I hear a lot of complaints about the factory audio quality on the Superb and I must say I DID concur: lack of bass, offensive middle frequencies, rattling speakers etc.

However, I solved this by fitting a small active sub-woofer in the boot, the KENWOOD KSC-SW10. Being active, it requires no other amplification and is a really easy install for an auto-electrician, fitting into one of the recessed storage areas in the boot.

?It's only 150W, so it is discreet in its operation, but boy, does it make a difference to the sound! I wouldn't describe myself as an audiophile, but I'm pretty demanding when it comes to tonal integrity, being a musician and producer in my spare time. My music tastes are eclectic, but biased towards rock, so my system has to be able to kick moderate ass.

I set the graphic on the Columbus to maximum bass (don't worry about the speaker rattles - the sub-woofer will now take the strain), minimum middle and just over half way for treble. The bass control runs the sub-woofer and you get a little hand-held control to set the level and to sweep the frequency which you want to boost.

I now - honestly - have sound which is loud, rich, resonant, taut, musical, punchy... all for the £75 I paid second-hand about 3 years ago when I had my Saab 9-3. It was good in the Saab, but it's superb in the ahem... Superb.

At the moment, the only ones on Ebay are from the states, so it's getting harder to source; I do recommend you look out for one, though. As an alternative, Kenwood now make a similar model, but a little smaller to fit under the passenger seat.

I don't work for Kenwood, but I thought I'd share my experiences of getting great audio for cheap money, especially as a lot of posters seem frustrated by the factory sound.

hi Ned

how would you wire the kenwood in that you recommend.

bill

Ah, you're asking the wrong bloke! My local auto-electrician did it in about an hour and a half for £60. He insisted that the unit had to be in the driver's side of the boot to make the wire routing easier. It's an invisible installation, but he's obviously had to remove a lot of trim to get such a perfect finish - I imagine that's where the labour charge went. It seems very straightforward - he had previously put it in my Saab as well.

Phono leads plus power and earth I would have thought?

Sent from my Blackberry Playbook with Tapatalk

Anyone else put a slimline sub in? Is there room under front seats if you have the electric seats, or would it have to go in the boot?

Ah, you're asking the wrong bloke! My local auto-electrician did it in about an hour and a half for £60. He insisted that the unit had to be in the driver's side of the boot to make the wire routing easier. It's an invisible installation, but he's obviously had to remove a lot of trim to get such a perfect finish - I imagine that's where the labour charge went. It seems very straightforward - he had previously put it in my Saab as well.

Ned, did the sub eat much into the boot recess? And do you have the estate or the hatch?

I'm really disappointed in the factory speakers - it's as if they've forgotten to put the bass drivers in the front. Even with bass set to max, I only really get a murmur of bass at low volume and that's from the rear speakers. I have to listen loud to get anything meaningful, which I don't really want to do...

Ned, did the sub eat much into the boot recess? And do you have the estate or the hatch?

I've got the hatch. The woofer just sits in the driver's side recess; you wouldn't really fit much else in there when it's in. I used cable ties to secure it to the trim at the back of the recess, then re-shut the "door". The door is ported, so the sound is unimpeded. As the unit fits entirely into that closed recess, you lose no boot volume. As bass sound is non-directional, the fact that the speaker is pointing "sideways", across the boot area, is irrelevant. Sounds great; looks great.

There is virtually no room under the seats to fit anything that would sound reasonable, the boot is a far better bet.

Thanks Ned. Do you end up having to keep changing settings on the remote, depending on how load you have the music and what is playing? Or is it all pretty much set and forget?

I'm torn between adding a sub, and replacing the factory speakers (no sub).

Thanks Ned. Do you end up having to keep changing settings on the remote, depending on how load you have the music and what is playing? Or is it all pretty much set and forget?

I'm torn between adding a sub, and replacing the factory speakers (no sub).

Set and forget. Perhaps an occasional tweak once in a blue moon if a track is a touch bass-heavy. Replacing the factory speakers is probably going to cost you a lot more than £60 in installation fees. Besides I've found that, in terms of crispness and clarity, they're perfectly acceptable; it's just the lack of bass... My SAAB was pretty hopeless for sound, even with the sub, if I'm honest; the factory set-up was the meanest, cheapest, shoddiest, tinniest bunch of 4-speaker crap I've ever encountered - shameful for a "prestige" brand. For 3 years, I barely listened to any music. With my set-up now in the Superb (featuring c.2500 mp3s on the HDD), I play music all day, every day: it's better than the hi-fi in the house.

Set and forget. Perhaps an occasional tweak once in a blue moon if a track is a touch bass-heavy.

Cheers. Out of interest whereabouts have you set the cross-over on the sub? Just trying to work out what the usable range of the factory bass/mid drivers actually is...

Agree that fitting replacement speakers would be more expensive - although Halfords bizarrely charge £30 to fit "car speakers" (with no real distinction between how easy or how many speakers that includes).

I'm going to see a man about sticking an active sub in the boot at the end of the week. Pioneer make one that sits in the space saver spare wheel, and another that can just lay across the width of the boot (9cm high) which will take knocks and scrapes, and your luggage on top if need be. Both claim to dig down to 25Hz.

I've come to the conclusion that as I don't have any door card rattles or speaker vibrations at the moment, I'd rather like to keep it that way.

Will keep you posted...

I've settled on the sub that sits in the spare wheel: the pioneer ts-wx610a.  It fits nicely into the 16" space saver, and comes with a bag to put the jack and tools into.  These now go into one of the side cupboards in the boot.  There is an in-line remote for fine-tuning cross-over frequency, gain, and 180-phase, which I will keep in the cubby to the right of the steering wheel.

 

I've also used some audio test sounds taken from this website http://www.audiocheck.net/ which will help me to fine tune the set-up so that there is near seamless transition between the factory speakers and the sub.

 

One of the test sounds I am using is a 10-200Hz  frequency sweep (in 10Hz increments), and it appears that the factory speakers will go down as low as 50Hz, but with significant distortion.  The distortion seems to disappear at about 130Hz and higher, and so that is roughly where I will aim to set the cross-over on the sub.

 

Once I have the sub in, I will then run a subwoofer cross-over test, which will be a continuous increase in frequency from 50-400Hz.  In an ideal world there should be no increase in loudness as the subwoofer rolls off, and the main speakers roll in.  This will help me to fine-tune the cross-over and the gain control on the remote.

 

I'm going to try to get the wiring in under the trim myself, and then my ICE installer will wire it all in next week.

Quick update for you. 3 weeks in, and the sound has changed dramatically with the sub-in-the-spare set-up. The first week sounded awful whilst the sub ran in, the second week got better as things started to loosen up, and by week 3 it sounds to me to be almost fully run-in after about 10 hours of play.

I still find the shrillness of the factory tweeters annoying, but I'm very pleased with the bass response now. Sometimes it's like having Phil Collins in the boot, but in a nice way.

I got the sub couriered from Germany, from an established ICE seller that also happens to sell on eBay. When I bought it, with the silly PayPal charge it cost me just shy of £200 for the sub. I was then charged £100 by my very excellent ICE fitter for installation.

The euro is even weaker vs sterling at the moment, so you can get it even cheaper now.

For £300, it's a worthy upgrade. My other option was to replace the factory speakers which would have seen £200 on replacement speakers, £100 on an amp to power them, and £200 fitting = £500. But I'm happy for now, and haven't lost any space in my boot, and the installation is invisible.