<br>I'm about fed up with the stock Concert sound system in my 900 mile-old 1.8t . This will definitely be the first interior mod I'm doing !!<p>1.) I wonder if any of you have opted to put a minidisc head unit into your A4s; is it a worthwhile medium, or will it go the way of DAT, or worse yet, DCC ?<p>2.) How difficult would it be to duplicate the interface between the Concert system and the trip computer ? I am not uptodate on what kind of data outputs are available on the backside of your typical aftermarket head unit, but I think one could breadboard a CPLD to talk to the trip comp. .. <p>3.) How cool it would be to have Valentine 1 warnings translated to meaningful displays in the top section of the trip computer display !! This would spare you from having to butcher your dash to put in the val.1 remote display panel. <p><br>thanks for your replies,<br>-K. '99 1.8tqMS , Casa, trip, roof.

...and love it. But I never really thought about displaying the track and whatnot in the trip display; I would love to see a compass bearing, though :-)<p>MD is the key to car music. Super-small, cheap, digital - you can record and erase and actually get the space back; no fast forward or rewinding necessary. With the car deck, I have a total of 4 MD units. I am just on the way to the airport and in my shirt pocket is a MD player - try to do that with a CD :-)<p>This still doesn't mean that it will "make it", esp. in America: Americans are "cheap", don't care about quality, as long as it's cheap. But for me it gets the job superbly done and that's what matters. Kinda like the Audi vs. Chevy thing. <p>But then, I am a freak :-)<p>- Stan<br><ul><li><a href="http://rescomp.stanford.edu/~stanj/Audi/Mirror/done.jpg">Picture of my MD head unit</a></li></ul>

I have been using a Sony MD headunit along with a Sony CD changer for a while. First of all I'd like to stress that I am not fond of Sony's audio product because IMHO they sound very "artificial" but since in here all pre 98 A4 came with Sony unit I thought I shouldn't waste the changer. I found that I am using more and more of the MD than CD now. It's very easy to use and the sound reproduction is near CD quality (MD uses compression technology so it does left out some of the kHz that human aren't suppose to here). It's almost shock proof.<br>There is one criteria though. You have to have another MD deck at home to record your music as there aren't too many original MD recording on sale. Recording an MD is a piece of cake though (providing you are using digital in/out).<br>Therefore IMHO, I highly recommended MD in car as I think they are the perfect medium for the automotive environment because.<br>1) Shock proof<br>2) Easy to handle<br>3) Small enough to store anywhere<br>4) Although theroetically not as good as CD, you can't here the difference in car anyway with all the other noises.

i was thinking og getting the sony md player also. does anyone know of a way to change the color scheme of an aftermarket radio. i have a new passat with the blue and red scheme. even though it's minor, the orange and green of the sony md really throws the scheme off.

Figuring out the interface to the trip computer will be next to impossible without the engineering design manuals for the radio and Trip Computer. The signals are probably propriatary. This means you have a snowballs chance in hell of finding out wthe information you need without signing multiple nondisclosure agreements. Same goes for the V1 interface. <p>So, if it is possible someone would have to get more information <hint hint> about the trip computer. The rest could be handled by a small microprocessor like a basic stamp and a lot of free time. <p>David<br>

I have the stock stereo/cassette unit in my Avant; am not that great an audiophile and have found its sound acceptable to me. Didn't want to get the Audi CD since much of my music is on cassettes (copied off of those round black plastic thingies with all the little grooves) and is unavailable in CD. The MD format intrigues me though, and might be interested in installing a MD player rather than a CD unit. Yes, want to keep stock dash stereo/cassette unit.<br>

Hey Andrew,<p>I think it's the headlight washer by-pass as described on Don P.'s page. It disables the headlight washer so that it doesn't operate automatically with the windshield washer, unless you want it to.<p>Stan has just added another fog light switch to his dash. A power override switch for his MD player.<p><br>Hope this helps.<p><br>James Wu<br>A4 Club of Vancouver<br>1998 Black/Onyx 1.8tqa<ul><li><a href="http://vancouver.a4.org">A4 Club of Vancouver</a></li></ul>

I've been wanting a md portable recorder for a long time (Sharp 722, if anyone's interested), and I've done a lot of research into the medium. IMO, it's killer, and it's almost immune to what the market will do. Here's why: you don't get md to buy albums. You'll never replace your cd collection with md. What you WILL do is make mix tapes, or tape cds onto mds for playing 'em in your car or on the road -- i.e., you'll replace your *tape* player with md. So as long as there's md blanks available (and thanks to the 'net, there will be), it doesn't matter if the format dies off.<p>That said, I believe it won't. It's an excellent combo of portability, sound quality, and random access capability, and if you're into music IMO it's well worth the cost. Pick yourself up a portable recorder (see www.minidisc.org for LOTS more info) to make discs at home, then take 'em wherever you go. Have fun!<p>BTW, if you do figure out a way to integrate the V1 remote display nicely, please do share!

