Canton Sub Woofer - Disappointing

[LanceyBoy]

Anyone finding the sub a bit under whelming?

I have just picked up a new VRS TSI and specified the Canton system as I had the Seat Sound System in my Mk III Leon which was built into the spare wheel.  With the sub cranked up the car seemed to vibrate and the rear view mirror seemed to shake or distort your vision when using it.  Not so with the Canton. :( :( :(  

 

I have tweaked from -9 to +9 with no noticeable difference.  I even popped on some tunes with lots of base and my wife couldn't notice any difference either.

My wife has just checked it and there is vibration coming from it, although I haven't felt how much myself, so it appears to be working.

 

Is this just a sub standard system, not wired correctly or is it normal.

 

A little disappointed I have to say . . . .

[mannyo]

What is your audio source?

 

You may just be used to over saturated bass which is typical of some systems. Many have found the source of the music is usually key, and if using MP3 you need to rip or use decent bitrate files. Some have found that the sound improves over time, whilst others have replaced the sub.

[LanceyBoy]

Source is decent quality MP3 from an SD card and a portable drive.  Most files are ripped at a decent bit-rate of between 192 - 320 kbps. I was just expecting the sub to have a bit more base.

It's not the end of the world, as sound of the system is OK, but for £500 perhaps I was expecting too much?  I didn't audition the standard system as I was so pleased with what I had in the Leon I assumed I'd get similar.

 

Fingers crossed it matures and improves like the rest of us

[silver1011]

With the sub cranked up the car seemed to vibrate and the rear view mirror seemed to shake or distort your vision when using it.  Not so with the Canton. :( :( :(

 

I'm maybe showing my age but this to me would suggest the Canton is an improvement over the SEAT system 

[Redboy]

Some DAB radio stations sound better and definitely itunes via media seems pretty decent with a reasonable amount of bass.

[wlange]

At the beginning I had a similar impression - where is that bass?

Now, after 10k it's all there - have some patience

[TDIum]

If £500 seems like a lot for Canton you wouldn't want to install anything aftermarket, cos it won't go very far.

[Redboy]

As post #7 says, Canton improves the quality of the basic system. I specced it because I wanted an improvement to the Stream in my old VRS. My wife's Sirion 1.3 SE has a better sounding system than the MkII. Subsequently, I didn't expect Canton to blow me away, merely take it to a reasonable level, which it is. The bugbear is that buyers now pay £500 for audio quality which arguably they should get as standard with a £20K+ car. My only consolation is that I got it for 'only' £400.

Edited 18 May, 2016 by Redboy

[imikk3]

Give it some time, it will be better. I have mine for 2 months and it sounds better and better. Or its just my ears getting used to the bad quality 

[bigjim73]

I've had Canton in my last 3 skodas, VRS, Superb and current Yeti, I've just ordered my new VRS without, IMHO it's not worth the money.

[octavia5]

Another support for giving it time to settle in, all speaker systems improve over the first couple of months of use even top end HiFi ones.  I noticed mine developed much more definition in 3 months of light use and I had to reduce the bass significantly

[VRS_Dan]

I've found that there is two areas where the sub controls are and found it pretty effective.

 

obviously, in the sound settings, you have the controls there but also go to equaliser, change the settings to individual and adjust the bass, middle and treble there too; that should help.

[fabdavrav]

We get the spare wheel sub which sits inside a skinny 19" spare. Very good but I wish it sat inside a standard 17" or 18" alloy rim as the boot floor on high setting can take a full width (225) wheel no problems.

[JohnMorr]

The good thing about the Canton is that it does not give that artificial boom to male voices which so many cars have. It's easy to engineer in a one-note resonance which makes the bass sound impressive but is actually synthetic. The Canton seems to provide deep bass when required but not in an exaggerated fashion. and has that oh-so-important even balance at all frequencies. Plus, the Mk.3 has the door-mounted tweeters properly positioned to fire across the car - on the Mk.2 they were aimed towards the front seats, which totally screwed up the soundstage - when driving I had to have the balance +5 to the left. The Canton (possibly helped by the centre speaker) has got it just right.

In the sound settings menu there is one for Canton - I've left it at that apart from whacking the subwoofer up to 9 - it's not actually a subwoofer, of course, as that ought to cover 20-50Hz and I doubt the Canton actually gets down to 50Hz. But overall a very nice system.

Does anyone know if the Amundsen system has an option to increase the volume automatically as the road speed rises? The system in our Mk.2 did, but I haven't been able to find an option in the Amundsen sound menu.

[wlange]

Does anyone know if the Amundsen system has an option to increase the volume automatically as the road speed rises? The system in our Mk.2 did, but I haven't been able to find an option in the Amundsen sound menu.

 

My Bolero does have it so I bet Amundsen should do same.

Go to "Sound" > "Volume" and there it is 4th or 5th from top

[kenny]

Agree system is disappointing. Both the golf and A3 systems are way better. Yes cost a bit more but no comparison

[lickspeed50]

A bit late to this thread but i had the same dissapointment in the beggining on my 2016 Octavia Hatch (recieved early Feb). i used to complain to people who sit in the car that it wasnt worth the money.

However it has seemed to loosened up and now sounds really good and the same passengers agree it sounds much better now than when i first got the car. Also check the settings menu, there's the equaliser plus an additional Sub volume as well, a bit of tuning should set you straight.

 

Give it a while its worth the money, but you would expect it to be bang on from the factory, they should run it for about 50 hours before installing it in the vehicle

[CFBScout]

I really wanted an Octavia with the Canton but there none available in used stock, hoping the standard system is not too bad?

 

Might put an aftermarket powered sub in if it sounds too thin without, don't want it shaking the car, just a nice deep bass fill.

[FlyingGecko]

I really wanted an Octavia with the Canton but there none available in used stock, hoping the standard system is not too bad?

 

 

 

 

No. it's not TOO bad, just bad enough.

[Osborne]

Have you set the speaker preferences to front or driver? Mine plays plenty of bass but unless you set the preferences you can't really hear it at all...

[wlange]

For 400,- you would find nothing better than Canton I bet.

IMO it does sound quite balanced, especially if you let it settle / play it long enough. That is unless you need a massive booom at 20Hz, because that's a no go...