hi,guys,going over old territory again but, after having a new aerial and new stream hu installed under warranty the am reception is still appalling. the fm reception is fine but i listen to talk radio most of the time and its driving me nuts. the dealer agrees it is appalling and suggests i phone skoda uk and demand an answer. i wonder if any of you have a definative answer why a billion dollar motor group can't get a hu to produce a decent am signal in this day and age. also the reason the sound is so crap in the octy is that the woofer and the tweeters are too far apart. the woofer should be under the tweeters just like in hi fi speakers so that they intigrate sound.another major error by the designers who obviously don't have a hi fi in their houses!!.cheers john

I agree with all your comments and have in the past corresponded with Skoda about the poor quality of the FM reception and hit the PR wall. They have refused to accept that there is a problem and therefore won't do anything.

Yes, I have had the software update and the radio has been swapped with another unit from a car in the Showroom by the garage which supplied the car but that was no better; so although they agree that the radio is poor tha don't anything else to try.

Makes the choice of next car easier!

Its not an ideal solution but if you want to keep factory looks and improve your AM reception try fitting a MFD2 Sat Nav unit. It should cost you around

hi,guys,going over old territory again but, after having a new aerial and new stream hu installed under warranty the am reception is still appalling. the fm reception is fine but i listen to talk radio most of the time and its driving me nuts. the dealer agrees it is appalling and suggests i phone skoda uk and demand an answer. i wonder if any of you have a definative answer why a billion dollar motor group can't get a hu to produce a decent am signal in this day and age. also the reason the sound is so crap in the octy is that the woofer and the tweeters are too far apart. the woofer should be under the tweeters just like in hi fi speakers so that they intigrate sound.another major error by the designers who obviously don't have a hi fi in their houses!!.cheers john

No, the woofers in a car - a much more enclosed space - don't need to be underneath the tweeters - the bass sound is fairly unidirectional and will fill in amywhere. What the tweeters ought to do is to beam the sound across the car - not towards you - so the driver and the passenger get the loudest signal from the tweeter furthest away from them. That then compensates for the nearness - and hence loudness - of their local tweeter.

This system worked OK on the Octy 1, where the tweeters were far forward at the base of the windsreeen and facing inwards, but they've totally fouled it up on the Octy 2, with the speakers in the doors and blasting at you. As the driver, I have to have the balance setting 5 points to the left to get a decent soundtage - which is rubbish for my passenger.

Funnily enough Whir, our Smart, has an ideal solution. The tweeters are in little turrets in the corners firing up into the windsceeen, so you get a wonderful soundstage. Obviously Skoda sound emgineers are tin-eared.....

I have found the CD flash update for the stereo has done alot to improve the am reception.

I have found the CD flash update for the stereo has done alot to improve the am reception.

Is there a way of finding what version is currently on it ? Any ideas what the new Rev is called.

Not without dealer equipment as far as I know

Octavia 2.0 TDI DSG - 06 plate, purchased a couple of months ago

AM reception on stream radio is awful. Dealer just replaced radio with new unit - reception still the same. They don't seem to know what to do next claiming the aerial has been checked and is OK.

Any updates from anyone else? All I want to do is listen to 5 live and test match special!

Am I simply wasting my time pursuing the dealer?

In the courtesy car, an 07 Octavia, the reception on AM was fine.

I've been noticing that the reception on the Stream MP3 is pretty dire. Mine's a 2007 April build Elegance.

My Mk1's reception was awsome, yet this one seems to be affected when next to other vehicles! I know such things can affect signals, but not to the extent of this surely!?

EDIT - mine's an issue with FM, even strong signals like Captial, Kiss, Radio 1.

My pre MP3 stream unit was fantastic on both AM and FM.

The MFD2 reception is even better like justdoit says but it's muchos dineros for a bit of talk sport. The factory fitted unit should damn well be able to pick up AM, it's not exactly cutting edge technolofy is it.

I listen to 'Five Live' 909/693KHz when I'm not listening to CDs. Having got my Octy II with Stream/mp3 a few months ago I found that AM/MW reception was absolutely carp - with it sounding like all programmes were being recorded in a hollow box!

Having put my medium spec Alpine unit into the car, transferred in from my Fabia, I have medium wave reception back to normal; that is, it being hard to tell that it is not FM.

Additionally, my CDs, although sounding quite good on the Stream/mp3 are now in the excellent/fantastic category. There is certainly not much wrong with the speakers in the Octy II.

I've just got to be careful with the volume though as the handbook says the OE speakers are rated to 30W, with the Stream/mp3 output being 20W, but my Alpine produces 40W. Mind you, less than half volume is quite loud enough to drown out the engine/road noise anyway.

my AM reception seems to be fine, however the FM is the worse of all standard car radios i have ever used unless you enjoy listening to static fm lol