Don't tell me it's not worth it, Because it is. For $1,200 you get a CD Changer, 150W amp, Better head unit and speakers. It would be impossible for you to get comparable equipment for the same price. You would have to spend about $2000-2500 for a decent setup. Lets see… $400=head unit, $250=Amp, $300=CD Changer, Speakers about $300. That adds up to $1,250.00. That doesn't include wiring, mounts, brackets and the cost off the install itself which could be from $300-$1000. The prices listed aren't for top line components. I doubt that the stereo equipment listed above would sound as good as the Bose. You would have to spend a lot more money for better sound. On top of that the Bose's red illumination integrates perfectly with rest of the dash, Not to mention the display on the Trip Computer. The stock stereos are specially designed to provide an output to the trip computer. It would be almost impossible to have an after market stereo system display the status on the trip computer. How would you do it? Where on an after market Stereo are the outputs for an external display? And even if it did have one there isn't any standard. You wouldn't know what types of signals the Trip computer is expecting. Good luck

First, the head unit is EXACTLY THE SAME in BOSE and non-BOSE stereos in the 98+ A4's.<p>Second, some people don't like BOSE stuff. I don't. I listened to the BOSE stereo when I bought my car & thought for $1200, it was a ripoff of great proportion. The Avant gets a subwoofer, so it might sound a bit better.<p>The A4 (in my opinion, of course) is much too small for speakers in the back. The soundstage is somewhere overhead. So if you like the "SOUND!, SOUND!, EVERYWHERE SOUND!" stereo system, then it's your bag, man...not fer me. <p>So in a roundabout way, I am saying to you that spending twice as much for an aftermarket system that sounds ten times (subjectively) better is worth it to some (including me).<p><br>steve

You're correct, Americans will be using cassettes and VHS Tapes forever. Not only is the sound quality inferior, The technology has been around for about 25 years. I love CDs but you can't record on them and they are too delicate. I like to record my own music form various artists on the same media. What is it going to take for Americans to stop being such fools when it comes to certain things? <p>P.S I'm an American citizen. <p>

...IMO Bose equipment is no good at all. You could do exactly what you said ($400 head unit, $250 amp, $300 changer, $300 speakers), maybe add $5-600 for install, and I *guarantee* that you will end up with a much, much, MUCH better system than the stock Bose. <p>You could also go one step further for not too much more money. I've probably dropped $3K into my system, including install & dynamat, and it will drop kick the Bose into the next county. If you're willing to spend $1200 on a stereo, another $1800 in sequential upgrades/additions spread out over the course of a year or two ought not to be too painful.<p>And yes, you'd lose the matching lighting scheme and the trip computer display, but it's all a matter of priorities. If you care about red lighting and computer readouts, stick with the Bose. If you care about good sound, go aftermarket. It's really a no-brainer.

I agree with you totally. I got the Bose; however, I have had aftermarket systems which were much better. Bose equipment is average. However, for those that don't want to spend the time and effort to implement an aftermarket system, it represents a good middle ground as far as price/performance and integration go. I had a sweet ADS/Alpine system in an Accord I owned that I'll always miss.<p>Mike

I wanted to call Audi to get the specs for the data I/O but everytime I get the urge to do it, I feel I'll probably get the run around. But with only one signalling wire, you can easily deduce that it is a serial format. If I ever get the time, I'll hook up a logic analyzer on it to find out if is a standard serial format (RS-232? can't be 422 because there is no signal pair.) I just changed my whole stereo setup to Sony with the MD and CD changer. When I develop the pics, I'll post them. But for now, I'm off to Hawaii for vacation. See you soon.

I already had a Kenwood head and recently added Kenwood's 6-disc MD changer to my GTI VR6, and bought a Sony home deck at the same time. MD is awesome.<br>I can't tell the difference between MD and CD in critical listening tests. Recording and editing MDs is SO much easier than tape or recordable CDs - MD writes a "table of contents" similar to a floppy disk writing a FAT. You can edit/move/split/delete/replace tracks VERY easily.<p>In short - I *highly* recommend MD.

I love music, so I don't see a problem spending money on it -- especially since I wasn't making car payments while I built the system over the course of two years. What do you spend your money on?

On the trip computer. It is actually 3 signals, clock, data, and an enable signal. I agree with SandyK, it should not be too difficult to decipher with a data scope/analyser, or even a storage scope. I would love to do this but i do not have the trip computer. I have decoded much more involved schemes in the past.<p>On the valentine 1. I agree with you. Again if i had the trip computer i would be busy decoding the interface, so that I could get a one stop display for every thing. I was considering: digital boost guage, radar detector read out, etc.<p>On aftermarket stereos: I opted to stay with the head unit and add amps and speakers. Well not exactly. I upgraded from a delta to a concert, cus i liked the features, and it was cheaper with the deck and panasonic 8 disk changer, then getting the factory changer for the delta. (u can get the panasonic for 300 cdn) The concert does have pre-amp outs (with high levels al la hi end units) and has good quality IMHO. I was also worried about maintaining stock dash appearance, having had my prior car broken into. To me, aftermarket speakers and amps represent the best cost/benefit ratio.<p>If anyone ever gets going on the trip computer projects, i would love to help!<p>1996 a4 2.8 qm<br>

Thanks for providing the info about the heads being the same on the bose / non-bose. I kinda thought that might be the case as it costs alot more for a company to have two head units delivered by their OEM audio provider. I only wish that they would offer CD in that dash...not many people bother with cassette not for obvious reasons.<p>One note though...there is absolutely no reason one can't use the existing stereo to make a killer system. See as far as I've been told the stock head features line level outs on the back...they may not be jacks per-se...but rather flying leads coming off the harness I don't know but I will find out two weeks from today when I take receipt of my new A4.<p>In anticipation of being able to use the line out from the Bose head I've designed an active crossover which will allow the addition of a subwoofer and sub amp to the existing system..I imagine this should make for a serious improvement. The only one real unknown at that point is whether or not Bose has implemented any EQ in the front end...as this is a common technique employed in OEM car audio. It can make a serious improvement in the sound of the system at virtually no cost if done right. The problem is that what EQ works for one Transducer...may not work for another. <p>Once I figure all this stuff out...if anyone is really interested I'd be happy to post my findings and make availiable the circuitry I've designed for the subwoofer EQ. The EQ is rather inexpensive and could probably be built for around 40 to 50 dollars including the cost of a DATEL DC/DC switching supply module needed to produce the proper operating voltages for the EQ circuits.