Beats Audio Retrofit

[East Yorkshire Retrofits]

So it's officially happening.

We've ordered all of the necessary parts to retrofit Beats Audio to our Formentor!

We're now looking for a car local(ish) to us that we can plug into to take some configuration information and to configure our new amplifier on

We're based in Bridlington, East Yorkshire. Please let us know if you're anywhere near by!

 

[VocalHusky]

This sounds great (no pun intended ! You're a bit far from where I am but hopefully there'll be some how-to guides in the future
Keep-up the modding!

 

[East Yorkshire Retrofits]

This sounds great (no pun intended ! You're a bit far from where I am but hopefully there'll be some how-to guides in the future
Keep-up the modding!

With the cost of the parts and the labour involved, unfortunately I don't think we'll have time to make a guide but we'll do our best! & it wouldn't be cost effective to offer to our customers

The coding requires specialist tools too due to SFD

 

[East Yorkshire Retrofits]

Installation is going ahead this weekend. Unsure if it'll be finished in terms of software though

 

[MrBiggles87]

Installation is going ahead this weekend. Unsure if it'll be finished in terms of software though

Would you be able to give an honest opinion on whether its worth the upgrade or not? At least that might help people if they are thinking about doing it upon configuring when ordering for the first time.

 

[East Yorkshire Retrofits]

Would you be able to give an honest opinion on whether its worth the upgrade or not? At least that might help people if they are thinking about doing it upon configuring when ordering for the first time.

I'm positive it will be worth the small price they're charging for the option. If nothing else, just for the additional power available to the system

The rear doors are now finished. We've taken the tweeters from the old A pillar trims, replaced the rear door wiring looms for the factory beats looms & sound deadened the doors. We had to repin the replacement loom due to the choice of tweeter & use a different plug.

We decided to use the old tweeters in the rear as the alternative was new door cards at around £600 just for the sake of two 2" speakers as you can't buy them seperately. This is the only compromise we're making.

The front doors are also finished. Again, speaker replaced and sound deadened

Jobs for tomorrow are;
Seats out
Glovebox out
Amp in
Wiring loom made up from amp to door connectors, to fusebox, to MIB unit, A pillars and centre dash speaker
Run rear heated seat wiring to fusebox

 

[First Timer Dan]

What is the cost of the beats system to retro fit?.

Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk

 

[East Yorkshire Retrofits]

What is the cost of the beats system to retro fit?.

Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk

Parts etc come to around £1700 at trade

 

[East Yorkshire Retrofits]

Just software to finalise now

 

[East Yorkshire Retrofits]

Beats Audio retrofit complete

 

[Tell]

Just software to finalise now

Ideally we need the VIN of a vehicle with factory beats, either RHD or LHD it doesn't matter too much for now

We'd really appreciate anybody who's willing to help!

Picture 5 looks fun. Not your average DIY procedure I don't reckon .

 

[East Yorkshire Retrofits]

Picture 5 looks fun. Not your average DIY procedure I don't reckon .

No not quite DIY, the parameterisation & coding was particularly not DIY

 

[Hizzards]

Is the audio Subjectively better?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tell]

Is the audio Subjectively better?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It must be since its got a sub woofer and assume the power amp isnt in the normal outfit + the centre speaker... I think they used the existing speakers for the rest which I believe was the normal Seat sound system prior to Beats and Sound (e.g.. same speakers plus the two extra). You get the under seat amp plus the front central speaker and sub woofer, it's the amp which is the new contender to Seat, was on other VAG brands.

 

[East Yorkshire Retrofits]

All of the speakers have been replaced except the centre speaker, all of the wiring to the speakers is new. Rear door looms have been replaced and the amp is new

It's a much fuller sound & the rears now how independent speakers for high frequencies instead of dual cone speakers in the rear doors which sounds much nicer.

