Was getting a bit fed up with the lack of bass from the factory fitted speakers, I suppose I was spoiled by the Laguna I had once where the door speakers were very good (but that was the only good thing about that heap of ****). So I wondered what anyone could suggest as replacements, ideally I don't want to cut any metal or plastic so would have to have the same mounting holes, etc.

Any ideas?

SR

Do you want to replace both the tweeter and paper cone "bass" driver in the door?

If you are keeping the standard HU then something like these would be fine.

http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product.asp?product=20304

If you are upgrading the HU later then perhaps something similar to these.

http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product.asp?product=20195.

Have you disconnected the rear tweeters yet. It's really worth disconnecting them as they play straight into your ear and they are very poor. Then simply replace the rears with some aftermarket coaxials like these.

http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product.asp?product=19519

Don't buy any speakers for the bottom of the front doors or the rears that have tweeters that stick out to far as you will have clearance problems.

The front doors also have poor clearance for the speaker magnet so watch what you buy.

Cheers

Lee

This is a real FAQ, but the answers often focus on different speaker brands instead of the real problem. The poor sound is only partly due to the cheap (made in Tunisia) elements. Great improvement can be achieved by fixing the speaker mountings. There are two things to do.

1. Eliminate the drum effect of the door sealing membrane.

2. Seal the speaker mounting frame so that the acoustic short circuit is removed.

Here is how to.

First you need to remove the drum effect from the sealing membrane. In a stock Octavia the membrane vibrates with music and effectively cancels most of the bass any element would produce.

The easy solution is to cut a star shaped hole in the membrane. This allows the speaker to breathe into the door and the vibration is history. If the car is always parked on level ground there is no problem with water. My parking place at home is slightly sideways tilted, so I needed a more sophisticated solution.

I removed the door card as described here:

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/showthread.php?t=14212&highlight=WINDOW

Then I removed the speaker mounting frame. Cut off all sealing membrane from the speaker area and built new sealing from duct tape. I made the tape a bit baggy (no vibration) from bottom to almost half way up. For the upper part I taped a kind of an eave that keeps water out of the car even when it is tilted. The outer part of the eave needs to be double taped because otherwise the sicky side of the tape would stick to the window when it is down.

Second thing is to get rid of the air leak beside the speaker. The speaker element is sealed on the mounting frame but the frame is not sealed in any way. Air from behind the element can freely flow into the car from the gap just on the rear sidie of the element. Here is how I fixed this.

With the door card removed and the speaker mounting frame in place I used double sided tape (the white thick stuff) around the mountig frame face that faces the door card. Then I installed the door card and pressed it firmly against the tape. I secured the sealig with 4 or 5 small screws right through the door card. These screws are all left behind the speaker grill so the only change will be audible. Nothing visible.

Finally I stuffed the speaker well with polyester pillow filling.

Without the modifications described here I really see no point spending money on replacement speakers. The original mountings are really such a disaster that no speaker can produce decent sound in there.

I finalized my installation with Focal 165 V2 slim components. These fit even without any modifications.

I compared my setup in three phases.

1. All stock

2. Stock speakers and modified mountings

3. Focal elements in modified mountings

Change from 1 to 2 means HUGE difference. Change from 2 to 3 means nice improvement.

The focal crossovers do fit inside the door and they can be inserted through the speaker hole. No need to remove the door card for those.

I know, pics would be nice. One day I just might add them.

Happy taping for everyone!

Vesa

Any chance of some pics? Have tried this solution, but appear to be getting some water in through the door......

How come there would be water running down the inside of the door anyway?