How-to: Symphony 2 to Concert 2+

[^adam^]

Hey all,

I've just upgraded from the Symphony 2 to the Concert 2+ in my B6 so I thought i'd write up a little guide.

It's a very simple upgrade and makes a big difference to the look of the interior. Gone is the nasty cd/tape combo!

First off I purchased the Concert 2+ unit (Symphony 2+ is the same but has built in 6 disc changer) but I wasn't worried about this. The unit cost £80 inc postage.

The Concert 2+ is a quadlock connector whereas the B6 is ISO so purchased an adapter from Kufatech. The antennas are also different so I bought the whole kit for £60 inc postage
https://www.kufatec.co.uk/shop/en/a...dapter-head-unit-bns-5.0-concert-3-symphony-3
The kit made everything plug and play, and although expensive, makes life much easier.

I also purchased an aux-in cable from eBay but haven't installed this yet so can't comment
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141888557797?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

The whole install took me about 15 mins. Most of that was spent trying to get the old Symphony 2 out. The release mechanism was a bit fiddly.

So, use the four keys in the kit, ensure that the notch on the keys is facing inwards. Wiggle and pull out the unit and disconnect the two ISO cables, the antenna and yellow diversity connector.

Take the Kufatec cable and connect the cables together, it's really easy, you can't go wrong, then plug into the Concert 2+. Just rest the unit in the dash and switch on the ignition to ensure it works, and enter the code.

Once done, push the unit into the dash until it locks ensuring that all cables are pushed down behind the temperature controls.

Before:

After:

I will be honest, the radio reception isn't as good as before, even with the antenna adapter. I'll take the Kufatec soon as see what they have for that. But the CD sound quality is excellent, the colour match is perfect, and the aux-in lead costs a tenner instead of £50+ with the Symphony 2.

All in all a good value upgrade!

 

[s8craig]

I wouldn't have done it with that antenna kit, I would have thought the Y splitter for the HF to dual HF/HF would give you better reception.

Adaptor

https://www.kufatec.co.uk/shop/en/c...-adapter/audi-antenna-adapter-head-unit-rns-e

Splitter


https://www.kufatec.co.uk/shop/en/c...nna-adapter/vw-antenna-adapter-junction-fakra

 

[^adam^]

Been reading around the forums and it's a common problem apparently. The radio reception is fine for the first 15 mins or so and when on ignition, but drops when the engine is running.

The aux-in arrived and it's not plug and play with the Kufatec harness so I had to adapt. Pulled the pins out of the aux-in and put them into the correct places on the Kufatech harness. Wired the headphone jack cable temporarily then hooked up VCDS and coded the radio for aux-in. Looks like it came from a saloon with MFSW, phone system and diesel engine.

All coded up and works nicely, sound quality is more than passable!

 

[s8craig]

The reason it drops is the new radio has built in diversity HF/HF connections and your old radio used HF/ZF diversity. So if you use the cables I suggested it splits the HF from your existing antennas to both HF connections of the new radio and stops the switching and dropping of signal.

This leaves the ZF disconnected completely from the old antenna.

 

[Jimmy TDI]

Just the thread I needed for info having just purchased one of these head units.

 

[^adam^]

So just a very quick update to this.

Made a vast improvement to the radio quality just by removing the yellow aerial connector, just running on the standard aerial now. It's not perfect, but more than listenable, especially seeing as I live so close to the Crystal Palace radio tower. I'll leave it as is now.

 

[Jimmy TDI]

I'm still waiting for my loom to turn up from kufatec, it will be here tomorrow, but I've bought a twin to single fakra cable, and fakra to aerial adapter to use instead of the one that comes with it.
It said it was a 4 working day lead time, so when I got an email after five days saying it would be at least another week I wasn't happy and requested a partial refund, and I got the postage cost back.

 

[^adam^]

My loom was a few days late but they did call me to let me know, overall the service was pretty good. Drove outside the M25 for the first time since disconnecting one of the aerial connections as was still able to receive London stations so I'm quite happy with the setup now. No need for any further ££ on adapters IMO.

 

[Jimmy TDI]

Yeah couldnt complain about the service, but they shouldn't advertise a 4 day lead time when it's going to take 14 days. As said though they didn't hesitate to refund me the postage so fair play to them.

It came today, so depending on weather and light when I get back from football with my lad, I'll get it all fitted and report back on the twin to single fakra for signal. It will probably get to Wednesday now though as I need to pull the whole centre console out to convert from single to double din, and while I'm there I want to run the pipe for my boost gauge into the engine bay and wire it in.

 

[Jimmy TDI]

I finally did this yesterday morning as I had the day off. The twin to single fakra works perfectly giving me a constant strong signal, even on weak local pirate stations.