Canton sound system - is mine faulty?

[FabFabFabia]

I'm finding the  Canton sound to be dominant in the higher midrange area with a harsh, excessive treble accompanied by slight top end overload/distorion. I've knocked the midrange EQ down a bit but it's still there. The Surround feature only accentuates these harsh frequencies so I've set this to -9 (stereo) and my subwoofer is on +9. And when I move the fader all the way to the rear speakers they sound really nasty (harsh, middly, no fullness at all). For such an expensive add-on there should be more control over user EQ frequencies and speaker balance.

 

Is anyone else underwhelmed with the Canton or could I have a faulty install?

 

And the centre dashboard speaker is too forceful and closes in the stereo imaging - is there any way to shut it off?

[smallslam]

I don't know - I don't have my car yet.  Is this with Columbus or Amundsen?

 

It may not be - I have seen some other criticism the sound is too bright and harsh.

 

I heard the Canton with Columbus before buying, although I couldn't turn it up very loud.  It sounded pretty good for a car Hi-Fi.  I have seen people used to premium sound systems in premium cars quite critical of it but it was clearly better than the Sony system in my current car. 

 

However, the Amundsen probably has a different DAC and amplifier and they may well be lower quality.  I would really have liked to hear that before buying, but couldn't. Possible improvements in sound quality nearly tempted me to buy an Edition, but I didn't really want leather seats or a glass roof or 19 inch wheels.  £1250 to upgrade Infotainment is very steep and I couldn't bring myself to pay that much, although I would have considered it if I had been sure it would sound a lot better.

 

I think someone else posted here earlier that he or she was pleased with the Canton in the SEL, but there are negative comments too.

 

The other question is which source you are using.  DAB radio is supposed to be significantly poorer quality than CD/SD Card/USB (and probably phone via Bluetooth or Carplay/Android Auto).

 

I'm hoping I will be happy with the sound when my SEL/Amundsen/Canton turns up, but I am bracing myself for disappointment ;-(  Hopefully if so, the rest of the car will mostly make up for it.  I have at least a month to wait.

[Gabi4]

I have Canton, but I haven't tried to change any setting. If you can tell me how can I increase the bass, I would be greateful.

Mine doesn't have any strange noise.

I can try to make the same setting as you did and see what happens, although I might not have such a good ear for music to recognize subtile sounds.

[FabFabFabia]

1 hour ago, Gabi4 said:

I have Canton, but I haven't tried to change any setting. If you can tell me how can I increase the bass, I would be greateful.

Mine doesn't have any strange noise.

I can try to make the same setting as you did and see what happens, although I might not have such a good ear for music to recognize subtile sounds.

Thanks, I'll take a detailed note of my settings and get back to you tomorrow so we can compare notes :-)

[Marchincus]

I thought it was a bit thin at first but now I have set my individual mode and boosted the bass and sub woofer to 9 whilst mid range to 7 and treble to 6.  I have also set the surround sound on and I think it now sounds really good with pop and rock.  I tried classical as well and reduced the bass slightly and that was good as well.  I didn't really like the presets apart from spoken.  I was worried at first but think with these settings it is really quite good.

[TheRoq]

The standard Columbus sound is very good in case anyone is considering the Canton upgrade.

My friend has a 5 series and the first thing he said when I showed him my Karoq was how good the music sounded.

[FabFabFabia]

21 hours ago, Gabi4 said:

I have Canton, but I haven't tried to change any setting. If you can tell me how can I increase the bass, I would be greateful.

Mine doesn't have any strange noise.

I can try to make the same setting as you did and see what happens, although I might not have such a good ear for music to recognize subtile sounds.

This morning I spent a good hour experimenting with the Canton settings in an effort to reduce the harshness and increase the low bass.

 

My conclusion is that most of the hardness comes from the Speaker Focus Settings being set to All or Front. Instead, I set this setting to Driver and the sound immediately improved and I could finally hear the subwoofer. Here's my exact settings:-

 

Fader Balance - From the centre position tap the Down Arrow twice to put a little sound in the rear speakers to fill the cabin a little more.

Equaliser - Treble +6, Midrange -1, Bass +2

Subwoofer - Max (+9)

Surround Sound - Minimum -9 (very important as having this on adds echoes and lots of upper-midrange harshness to the rears).

