Fabia - speaker upgrade suggestions?

[FabFabFabia]

Has anyone upgraded the front door speakers? I find the separate tweeters each side of the windscreen in particular to be harsh and so was wondering if anyone has tried replacing these for smoother sounding units?

[Miffy84]

Have you tweaked the bass/mid/treble settings from the head unit? I actual think they're pretty good for factory fit units. Can't remember what levels I have everything set at, but I can turn it up pretty loud without any harshness. Buzzing of the doorcards are the limiting factor, sound deadening and isolating soon to follow...

[Hudson1]

I would agree with the above, for factory units i don't think the sound is that bad, compared to my partners Mk1 Fabia the Mk2 unit is excellent, the earlier car is really harsh and everything rattles !!!

[Confide]

Replaced all my door-speakers with Focal PS165!

Sounds really good, but the stock headunit won't be able to make the most out off those speakers I'm afraid.

I would look at something less demanding if you're not gonna go all the way with the soundsystem.

Can't help you with which price-range you should look at since our prices are very different from yours...

And I don't know how much you wanna spend either xD!

[FabFabFabia]

Confide - did you remove or just disconnect the Fabia tweeters? Where did you put the Focal's tweeters? This is my head unit - I had an upgrade from the Amundsen:-

http://www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk/products/car/vw/DNX521DAB/details/

[Confide]

I just disconnected them since I was in a hurry when I was building it!

Tweeter on passenger-side was put in the same location as the knob for changing the angle on the mirrors.

Driver-side... I don't remember honestly !

[FabFabFabia]

Thanks Confide - the Focal PS 165 have a total depth of 65.5 mm (http://www.focal.com...s/ft-ps1651.pdf) so will they fit the doors OK without sticking out? With my new Kenwood head unit, my Fabia's standard door speakers have a weak bass (more like a lower-mid sound in fact) - do these sound better? (what make and model of door speakers do Skoda fit in the Fabia?).

Thanks for your replies, I appreciate it. This is all new to me so I'm hoping that I can find someone to fit replacement speakers for me without damaging anything :-/

Edited 26 December, 2012 by FabFabFabia

[Confide]

They need spacers! I got the spacers they use for Golf 5, but they would have to be about 1.5 cm less tall!

The doorside doesn't go back all the way, haha :p!

They got abit more bass, but they are WAY louder then the stock-part!

If it's bass you are after, I have to tell you that you need a subwoofer.

The location off the speaker ensures that we won't get to hear that way =/!

[FAB59]

Confide is right, a subwoofer is the only way to get decent bass in the Fabia. I've got one in mine and, by using that for all the low frequencies instead of the door woofers, I got rid of all the door panel rattling as well. So you kill two birds with one stone - good strong bass and no rattles.

[FabFabFabia]

Thanks guys, time for me to find some local dealers where I can audition some speakers

[the mad monk]

@ fab59, which stereo do you have? just wondering what connectors we have on these stereo's as to whether fitting a sub is easy enough or takes some fiddling with

i have an old alpine 2 channel amp and all the cables in the attic, just need a decent sub/box

[FabFabFabia]

A problem I'm finding with the new Kenwood unit is that when I press the up or down arrows on the steering wheel the radio just searches for the next station instead of, as with the previous Amundsen unit, selecting the next radio preset. Anyone else have this problem, or, better still, a suggestion on how to fix it?

