Aftermarket CD Player

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claire smith

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I currently just have the standard Audi radio cassette player & am considering fitting a CD player. My local Audi garage quoted me circa £700 for one of their single CD players. Can I fit an aftermarket non Audi CD player for around £200.
 
Claire - welcome to the forum!

My dealer tried to do exactly the same to me - I also had the Audi tape/radio and they said that a CD could only be fitted at a cost of around £900.00

What a joke!

I told them to leave it, but to release the Audi stereo for me so that I could remove it myself.
Then went out and bought a Kenwood Mask single CD, adapter and fascia kit for the A2 and did it all myself for about £250.00

Of course, there are cheaper CD players out there, so you could do it for less yourself.

For photos, have a look at: http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/uk1.htm

In terms of what you need...
You'll need a harness adapter lead: http://www.incardiscount.co.uk/acatalog/HA_AUDI.html
And a fascia adapter kit: http://www.incardiscount.co.uk/acatalog/FA_AUDI.html
And an actual stereo: http://www.incardiscount.co.uk/acatalog/Shop_Car_Audio___Car_Stereo_3.html




[img=left]http://www.a2forum.net/stuart.gif[/img=left]Stuart Diamond: A2OC Founder | Forum Administrator

2001 TDi SE:http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/uk1.htm Cobalt Blue Metallic | Open Sky Roof | Kenwood Mask CD | Front Centre Armrest | Front Centre Tray

A2OC Website | A2OC Forum | Support the A2OC!
 
Claire, I forgot to mention, that you may be able to get an official Audi CD player for less than what Audi tried to charge you from [email protected] (www.vagparts.com).
- You can also get 10% off from him if you join the A2OC!

[img=left]http://www.a2forum.net/stuart.gif[/img=left]Stuart Diamond: A2OC Founder | Forum Administrator

2001 TDi SE:http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/uk1.htm Cobalt Blue Metallic | Open Sky Roof | Kenwood Mask CD | Front Centre Armrest | Front Centre Tray

A2OC Website | A2OC Forum | Support the A2OC!
 
Hi - new to this forum having just ordered my (used) A2 sport.
This is exactly the position I will be in next week when I pick it up - crappy cassette player in the car! Anyway - it might be cheaper to leave the Chorus in place and add a CD changer which can be controlled by the std head unit. From an Audi Showroom this is a fortune however there are a few sites which sell Sony ones with the adapters and cable to connect up from about £150ish. www.cel-direct.co.uk is one, but there are a few. As for quality I also have a 4 month old 3-series BMW (the A2 is for my wife to replace a mini cooper - nice car too, but useless for holidng prams - which I need to do in december!) anyway, BMW wanted £300 for a changer - I bought a sony one with adaptor for £150, the cable was already in the boot for the 3-series (it's not for the A2, you need to run the cable) and it was a 5 minute job to plug in - the quality is excellent and is controlled by the headunit as a 'regular' one would be.

has anyone got any pictures of an aftermarket headunit installed in an A2? Is the unit not DIN sized and what does it look like with an adaptor?

Thanks in advance

Graham
 
Hi Graham,

Welcome to the forum!

Have a look at http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/uk1.htm
There are loads of other photos of aftermarket stereos scattered throughout the galleries.

The standard Audi stereo is larger than the usual DIN size, so you will need an adapter which I purchased from http://www.incardiscount.co.uk/acatalog/FA_AUDI.html


[img=left]http://www.a2forum.net/stuart.gif[/img=left]Stuart Diamond: A2OC Founder | Forum Administrator

2001 TDi SE:http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/uk1.htm Cobalt Blue Metallic | Open Sky Roof | Kenwood Mask CD | Front Centre Armrest | Front Centre Tray

A2OC Website | A2OC Forum | Support the A2OC!
 
Graham-welcome!.

One word of warning if you ever consider putting the changer in the glovebox. Due to the "in and down" angle of the box In found a Panasonic changer wouldn't fit, so make sure you try a changer first and try to get the smaller ones.

The standard Audi position for a changer is in the boot, offside over the wheel arch. The interior lining is changed for one with a slot for the changer. I believe you can buy this trim for under £100 from your dealer.

Other options would be to fit a headunit with MP3 facility and load lots of music onto one cd, or go the whole hog and buy a Sony unit with a hard drive installed for about £800!.

Steve - 2002 1.4SE petrol, Silver, black/black interior, Then an identical replacement 2003 A2. Now a Toyota Corolla 1.6 T-Spirit
 
Thanks folks - didn't realise the interior lining was different. In my 3-series it was the same but instead of an actual changer there was just a plastic cubby-hole - which I removed and mounted the CD changer. Hmm - so not as straightforward as it looks then.

