Afternoon all,

I'm just about to buy a new headunit for my mk1 Octavia vRS as I need Bluetooth hands-free and MP3. I'm looking at a Sony MEX-BT4000U, which comes in at £170 fitted, including wiring harness, aerial adapter and external mic placing up by the interior light.

As this is not a high end unit, will I see any sound quality increase with standard speakers, as it's pretty **** now, I must say.

You will get an improvement but to get the full benefit you'd need to upgrade the speakers and/or add an amplifier. I have a Columbus which works beautifully but I was never overly happy with the sound. Change of speakers and an amplifier and it's like a different world. Admittedly, it wasn't a cheap upgrade as I can't fit it myself, but the cost was well worth it. So, get the upgrade and enjoy the improved functionality and sounds. You can always make other changed at a later date if you think it needs it.

When you are looking at low end units you will be hard pushed to notice a difference apart from type of sound.

Different headunits, like amps, DO sound different. Pioneer for example have a natural, easy listening sound where as alpine is a bit harsher on the high frequencys. No idea on sony though, always stayed well clear.

As you are not chaning anything bar the headunit the type of sound might change but I wouldnt expect better sq.

^ Pretty much agreed. I recently changed my HU for a new pioneer and soon realised I also needed a speaker upgrade. My old Sony Xplode was fine for around 5 years until it developed the annoying habit of consistently rejecting CD's!!

Prior to my DIY upgrade a local auto audio specialist offered me an installed upgrade for the modest value of £1500! Sadly more than the cars worth but probably would have sounded amazing

Alpine do a nice little active sub that you could place in the boot. This will enable you to dial out the bass from the octy speakers. Also disconnect the rear door tweeters and it will sound excellent. Trust me.

Well hopefully the ability to play MP3's will keep me happy for a while. That and the bluetooth hands free shoudl be worth the upgrade.

Thanks for the advice though guys. I'll report back after the install.

Any Update, Nathan? You've got me interested in this...

Hey buddy!

Good timing. I'm having a Pioneer DEH-X5500BT fitted tomorrow on otherwise standard stuffs! I'll let you know how it goes.

Nathan

How interesting I found this!

I'm getting the double din version fitted tuesday! Form a stream mp3 it should be a cracking upgrade! Oh and the speakers are getting changed out...and my friend is having that alpine sub put in his type-r. The guys where we go were very complimentary of that little box, and it gets a really good review at talkaudio!

Any pix. Howd it go today?

Morning!

No pictures I'm afraid but everything went OK. The plastic bracket that fits on to the back of the standard unit caused problems though.

There is another thread on here about hacking it out, but I found that pulling the little storage tray out underneath, allowed the wires to be moved just enough to all it to fit. The wiring harness that came with it needed the permanent live swapping over too, but I only found that out after we'd fully fitted it and then turned it back on only to find it asking for the full setup again! But once in, it synced with my Galaxy S2 first time, took the full phonebook and call logs and sounds great on call quality apparently.

Bluetooth Audio works well, but you need to use the phone to control the music really. The headunit will move between tracks in a folder, but nothing outside that. I thought that might be cured by using USB, but it seems Android took out Mass Storage Mode in the latest update, so that's not playing nicely at the moment. But I'm going to buy on of those super stubby 32GB memory keys today and just shove that in the front.

As for sound quality, there is a definite increase over stock, but it's not night and day as the standard speakers are not brilliant it seems. That said, I don't listen to anything bass heavy, it's more vocal stuff, so I am more than happy with the quality for now. I think a cheap speaker upgrade would bring it up to the same OEM quality as some higher end cars though.

Regards,

Nathan

Ah blooming ada...trip to bcss in coulsdon...one axh3500dab front and rears and that Alpine sub!

Holy flipping moley, im a bassline junkie!

Haha seriously its stunning.....

Told you an awesome little sub eh !

We was watching Star Trek waiting outside bcss..my mates was just grinning it is a box of stunning quality!

They are brilliant and for a onerish...stunning stunning stunning....

How you finding the dab? Any drops? Ive had a couple, absolute classic rock and 90's

Planet rock rules, although dizzee's bass line is unbelievably banging! Haha