 

I've found that this is the only setting that gives me tons of deep bass from the subwoofer, an open clear midrange, and not overstated harsh upper mids/treble (and with this setting I can hear the treble EQ slider making a difference to the sound, unlike with the "All" and "Front" focus settings).

 

Now, to make this system sound even better, and to increase the stereo width, we need to turn off the centre dashboard speaker - does anyone have any ideas?

[Gabi4]

I tried your settings. Now I can hear the subwoofer. I thought that it's missing ;))

Thanks for that!

The bass, treble and midrange can be set in the individual profile.

[El Dingo]

My experience is that both treble and mid range need to be turned down and the subwoofer up.  And Surround off.

The new Canton is very, very 'bright' and artificial, even more so than the Canton in our Superb.  The sound reminds me of when high end Japanese amplifiers first appeared in the UK.  The Japanese do seem to like their sound overly bright.

[MarcusKaroq]

See I haven’t got the canton but I set the focus for the middle of the car, just before the rear seats and makes the bass more prominent in the standard set up. 

 

All about opinion I guess lol. 

[FabFabFabia]

Further to my post earlier in this thread, I have been making some more tweaks to the Canton Sound and it now sounds more listenable. I agree with El Dingo that the sound is generally brittle, distorting (upper mid overload or poor crossovers) and not as it should be. Until Skoda do a software fix, or even provide the user with parametric or multiband equaliser controls, this is the best I can get it to sound:-

 

Fader Balance - dead centre (plenty in the rears, but the rears do sound filtered and unnatural so this is quite enough).

Equaliser - Treble +1 (one notch from all the way to the left) / Midrange 3 or 4 notches from the left / Bass: Centre

Subwoofer: +9 (full)

Speaker Focus Setting: Front

Surround Level: -9 (all the way to the left).

 

Interestingly, I'm also running my iPod via Bluetooth instead of a USB cable as the music sounds slightly less harsh this way. Or maybe the slight compressor/limiting this method adds to the sound doesn't accentuate the midrange honkiness of the speakers. Annoyingly, though, it won't let me skip ahead within a track using Bluetooth. The car's Bluetooth audio level is set at Medium and my iPod is turned up full.

 

Having the 3 Canton EQ sliders all set at the default centre position gives a shockingly bad sound - I'd be interested to learn if this Karoq setup is exactly to Canton's specifications or, as I fear, way off the mark.

 

I also shoved a sweater over the centre dashboard speaker and the stereo imaging and harsh soundfield was much improved. Come on Skoda - please give us the option to shut this centre speaker off!

Edited 25 June, 2018 by FabFabFabia

[Eldred180]

FabFabFabia, what sort of music file do you have on your iPod, mp3? Have you tried either WAV or FLAC files from the USB or SD card inputs? MP3's are pretty low grade, as to be honest is DAB. Just wondering, that's all, cos you won't make a racehorse out of a donkey. Also, though I imagine you've done this by now, all "hifi" requires a certain burn-in time to loosen up the electronics and speakers. I would expect any brightness to mellow with time. Could the fact that your iPod is turned up full be adding distortion? Perhaps try turning down the iPod and adjusting the volume on the system might help.

 

I'm not speaking from experience yet regarding the Canton's. I have them specified in my Karoq, but I've still got a fair bit of waiting to do before I get mine. If I ever get mine!

[FabFabFabia]

44 minutes ago, Eldred180 said:

FabFabFabia, what sort of music file do you have on your iPod, mp3? Have you tried either WAV or FLAC files from the USB or SD card inputs? MP3's are pretty low grade, as to be honest is DAB. Just wondering, that's all, cos you won't make a racehorse out of a donkey. Also, though I imagine you've done this by now, all "hifi" requires a certain burn-in time to loosen up the electronics and speakers. I would expect any brightness to mellow with time. Could the fact that your iPod is turned up full be adding distortion? Perhaps try turning down the iPod and adjusting the volume on the system might help.

 

I'm not speaking from experience yet regarding the Canton's. I have them specified in my Karoq, but I've still got a fair bit of waiting to do before I get mine. If I ever get mine!

My iPod music files are all AAC. On my last car (2012 Fabia) I had distortion so I replaced the stock door speakers and tweeters with AV Voce (£350), an Alpine subwoofer (£100) and a Hertz amp (£100), and every song, be it iPod or DAB, sounded smooth and clear from day one with no peaky resonances or distortion. I paid the £550 for Canton because I assumed the sound would be as good but, so far, it is not. I'll give the system time to bed in as I am reticent to swap out the speakers and electronics as the car is rattle-free and this is how I want it to stay. Turning down the iPod, or playing a CD has no effect on the slight, inherent distortion which I can hear in the upper registers together with slight sibilance even with the treble turned all the way off.

