I had an Alpine head unit installed in my 1999 A4 Avant. The installer cannot get the head unit to play without the key being in the on position. The factory unit would play if after you turn the car off you left the key is in the ignition.

The same head unit installed in my wife's 97 A4 works fine also.

Go somewhere else. He hooked the deck up to a switched power lead. You need to have it hooked up to a constant on power lead. Use a test light to find one in the fuse box.
Jason

The installer is actually very good and has gone to great lengths to get this feature to work. Their two key guys have each worked for hours trying to figure it out. They have conferred with the Service Manager at the Audi dealer also.
Searching the archives of this forum also indicates there is a problem with this feature using an aftermarket unit, but arrives at no solution. I was hoping for a sincerely helpful response as the installer still wants to find a solution.

Their conclusion at this point is that the electronics that support this feature are actually in the factory head unit and not in the wiring itself.

Any help?

When installing the headunit in my car I ran into the same problem. However after running power from the wiring harness to a different ignition switched source it works fine. What year is your car, they may have changed the workings of this feature?
Jason

99.5 model. It also works fine in my wife's 97 so I think there have been some changes also.

I have a MY00 A6, and it works with no problems. It seems that the control for this feature would be contained in the headunit, and therefore should be the same for all symphony recievers. Very interesting. Hope you get it sorted out.
Jason