My main gripe with the standard system was the lack of power, meaning whenever there was a reasonable amount of bass the volume of the full system would drop. This issue has now gone

For the relatively small cost the option is from the factory, I'd say 100% go for it

We added to the existing sound deadening too

All Formentors have a centre speaker

Beats was available on the Ateca and the late facelift mk3 Leon however it used a different amp (MOST instead of ethernet). Seat sound was available on prefacelift mk3 Leons & early facelift models. It was available on very very early Atecas. I've never seen one in the flesh from the factory.
Seat sound uses the same speakers that non seat sound uses however with the addition of a centre speaker and sub with some wiring alterations.
Beats uses completely different speakers and an external amplifier

 

[Tell]

Did you have to recode the infotainment system or was the blessing that it runs off the outboard amp which was plug and play or SFD coding on the 5F to make it possible... suspect that amp might have it's own coding or is it just dumb ?.

I'm presuming your Formentor is the coding test bed . Have you got your SFD tokens sorted out... I did read on a German Formentor board that there was a company that had a coding hack for SFD, another dongle.... some Germanic translated grumping on that one. Some people have side stepped it.

(My Ateca has the original Seat Sound System with the centre front additional speaker and sub woofer in the wheel, interesting the set up defies traditional surround sound by placing what's getting on for a sub woofer speaker in the front dash and the sub woofer in the boot - you get quite a bit of base thru that front speaker... lower base in the boot. A part from twiddling with the frequency response to improve speech, it works reasonably well... I'd always spend money on the sound system)

 

[East Yorkshire Retrofits]

Nothing about this was plug and play, which added to the satisfaction once finished!

I'd be amazed if they've managed a work around already given SFD is managed by the module itself and cannot be calculated locally. It has to call home to the VWAG mothership and receive a token which from memory is about 100 characters long. Do you have a link?

Infotainment system requires coding and parameterisation. Amplifier requires coding and parameterisation + component protection

Everything you do within 5F requires SFD. Each token gives you 90 minutes of working time.
Fortunately we're a VWAG independent workshop so SFD isn't an issue, nor is component protection

The amplifier takes its control via canbus and data via ethernet, in previous models it's been via canbus & MOST.

The centre speaker isnt used as a subwoofer. The centre speaker is primarily used for high/mid frequencies which is why it's used alot for phone calls/navigation announcements with the seat sound system. The pillar speakers and rear door handle speakers are for highs. The larger door speakers are low/mid. Subwoofer for any real "heavy" graft with the bass

For what they're charging for beats it would be silly not to tick the box. I'd think twice is they were charging golf 8 Harman Kardon prices. It's good but it's not worth anymore than what they're charging.
Fun fact; Harman Kardon uses the exact same amplifier but features more speakers, each on independent channels - Beats slacking as per usual

 

[Tell]

I'd be amazed if they've managed a work around already given SFD is managed by the module itself and cannot be calculated locally. It has to call home to the VWAG mothership and receive a token which from memory is about 100 characters long. Do you have a link?

The link was this

OBDAPP Shop - OBDAPP Shop

obdappshop.de

The text which I found was this:

Here is a small list, if you don't know it yet, with things that can currently be implemented. Everything tested and working, you just have to buy the app and the dongle.

The flat rate with all functions costs 150 plus 50 for the hardware dongle.

Some functions can also be bought individually, but not all, just a few.

From

Cupra Formentor Codierungen VCDS-VCP-OBD11

Wollte mal die möglichen (& erfolgreich getesteten) Codierungen und Flashes zusammentragen - Bitte haltet euch zurück was sinnvoll / nicht sinnvoll angeht, so…

www.motor-talk.de

By FormentorVZ

Then Germanic grumping in a few posts after. Makes an interesting read. E.g. were not legally obtained codes then a link to a site that flogs public domain firmware that also had a product that did SFD tokens. Then the thread goes back on topic.

The thread itself was about what you can do with Obdeleven Pro with those control units not locked down then that was offered up as an alternative which is a walk on the wild side one suspects. Obdeleven if they launch the SFD enabled service (they say 4th quarter) will cover the rest. The wild side dongle was also marketing things that you can currently do on the Formentor with Obdeleven without SFD. Display and lane stuff.

