The current basic system is fine but not brilliant. Anyone upgraded to a new speaker/amp combo? Or even just speakers?

To state the obvious, you are never going to get perfect listening in a car.

Higher spec models do come with the option for better in car sound. That is the best route to go to preserve the factory finish. Do check the car has the wiring to support this though.

If you go aftermarket then make sure you find somebody who understands the impact on the whole CANBUS of making any changes.

Maybe there is a bigger gain to be had from improving the soundproofing / stopping panel resonance?

+1 for sound proofing. The three things to do with cheaper VW cars is to a) add a sub b) swap out the front door speakers and c) add soundproofing everywhere!

Yes all noted, thanks. In terms of bang for your buck, any recommendations on specific gear I should consider? I’m thinking of spending around £500 say? Wasn’t really considering a sub as I’m not into massive bass, just want a bit more crispness and clarity. Last time I did an upgrade on audio it was on an MX5 about a hundred years ago so to say I’m out of touch would be a massive understatement, so all suggestions extremely welcome.

What infotainment do you have?

Standard Scala SE system, can’t remember the name off the top of my head.

It'll make a difference to what folks might be able to recommend.

Bolero!

Then your replacement speakers need to be capable of handling 20W into 8ohms. Assuming this is what you seek to do. I'd still look at damping the resonances and improving sound deadening first.

How easy is it to get to them?

You'll have figured out the positions so it's a case or removing the relevant trims. This is best done with a special trim tool, you may need more than one. Changing the speakers may well require removing more than the trim and you may find that some are mounted in such a way as to require a bit of disassembly. I have to warn you that there is a downside, if you are not very careful then you may introduce a rattle from the trim when you re-install it. Pay careful attention and take pictures as you go so everything goes back exactly as it came out. There is a version of the workshop manual (or at least a link to same) on this site which may be helpful.

Also remember these are electrical items so you need to be certain that the connections are secure and that they don't accidentally ground out. I'm thinking deeper speakers here which may fit but may move the contacts close to a door skin or body panel.

Okay, thanks for the advice. I;ll have a look at the manual when I get a mo. Cheers

Hi,

In Skoda cars, the standard speaker systems generally have an incorrectly selected high-pass filter (capacitor) in the tweeters. Instead of 3.3uF, they use 6.8, or worse, 10uF. According to the impedance formula (see https://calculator.academy/tweeter-capacitor-calculator/), this causes frequencies as low as 6 or 4 kHz to be transmitted to the tweeter. This frequency in the tweeter causes it to dominate the sound, and adjusting the frequency equalizer in the head unit doesn't help (or doesn't help much).

Replacing all the speakers in the car with a different set also means that the set has better-selected bandpass filters and therefore sounds better. The factory speakers aren't bad, they just have incorrectly configured filters.

Interestingly, in the VW cars I verified, such large capacitors were never installed in the tweeters (causing the passage of too low frequencies that should be generated in the woofer).

43 minutes ago, noogi said:

Hi,

In Skoda cars, the standard speaker systems generally have an incorrectly selected high-pass filter (capacitor) in the tweeters. Instead of 3.3uF, they use 6.8, or worse, 10uF. According to the impedance formula (see https://calculator.academy/tweeter-capacitor-calculator/), this causes frequencies as low as 6 or 4 kHz to be transmitted to the tweeter. This frequency in the tweeter causes it to dominate the sound, and adjusting the frequency equalizer in the head unit doesn't help (or doesn't help much).

Replacing all the speakers in the car with a different set also means that the set has better-selected bandpass filters and therefore sounds better. The factory speakers aren't bad, they just have incorrectly configured filters.

Interestingly, in the VW cars I verified, such large capacitors were never installed in the tweeters (causing the passage of too low frequencies that should be generated in the woofer).

4khz is an extremely high frequency, I wouldn’t expect this to be handled by the woofer? Many people above 40 probably can’t even hear that high!

300 Hz to 3400 Hz is the typical vocal frequency range. A healthy person can hear frequencies up to 16 kHz, so 4 kHz is the midrange to which our ears are most sensitive – and this should definitely not be the tweeter's, which is more efficient at these frequencies, so it plays louder, preventing us from hearing the bass properly and producing distorted sound.

The OP has a basic speaker set up I think. It may be as little as 4 speakers

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