Having just taken delivery of my new Octy vRS TFSi last week, which is fitted with the Stream MP3 head unit, I was expecting it to be rubbish, but if you spend a bit of time with the equalizer, the sound is not bad at all. Don't get me wrong, it aint no SQ 2 grand setup, but it's way better than I was expecting.

What are other peoples opinions of this unit ? How does it compare to other Skoda fitted OEM units ?

I think it's a pretty good unit myself.

Sound quality is prob the best form most factory units I've seen in this class.

My only gripe is that the front CD player sounds really crisp, but the changer doesnt seem quite as crips to my ears. Apart from that, pretty good.

So many people have asked what speakers and sub I have fitted! It's standard gets a confused look!

The stream mp3 version is far better than the earlier units. I think they changed the amplifier circuits to better quality components. Early stream models only had a a bass/treble control and it was difficult to get something that sounded any good.

what do you have the equaliser set to for best setting?

I had the Stream unit in my car up until a few weeks ago and have to agree that it does a pretty good job. The combination of head unit and standard speakers in the vRS go quite well but with my sensitive ears I noticed the treble was a little bright (or maybe too good) and needed to be turned down a notch or two on both FM and CD.

Apart from that it's a good unit. The difference between the CD changer and the main unit could be due to the long wire separating the two - I doubt it's a high quality audio cable but most people don't notice.

what do you have the equaliser set to for best setting?

Well, the equaliser settings are going to need to be altered to fit the type of music you listen to and your own personal tastes. The fact that you need the equaliser, tells a tale in itself really though, becuase in my opinioon, on a well sorted audio system, you should rarely need to touch bass/treble etc.

Do you have a particular genre of music that you tend to listen to ?

I think the sound is reasonably good for a standard kit. The only bug bear is that I need to set the balance far over to the left to get a decent stereo effect.

I find the soundstage and stereo steering very good, but then I have a vRS, which I think has some extra speakers over some of the other Octavia models.

ive found the treble abit bright to say the less and have that turned down, listen to all sorts but try and have the bass punched up a bit as it sounds pretty good quality in the skoda for standard equipment and probably be the first car that i dont change the stereo and speakers on.

The stream mp3 version is far better than the earlier units. I think they changed the amplifier circuits to better quality components. Early stream models only had a a bass/treble control and it was difficult to get something that sounded any good.

There's actually three streams.

The early one with just bass and treble , the later ones had a midrange as well , then the MP3 version was introduced.

I have the middle one with midrange but no MP3 support