Canton upgrade, recommended!

[chelon]

I didnt go with the Canton upgrade..

Last week a had a Focal Bus 20 Integration flat amp bass fitted under the drivers seat, that gave me 150w of bass that was missing in the car...

well worth the money, £300 fitted

 

In that case don't you have to upgrade the speakers as well? Or is this a sub?

[baz555]

In that case don't you have to upgrade the speakers as well? Or is this a sub?

No need to change speakers..

I just add a sub which has a amp fitted in it...

I love the bass which was missing.. in the kit you get a switch that you can turn for more or less bass, i got that in the glove box hidden away..

http://www.roadradio.com/Focal/iBus-20/

[UglyVrs]

Picked mine up yesterday and after driving for 10hrs today have noticed the quality of sound getting better.

I have played with the extra canton settings and reached a sweet spot.

I hope the sub gets better, wasn't expecting shaking windows but it could be better I think.

The cabin speakers are just brilliant although I seem to be getting interference through the passenger speaker with canton logo. Will let it settle before asking dealer.

[spacenase]

I'm with UglyVrs on this. I have the Canton upgrade and I think the sound from the main speakers is excellent. I'm hearing things in tracks that I haven't noticed before!

I'm not so impressed with the sub. I find it boomy and lacking in any real depth. I'm wondering if just the sub can be replaced with something better, preferably without having to do any major re-engineering.

[Lamboluke]

No need to change speakers..

I just add a sub which has a amp fitted in it...

I love the bass which was missing.. in the kit you get a switch that you can turn for more or less bass, i got that in the glove box hidden away..

http://www.roadradio.com/Focal/iBus-20/

What work was involved in fitting it? Where abouts did you get it done?

Thanks

[baz555]

What work was involved in fitting it? Where abouts did you get it done?

Thanks

I went to a car audio shop in near where i live.. Road Radio

they placed it under my drivers seat and velcro it to the carpet

you have to connected to the audio cables which are behind the CD unit, you need a cable that piggy backs off the speaker, there not one for the mk3 but Audi A1

cable fits it... then wire live to fuse box ... took chap 90mins to do it as it was the first Mk3 his done

Worth going in to your local car audio for a chat, they told me not to change the speakers just have this fitted.. it does sound so much better and worth the money..

This is NOT a monster sub that you find fitted in boy racer cars...!!!

Its..

• Focal iBus 20
• Active enclosure with 20cm (8”) subwoofer
• Max Power 150W
• Height: 71.5mm (2.8”)
• Length: 344mm (13.5”)
• Width: 250mm (9,8”)
• Compact Aluminum chassis Low height, high rigidity
• Built-in amplifier Brings power to the subwoofer
• 50 to 150Hz adjustable low-pass filter, 0-180° phase selector

[Dr Zoidberg]

I spent 6 hours in the car today and the Canton is bedding in nicely. It's not got huge slabs of bass as you'll get from an aftermarket monster sub, but it does have a very clear, crisp sound and still has a nice thump to it when pushed. Well worth the money IMO, and I'll have a bit of a tweak of the settings in a week or so.

[Lamboluke]

<p>

I went to a car audio shop in near where i live.. Road Radio

they placed it under my drivers seat and velcro it to the carpet

you have to connected to the audio cables which are behind the CD unit, you need a cable that piggy backs off the speaker, there not one for the mk3 but Audi A1

cable fits it... then wire live to fuse box ... took chap 90mins to do it as it was the first Mk3 his done

Worth going in to your local car audio for a chat, they told me not to change the speakers just have this fitted.. it does sound so much better and worth the money..

This is NOT a monster sub that you find fitted in boy racer cars...!!!

Its..

• Focal iBus 20
• Active enclosure with 20cm (8”) subwoofer
• Max Power 150W
• Height: 71.5mm (2.8”)
• Length: 344mm (13.5”)
• Width: 250mm (9,8”)
• Compact Aluminum chassis Low height, high rigidity
• Built-in amplifier Brings power to the subwoofer
• 50 to 150Hz adjustable low-pass filter, 0-180° phase selector

Thanks for the reply.

I'm not after a boot filling system like I had when I was 17 haha but something to just give that extra depth of bass is all I'm after.

Will look into this when I have some spare brass.

[Jimmy Chappers]

Has anyone posted a pic of the canton sub in the boot of a combi on this forum?

