Hi everybody, first time here. I've done alot of reading on these forums over the past few weeks having become the proud new owner of a Skoda Octavia Estate L&K 2.0 Diesel- it's great!

 

My last car was written off, and although I am very happy with the new car, there is one thing I simply can't get used to- the sound system is driving me nuts.

 

I have tried changing the EQ (although Mid doesn't actually seem to do much!) and fade/balance as people on here suggest in other threads but it is simply terrible. It hurts my ears. With my previous car, quiet motorway cruising with music on was a great pleasure- with the new car, the driving is fine, but the music hurts my ears :-(

 

The problem is that I don't have the money to stretch to a Columbus, and I think the Nexus/MFD2 looks pretty terrible. (too much screen doing too little!)

 

My wishlist is; Music from USB/Aux in/SD, and bluetooth for calls. The music must sound decent.

 

I can probably spend up to £250, but certainly no more than £300. What are my options!? I don't mind aftermarket or some tinkering...

the problem is the speakers, not the stereo. in the MK2 Octavia they are not best positioned. Do you have two or three speakers in each front door. If you have three then you have the upgraded sound system which makes switching the headunit very difficult without total rewiring of the speakers bypassing the factory amp.

Hmmm... I slightly wonder if there is a fault with your current sound system? When you say it hurts your ears, how so? Is it too shrill? I'm guessing the sound system has a separate subwoofer, perhaps this could have failed, and getting this repaired could fix the problem?

 

What age car have you bought? I was pleasantly surprised by the audio quality in my 2005 Elegance spec. Octavia, and I say this as a bit of an audiophile (my HiFi is worth considerably more than my car...)

Edited 2 January, 201412 yr by Ultrasonic

What head unit does your car have? I am very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the bolero in my scout. But it was shocking in my mk1 vrs!!

It is an 08 and it has a Stream MP3 stereo. It sounds equally bad from Aux cable or CD.

 

The speakers are standard two-way I think. If you cover up the tweeters with your hand it becomes bearable. They are next to the door levers.

 

As you thought, Ultrasonic, It is particularly shrill. I am not a full blown audiophile but do like and build speakers/amplifiers, and I like both deep bass and crisp treble in equal amounts, and I don't have it hugely loud, but as soon as I turn this stereo up above background, the upper mid/lower treble is just extremely painful on the ears.

 

I sat my composer friend in it today, who agreed that it did sound pants- he has an Octavia 1, which he thinks sounds much better with stock stereo. (He also seems to get better MPG than me, rather frustratingly).

I just had a nose at the online workshop manual (here) and there isn't a separate sub. There are though two separate drive unit in the doors, the upper one near the wing mirror controls and the bigger one lower down. I'm sure you have if you build speakers/amps, but have you checked that all of the bass/midrange drivers are working? I've never been in a 2008 Octavia to hear the sound system, but although it might not sound great I'm still tempted to think that if it is actually painfully bad then there may be a fault.

 

If there isn't a fault, I wonder if your speaker building skills might allow you to modify the crossover to give you a better balance?

 

Your mate getting better mpg in a Mk I may in part be due to the lack of a DPF, as well as a potentially different driving style of course.

 

(I'm not a 'proper' audiophile either, I'd like to think I have more sense!)

as above, the front speakers are in the wrong place for good sound stage, the mk1 has the front speakers in the front corner where the bottle holder is in the mk2 so it will sound better and they seem to have corrected the speaker location in the new mk3

 

things are not helped by the stream stereo as it is also a bit weak

Having had a my 07 VRS with the Nexus as std and the normal Speaker System (two way each door), I can confirm that the newer HU are sounding much better than the old ones.
I changed from Nexus to MFD² with DVD what already made an improvement of Sound. After that I changed to a RNS510 (VW Columbus equivalent) and that bettered the Sound even more.
What you could consider is altering the tweeters in the doors with capacitors.
There is a thread on this modification. I did this too and it made the tweeters bearable (or even sounding nice). I also had the Problem with getting a headache with the original (non tweaked) tweeters and the Nexus.

I will try to search for that thread.

Read from #41 on and #116, #128:

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/107056-octavia-ii-poor-sounding-stereo-fix/?hl=resistor

For a HU I would consider the newer DAB versions RCD 310 or 510. dont know what the prices are though.

magic62, thank you so much! That thread makes a fascinating read! Do you mean capacitors, not resistors, or did I miss the point?

 

Ordered some MKP 3.3uF capacitors and will dynamat the doors as a starting point.

 

In an ideal world I would like a Columbus but they are just so expensive, and I'd rather save for skiing in Japan....!

I have L&K too and I think the stereo sounds pretty good.

 

I took off some highs (because of the high tweeter position they make listening boring...) like -2 and mids -1 this also help to improve bass without boosting. Of course I did this listening to one of my favs album that I really know well.

 

This of course may change and it's personal, also depends on the kind of music you listen to (ie hiphop may require lot of more bass).

 

I don't use the balance because I want my car to sound like a "normal" car (I'm a sound engineer and I use car as a good check point for my mixes, I'm not really a high volume guy and also don't care about car audio since car is simply not the place where you want to listen to good music... personal opinion).

 

My dad just bought Mk3 and have to admit it sounds WAY better.

Edited 3 January, 201412 yr by Sino

Sorry clong, meant capacitors. As the thread says

 

One thing to the RCD HU, to be safe you might have to change the gateway in your car. Otherwise it could drain the battery. But I am not sure, is already a bit ago that I had my VRS.