[DaveA]

There was a picture floating around of a subwoofer being in the small hole under the boot floor, where the accessories usually get stowed. If it's not in there, I guess they changed the spec & decided not to include it after all (unless it's only in the EU models, I guess).

Nope - nothing under the boot floor! Definitely looks like a spec change.

Or is it a normal sized violin but I can't hear it properly because I don't have rear speakers??
To be honest, I've never had a subwoofer in a car before anyway!

Appreciating the sympathy! 😂

Actually I'm quite happy with the sound quality, so I don't really need a subwoofer - but I just seem to be paying for more stuff I'm not getting!!

 

[Woodulike]

I think I'd like to hear the system first before coughing up £1800 to upgrade the system. To many subwoofers are a disappointment, imo.

 

[Neil999]

Now, I can't find anything remotely like a subwoofer in the car, and checking the current spec doc, it now states “Sound pack: 6+1 speakers”.

The UK published spec change happened when the ID.3 price list dated 4th November was produced (it was there in the one dated 22/10/20). I queried it with my dealer when ordering a Tour in November, and the chap in VW UK who produces the price list documents replied to him saying that it had been a mistake in the original version to say that a subwoofer was included. I still ordered a Tour in the end though.

 

[loggamatt]

I think I'd like to hear the system first before coughing up £1800 to upgrade the system. To many subwoofers are a disappointment, imo.

You're probably right! If I do go over to Holland to get this done (which is a big if as it depends on international travel resuming before UK-based alternatives become available), I'm 90-something% sure I'd just get the package that adds rear speakers, upgrades the front speakers, and adds some sounds deadening in the doors.

But I'm just saying, there always remains an outside chance that I'll lose my mind and my poor ID.3 will come back looking like this...

 

[5erge]

The Beats speaker upgrade is the one with the sub and this is not available yet. Beats speakers are hardly top end and with the brand dying out anyway Im not surprised VW have been quiet about this.

I did read that rear speakers apart from those on tech and max are optional, which certainly makes it possible for a retrofit. Should keep loggamatt happy 👍

 

[loggamatt]

The Beats speaker upgrade is the one with the sub and this is not available yet. Beats speakers are hardly top end and with the brand dying out anyway Im not surprised VW have been quiet about this.

I did read that rear speakers apart from those on tech and max are optional, which certainly makes it possible for a retrofit. Should keep loggamatt happy 👍

I'm all about keeping loggamatt happy!

I asked my dealer about retrofit though, and he said the parts department couldn't find any info about that...

 

[Woodulike]

I asked about rear speakers when I bought mine and was told there's no option for them to be retrofitted as well.

Oh for the days when it was easy to upgrade the speakers.

 

[No_Petrol_Now]

Hi the terminology x.1 speaker system means it does have a subwoofer. x is simply the number of speakers and .1 is the SW. The subwoofer should be located in the LHS rear c pillar:

Check this out

You may also find this useful in locating internal components:

Interior Components

Hope you find it useful

 

[Mr_ess_jay]

Yeah, what he said. The sub is under the centre of the dash top.

It's not a sub like you'd imagine from the days of Barry and his Nova-dose edition shopping cart.

That link to components in the car is a little simple and seems to be written as a guess more than anything. For example, the card reader in the cup holder is there for when your key battery has gone flat and not for future apps on your phone. There is nowhere to put a conventional key and in the event that you have a flat battery in your key, you put your key on this reader and the NFC tech will allow you to start the car. NFC is what is used for contactless payments.

All keyless start cars either have a physical key barrel or an nfc reader somewhere in the car. The older Golf's had this in the conventional key location on the steering column.

 

[No_Petrol_Now]

According to the efflux info:
The Centre loudspeaker - R208 is in the centre of the dashboard but the Subwoofer - R211 (Item 7 ) shown at the bottom of : This Link for SW location

Clearly shows the SW on LHS of boot space.
I can't vouch for this actually being the case for UK spec cars but perhaps someone in possession of a TECH of MAX or TOUR can verify?

 

[Kansalis]

Clearly shows the SW on LHS of boot space.