Edited 27 April, 2014 by Jimmy Chappers

[kenny]

It's a decent system. Sadly not as gd as some but still decent

[dex20]

It seems like there is two different Canton systems. Some say it is excelent and other say it is poor effort. I do also have mixed feelings about Canton. On one hand I really like deep and rich sound of Bruce Springsteen - Streets of Philadelphia, Madonna Frozen or Enya Amerantine. On the other hand 50 cents, Rihanna and Beyonce does not sound so good. I am happy with high and middle, but bass is really muddy, weak and not so cool at all.

[WAUOla]

I am glad to see your experiences.

 

Norwegian dealerships offered "Business package" at 8900 NOK, including part leather trim, Canton, Sun set and 230V outtake at the rear bench. In total they were approx 13000 NOK as stand-alone components in the spec. Hope the bluetooth transfer from Iphone can keep up. :wonder:

[JamesVRSmk3]

Picked up my Canton equipped vRS hatch yesterday and very impressed with the sound…well it was once I turned off the surround sound in the settings. Listened to a few tracks which have been ripped with a CD as 320 mp3 (as thats what most of my tracks will be) and altered the Bass, Mid and Treble and within 2 or 3 minutes sounded great. If it gets better when bedded in then even better but I'm very happy.

 

There isn't a huge amount a bass but there is the correct amount (for me). Boomy shaking the car bass isn't meant to be present in 99% of songs so unless you're a 17 year old in a Corsa or watching Saving Private Ryan on your headunit then you shouldn't really worry.

[Diango]

Hi guys,

 

I registered because I have chosen the Skoda Octavia Combi as my next company car, and I'm a bit... worried about the audio quality. Let me give you a bit of background info:

 

We have a quite generous lease budget for our company cars, and my current car (a BMW 320d EDE) is a 'leftover' pool car that I needed to 'finish' before ordering my own (and I don't blame them, waste of money to leave them on the parking). As BMW goes these are quite luxurious cars, and this one in particular is fitted with a Harman Kardon sound system. Maybe it's not entirely fair, but this is my reference point, having driven this one for ± 6 months. This sound system is able to be cranked up to insane levels without distortion, no matter what the type of music is and has a sound image projection that makes you feel like you are THERE where the music was recorded. You cannot point out where the sound is coming from, it's literally everywhere, and the bass... awesome. Stomache-pounding, even while doing 140mph with the sunroof open.

 

Even though I could just go ahead and order my own BMW, I opted against it, because the value for money was a lot better with Skoda. I need the extra space (2 kids) and could live without the (I must say, excellent) driving experience in the BMW simply because it's also a lot cheaper, it saves me a hundred euros a month in income tax, that's 1200 euros a year and almost 5k if you consider the entire 4 year lease period. That's a ****load of money, pardon my French. Some demands I did place upon the Skoda salesman:

 

- I want a near-perfect seat (long enough, lots of support, fully adjustable), which he was able to accommodate by fitting the dynamic package that contains sport seats

- I want a reasonably powerful engine for long highway trips (so we opted for the 2.0 TDI version)

- I want a very good audio system, mostly because of demand number 2: I drive a lot and often. Music keeps it fun.

 

So I went for an Octavia Combi with all the possible factory options installed, and then some. I added run flat tires, DVD screens for the back seats, block heater, you name it.

Then I test drove a 'normal' 2.0 TDI version with Canton installed... and I was duly under-impressed. The sound system has the makings to deliver clean and crisp sound, but as soon as I cranked up the volume (be it FM audio or iPhone Spotify songs) above normal levels, it sounded distorted, as if the door speakers just couldn't cope and the sub was already maxed out.

 

I'm willing to live with the other things I had to 'let go' exchanging my BMW for a Skoda, but the sound is really important to me. I agreed with the dealer to visit a car audio specialist tomorrow and bring the BMW with us to see what can be done. Since the Skoda is so much cheaper, there is ample room in the budget to have it retrofitted with upgrades for which I won't be taxed anyway because they are dealer options (and our taxation system is based on the car price as it leaves the factory).

 

Any tips or experiences you would like to share? I don't want to sound pedantic, I'm trying to make a reasonable choice here and I really want the Skoda to be my next car, it's a much better deal and scores better with customers.

Edited 1 July, 2014 by Diango

[Dr Zoidberg]

I've had the Canton for four months now, and it definitely sounds noticably better than when it was new. It's never going to be as good as an aftermarket system costing thousands of pounds but I'm certainly very pleased with it now that it's all been run in and had the settings adjusted to my preference.

 

I don't know if we have many Dutch members here, but maybe you can find someone with the Canton fitted that has used it for a while and get a listen to theirs.

