Hi there

Just got a 2025 Škoda Superb IV PHEV estate, full extras, love it but the Canton sound system doesn't sound as I expected.

Does it really have a dedicated subwoofer?

What are the best sound settings you guys are using to improve sound quality, in equalization, etc?

Cheers

The default settings are awful and the presets are useless. I am not an audiophile, but I have high quality headphones and speakers and am coming from a Volvo V60 with the Harman/Kardon system so I have an idea of what sounds good. In that car, I followed a guide from someone who is an audiophile and kind of adapted the settings to this Canton system. The settings available here are nearly identical to the ones in the Volvo and with a similar set up it sounds way better than default.

I set the sub to max. Without setting it to max or close to it, the subwoofer has no effect just like the Harman/Kardon. I've set surround to max after listening at different levels and trying it off. I've also adjusted balance to be slightly forward, while leaving the focus on all seats.

This is very subjective, I am by no means saying these are the absolute best settings, but feel free to try it out and tweak to your liking.

Thanks a lot for those tips, I'll try that! Yours is also the phev version? I ask that because I've read it that the subwoofer is smaller and on a different location on the phev.

Cheers

Edited 14 January14 Jan by Badelhas

1 hour ago, Badelhas said:

Thanks a lot for those tips, I'll try that! Yours is also the phev version? I ask that because I've read it that the subwoofer is smaller and on a different location on the phev.

Cheers

It is the PHEV. I haven't heard that the sub is different. I haven't heard the Canon system in a non-PHEV car to test it.

I'm curious to hear what your experience is with these settings

In my diesel saloon the sub-woofer is mounted in the recess in the spare wheel in the boot. Quite happy with the sound I’m getting from it although I don’t think the Canton sound system in the Mk4 is as good as the one that was in my Mk3 saloon. Sub woofer was mounted in a compartment on the left hand side of the boot in the Mk3.

2 hours ago, aloeverga said:

It is the PHEV. I haven't heard that the sub is different. I haven't heard the Canon system in a non-PHEV car to test it.

I'm curious to hear what your experience is with these settings

I´ll try them out and post my results here!

@Badelhas , may I ask what quality of music files you are feeding the system and whether you are doing this through a wired connection or Bluetooth?

Quality matters, especially for the better in-car music systems which can be very picky. Maybe choose a test track. A reference track would be something lossless, say in flac format, where the digital music file is at least as good as CD quality (16-bit / 44.1 kHz). Remember that the flac format is just a container, albeit an honest, lossless container that will faithfully deliver whatever is within it, unlike compressed MP3 type files. It's what you fill it with that helps make the difference.

Next, choose the source track carefully. Not all CDs or digital downloads are created equally. Very often, anything recorded after 2000 suffers from brickwalling during the Loudness Wars period. This means that the sound engineer has maxed out the input volume to the point of saturation. Great for cheap car audio, earpods and Bluetooth speakers but terrible for any quality HiFi equipment which will faithfully attempt to replicate what it is fed. The dynamic range (the difference in volume between the quiet instruments / vocals and the loudest) is very little on these brickwalled recordings and it creates a messy sound that hurts the brain because this is not what our brains naturally hear in real life. Good for the first 60secs wow factor on a tiktok stream but painful thereafter (60secs being what most folk consume now on cheap speakers, so the recording studios demand this approach from their sound engineers because it sells on streaming).

Taylor Swift resists this and her material is consistently well recorded with a high DR (dynamic range). Fleetwood Mac, George Michael, Michael Jackson, later The Jacksons' albums and the Lighthouse Family (yes, I was surprised by that last one too!). Avoid remastered recordings post-2000 from digital downloads stores such as Qobuz or 7Digital. Yes, these promise HQ digital downloads but the remastered versions are often not great. It seems counterintuitive but these are also more likely to have been brickwalled. The originals during the 1980/90s will usually be better.

Don't use Bluetooth wireless. It makes no sense to pay extra for the Canton upgrade and then feed it Bluetooth. Bluetooth will compress the file data meaning that, by the time the Canton system receives it, most of the detail has been stripped out due to file compression.

Same issue with Android Auto. If you store your music on your phone and use an app such as PowerAmp to send the music through Android Auto, AA will almost certainly be downsampling any high quality data it receives.

Same issues with online streaming services. Even those that promise HQ sound through their premium subscriptions will only deliver the best available data stream based upon the bandwidth available on the network, wherever you are. You may be paying for HQ sound but not getting it, just the 'best available'.

If possible, send the music file straight to the car's music systems, do not use AA or ACP, use a wired connection, CD quality lossless files and a high quality source which has been properly recorded by the sound engineer. Rubbish in = Rubbish out.

Hope this helps.

