What music sounds best on your Fender Sound System

[moonboy]

Hi all,

I'm new to this board and look forward to learning more about the awesome TDIs. I'm on my second TDI now (started with a 2011 Jetta TDI and recently upgraded to the 2014 Passat Highline (SEL in the US). I was really looking forward to the Fender sound system and I have to say I'm a little disappointed. Some genres of music really sound amazing but others not so much.

Rock, jazz, classical and pretty much any type of music recorded with live instruments sound amazing. I'm actually more into electronic music and hip hop when crusing around, and it's well known by now the performance of the Fender is mixed when it comes to these types of music. Trap and dubstep I have to say are AMAZING on the Fender system. Tracks like:

A$AP Rocky & Skrillex - Wild for the Night
Major Lazer - Bubble Butt
AlunaGeorge - You Know you Like it (DJ Snake Remix)
Keys n Krates - Dreamyness
heRobust - Turn Ape

seriously take the Fender System to its full potential with crystal clear in your face sound with really nice punchy bass. There is no distortion and its just really fun to blast these tunes full blast without worrying about the system breaking down. The 808 bass kicks are clear and don't get muddy.

A real disappointment is when it comes to house/techno music. The bass kicks are often distorted, and it sounds like theres a limiter built in the system which causes other sounds to get cut out. No matter how high the fidelity is on the track I'm playing, the system doesn't seem to be able to handle bass kicks repeatdly kicking.

Overall however, hoping we can all share music we've come to enjoy bumping on our Fender systems - any genre of music. Thanks.

 

[Tinkertoy]

Add a big capacitor to the 12v power to the amp. It acts a a temporary power reserve, supplying the extra power for those low bass notes.

 

[Confused]

I agree, I was disappointed with the Fender speakers and was really looking forward to them. Very little bass compared to the Bose in the car we traded in. Mid's and High's are nice with little distortion.

 

[moonboy]

I agree, I was disappointed with the Fender speakers and was really looking forward to them. Very little bass compared to the Bose in the car we traded in. Mid's and High's are nice with little distortion.

I've also been wondering if anyone has successfully added another woofer or replaced the existing stock one in the trunk. I am seriously considering doing an upgrade.....

 

[atc98002]

I moved from the Dynaudio system in my Tiguan to the Fender in the Passat. Both sound good, but the Fender does bass better. I think it's because the Tiguan did not have a subwoofer.

Never driven anything with a Bose system, so can't compare. In general I have no complaints. Of course, with classic Rock, more bass is always a good thing!

 

[Dismayed]

I'm not a fan of the Fender system in my wife's 2012 Passat TDI. Highs are a bit brittle and the bottom end has gone missing.

 

[Rico567]

The Fender system on our Passat sounds great. Of course, I pretty much don't listen to music written by anyone who died after 1826.

 

[BigWorm]

Hip Hop doesn't sound well at all in it. Pop Rock seems to sound the best so far.

 

[MikeTV]

Musical tastes aside, this is the source order that I have found from best to worst quality in my Fender.

CD
SD MP3 (high bitrate rips)
HD Radio
Bluetooth streaming from an internet radio/music service
FM
SiriusXM
AM

Bluetooth streaming from a connect phone and a music service like Spotify, Pandora, etc. varies in quality.

 

[Cfidave]

Ipod through the MDI interface sounds very good to me.

 

[tc1uscg]

Hip Hop doesn't sound well at all in it. Pop Rock seems to sound the best so far.

Nope, but i love pulling up next to some car who entertaining a 100yard radius with his/her hip-hop. I just put in on channel 61 (Sirius) and crank it up. For some reason, hip-hop'ers HATE blue grass music and when it's blaring in stop and go traffic, they DO roll up their windows.

So to answer the question, earl scruggs and lester flatt do just fine . Other then that, AC/CD seems to sound pretty good too. The Back in Black album thumps right along just fine.

 

[tc1uscg]

Musical tastes aside, this is the source order that I have found from best to worst quality in my Fender.

CD
SD MP3 (high bitrate rips)
HD Radio
Bluetooth streaming from an internet radio/music service
FM
SiriusXM
AM

Bluetooth streaming from a connect phone and a music service like Spotify, Pandora, etc. varies in quality.

Mike, I have found pretty much the same order too. But I think the dard drive sounds better then the CD. Do you use CDr's or DVD's for playback? I get the same results in my Chrysler minivan. DVD's (and those with music) sounds way better then anything else, except the hard drive.

 

[MikeTV]

Mike, I have found pretty much the same order too. But I think the dard drive sounds better then the CD. Do you use CDr's or DVD's for playback? I get the same results in my Chrysler minivan. DVD's (and those with music) sounds way better then anything else, except the hard drive.

CDs for the highest quality. Of course, that's limited to only have six CDs in the unit versus hundreds of albums on the SD card. CD audio is uncompressed which is one of the reasons why it always sounds better than other sources. I don't have any experience with HDD as the source as I have an RCD-510.

 

[moonboy]

so after another month of breaking in the Fender (2 months old now), house music is starting to sound better and better! was bumpin an Eric Prydz Essential mix from 2013.. sounded AWESOME!

 

[nord]

After too much SIRIUS I like "OFF" best.

 

[mplatt911]

I was big into car audio in the 80's and 90's. ADS, Rockford Fostgate, MB quart, etc. I find the Fender is quite impressive , but only with CD's. Sirius, iPhone , and radio are best left at reasonable sound levels.
My favorite near full volume tracks are :
Rush: Moving Pictures, especially yyz
Metallica black album
Dire straights : Brothers in Arms
Madonna: immaculate collection
Tom Petty: Damn the torpedoes
You see my tastes tell my age but maybe it's the fact the consultant on vw's project has won many car audio competitions. I also think early cd's were truly made to exploit sound quality back then. No big bass trunk thumping.
The system is not perfect, but I would not think of tearing it out. Sounds much better than the Bose setup in my Cayenne TT , which was a much more expensive vehicle .

 

[ChadS99SVT]

I've also been wondering if anyone has successfully added another woofer or replaced the existing stock one in the trunk. I am seriously considering doing an upgrade.....

I upgraded to a larger sub. I also added some sound deadening in the trunk..sounds 100x better and the bass is deafening if I want it to be

ssa xcon by ChadS13TDI, on Flickr

damplifier complete by ChadS99SVT, on Flickr

 

[Dynodon]

Fender system in my '14 Passat TDI SEL would sound better if it was correctly wired. two test disks and a bunch of critical listening with quality CD's prove it has switched phase on one channel. Anyone else notice this? I have confirmed it is the same on two 2015 models equipped just like mine? No luck getting it fixed yet.