It doesn't, that image is a top-down exploded view of the cubby hole in the back center of the boot space (not an xray view of the C pillar), under the false floor. The green subwoofer takes up the right half of that space. But as discussed above, not in UK models for any released so far as it was removed from the spec.

 

[No_Petrol_Now]

It doesn't, that image is a top-down exploded view of the cubby hole in the back center of the boot space (not an xray view of the C pillar), under the false floor. The green subwoofer takes up the right half of that space. But as discussed above, not in UK models for any released so far as it was removed from the spec.

Ah - I should have looked a bit more closely at the image - making sense now!

So if VW are claiming the car has a 6+1 speaker system on what used to be 7 speaker and Subwoofer :then from what I can see the speakers are:

1. Front left treble loudspeaker - R20
2. Front right treble loudspeaker - R21
3. Centre loudspeaker - R208
4. Front left bass loudspeaker - R21
5. Front right bass loudspeaker - R23 -
6. Rear left wide band loudspeaker - R384
7. Rear right wide band loudspeaker - R386
8. Subwoofer - R211 - NOT INSTALLED on UK Models

So 7 Speakers and SW makes sense and as per the October description however for 6 + 1 speakers is the centre speaker now the +1 ?

 

[loggamatt]

So, in the end I did email Schut Car Systems in Holland about this because I thought they may get an eventual customer out of it, even though I can't travel over now. Plus, the information might be useful to others on here. I asked them about installing Set 5 from this link and this is what they said -

"Set 5 cannot be installed in your car. At least not the way we have it on our website. We need to add an amplifier.​

​

For the rear speaker output on the radio to work (and activate Fader functionality) the car/radio needs to be coded. The ID3/ID4 and Golf 8 etc. are however on a new platform where coding needs to be done online. This is not something we do ourselves and to avoid problems in the future when the car for instance receives a firmware update over the air and for any reason resets coding we work around this.​

We use the front speaker outputs to supply a 4-channel amplifier with signal and power new front and rear speakers. This not only adds rear speakers but also is a drastic audio upgrade.​

Only thing is that you don't have the ability to adjust the balance of the speakers between font and rear through the radio (Fader). We can do this for you and show you how you can do it yourself.​

The centre speaker is unchanged since this speaker is also used for E-call functionality.​

​

Such an upgrade would cost € 1099.- completely installed."​

This seems fair enough to me I think. It would basically take VW's implementation and make it 'old school' again by having a normal amp supply separate front and rear speakers. Expensive way to add rear speakers, I admit, but if you look at it as a general all around audio improvement to make it sound even better than cars with the factory rear speakers then I could maybe justify it to myself.

Doing it this way means I wouldn't have to worry about future VW software or firmware updates hobbling my system by undoing the re-coding.

I suppose though, at the point you're just literally taking the two-channel output from the head unit, putting it into a 4-channel amp and running that to speakers, most UK-based car audio specialists would be able to do that for me too. But I'm still tempted to wait until international travel resumes and go to Holland because a) they sound familiar with the ID.3 so are likely to know what they're doing, b) they seem like a nice friendly company, and c) I quite like the idea of taking the ID.3 into Europe on holiday anyway

 

[Gailjon]

Almost a thousand pounds to have rear speakers? Gulp!

 

[loggamatt]

Almost a thousand pounds to have rear speakers? Gulp!

Haha... but, but... it’s not just rear speakers! It’s upgraded sound all around due to amp & better quality speakers!

 

[5erge]

Has anyone checked the doors to see if they have cables. You never know. Certainly worth taking off the door card to have a peak. I have a volunteer/ guinea pig in mind...

 

[scott28tt]

Has anyone checked the doors to see if they have cables. You never know. Certainly worth taking off the door card to have a peak. I have a volunteer/ guinea pig in mind...