Edited 26 June, 2018 by FabFabFabia

[FabFabFabia]

Does anyone know of a way to effectively cover up the dashboard speaker to deaden its sound as it definitely impairs the stereo image and sounds middly and harsh. Can the speaker be disconnected or diabled without too much of a fuss? I've emailed Canton expressing my dissatisfaction about the Karoq Canton sound so I will let you know what they say.

[Gabi4]

I'm expecting that there is a jack connected to the HU.

Great that you contacted Canton. I'm interested on their answer.

[Panther_uk]

I've only ever had the standard sound systems in my Skoda's but have always found them extremely good, my son is a musician and even he thinks they sound good and only found the need to add an additional Sub in his mk3 Fabia.

 

I am now starting to wonder if the canton systems are worth the extra !

[Gabi4]

The standard system did not impress me. The system on my ex Kia was far better, event better than Canton...

[FabFabFabia]

I had a brief, unhelpful reply from my long email to Canton. Maybe if more dissatisfied owners emailed him he might investigate it with Skoda to get them to issue a software/firmware fix to remove the distortion, enable more user EQ controls, and enable the front dashboard speaker to be disabled.

 

Hello,

Please contact directely SKODA. We only deliver the speaker-parts, everything else (Sound performance,
electronics) is managed by the SKODA-Sound-Team.

Kind regards

Juergen Roeder

juergen.roeder (at) canton.de
Customer Service
Canton Elektronik GmbH + Co. KG
Neugasse 21-23 |
61276 Weilrod | Germany
Phone: +49 (0)6083 287-57 | Fax: +49 (0)6083 287-50
canton.de

Edited 28 June, 2018 by FabFabFabia

[FabFabFabia]

I tried covering up the centre dashboard speaker but it still didn't rid the system of the high-end distortion on Radio or iPod. Even with the treble at virtually zero. Is anyone else hearing this or is it just me? For £550 I expected sonic clarity. Is it the Canton speakers, the crossovers, the tweeters, or what? I hear the distortion/overload in both the door and A-pillar tweeters. And my guess is the dealer would say "it sounds fine to me" if I took it to him.

[El Dingo]

If you have significant distortion I think that a dealer visit is in order.

Our car doesn't have mmuch distortion as such, just over-bright, harsh sound.

The dealer will also hopefully have a Karoq demonstator with Canton that you can compare with.

I'd say that it must be another Karoq, as, for example, the Canton system in the Superb sounds quite different.

[FabFabFabia]

Maybe my ears are sensitive but I definitely hear a sibilant frequency peak that really grates on my ears even with the treble control all the way off. The preset with the least distortion is the Classic setting but then the EQ is redundant so the overall sound is a bit bright. I wrote back to the guy at Canton but he didn't reply. I'm not an electronics expert but it sounds like the crossovers (if present at all) are not set right at the amp so hopefully Skoda will be able to rectify this with a software update. As well as enabling shutting off of the dashboard speaker which does nothing to the sound apart from add honky mids and narrowing the stereo image.

Edited 4 July, 2018 by FabFabFabia

[FabFabFabia]

Update - I placed a heavy rubber mousemat over the centre top-dashboard speaker grill and covered this with a cut-to-fit piece of rubber-backed black carpet. Now the sound is less harsh and has better stereo separation. I also set the sound preset to Classical as this has much less distortion than the other settings (including Individual). Subwoofer on max, Fader on default. Much better.

[kinega]

I'm very underwhelmed with the Canton as well. I had it in my Octavia and was really pleased with that. The Karoq is just a bit harsh.

[Bejam]

The Canton in my 2019 Superb 272 is utter sh1te. 
 

One of these days, I’ll get around to replacing the mid/upper drivers. I haven’t figured out if the “Canton” labelled drivers are handling all of the high end. A brief covering of the stock tweeters doesn’t seem to have any effect, leading me to think they’re not used in the Canton system. 
 

Anyone know for sure?
 

Ben.

Edited 2 September, 2020 by Bejam

[El Dingo]

On 12/06/2018 at 14:06, FabFabFabia said:

 

 

Edited 7 September, 2020 by El Dingo