Hello everyone,

I've just bought an Octavia 1.9 SDi and an Alpine CDA 9812RB Stereo to go in it. I'm worried about speaker compatibility, and was hoping someone could give me some advice about which are the best to go for.

On a less hopeful note, is there anything I can do about engine performance in the way of tweaking here or there???? I love the car but I wish it would go a bit more!

The back speakers are just normal 13cm ones and are quite easy to find replacements for.

The front speakers are 17cm but there isn't much mounting depth so you need very shallow ones. You can just unclip the grille and remove the front speakers for a quick look. Best bet is to go to a proper car audio shop and see what fits.

It's well worth replacing them as they are not very good.

Oh , and as for the engine , nope , not a great deal you can do other than drive downhill

Thank for the post. I think I might for the dual coned Pioneer speakers 17cm 130watt and 13cm170watt . I hope that's enough to make my new stereo sound good. Just bought Alpine CDA 9812RB. 240watts

As for the tweaking of the SDi engine, I've seen a figure of 75BHP with a remap. It was a chezch tuning company, though...

I finally kind of fitted the Alpine 9812RB, and it sounded much better so I'm trying to fit some pioneer 17cm speakers into the front doors. BUT!!! the cable connection of the old speaker and the new ones are completely different. Is there any adaptors that I could buy? The old ones look like two black little ISO sockets with metal bits inside, and the new ones that came with my pioneers are two round pluggy in ones (one bigger than the other). HELP!! Oh and also my stereo doesn't switch off when the ignition goes off, and also the radio doesn't work on the headunit...anybody know the problem..??? I'm just so inexperienced with this, sorry if this sounds too simple a questions.

OK , first off power.

You have the permanent and switched 12v wires the wrong way round. Well , actually the car has them the wrong way round but the end result is the same.

You will need to swap them over on the stereo , so check the manual but they are usually the yellow and red wires.

For the speakers , you might find it easier to use these sort of connectors http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=1073&doy=22m8D to join the existing cable to a short length of the cable that comes with the speakers without having to actually cut anything. Some manufacturers do make the correct adaptors (kenwood for example) but I've only seen them with custom fit speakers rather than for sale on their own.

As for the radio , did you buy an aerial amplifier unit or did you just plug it straight into the stereo. Without one you will only get faint FM and no MW reception

Thank you very much for all the information. It's ALL done - I didn't have confidence in my handwork, so got a shop to do it for me and got ripped off!! But stereo and speaker upgrade is a beautiful thing isn't it....)

IMHO it is the one thing that the Octy (I) needed most. The standard ICE is terrible, even the standard junk in the Rover 100 was better (!!).

The standard stuff in the Furby is pretty decent, and I havent bothered fitting an aftermarket ICE in it. I think the one in the Octy II has (finally & deservedly) been updated to a decent setup.

You can always improve on it further of course

I really must book a test drive in the new Octy, find out what it's like properly