Stuart - do you have any pictures of a head unit with a facia adaptor? does it spoil the lines of the dashboard at all? I don't fancy using the glovebox to hold a changer as it is usefull. but I don't fancy paying £100 for a piece of trim for the boot either!!

Thanks for your replies though - much appreciated, i can see this is a friendly and helpful forum and I am looking forward to A2 ownership!
 
My sister had a changer fitted to her Focus - screwed to the back of the back seat! Was surprised when I told her there were kits available to fit them under the front passenger seat. May be possible on the A2.

A cheap option is to velcro a plastic case onto the boot floor - would work quite well with the split boot on the A2 SE. Also makes it easy to remove if parked overnight in a dodgy location, or when you change the car.

I will have the problem when I change my company car - will probably go the MP3 route and burn the discs at home on the PC. One disc will hold almost as much music as I get in my current 6 disc changer.

Ian

2002 1.4 Petrol SE, silver with climate control.
Why are NEARLY all the A2s in Lichfield are silver ? ? ?
 
Thanks stuart - you are right - it does look really well - sometimes the facia adaptors look a bit - you know, out of place! but that seems to blend in really well.

Is that a Kenwood mask head unit? - the one with the powered mask front? I like thos. What does the illumination look like? is it completely different to the Audi Lights? Kenwood do a 'colour range' now though don't they - suppose I could get a close match that way, but the price will be jumping up for those.

One last question: did you fit it yourself? and if so is it an easy job? I am assuming you need:
1) a key to remove the original
2) the facia
3) wiring adaptor
4) and of course the new head unit

is that about it?

what are the standard speakers like?? are the OK or have you changed them too??

sorry for all the questions - you know the excitement in getting a new car!!
 
Yes, the stereo is a Kenwood Mask KDC-V7090R with powered front - I'm pleased with it. You can also take the front off completely and put it in the case provided. But I have to admit I hardly ever do that. It is part of the colour range which means you can choose virtually any colour as the display colour. I found at night that having it all in red was a bit hard on the eyes so set it to have red buttons with a white display. That works quite well as the dashboard dials are white and everything else is red.

Another nice feature is that the display automatically dims when you switch your side or headlights on. I've also wired it in with my Nokia car kit which is great as it mutes or pauses a CD automatically if using the phone.

You can still get hold of the KDC-V7090R for £179.99 but there are probably newer models now anyway. Have a look at: http://www.multimod.com/uk/shop/6932-kenwood-kdc-7090r-car-cd-receiver.html
Don't be put off by all the tacky lights and pictures on the display, you can switch off all of that and just have the essentials shown on the display.

Yes I did fit it myself. I got Audi to release the existing stereo before I collected the car as I knew I was going to get rid of the cassette player that it came with. So they just left it poking out a centimetre or two for me. Everything else is dead easy and as you say, all you need is the facia kit, wiring adaptor and of course the new head unit. The second post of this topic shows all the links of where I got everything from.

Unfortunately I only have front speakers/tweeters and nothing in the rear. I did toy with the idea of getting rear speakers but just have never got round to it. Either way, the sound at the front with the standard speakers from the Kenwood is very good on their own.



[img=left]http://www.a2forum.net/stuart.gif[/img=left]Stuart Diamond: A2OC Founder | Forum Administrator

2001 TDi SE:http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/uk1.htm Cobalt Blue Metallic | Open Sky Roof | Kenwood Mask CD | Front Centre Armrest | Front Centre Tray

A2OC Website | A2OC Forum | Support the A2OC!
 
One thing - do you have the drivers information system on your car? The Sport model (which I picked up last night by the way - it's fantastic!) has the system and displays the radio station in the top section of the DIS. My question is - if the std unit is replaced with an aftermarket unit, does the top bit just go blank or does it report some hideous error code or something?

Thanks in advance

Graham
 
No, unfortunately I don't have DIS :(
I fitted the same stereo on my wife's previous car - a Rover 214, this had a separate display at the top of the dashboard for the radio stations/clock. When I took out the old stereo and fitted the new one, it just remained on the clock permanently.
I'd assume that if you have DIS it would just be permanently blank once you swapped the stereos- although don't hold me to that, it's worth checking that it won't damage the rest of the DIS functions by replacing the stereo.

[img=left]http://www.a2forum.net/stuart.gif[/img=left]Stuart Diamond: A2OC Founder | Forum Administrator

2001 TDi SE:http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/uk1.htm Cobalt Blue Metallic | Open Sky Roof | Kenwood Mask CD | Front Centre Armrest | Front Centre Tray

A2OC Website | A2OC Forum | Support the A2OC!
 
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