Want to improve the sound quality on my stock car system. I’ve spoken to a local car audio shop who have said you could upgrade to a DSP, Sub, Amp and new front speakers or anything in between.

I know what everything does but not sure what I really need. I mainly listen to the radio and just turn it up a bit when something decent comes on. I’m thinking new fronts and an amp would probably be sufficient but would like some opinions.

Spend the money on engine tuning/exhaust upgrade instead. There’s no better sound than my Type R at full chat.

The advice I was given was to soundproof the doors and upgrade the speakers. (I already had a decent head unit)

No engine tuning I’m afraid, I do around 20k miles a year so it’s a good old oil burner for me.

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What car is it? Some cars have more than adequate speakers but the headunit lets them down by being so underpowered. I’d start off by just getting a decent headunit and going from there, if you just listen to the radio the sound quality is never going to be groundbreaking anyway!

From experience, the OEM speakers in mass-market cars are pretty low-rent, so my first call would be to replace stock with custom fit, from Pioneer, Kenwood, or if available Infinity Kappas, which are outstanding.
The fitted head units are getting ever more unique to the model, replacing with an after-market unit is getting more difficult to achieve easily, so I’d just replace the shitty speakers, and maybe fit an amp.

2015 Skoda Octavia. I don’t want to get rid of the head unit as it’s got the Satnav etc all built in and I want to keep it as standard as possible.

Upgrade the speakers then.

@Countzero, not neccesarily. The speakers in mk4 Golfs and I think later models as well far outperform the headunit fitted and it’s recommended to drivers of those models to upgrade the headunit alone so it is supplying sufficient power. I’m running a 4x55w Alpine unit and it’s superb.

OP, your best bet is gonna be to ask the lads on Briskoda.net or just have a browse of the site. I’m sure you’ll find the answers you need!

Look on caraudiodirect? they aint too bad for prices…

Headunit is a limiting factor in your car… for example I replaced my “bose” headunit that came in my audi sline with a pioneer and it was very noticeably better… ridiculously so.

However if thats off grounds then this is what I’ve done in a few cars:

1, take the doorcards off and sound deaden the doors and behind where the speaker goes (inbetween the doors)
2, make mdf circle templates to bolt the new door speaker into to give it more support
3, buy some cross over speakers for around £100 and mount the tweeter in the top dashboard or the pillars depending on car layout
4, you’ll maybe have to run new wires through the doors ect – its a bit of a pain but you can do all this in a big half day.
5, Get a 4 channel amp – you can biwire it for the crossovers or you can expand to a small underseat sub at some point… subs are good and not just boomy chav boxes when setup right.
6, you’ll need an amp wiring kit too!

ANNND you’ll need to check what outputs your headunit has to connect to the amp or buy a conversion wiring kit for your car’s model and headunit modal.

It’s all simple if you’re in no rush- if you don’t like fettling then it’s a horrid job and well worth paying someone to do it.

I’d recommend spending around £300 across speakers, amp, wiring and deadening… if thats sounds too much just do the deadening and then the speakers with no amp.

These days it’s all very model-specific isn’t it? E.g. in my car it’s basically impossible to change the headunit / amp without major work but the speakers are easily modified.

You’ll find out all this stuff on various forums, unfortunately you need to do some reading and/or ask somewhere.

Thanks all. I’ve had a look on Briskoda.net but there’s only one person who’s done this, or something similar.

£300 is fine, when I spoke to the shop it was looking more like £1k if they fitted it.

I can’t imagine fitting is all that cheap. The wiring can be a pain. Half a day to you might be £300 to them…

1k? Wtf?!?!

I’ve done numerous stereos (dash out on some) plus speakers. I’m a daft handed diyer yet as long as you take care with trim you are fine.

davidtaylforth – Member

Spend the money on engine tuning/exhaust upgrade instead. There’s no better sound than my Type R at full chat.

+1
Loud exhausts save lives.
Although my B18C4 sounded better.

Cars are a shit platform for good audio; don’t waste too much money.

You’ve not mastered the search function on briskoda. The mk3 octy section has had numerous threads on the poor stock audio.. and canton upgrade. There have been various tweaks done and mostly those doing them here been happy. Definitely seen 1. Just an under seat sub, fed from the speaker level outputs ( bolero definitely, and I think the amunden and columbus only have speaker out, no line out), 2 complete speaker change, adding amps and subs, 3. Modification of current OEM speakers. I suspect £300 will see a significant improvement, stock is weak.

IMHO for almost all modernish cars the limiting factor in audio quality is the speakers, the stock headunit is fine unless you want to play at ear damaging volumes or drive a sub.

I myself found that just spending £60 switching the front speakers to some middle of the range Pioneers was a massive upgrade – I re-cut the door holes so I could fit in 5″ cones rather than the previous 4″ ones and the tweeters sat in a separate pod on the dash.

Used to be massively. Last system was about 3k..over 10 years ago… the rise of fully built in head units killed the industry to some degree. I used DLS for amp and speakers and generally alpine for hu. As others said dynamat your doors. Get better speakers initially which is not much work at all.

