skoda surround Skoda Surround problem...

[dragonic99]

Hi guys,

 

I am the happy owner of a 2017 Skoda Fabia. I have a reasonable set of equipment and customised my ride inside and out and one thing that is very important to me is sound. So I ordered the Bolero system with Skoda Surround and its six speakers.

 

I loaded music from an SD card and the sound feels already great especially for its class. Then I dug into the menus to try out the surround system I read so much about. 

 

This is when I encountered my "problem":  Turning on the Skoda Surround and virtual subwoofers I can hear absolutely NO difference to the sound! Is there something I am doing wrong?

 

I live in Mauritius and we have a pretty small dealer here (Skoda only recently established here, and I currently own the only Gen III Fabia of the island LOL) so they don't have any technical guys for now. They are in contact with Skoda and are waiting for a reply.

 

Any ideas in the meantime?

 

Thanks so much!

 

 

[GeneralPurpose]

dragonic99, Welcome to the site. 

 

I too have the same system as you in my 2017 Fabia. Are you sure you have actually turned on the Surround Sound and Subwoofer system? Have you checked the speaker setup/balance within the car? You may need to play with the Treble, Midsound, and Bass settings too. Remember the surround sound and subwoofer doesn't work with just the radio on.

[dragonic99]

 

2 hours ago, Estate Man said:

dragonic99, Welcome to the site. 

 

I too have the same system as you in my 2017 Fabia. Are you sure you have actually turned on the Surround Sound and Subwoofer system? Have you checked the speaker setup/balance within the car? You may need to play with the Treble, Midsound, and Bass settings too. Remember the surround sound and subwoofer doesn't work with just the radio on.

 

Hi Estate Man,

 

Thanks for your reply! 

 

I tested the Skoda Surround using the SD Card and Bluetooth, not the radio. 

 

When I turn on the Surround and subwoofer, nothing seems to happen. I do have access to the fader/balance and equaliser though (both working fine)... which brings a question: "What exactly does Skoda Surround actually do?"

 

Am I even supposed to hear an immediate difference as soon as I turn it on? Or are the effects more subtle?

 

I am really confused...

 

Thanks!

[RickW]

I have surround sound on my Fabia and there is a noticeable difference when I switch from normal to surround.

Some music is better with and some better without.

Suggest you get a couple of friends to listen as well to verify if it's working or not.

Surround sounds like you are in a bigger space if that makes sense?

[dragonic99]

7 hours ago, RickW said:

I have surround sound on my Fabia and there is a noticeable difference when I switch from normal to surround.

Some music is better with and some better without.

Suggest you get a couple of friends to listen as well to verify if it's working or not.

Surround sounds like you are in a bigger space if that makes sense?

Yes that's what I thought it should do, which means there DOES seem to be an issue in my car :-/ I am not an expert or anything but I am pretty sure I got reasonably good ears when it comes to music and checking the two "Skoda surround" and " Virtual Subwoofer" boxes makes absolutely no difference whatsoever... I tried Rock, Pop, and unplugged sessions etc... still nothing :-(

 

Like I said in my original post the sound already seems to be great and it does feel like the Surround is constantly switched on, but I wouldn't know since I can't compare "before-after". Frustating it is and getting me a bit worried...

 

I will try your suggestion to make some friends have a listen, front and back, switched on and off and report back.

 

 

Thanks a ton!!

[GeneralPurpose]

HI dragonic99, how high do you have the volume during your tests. Surround and the subwoofer thingy works best at higher volume settings. And you may well have to setup the treble, bass and midsound as well as the front, back, side fader/distributor to get the best out of it. I don't hear any real change with mine switched off and then switched on again with some music tracks, especially if the volume is not in the higher range. The quality of your recordings also makes a big difference. If you are using MP3 tracks, they don't have all the sound information recorded into the track for a quality system to play it back so you only get a reasonable reproduction which can lack some of the nice tinging sounds. Use high bit rate for best results of 160k to 192k for best results when recording. It does make a difference to how your surround will work.

 

I'd be very surprised indeed if you have a problem with your system. 

Edited 6 August, 2017 by Estate Man

[dragonic99]

1 hour ago, Estate Man said:

HI dragonic99, how high do you have the volume during your tests. Surround and the subwoofer thingy works best at higher volume settings. And you may well have to setup the treble, bass and midsound as well as the front, back, side fader/distributor to get the best out of it. I don't hear any real change with mine switched off and then switched on again with some music tracks, especially if the volume is not in the higher range. The quality of your recordings also makes a big difference. If you are using MP3 tracks, they don't have all the sound information recorded into the track for a quality system to play it back so you only get a reasonable reproduction which can lack some of the nice tinging sounds. Use high bit rate for best results of 160k to 192k for best results when recording. It does make a difference to how your surround will work.

 

Hi again Estate Man!

 

I usually listen loud but not too loud. Most of my rips are at least 192k or even 320 I think so they should be good enough.

 

Will play with it some more during the week and let you guys know :-)

 

will definitely try to crank up the volume more and try to see what happens!

 

 

cheers and thanks

 

 

[dragonic99]

Hi guys,

 

Still nothing... :-/  tried to have people listen and they don't think there is any difference. Pushing the volume up it sounds excellent, but ticking the boxes on and off doesn't seem to change anything. Like I said it feels like the surround is always on but there is no way I can check if it won't let me compare... Really really weird stuff... and I am still waiting for a reply from Skoda.

 

thanks

[RickW]

I think it's broken,don't waste any more time..

Time to make a claim under warranty.

[GeneralPurpose]

Ok, so if it's broken, it will be a problem with the software.  Not a hardware problem. As Rick says, best get it looked at. Good luck and let us all know how it pans out.

[dragonic99]

Thanks guys It's been only two weeks since I got that car LOL WTH!!! Anyway I guess luck isn't with me right now. Will let my dealer take care of it and see what happens in the next few weeks.

 

I also believe this looks like a software issue. Crossing fingers...

 

Cheers

[fum]

Any updates? 

[RickW]

We'd love to know the outcome

[dragonic99]

Hi guys! Sorry for silence!

 

nopes not yet! Since the Skoda Surround system is software based and my speakers are in perfect shape we arrived to the conclusion that it should be a glitch and software issue.

 

We will run down the diagnostics tool and update it next time I bring the car, in other words, next month probably (hopefully) when my body kit arrives (Yay yay yay).

 

In the meantime I am enjoying the original sound quality pretty much anyway and staying positive!

[dragonic99]

hi guys,

 

It’s been a while and we have finally solved the issue ^__^

 

Skoda Surround  and virtual subwoofer now correctly switch on and off with noticeable difference to the sound!

 

As expected It was simply a firmware bug that was resolved by updating the software.

 

Thanks a lot for all your help!

 

cheers!

 

[RickW]

Glad it's resolved,thanks for the update.