[FAB59]

@ fab59, which stereo do you have? just wondering what connectors we have on these stereo's as to whether fitting a sub is easy enough or takes some fiddling with

i have an old alpine 2 channel amp and all the cables in the attic, just need a decent sub/box

I have the Dance stereo, as mine is a pre-facelift Fabia. Connectors at the back should be the same as the Swing, for the most part. I have a 350W Alpine SWD-2000 in mine, which is an active subwoofer box thingy, nice and compact. Speaker line output is how you get the sound signal to the external amp, I just tapped into the rear speaker cables at the back of the headunit. For the amp remote switch, I just wrapped the wire around the ABS fuse, doesn't cause any issues, my car has been like this for over 3 years, never had any fault codes because of that. That way, the amp comes on as soon as you switch the ingnition on, regardless of engine running or not. Unfortunately, I had to drill a little hole on the bulkhead to pass the power cable to the battery though, and another hole under the rear seat for the amp earth cable. If you don't mind the holes, which are invisible anyway, it's a great solution, fairly easy to do, and the difference in sound quality, compared to the factory setup, is like night and day.

[FAB59]

Have a look at this thread too: (posts #4 and #7)

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/255692-best-settings-for-the-swing-stereo/

If you are serious about connecting your amp and need any more help, let me know. It appears very few people have had subwoofers in a Fabia II.

[Confide]

I still have... 2 ^^! Gonna throw them out tho since they take up all space :p!

[fabia55]

I had to drill a little hole on the bulkhead to pass the power cable to the battery though, and another hole under the rear seat for the amp earth cable.

Where exactly did you drill? There's no need to drill a hole for an earth point. Where is your earth point?

What gauge power cable do you have? If it's 8awg there's no need to drill throught the firewall or bulkhead, just use the existing hole by the top right strut. However 4awg or bigger will need to.

Edited 29 December, 2012 by fabia55

[FAB59]

I drilled a hole at the very top right of the front passenger's footwell, above that foamy panel you remove to get access to the cabin filter, to keep everything well hidden. I literally took out half the dashboard to find a suitable hole, but had no luck. Took out the centre console, glovebox and passenger airbag, but found nothing. At least I fixed a couple of rattles in the process. Is the existing hole you mention on the driver's side then? I never looked on that side, since the battery is on the passenger's side.

I don't know what gauge the cable is, to be honest, it's a pretty thin one that came with the sub. I was going to use one of the seatbelt buckle bolts for the earth point, but didn't have a torque wrench at the time, and didn't want to mess the buckle up, as seatbelts are rather important, lol. I drilled a hole close to the buckle though, not too close obviously, but around that area. Needs some attention so as not to penetrate the fuel tank when drilling.

@Confide:

Those must be some massive subs you have in yours. Did you have to drill any holes as well? Or did you manage to find existing ones?

[fabia55]

When I had 8awg power cable it went through the existing 'hole', it is located by the top right corner by the suspension strut when you open the bonnet.

Now I'm using 4awg and had to have a hole drilled, but mine's just below the foamy panel on the passenger's footwell.

My earth point is on the centre seat belt buckle point, just had to have a bit of paint sanded down to the bare metal. My earth point used to be in the boot as far away from the engine as possible, but now it's on the seat belt point makes no difference, hope you sanded the paint for your earth point.

[FAB59]

Yeah, I did sand it down to bare metal, no worries. Applied some grease as well around that area to prevent any rusting.

[FabFabFabia]

Can anyone recommend a good installer for replacement speakers in the doors of my Fabia? Will the tweeters in the windscreen column have to be discarded or can they be replaced with better units? And would an official Skoda dealer do the installation?

[P1TT8ULL]

Where you based dude??

[FabFabFabia]

West Midlands

[fabia55]

Yeah, I did sand it down to bare metal, no worries. Applied some grease as well around that area to prevent any rusting.

hope you are checking your grommet, I check mine at least once a month.

[fabia55]

Can anyone recommend a good installer for replacement speakers in the doors of my Fabia? Will the tweeters in the windscreen column have to be discarded or can they be replaced with better units? And would an official Skoda dealer do the installation?

existing tweeters are stuck onto the a pillars, they need to be cut off (dremmel multitool thing should work) you can buy the pillar trim for £12 from the dealers, they already have the tweeter stuck on. i'd buy a spare pair to mess about with.

you will be best to replace the oem tweeters as they not designed to work with crossovers designed specifically for an aftermarket speakers.