New Alpine HU

[jdp1962]

My Alpine system was installed yesterday. There wasn't enough time to install speakers into the back door. That's a custom job for another day, that is, if I bother. Even retaining the OEM speakers, the improvement in sound quality over the Concert HU is enormous, and the AM reception is a transformation. I knew the old one was in a bad way, but I hadn't realised just how bad. Just before I dropped the car off, I cleared all the station memories & set it to scan & search for new stations. It only managed to store one station on AM, Radio Five Live, and it was barely audible above all the cracking & hiss. The new one can pick up everything, (including some French stations!) all with perfect reception, zero interference, & none of that crackling you get when you go under a bridge. I love it, and I wish I'd done it months ago. The only slight disappointment is that it doesn't speed-sensitive volume, but I guess I'll soon get used to adjusting it again myself.

With the fascia adapters, an Autolead connnector to link one of the pre-outs to the rear speaker amp) and an in-line aerial booster, it came to £440. The laugh of it is that I will be able to sell the old Concert HU & CD-changer on Ebay for the best part of £300. That reminds me, I noticed that the OEM CD-changer is made by Matsushita, as you might expect, but the Concert HU is made by Blaupunkt. I'd never realised Blaupunkt made them as well. I thought it was just Ppanasonic & Matsushita.

Here are some pics (I hope, this is my first attempt to post pics)

 

[garethj]

Congrats another Audi owner dumps the [censored] that is the Concert headunit.

BTW Panasonic is owned by Matsushita.

 

[jdp1962]

[ QUOTE ]
garethj said:
Congrats another Audi owner dumps the [censored] that is the Concert headunit.

BTW Panasonic is owned by Matsushita.

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't know that, but how does that explain the Blaupunkt connection?

Here's another pic, with less reflection.

 

[garethj]

Blaupunkt, Grundig & Matsushita have all made branded headunits for Audi.

I believe the current headunits are all Matsushita.

The Alpine looks good nice that the red ties in with the rest of the dash.

 

[jetspeed]

I thought the CD Changer was made by Alpine???

 

[jdp1962]

[ QUOTE ]
JetSpeed said:
I thought the CD Changer was made by Alpine???

[/ QUOTE ]

That's funny. My installer said exactly the same thing, but it clearly says "Made by Matsushita" on the back.

I do have one wee gripe with the Alpine kit. The HU display is very reflective, and unreadable in anything more than gentle sunshine. Still, a small price to pay for great radio reception & great sound.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[AndyMac]

Looking good Jeff. Get those speakers swapped out!
Blaupunkt used to make all VAG head units, then Panasonic/Matsushita got the contract around 1999. My wifes A3T is Blaupunkt on a 99, but my mates A3TQ is Panasonic on a 2000 plate, my A4 Delta was Blaupunkt before I buried it in the garden. Believe it or not the Blaupunkt sounds worse than the Panasonic, incredibly flat sound, but more reliable (or should that be less unreliable).

 

[jdp1962]

I spent Friday afternoon talking to my local installer. He's a diamond geezer as we say in these parts. First news is, if I want to fit speakers in the rear doors, it's a big fabication job, with speaker netting & mdf frames, the latter sprayed as closely as possible to match the colour of the door card (dark blue). I'm looking at over £100 labour for the fabrication, plus the materials, plus the cost of the speakers themselves. Well over £200 all-in. My wife has vetoed the idea, saying I've spent enough on the HU & CD-changer already.

She has a point, plus I'm very conscious that £200+ is a lot of cash for a set of EXTRA speakers, bearing in mind that I only recently spent £180 on a beatiful pair of Monitor Audio Bronze B2s as the sole pair for my home hi-fi. Now that I have a good quality, well functioning HU & changer, anything I fit to the car is only ever going to provide ever decreasing incremental improvements, and I know they'll never sound as good as the Monitors do in the house. The environment is just too compromised. That's what I call diminshing returns, especially when you factor in the installation costs. I also don't like the idea of so much surgery to the door cards.

Andymac, it's obvious from reading your posts that you are an auto-electrical wizard. Please understand that I am not, and what is a breeze to you is a destroy-it-yourself project to me.

I'll enjoy what I've got for a few months, then when my wife isn't looking, I'll get a pair of "invisible" custom-fit drivers put in the FRONT doors, heheheh!.

 

[excursion]

Jeff if you want speakers in the rear doors then order yourself a pair of Bose rear door cars /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif