Standard HU keeps cutting out...

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Shades

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Just bought a 53 plate A4 (saloon) and am having problems with the standard HU.

Whenever I listen to dance/trance (or something similar) and have it on quite loud (>20) the HU (I presume if it has an integrale amp) keeps cutting out then very slowly fades back in after a few seconds. Could this be a 'feature' to protect the HU or could there be something wrong?

Its very annoying as I generally have the bass turned down depending on how loud I have it to protect the speakers (and quite frankly it sounds a bit crap if the bass it too high when its loud anyway!)

Is there any aftermarket HU's that can display info on the A4's display in the middle of the instrument cluster like the standard HU does? If the standard HU is knackered then I don't want to be paying Audi prices for a new one! (I work in a Jaguar dealership and know how much they charge!)
 
Cant offer any answers on the headunit problem, but if you need a new one there are always Concert 2's offered on fleabay. Just sold mine for £130 after upgrading.
 
>20 on a standard Audi HU must sound pretty dire whatever the Bass setting.
Have you got the standard setup or the Bose one?
If it fades back in then it must be a thermal cutoff to save the puny amp (which is only 2 x 20w on the non Bose system), you should still get rear speakers though as they have a separate amp in the boot.
The only HU's that link to the DIS are Blaupunkt, but they charge about £60 for the cable, totally not worth it for a feature that's pretty pointless, just look 12 inches to the left if you really need a reminder of what radio station you're listening to. Make sure you get one that plays MP3 CD's (pretty much all aftermarket HU's do this these days) and one that has an AUX in for iPOD if you're thinking about mp3 player integration.
Becker HU's look far more stock than anybody else but don't link to the DIS either.
 
AndyMac said:
>20 on a standard Audi HU must sound pretty dire whatever the Bass setting.
Click to expand...
Actually, its not that bad. Better than some I've heard.

AndyMac said:
Have you got the standard setup or the Bose one?
Click to expand...
Pretty sure it's not the Bose...
HU.jpg

Crappy picture I know, sorry.

AndyMac said:
If it fades back in then it must be a thermal cutoff to save the puny amp (which is only 2 x 20w on the non Bose system), you should still get rear speakers though as they have a separate amp in the boot.
Click to expand...
Everything cuts out then fades back in again, fronts, rears and even the sub.

AndyMac said:
The only HU's that link to the DIS are Blaupunkt, but they charge about £60 for the cable, totally not worth it for a feature that's pretty pointless, just look 12 inches to the left if you really need a reminder of what radio station you're listening to.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I admit it is pointless! But I want to keep the interior looking as 'stock' as possible.

AndyMac said:
Make sure you get one that plays MP3 CD's (pretty much all aftermarket HU's do this these days) and one that has an AUX in for iPOD if you're thinking about mp3 player integration.
Click to expand...
And end up with a HU that is the automotive equivilent of Blackpool Illuminations? Want to avoid the tacky 'boy racer' look with a HU that can light up in 20 billion different colours and can show a grainy anim of a F1 car or dolphins frollicing in the surf! Getting an FM modulator for my phone (PocketPC) because I don't like (hate) IPods as they are (technically) crap! For example I can fit as much audio on a 512Mb SD card as on a 1Gb IPod mini (using 64Kbps WMA as opposed to the (average) 128Kbps MP3, which suprisingly has little audible difference to the average joe!).

---------------------------------

Does the standard HU have AUX outputs? One solution would be to have a amp/s in the boot, fed from the standard HU, driving the speakers thus taking the strain of the HU's amp. Anyone tried this before?
 
You're obviously not familiar with Becker HU's then?
64kbps? That must sound really good.
192kbps is about as low as you can go to achieve near Cd quality sound. If you're listening to it on a phone via an FM modulator then sound quality is obviously not your priority, or even on the list of priorities.
 
AndyMac said:
You're obviously not familiar with Becker HU's then?
64kbps? That must sound really good.
192kbps is about as low as you can go to achieve near Cd quality sound. If you're listening to it on a phone via an FM modulator then sound quality is obviously not your priority, or even on the list of priorities.
Click to expand...

You're obviously not familiar with 64Kbps WMA (>not< MP3. 64Kbps for an MP3 is completely dire). Who mentioned anything about near CD quality? I'm not in my car enough to care that much! I listen to music (64Kbps WMA's) on my PocketPC all day at work and it bothers me not one bit, it really isn't that BAD. Normally I hate Microsoft and anything they do but I have to hold my hands up, low bitrate WMA's are quite impressive.

Anyway, you're preaching to the converted, with the exception of my PocketPC, I only ever use Ogg Vorbis when I'm encoding my own stuff. Which is vastly superior to MP3's both in terms of quality and file size (if only more devices supported it!). 320Kbps MP3's are a hugely innificient(sp?) waste of space. Just because hard drives and storage devices are getting bigger doesn't mean you have to go mad and fill it with the biggest files you can... My view is its kind of like throwing card board boxes in the bin... without breaking them down first.

So what's so good about Becker HU's?

FM modulators aren't >that< bad. A friend had one for his IPod and it was actually rather good.
 
Looked into the Blaupunkt DIS link myself and drew a complete blank on it, not one company I emailed had a clue what I was talking about, even when I emailed blaupunkt themselves. Don't bother changing the HU, get PhatNoise and do away with cd's altogether, thats the route I'm going down. I'm sure AndyMac advised someone (RasA4???) on how to wire an amp to the standard HU recently (RasA4 also has PhatNoise) Might be worth a search or a pm to see how it went...
 
"320Kbps MP3's are a hugely innificient(sp?) waste of space."
Yeah, cos memory is sooo expensive these days. 4GB SD card = &#163;30
If you think FM modulators are OK then I can see you wouldn't be fussed about the poor quality of low bit rates. Just stick with your Pocket PC in the car if it's so great.
You asked for recommendations on aftermarket HU's
"Is there any aftermarket HU's that can display info on the A4's display"
I recommended a couple and you shot me down in flames without even having the decency to do a Google search first.
Becker HU's do not look like Blackpool illuminations, they are the closest cosmetically to the stock Audi HU, luckily there the similarity ends.
mexico-pro-7932.jpg

http://www.caraudiodiscount.com/acatalog/becker_grand_prix.html
 
audi upgrades
Any audio in a compressed format is not that great, and compressing it down to 64kbps is bound to loose some clarity. If you think 320kbpsis inefficient, whats a reel to reel tape recorder then? a monster. but for sound clarity you wont touch it, with anything. I would sacrifice space for clarity any day. I'd much rather listen to a small quantity of decent sound than a large quantity of ***** quality.
 
****** hell! Shot you down in flames!? That's a little melodramatic don't you think? What format/compression rate I choose to listen to music in/at is of little relevence or importance, and not what this thread was originally about.

Don't take anything personally AndyMac, it wasn't mean to be. I just meant that most aftermarket HU's are horrid, bright and are more suited to chavved up Corsa's with blokes called Kevin on supermarket carparks going "Chek out ma nu system wikked innit!". I admit I'd never heard of, let alone seen a Becker HU and from the picture you put up I have to say I'm not impressed... I may as well stick a Grundig HU in my car... Oh, hang on... :)

Sorry Andy I meant no offence :thumbsup:

Thanks Turbo_Blue, I do like this idea of wiring up an amp to the standard HU though. Can you remember the title of the thread? I fear I could be searching forever... What's this PhatNoise thing?
 
Click here for the thread about the wiring an amp to the standard HU and here
for info on PhatNoise. PhatNoise is basically a digital media player that takes the place of your existing CD player (disk changer). It plugs in where the changer goes and is controlled by the standard HU. Great bit of kit and not expensive (around &#163;200) either. Completely does away with the need for CD's. The voice indexing is also very cool, it allows you to browse artist, track, album, genre etc by way of a computer voice reading it to you. Hope this helps you...
 
Would this Phatnoise work with my Concert II as it has the changer built in?
 
Do you mean the Symphony II with the built in 6 CD changer or a Concert II with an external changer.

It will work with both.

But you could not use the external Changer and Phatnoise together unless you fabricated a switch box as they use the same external CD connection plug.
 
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