Hi, had car from new but wife now believes radio reception is worse than ever, she is after a unit similar to what is in my mk11 octavia , bolero ? because it sounds and looks " so much better and newer " so can this be done or any tips on improving reception on the original older unit, to be honest cd sound quality is still very good and totally adequate, she would like to connect to iPhone etc but I may be able to steer her away from that ' what '..."

Edited 13 August, 20169 yr by davidwhite

Hi David, 

 

 

I had a similar issue with mine, although it packed up on one channel before long so I simply replaced it. Being honest, the stock HU isn't all that great - the sound quality is not brilliant (in my experience) and doesn't output all that much power. I replaced mine with a used Kenwood I picked up from eBay for £30 - while it doesn't have BT as standard, it does have an AUX in and the capacity to add 6CD in, which can also be used to add an iPod in. I've gone down the cheapskate route of just chucking a cheap £5 Tesco bluetooth kit into it that plugs into the AUX, allowing me to get calls and audio over Bluetooth. 

 

Personally, I'd advise this over any potential investment in the stock HU, although a signal booster can be bought off eBay for as little as £5, which might solve your issue - although I don't know if this will cause any problems with the HU itself, as I believe the VAG ones have built in signal amplification. 

 

However, if you do upgrade your head unit I'd advise replacing the speakers also - the stock ones are not particularly good.

 

Jordan