[Yeti_Man]

Harmon Kardon in the current 3 series sounds much better than the (cheaper) Canton system in the Octavia and I have no doubt over this. The Canton system does get better with age. The sub seems to tighten up a little and the upper levels of sound seem to mature in the separation department. You do need to feed it a decent source though. Other systems are certainly more forgiving of low bit rate mp3's from my experience. The other factor would be that imo the BMW has door cards that are more up to the job of resisting vibrations and resonance - this is more telling at higher levels and when they cars have done some mileage. OT but the best reasonably priced I've heard lately was in an MQB platform car - it was the factory optional B&O system I heard in an A3 Sportback - a little more costly but super detailed and lots of depth, separation and clarity. Quite awesome in fact 

[TudorM]

I added run flat tires, DVD screens for the back seats, block heater, you name it.

 

Sorry for the off-topic, but say what? Please expand... Was that a factory option? Haven't heard of it anywhere.

[Mence]

Likewise.

To be honest, if I crank my Canton system up loud enough to distort the door speakers, I find it pretty uncomfortable to listen to for more than a minute or two, plus, people look at you like you like you're a freak or 30 years younger!

[V6Jules]

I don't know about the HK system in the newer BMWs but I had it on my e46 330 coupe as was completely underwhelmed by it and ended upgrading everything with an infinity amp and rainbow speakers which sounded beautiful. I'm quite pleased with the canton system, its not stunning but for the price point of the car I think it sounds quite competent.

[Diango]

Well it's a cheap upgrade so I reckon lots of people will have them.. but even though my company employs many people (60.000 worldwide, 400 in the Netherlands alone) most of us drive the more expensive German cars... if you get my drift. I have only one colleague that I know of who drives the Octavia (or any Skoda for that matter) and he went budget because he doesn't really care about cars.

[Diango]

Sorry for the off-topic, but say what? Please expand... Was that a factory option? Haven't heard of it anywhere.

 

The full option Skoda Octavia has a DVD player with 5.1 surround, but the screen disables video while driving (which makes sense, due to safety) so I requested if he could add extra screens in the back for my kids to watch. He was unable to do so BUT he could add an aftermarket setup where the screens are integrated in the sport seats. The player is hidden under the passenger seat.

 

This will end up looking like this, these are also the seats I ordered:

 

 

The block heater was also aftermarket, it comes with remote control and timer so no more de-icing for me during wintertime :-).

 

Basically I added just about anything I could find, factory option or not. I also took the electric cooler, 230v socket, protective foil on the rear bumper and I will have my right outside mirror software-adjusted to automatically tilt downwards when engaging reverse gear. This is normally standard with electric seats but I have sport seats, so...

 

I also wanted to get it chip tuned but seeing as the undercarriage already seems to have a hard time keeping 150 horsepower down in fast corners, I'm not going to bother with that anymore.

 

I don't know about the HK system in the newer BMWs but I had it on my e46 330 coupe as was completely underwhelmed by it and ended upgrading everything with an infinity amp and rainbow speakers which sounded beautiful. I'm quite pleased with the canton system, its not stunning but for the price point of the car I think it sounds quite competent.

 

The earlier BMW's had a little too much steel boxing for my liking, my E34 back in the days had the same problem. Very hard if not impossible to get any decent sound out of a steel cage like that. I still have about 1800 euro's left in my lease budget to spend on further upgrading the Canton sound system so I'm sure we'll be able to work out something.

Edited 1 July, 2014 by Diango

[TudorM]

Hmm, those seats look amazing. But I kind of figured it must be an aftermarket system. Still, it looks like really good job, whoever did those. If you could spare some more detail on those, that'd be great. Maybe open up a new topic so we don't hijack this one. I bet a lot of people would be interested to know more (specs, price etc).

[Diango]

Price is 2350 euros, all inclusive. Don't know anything else about them, they are just listed as 'dvd system in back seats' on the dealer quote. It's a bit pricy but as I said there was ample budget and not so many things to spend it on since the car was already fully kitted out.

[harrysprout]

Well I am disappointed with mine, After 2500K it does not seem to have improved at all. Not at all convinced it sounds as good as my old Stream in the MK II,  The bass is woolly and vague, subwoofer is frankly useless in the back of an estate car of this size. Listening to it in isolation with the tailgate open it sounds VERY muddy, lacking punch.

 

The door speakers are not as good as the units in the MK II either, they could handle the bass much better and did not lose detail like these do. 

 

God knows what the standard system sounds like, but my guess is that it's a damn site worse than the kit in the MK II.

[damianpeterson]

I listen to music on my phone via blue tooth and have found it best to set the car blue tooth option to normal rather than loud and the volume on the phone up to full. Also, default equaliser settings on the Canton. Made a world of difference.