Thanks guys. I’ve decided to give it a go myself instead of getting someone else to do it for me. The electronics side doesn’t worry me, it’s just removing the trim that does! Will definitely replace the stock speakers and add sound deadening. Maybe try that first before adding an amp/sub.

Do the MDF rings – well easy to make – they dont have to be neat and glue or silicon them together if you have space to make them deeper.

Makes a huge difference with the sound deadening. – it’s all about stopping any resonance in the doors and stiffening them up.

Doorcards – should be guides on your relevant forum but buy some replacement clips off ebay first as you will break some.

The downside is some of the crossover speakers that are much better will need an amp to sound any good or if you know you’re likely not going to do that you can buy ones that work better off headunit low powers.. i think alpine had made some of these.

I changed the front speakers in mine for a pair of Hertz components. Made some simple MDF baffles and had a mate wire it up for me.

Running off an Alpine (basic) media player it sounds way, way better than standard. Lots more controlled bass, great high frequencies. All in about £150

OK, I’ve been doing a bit of research and I’m going to go with new front speakers (components) and an amp. I’ve been trying to look into whats the best make etc to get and think Alpine speakers with a Kenwood amp is the best way? Any recommendations? Thinking of spending around £80 ish on the speakers and £125ish on the amp.

I’ve got a 2016 Octavia vrs estate and think the stock system is pretty good to be honest. Certainly on par with my old 2010 Mazda 6 sport that had a Bose system.

I think the main issue with the octy is it needs more sound deadening as you tend to get panel vibration which everyone things is the stereo sounding crap.

Mine is standard not canton btw

highly recommend one of the cheap ebay trim removing kits, should have one of these:

and a selection of plastic levers. It’s one of those jobs that the proper tools will make a lot more pleasant.

Also, buy replacement clips from the dealers if you break any, the generic ones will cause you to gnash your teeth.

Talk audio is the best place for your research:

https://www.talkstuff.net/ipb/index.php?app=forums
You can even get second hand gear if you want better quality for the budget.

If you’re not getting a sub ever then you can get a smaller 2 channel amp that will power the components nicely.. if you think you’ll get a none active sub in the future then get a 4 channel amp thats more powerful.

If you aren’t getting a sub I recommend squeezing the biggest components you can into the doorcards.. 6.5″ would most likely be the ones to squeeze in but you will have to research this.

I don’t have a massive affinity to alpine speakers – I had some spl dynamics which got a great review and within your budget.

don’t forget you’ll want to buy speaker cabling and an amp wiring kit… and try and find some tutorials of how others have wired up door speakers / hidden the component box in the dash ect as it’ll save you some time… ie I had to take the door off one of my cars to run the speaker cable properly! .. that sucked.

What pictonroad said is also very true.

The electronics side doesn’t worry me, it’s just removing the trim that does!

That reminds me of a tale. Back when I had my first car, it was so old and poxy that it didn’t even have a radio.

As a povvy student I got one of those DIN-E under-dash cradle things (remember those?) and an el cheapo cassette radio, you know the ones with a big rotary knob at either side (might even have been DIN-D and an adapter for the cradle, thinking about it). Wired it up with highly reliable Scotchlocks. I’d acquired some awful wedge-shaped speakers from somewhere, could’ve been parcel shelf speakers or even off some old household stereo or something. I didn’t want to cut up the car so I just popped one in each door pocket. It was grim but it worked, the main problem was that people kept tripping over the wire and yanking on it.

Later, I had a bit of spare money so decided to upgrade. I got a half decent second hand head unit off a mate who’d upgraded (Blaupunkt maybe), and spent some actual money on some meaty door speakers, like 6″ cones or something.

I measured it all up, but had the fear about cutting into the door panels. If I cocked it up, I’d have big holes in the panels. I must’ve checked it a dozen times, made sure that where I was cutting aligned with a cavity in the door and wasn’t going to foul on the metal bits, agonised a bit more, then bit the bullet.

Got the speakers mounted in the doors without incident and all wired up. Moment of truth, switch on and… it all just worked. Brilliant. Phew.

I relaxed back in the driver’s seat, shut the door, and wound down the window to enjoy the stereo in the sun. The window wound about two inches and then stopped dead as the bottom of the glass collided with the back of the speaker.

You know that “oh, swearwords” feeling when you’re hit with the sudden realisation that you’ve done something really stupid, with the prickly heat in your face? That. Fortunately on inspection it was only just fouling, so I bodged it with a couple of nuts as spacers between the speaker and the door. So, disaster averted, but they did look a bit odd standing half an inch proud of the door. Um, it’s porting for better bass response, honest.

