I posted the below a little while ago, as part of the end of a previous thread for a chap who wasn't happy with the sound quality from the stereo on his new Citroen DS4. I wonder whether the manufacturers of non-premium cars are looking to get people to pay big money for their upgraded speaker systems? I seem to recall when I bought the Golf, there was a 'Dynaudio' upgraded speaker package for the thick end of £500, which seemed rather steep...
Original post:-
Although not directly related to the OP, from my experience, the sound quality of the standard fit stereos in (some) cars seems to be taking a turn for the worse. I'm not looking for the last word in sound quality, but I like something that is pleasant to listen to and doesn't frustrate me by sounding rubbish! My 2001 Golf GT TDi had the standard fit radio cassette unit, with a separate single disc CD player which sat above it in the dash. Although the tone controls needed some fine tuning to get a 'natural' sound, it was fine when playing CD's. My wife had a 2001 Beetle and again, the standard fit stereo and speakers gave a reasonable sound.
Fast forward to now and my 2011 Golf 2.0 TDi Match, once again has the standard fit stereo and speakers. Can't fault the features (DAB, 6 CD changer, SD card slot, full iPod connectivity, Bluetooth) and ease of use, but frankly, the sound quality is really poor. Despite having fiddled with the tone controls and fader, I just can't get a decent sound out of it. The treble sounds brittle, there's no punch to the bass and the mid range just sounds muddy and 'wrong'.
Without wanting to start World War 3, does anybody have a view as to whether some replacement speakers would be a good starting point (!), as I'd like to keep the head unit. I live in Cheltenham and the two in car entertainment places that used to exist here have both closed down. I don't think H******** is the way to go, as they will probably stick a sub woofer in the boot! I work in Worcester, so if anybody has any recommendations for where to go in Glos / Worcs, please shout...
The door trims / cards look like a challenge to remove. A far cry from fitting some improved speakers to the front of a Peugeot 205. Undo two screws to remove the speaker grilles and stick in some new speakers! Couldn't be easier!
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" I don't think H******** is the way to go, as they will probably stick a sub woofer in the boot! "
What is the H******** word?
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There's one too many letters for it to be Halfords.
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The standard fit in the C5 and the V60 have been very good IMO for "standard fit"
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>> There's one too many letters for it to be Halfords.
The swear filter swings into action when the "fords" bit is replaced by "frauds"... It's a legalities thing.
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>> I wonder whether the manufacturers of non-premium cars are looking to get people to pay big money
I think the manufacturers of *premium* cars are even more likely to do that. I tried the stereos in a couple of new top-of-the-line cars recently and found them to be merely OK - a BMW 7-series and a Bentley. On the other hand, the set-up in most new Jags / Range Rovers is astonishing.
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>> I tried the stereos in a couple of new top-of-the-line cars recently and found them to
>> be merely OK - a BMW 7-series and a Bentley. On the other hand, the
>> set-up in most new Jags / Range Rovers is astonishing.
>>
Lexus seems to have it cracked, from the last two I've driven.
Surprisingly, Opel has also got some really good audio kit in some of their models.
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>> Lexus seems to have it cracked, from the last two I've driven.
>> Surprisingly, Opel has also got some really good audio kit in some of their models.
>>
>>
I've driven loads of Insignias as hire cars and would say that the C5 set up was better, but that may be down to living with it longer rather than just jumping in for 24 hours and tuning to radio 2
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I think that the standard-fit fare is pretty good in many cars these days with some notable exceptions. SWMBO's Civic FN3 had a full function reasonable quality head unit but very poor speakers (or door installation perhaps) - possibly fixed by a low cost speaker upgrade or sound deadening in the doors.
Our Golf VI Comfortline (so Match spec in the UK) seems pretty good to me with 8 speakers but I recall the base (S perhaps) spec I rented in the UK last year with its front-speaker only arrangement to be really quite poor, not sure if that's the head unit or lack of speakers ?
My 2007 B7 Avant had the Bose speaker package (11 speakers perhaps) and an upgraded head unit, it was good but I'm not sure I would be able to tell the difference from the standard car's 10 speaker arrangement - cars are a poor acoustic environment after all. As a comparison, my E91 330d Touring had the standard BMW 4 speaker arrangement and it didn't sound too bad to my ears (probably worse than the Bose setup but not awful by any means).
And I am what might be termed an 'audiophile' - I have assembled a reasonably good home hi-fi setup over the years and eschew iPod. MP3s etc in favour of better quality (uncompressed) sources in this environment. In the car they're fine because (as I comment above) - it's not a good acoustic environment to begin with.
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In my last half dozen or so cars I've resorted to only replacing the speakers, whereas in the past I'd have replaced the head unit too. These days the head unit tends to be too heavily integrated to allow a swap out, even with the use of expensive canbus adaptors. You often lose some functionality or whatever.
So, sticking to just the speakers, my old C5 was still awful with a speaker upgrade, as was my old Avensis. Recent Fords and Vauxhalls have been better, but IMHO the base head units just aren't good enough. In that case, you're left with trying to source a higher version of the manufacturers head unit, at ridiculous cost from the dealers or from dodgy eBay sellers. Not ideal.
Can't beat a standard fit Volvo system though, and their upgraded ones are sublime.
Last edited by: oilburner on Mon 15 Oct 12 at 09:52
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It entirely depends on the make of car, Seats for example are significantly worse than other VW stables. The Seat head unit was good*, and powerful but the speakers were appalling rubbish.
* A good head unit is not just power. It needs a good tuner, which can make a break your enjoyment of it. I bought and fitted a mid range Kenwood unit into the Lancer and some new speakers (JBO's). The tuner in the kenwood is pretty rubbish, poor to pick up signals, and if TA is on it stutters repeatedly unable to decide if it wants to broadcast TA or not. It has good audio properties tho.
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The Beta and Gamma stereos fitted to VWs from the late 90s until the mid 2000's were reportedly so tonally unbalanced, and generally awful that the speakers were "optimised" to compensate for them. Consequently, to upgrade these systems you basically have to rip everything out except for the wiring and start again.
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Quality of standard fit car stereos - Duncan