When there are no speakers there are no cables. (I haven’t taken mine apart but others have)

 

[loggamatt]

When there are no speakers there are no cables. (I haven’t taken mine apart but others have)

This is what makes me wonder about the likelihood of an official VW retrofit option and price for it even if it does appear. If I could just pay a few hundred to VW to fit rear speakers, then I would probably do that considering there would then be zero risk of my warranty being affected. But are VW really going to bring out something where dealers have to run all the cabling through the car to the rear doors? And if they do, how much would a dealer charge to do that at their labour rates anyway?

So I’m thinking that if I wait for an official VW option, I may be waiting forever. And even if it does appear, it may not save me much money over getting a 3rd party car audio specialist to put in a system with better quality speakers and amp that would sound much better anyway.

 

[stu-EVs]

This is what makes me wonder about the likelihood of an official VW retrofit option and price for it even if it does appear. If I could just pay a few hundred to VW to fit rear speakers, then I would probably do that considering there would then be zero risk of my warranty being affected. But are VW really going to bring out something where dealers have to run all the cabling through the car to the rear doors? And if they do, how much would a dealer charge to do that at their labour rates anyway?

So I’m thinking that if I wait for an official VW option, I may be waiting forever. And even if it does appear, it may not save me much money over getting a 3rd party car audio specialist to put in a system with better quality speakers and amp that would sound much better anyway.

To give you some kind of comparison....

The VW dealer retrofit kit for the reversing camera on a Mk7 Golf requires the full loom installing (there is nothing at all there on a non-factory equipped model). All of the boot trim has to come off, all of the vehicle C & B pillar trim, rear side panels, sill trim, full rear seat removal - all out! Roof lining access required, half the dash removed and access to behind the fuse panel (which is a pain in the arse!). This is all just to run the new wiring loom....then the connections to be made at each end. Actually fitting the new boot handle with the camera takes about 2 minutes! Then there’s some coding to do......and then refit everything you’ve removed!

Prices for this from VW are (from memory) about £385 for the kit if you wanted to DIY - or about £795 for VW to supply, fit & code...which I actually think is pretty good value given the labour involved.

So I think it’s well within the realms of the possible! Looking at the rear door schematics it looks like there is a dedicated loom in the rear door that plugs into a connector at the hinge...I wonder if that might be a network connection - in which case it may only need a new loom in each door - rather than wiring through the car back to the infotainment module??! When it’s easier to get into dealers for a chat I’ll have a word with my friendly aftersales manager and see what he can find out!

 

[loggamatt]

To give you some kind of comparison....

The VW dealer retrofit kit for the reversing camera on a Mk7 Golf requires the full loom installing (there is nothing at all there on a non-factory equipped model). All of the boot trim has to come off, all of the vehicle C & B pillar trim, rear side panels, sill trim, full rear seat removal - all out! Roof lining access required, half the dash removed and access to behind the fuse panel (which is a pain in the arse!). This is all just to run the new wiring loom....then the connections to be made at each end. Actually fitting the new boot handle with the camera takes about 2 minutes! Then there’s some coding to do......and then refit everything you’ve removed!

Prices for this from VW are (from memory) about £385 for the kit if you wanted to DIY - or about £795 for VW to supply, fit & code...which I actually think is pretty good value given the labour involved.

So I think it’s well within the realms of the possible! Looking at the rear door schematics it looks like there is a dedicated loom in the rear door that plugs into a connector at the hinge...I wonder if that might be a network connection - in which case it may only need a new loom in each door - rather than wiring through the car back to the infotainment module??! When it’s easier to get into dealers for a chat I’ll have a word with my friendly aftersales manager and see what he can find out!

Thanks, that’s useful perspective! I did already ask my dealer and they said they couldn’t find any information about retrofitting speakers, but couldn’t hurt to run that past other dealers in case mine has missed something.

I just looked up the Mk8 Golf to see whether that has front speakers only as well, my thinking being that VW will be more motivated to bring out retrofit kits for a bigger seller like the Golf that may spill over into aftermarket kits for the ID.3. But even the base Golf has rear speakers.

Well, I’m not going to do anything immediately anyway so I guess I can wait it out a bit longer. But if by the summer when things start opening up and I’m doing more driving, VW hasn’t brought out a retrofit kit, I expect I’ll bite the bullet and go down the 3rd party route.