PS. I think the subwoofer on the PHEV is located on the nearside (UK) cubbyhole in the boot. ICE cars have them positioned in the spare wheel well. I suspect the positioning of the subwoofer on the PHEV is slightly suboptimal but I guess the PHEV batteries need somewhere to go!

5 hours ago, Arianne said:

@Badelhas , may I ask what quality of music files you are feeding the system and whether you are doing this through a wired connection or Bluetooth?

Quality matters, especially for the better in-car music systems which can be very picky. Maybe choose a test track. A reference track would be something lossless, say in flac format, where the digital music file is at least as good as CD quality (16-bit / 44.1 kHz). Remember that the flac format is just a container, albeit an honest, lossless container that will faithfully deliver whatever is within it, unlike compressed MP3 type files. It's what you fill it with that helps make the difference.

Next, choose the source track carefully. Not all CDs or digital downloads are created equally. Very often, anything recorded after 2000 suffers from brickwalling during the Loudness Wars period. This means that the sound engineer has maxed out the input volume to the point of saturation. Great for cheap car audio, earpods and Bluetooth speakers but terrible for any quality HiFi equipment which will faithfully attempt to replicate what it is fed. The dynamic range (the difference in volume between the quiet instruments / vocals and the loudest) is very little on these brickwalled recordings and it creates a messy sound that hurts the brain because this is not what our brains naturally hear in real life. Good for the first 60secs wow factor on a tiktok stream but painful thereafter (60secs being what most folk consume now on cheap speakers, so the recording studios demand this approach from their sound engineers because it sells on streaming).

Taylor Swift resists this and her material is consistently well recorded with a high DR (dynamic range). Fleetwood Mac, George Michael, Michael Jackson, later The Jacksons' albums and the Lighthouse Family (yes, I was surprised by that last one too!). Avoid remastered recordings post-2000 from digital downloads stores such as Qobuz or 7Digital. Yes, these promise HQ digital downloads but the remastered versions are often not great. It seems counterintuitive but these are also more likely to have been brickwalled. The originals during the 1980/90s will usually be better.

Don't use Bluetooth wireless. It makes no sense to pay extra for the Canton upgrade and then feed it Bluetooth. Bluetooth will compress the file data meaning that, by the time the Canton system receives it, most of the detail has been stripped out due to file compression.

Same issue with Android Auto. If you store your music on your phone and use an app such as PowerAmp to send the music through Android Auto, AA will almost certainly be downsampling any high quality data it receives.

Same issues with online streaming services. Even those that promise HQ sound through their premium subscriptions will only deliver the best available data stream based upon the bandwidth available on the network, wherever you are. You may be paying for HQ sound but not getting it, just the 'best available'.

If possible, send the music file straight to the car's music systems, do not use AA or ACP, use a wired connection, CD quality lossless files and a high quality source which has been properly recorded by the sound engineer. Rubbish in = Rubbish out.

Hope this helps.

PS. I think the subwoofer on the PHEV is located on the nearside (UK) cubbyhole in the boot. ICE cars have them positioned in the spare wheel well. I suspect the positioning of the subwoofer on the PHEV is slightly suboptimal but I guess the PHEV batteries need somewhere to go!

Thanks, I know all that but I use Tidal through android auto. It's much easier than downloading everything I like to hear, like in the old days. And my car doesn't have a smart card reader, so I don't really know how I could feed it with flac files...

On 14/01/2026 at 14:30, aloeverga said:

It is the PHEV. I haven't heard that the sub is different. I haven't heard the Canon system in a non-PHEV car to test it.

I'm curious to hear what your experience is with these settings

I just tried your setting and the sound is much better. Chatgpt was telling me to not use dolby Atmos but the sound and instrument separation is much better with it all the way up indeed.

And the subwoofer is really very weak so your right, it has to be in maximum for me to hear a differece.

Your been very helpful, thanks once again for your tips!

I arrived at a sound setting which is pretty similar to the one in the photo above - just with a little bit less top-end on the EQ. You'd expect a 'premium' sound system to sound pretty decent with all the settings flat, and only require a bit of tweaking to adjust it to the preferences of the listener - it's quite disappointing that it requires so much EQ to get it to sound good.

And yes, the subwoofer is pathetic, really! Even turned up to its maximum setting, it's only just adequate. The best sub I've ever had in a vehicle was in an old Volvo V70 - an active sub which sat in the spare wheel well, sounded lovely (really deep and rich), and which could, when given a bit of a thrash, get the rear view mirror vibrating!

I'm glad to hear my settings were able to help!

To add to the source discussion, I only use wired Android Auto with Spotify set to lossless downloads and highest quality when streaming.

Does anyone know of any kits to improve the speakers and sound from a standard system?

i dont mind replacing the standard speakers and adding a sub, but i am really missing listening to some music!

Thanks