The lane wandering that you read people having issues with, with lane assist on the Formentor can probably be twigged out with vcds / Obdeleven, that's not locked down, people have done that with their Leon 4s or they were never set up correctly when they left the factory, the calibration of the camera needs working on, on the benchmark board device. Seem to be issues with blind spot, comes up a lot. Infotainment units need updating on that kph / mph error. Undertaking issue can be modded out. They probably need a good bit of updating on the control units to sort out the issues that some Formentor drivers have. Probably early builds.

My only issue with the 2016 Ateca was a production fault on the tailgate virtual pedal control unit, a months production got duff units, that was fixed by the dealer on delivery. The heated wing mirror wasn't plugged in one side all the way and the door panels don't align with the chrome trim... but other than that.... forgot was built without the wireless charger since they messed up the spec of UK cars specified with the mib2 high.

----

Suspect people on their non cash cars count their monthly outlay pennies so don't get them fully specced / go for a lower models, others buy the demo or second-hand. That part creates the retrofit market of trying to create a car they didn't obtain in the first place. The boot configuration was the Ateca one since the parts were not available originally... some people reverted to woodwork skills. The advanced sound systems were dissed on boards since they didn't have the money for them when they were an option . You can take the car beyond the spec if you wish but those that don't own the car probably won't . Then Seat itself stopped offering options to specs making them more rigid in how they are sold in the UK. You have to turn to Cupra's now for some of the items but get the Cupra bling as well and a smaller dealer network for support.

 

[East Yorkshire Retrofits]

It's not difficult to generate and share SFD tokens. I wouldn't doubt that developers with the appropriate access to the SFD portal (one of two ways of working SFD) could automate the process into their apps. The issue then is if there's an accident where for example ADAS failed, the last people listed to have tampered with it will be whoever's credentials were used to generate the token - possible dropping liability on them


Factory cars don't receive ADAS calibration. They have a dataset uploaded containing calibration data and that's that in most cases

The "fix" with the overtaking is to disable the coding that prevents you undertaking. It's not a permanent solution however in my opinion all of the cars should give you the option to undertake anyway (leaving a motorway at a slip road for example)

Fortunately my car hasn't suffered any of the ADAS related issues other than lane assist expecting too much resistance on the wheel

Not all modules are SFD protected. They don't restrict the radar much (strange in my opinion) and the same goes for the ADAS camera - both modules you'd expect them to restrict
SFD I've come across so far
17 instruments
5F infotainment
75 telematics
47 amplifier


The kmh issue isn't related to the Infotainment system. There's deep deep issues in their software that no amount of coding will properly fix - I've applied a couple of the bandages on customers cars however Cupra still need to pull their finger out and fix it all properly

Thats a fair amount of cockups for a new car . I hope they compensated you

 

[Tell]

It's not difficult to generate and share SFD tokens. I wouldn't doubt that developers with the appropriate access to the SFD portal (one of two ways of working SFD) could automate the process into their apps. The issue then is if there's an accident where for example ADAS failed, the last people listed to have tampered with it will be whoever's credentials were used to generate the token - possible dropping liability on them


Factory cars don't receive ADAS calibration. They have a dataset uploaded containing calibration data and that's that in most cases

The "fix" with the overtaking is to disable the coding that prevents you undertaking. It's not a permanent solution however in my opinion all of the cars should give you the option to undertake anyway (leaving a motorway at a slip road for example)

Fortunately my car hasn't suffered any of the ADAS related issues other than lane assist expecting too much resistance on the wheel

Not all modules are SFD protected. They don't restrict the radar much (strange in my opinion) and the same goes for the ADAS camera - both modules you'd expect them to restrict

The kmh issue isn't related to the Infotainment system. There's deep deep issues in their software that no amount of coding will properly fix - I've applied a couple of the bandages on customers cars however Cupra still need to pull their finger out and fix it all properly

Thats a fair amount of cockups for a new car . I hope they compensated you

Thanks for the detailed reply... well we hope they make good those people with issues.