!

Sometimes I wonder whether this vibration is just a speaker which needs tightening, but I think it is probably an amp/head unit which can't cope with that register.

Neil

It's the door cards vibrating. Adding a layer of soundproofing underneath will make the whole thing much tighter, and the vibrations disappear.

Cheers

Nice one! very clean install, hope it sounds good as well. Was it very expensive kit + install?

It sounds great, ok I work for Alpine, so you could argue I am biased:P but everyone that's listened to it has been impressed.

The kit does work out a bit, but that's one of the perks of the job, as its my company car/daily runaround/demo car. I can't comment on the cost, but the quality of the finish is outstanding. All I can say is that the install was extremely good value for money by Paul Richardson at Car Audio Innovations.:D

Nice to see your still about Atsu,

I hope everything is ok

Hi ya Lummox, yes I'm still around. We must meet up sometime!

Is the ICE worth more than the car??

Nice job.

Um, not quite.

What it has:

IVA-W505R Double Din 7" Screen - Plays CD/DVD/MP3/AAC/WMA/DIVX/iPod Audio and Video/USB

PXA-H100 Imprint Processor

SPX-17PRO Front Components

SPX-17REF Rear Components

PDX-4.100 4x100W RMS amp

PDX-1.600 1x600W RMS amp

SWS-1243D subwoofer

PMD-B200P navigation Unit

PKG-2000P 10.2" DVD roofscreen

TUE-T150DV DVBT Tuner

HCE-C200R and HCE-C200F Rear and Front Camera

Wow That looks superb & and should sound awesome. The finish looks stunning too !

Haven't had an install for years, almost makes me want start all over again !

PDX-4.100 4x100W RMS amp

PDX-1.600 1x600W RMS amp

Should keep the neighbours awake :eek:

dare i ask how much that lot set you back including labour?

Nice bit of kit.

Whats to stop some one smashing the window and nicking the head unit?

My audience itsn't worth nicking.

It's the door cards vibrating. Adding a layer of soundproofing underneath will make the whole thing much tighter, and the vibrations disappear.

Cheers

Please can you elaborate on this a bit, Sebulbus?

Thanks

Neil

The door card material is a long thin sheet with some creases. This is not enough to stop it vibrating. Also, the cavity behind it contributes to this by resonating together with the door card creating in effect a mini speaker.

Actually all things vibrate, but the higher their resonance frequency, the more disturbing it is. That's the purpose of sound proofing, lowering the vibration frequency to something that's either not that disturbing or hard to pick up by our ears.

There are two possible approaches the way I see it.

Either stiffen the door card to the point it won't easily vibrate with stuff such as resin, fiberglass, or god knows what - hard and expensive to do.

OR

Add sound deadening to the inside, lowering it's resonating frequency to something less disturbing, while at the same time filling some (or all) of the cavity behind which cuts back on the speaker effect. If the sound proofing is thick enough to fill in the cavity behind the door card completely that's even better, because the door card material will fit snug around it and hopefully tight enough to be unable to vibrate.

There is also the secondary benefit that if before some piece of the door card could shake hard enough to touch the metal door frame, now all it could touch is a layer of soft stuff which doesn't make any noise when banged against.

That's really useful, many thanks.

I probably won't implement this in my current car, as I am planning to trade it in when the Facelift becomes available.

But if I get a new L&K, and the problem is present in that one too, I would definitely consider the solution you describe.

I know I couldn't afford an Alpine system like the one described at the start of this thread, and to be honest, as far as CD performance is concerned, I think the best of the standard options (currently the Audience) is probably good enough. Apart from those annoying bass-induced vibrations....

Thanks again.

Neil

If you think Octavias sound bad just have a listen to some BMWs, you'll come out smiling. I know for starters that the E39 M5 and E46 M3 equipped with BOSE and about 2 year old (then) both sound worse than my Octi w. Stream, as does the prev. model X5 with the premium audio option which I think is also BOSE.

I'm not impartial in any way and was completely puzzled by this as well and couldn't believe it, then a friend who owns a GTI and a Cayenne said the sound in most Octi's he's been in is miles better than the premium option on his GTI and close to the DSP equipped Cayenne.

I'm sure this is just a fortunate accident, with the volume of the Octi's interior and the speakers' placement going happily together.