The moral of this story is, if you’re going to be measuring up gaps for new speakers, do it with the windows wound down. (-:

renton – Member
I’ve got a 2016 Octavia vrs estate and think the stock system is pretty good to be honest. Certainly on par with my old 2010 Mazda 6 sport that had a Bose system.
I think the main issue with the octy is it needs more sound deadening as you tend to get panel vibration which everyone things is the stereo sounding crap.
Mine is standard not canton btw

I’ve seen your name pop up a few times over on Briskoda. To be honest I don’t think the stock system is as bad as people say but I do think I’ll get a much better sound quality with a few upgrades.

pictonroad – Member
highly recommend one of the cheap ebay trim removing kits, should have one of these:

and a selection of plastic levers. It’s one of those jobs that the proper tools will make a lot more pleasant.
Also, buy replacement clips from the dealers if you break any, the generic ones will cause you to gnash your teeth

Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll make sure I have spare clips and I intended to invest on some trim tools anyway as I’d rather not bugger up the trim on a year old car!

alexxx – Member
Talk audio is the best place for your research:
https://www.talkstuff.net/ipb/index.php?app=forums
You can even get second hand gear if you want better quality for the budget.
If you’re not getting a sub ever then you can get a smaller 2 channel amp that will power the components nicely.. if you think you’ll get a none active sub in the future then get a 4 channel amp thats more powerful.
If you aren’t getting a sub I recommend squeezing the biggest components you can into the doorcards.. 6.5″ would most likely be the ones to squeeze in but you will have to research this.
I don’t have a massive affinity to alpine speakers – I had some spl dynamics which got a great review and within your budget.
don’t forget you’ll want to buy speaker cabling and an amp wiring kit… and try and find some tutorials of how others have wired up door speakers / hidden the component box in the dash ect as it’ll save you some time… ie I had to take the door off one of my cars to run the speaker cable properly! .. that sucked.
What pictonroad said is also very true

Thanks Alex. I’ve posted already on Talks tuff with a limited response. Had a look through the forum but it doesn’t seem to be massively active, the only post with large number of responses seem to be the more technical ones and for people spending a small fortune.

I’m going to get a 4 channel amp so I can bridge two channels and install a sub if I want to in the future without having to change it or get a mono.

Speaker and amp cabling is on the list already and I’ll be watching videos etc before I start. Don’t want to get half way through and realise I don’t know how to wire something!

TalkStuff is a good place to ask – you may see my user name 😉

It is quite active but spread around a bit, and the thing to remember is that if you are not descriptive then the answers are always a bit inquisitive.

A bit like coming onto STW and saying you’d like to upgrade your bike without saying what it is, why you want to do it, how much you have to spend etc etc.

Basically, with £300 on a 2013 Octavia I’d be looking at second hand. £50 to £80 on front components, £100 or so on a sub and box, £100 or so for a suitable amp and 20 quid for a wiring kit.

If you manage to save any money, some money for deadening etc would be a good buy.

These days it’s all very model-specific isn’t it? E.g. in my car it’s basically impossible to change the headunit / amp without major work but the speakers are easily modified.

This, basically; practically all the cars I’m driving have the audio built in with separate screens and supplementary displays in the instrument area, the Audi A3 parked outside at the moment has a display that slides up out of a slot in the dash, serving audio, navigation and other functions, which would be pretty much impossible to replace, so the only real upgrade would be better speakers, and maybe some sort of EQ, because the sound can be pretty poor, very ‘boomy’ poorly defined bass, poorly defined treble, and soft, muffled mid.

No worries I haven’t been on that forum for years – looks like it’s a lot quieter now too.

Feel free to ask any questions – email in profile.. I don’t know it all but I’ve done it a few times!

Just make sure you leave enough wire to man handle the speakers in the doors and that you’ve got a full day ahead of you with no plans and good weather or a garage thats wide enough to have doors fully opened.

I do still feel you’re missing a trick not going the headunit route as a big part of the improvements I felt was from balancing the filtering on an aftermarket headunit as you dont get controls like that on a factory one.

however you can always add that if you decide to in the future.

^I’ve got an A3 with the bose system and it sounds shite with the stock headunit… replacing it for my alpine made it surprisingly good (it had a built in audi / bose amp and sub already) and the headunit seemed to know how to balance it all much better… couldn’t believe they were the same speakers!

In one of those new fancy cars it’d be a nightmare… I’d be tempted just to run a second headunit with remote controls… mental I know

brings back memories of my car stereo installing days. all my mates and their mates would come to me to do the installs…but this before the electronics started to get more complex and the head units more difficult to remove.

if you’re fitting an amp make sure you use a good quality power lead and earth lead with a high quality fuse holder…if its a high power system then think about a 1 farad capacitor to boost the power output.
you’ll need to run rca leads and a remote lead from the head unit to the amp so make sure you install them together.
if the amp has a cooling fan make sure the air flow to it is not restricted

be awry of power outputs on a head units built in amp…if it says 4x50w its more likely to kick out around 25w per channel…so if you can connect the speaker to the amp instead.
the more channels on an amp the better especially if its bridgeable
a dsp unit will also improve the sound quality

but to do all that you need to first make sure the standard unit in he car has the correct connections at the back..otherwise you’ll be needing a new head unit