Hi folks.

My mkI Octavia has a stock (i.e. rubbish) cd head unit and lousy (stock) speakers. My wife and I would like to replace these with something rather more listenable and functional.

I have a 3rd gen iPod 40Gb and I'd like a head unit that can control that, and speakers which do reasonable bass without the ridiculously over-done subwoofer sound. I'm more interested in clean, listenable sound than loudness - something that lets me listen to the radio at lower volumes without losing it in the ambient driving noise.

So, must work with the iPod (which should be in the glove-box) with proper controls so that I don't have to use the iPod controls. And speakers that fit the mkI Octavia.

Budget: £200, fitted preferably. I am lousy at DIY :-) Don't mind paying a fraction more if it makes a big difference, but the money I spend here eats into other budgets...

Your best bet would be to go to a local car ICE (In Car Entertainment) centre and have a chat to them. They will be able to recommend a set up that fits your budget. What spec car have you got? My wifes old civic sounded rubbish and you could not hear it well at motorway speed. I went to a local shop (Uplands in Swansea). For around £100 they installed a pioneer components set. The mid range speaker replaced the standard speaker and the tweeters were installed on the doors at the front (behind where the wings mirrors fit) and they did not look out of place. This lifted the sound no end, even though I kept th orginal head unit. The seperate tweeters meant that you could hear the voices of people very well. So on your budget that would leave around £100 for a head unit which is not loads but would probably be sufficient to get something with MP3 capability. With your limited budget I would just look to upgrade the front speakers as this will give the best improvement for you and front passenger. Upgrading the rears will only give your rear passengers any benefit. As a point I was only charged £15 on top of the speaker price for the fitting which I thought was very reasonable as it saved me a few hours and scrapped knuckles!!!

remember to bear in mind that if you find a descent unit you want, you could always look for a second hand one on ebay etc, i just picked up a pioneer head unit with bluetooth for the phone and complete ipod control for £65. that would leave you pleanty for some speakers.

the only thing being you would have to fit it yourself but thats not too difficult

It would be better spending the full £200 just on the head unit, you will be suprised at the difference.

If you spend £200 on both speakers and head unit they are both going to be pretty naff, plus the speakers would really need to be driven by a amp

I would have to disagree as I believe that it is often the speakers that let down the sound, especially if the OP does not have tweeters fitted as standard. In my wifes civic the sound was shocking (only had 4 speakers- 2 front and 2 rear with the fronts being low down on the door). We kept the original headunit and upgraded the speakers an the sound was so much better. Was thinking about doing the headunit as well but the improvement with the speakers was more than enough so we never bothered with the head unit.

There is no point spending lots on a nice head unit if the speakers do not do it justice. You will always be limited by the weakest link in the system and in my experience this is normally the original speakers to start with. Change these and it then becomes the headunit but if the improvement is enough then no need to bother.

Also changing speakers will not need an amp to power them. The ones in my wifes civic worked perfectly well of the standard head unit power. If your end goal is to have music the rattles every panel of the car then yes you will need an amp. If however, you just want improved quality and clarity then the head unit power would be fine.

I would have to disagree as I believe that it is often the speakers that let down the sound, especially if the OP does not have tweeters fitted as standard.

I would argue this. In my varied HU fitting experiance, it's nearly always been the HU which has provided awful sound and not the speakers.

You will always be limited by the weakest link in the system and in my experience this is normally the original speakers to start with.

As said above, in my experiance (and many others) it's the HU which is the weak link.

Also changing speakers will not need an amp to power them. The ones in my wifes civic worked perfectly well of the standard head unit power. If your end goal is to have music the rattles every panel of the car then yes you will need an amp. If however, you just want improved quality and clarity then the head unit power would be fine.

No, they will not need an amp. However, they will sound much better with one. I spend a lot of time and money on sound systems. My aim is never to have the panels rattling, but to have a good quality sound across all frequency levels.

If only being powered by the HU's internal amp, the speakers will never perform to their full potential.