new head unit or ipod interface thing

[iknownothing]

Hi,
Firstly may I say my username is true, I do know nothing!

I bought a 05 Seat Leon 1.6 SX about a month ago. It has the Aura head unit with 6 cd changer in the glove box. I want to play my ipod (its an ipod touch if that matters) through the stereo. I emailed a few places to see what they had to do these and got suggestions such as a Dension Gateway Lite iPod Car Adapter. Is this good? expensive? easy to install considering I'm a complete idiot at this stuff?

On the other hand I just had a win on the horses so I'm tempted to spend more and get a new head unit. Are they likely to do something at a place like halfords that could give me ipod connectivity and keep the cd changer? Or anywhere else that would fit it for me?

All help and advice would be very much appreciated, but please remember I'm not massively technical with cars!

 

[JamesL]

try searching for threads on the ipod, there's quite a few about.


with regards other headunits, personally I'd go to Halfords or even better a local car audio specialist and have a go at a few to work out what spec and make your after, then search online for it, as its generally cheaper.

 

[33754k]

New hu. Definitely. I replaced mine with an alpine. It brought the speakers to life. Original hu not that good quality

 

[LEE69]

Have a read of this thread

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=247024&highlight=connects2

 

[mt audio]

if you did want to stick with ipod connectivity an oem unit look at the connects 2 stuff,much cheaper for very similar gains unless you want to keep the cd changer also.
if your not bothered about sticking with oem then change the headunit itll be the biggest benefit youll see before you amp your speakers (if you were ever to go down that road)

 

[iknownothing]

Just been to halfords to see what they can do. They apparantly cannot do anything that is compatible with the 6 cd changer. So I reckon I going to just get a new stereo with ipod connectivity and remove the cd changer I just have way too many cds and nowhere to keep them. Is there a market for selling the cd changer?

 

[iknownothing]

in second thought can I get an adapter to make the cd changer compatible with a new head unit? The guy at halfords said that they used to have them...

 

[mt audio]

it can be done the other way round.factory fit headunit with aftermarket changer,if you want to keep oem unit and have ipod and cd changer you need to look at the dension gateway and the cd changer retention lead-your looking at around £180ish for the lot though

 

[Mr OCD]

New hu. Definitely. I replaced mine with an alpine. It brought the speakers to life. Original hu not that good quality

Completely agree... I have an Alpine 9882Ri and it transformed the stereo... I've been asked if I have a sub in the car (I havent) as it sounds so clear yet hits hard

Anyone know what brand the speakers are?

 

[TwoZeroAlpha]

I've got a sony cdx-gt530ui (can't post links yet )

Makes using the iPod stupidly easy as it reads from the itunes library data stored on the device. So it will allow you to browse your library all from the head unit, and has a funky little remote which my girlfriend likes.

 

[ScoobyJawa]

I got a Connects2 adapter - £50.

 

[edmong]

Completely agree... I have an Alpine 9882Ri and it transformed the stereo... I've been asked if I have a sub in the car (I havent) as it sounds so clear yet hits hard

Anyone know what brand the speakers are?

Philips I think. Gonna stick my Alpine components in this weekend

 

[Alexis27]

Just been to halfords to see what they can do. They apparantly cannot do anything that is compatible with the 6 cd changer. So I reckon I going to just get a new stereo with ipod connectivity and remove the cd changer I just have way too many cds and nowhere to keep them. Is there a market for selling the cd changer?

I've got a sony cdx-gt530ui (can't post links yet )

I got a Sony CD-X GT33 which also fits in perfectly with the dash.

It's got a USB port which might be preferable to the iPod Touch - no wires or risk of the iPod flying around the cabin. And you can ditch the CDs by just sticking the music on a USB stick.

 

[mt audio]

Completely agree... I have an Alpine 9882Ri and it transformed the stereo... I've been asked if I have a sub in the car (I havent) as it sounds so clear yet hits hard

Anyone know what brand the speakers are?

OEM are blaupunkt speakers

 

[SRStdi]

Have you thought about buying a MP3 cd changer... this would give you a lot more control over your MP3 files.

For example i have a alpine unit with an ipod connection and there is no way in hell i could drive and look for a song i wanted to play... mainly due to the small size and location of head unit on the leons. So all i do is keep the thing of shuffle which is ok.

At least with a MP3 changer you could have 6-12 discs and then stick a load of albums on them???

 

[iknownothing]

Which is better:

Alpine CDE-103BT - CD Receiver with Bluetooth

or

Sony MEX-BT3700U CD/MP3/iPod Player with Bluetooth

???

Or is there only one way to find out...FIIIIIGHT

 

[mt audio]

alpine!!

sony sound quality for bluetooth is poor with the standard built in mic (although you can buy an external mic but why should you)

alpine sound quality for audio will be far superior

 

[Chester]

After orignally having my TotR touch screen Clarion for a few years, I decided that I wanted Bluetooth and full iPod control. Luckily around the same time last year Pioneer had answered my prayers and released a new DEH-P8100BT headunit.

After living with it for some time and hooking up a Nokia 6500 slide over BT, an iPod Classic 80GB over USB with my entire CD collection on it, and my company iPhone over both USB and BT, I've got to say that it's transformed my in-car entertainment and made it so easy to access. The main controls on the head unit are a little fiddly in motion, and there's no steering wheel remote duplicate for 'Enter' which is a big shame. Sound is usual great Pioneer standard but whilst stationary with the engine off, there is a hiss/low level pink noise, but with music playing you can't notice a thing.

Pre-outs to amps are clean whilst still retaining call quality to the fronts whilst using hands-free. The level of control is unreal; it's worth spending time getting to know the audio controls and using an SPL meter with a test disc to EQ the sound, it really pays off! The tuner's reception is good (of course after market head units need an RF amplifier as the standard head-unit has one built-in), but there's no DAB control (shame, quite like the idea really).

All in all really pleased with it and it comes as recommended from me. Looks good in the dash, and the blue illumination breaks up lots of red and actually doesn't look too out of place to me. Yes, I did think it's a great excuse to change the dash illumination to blue, but I really love the red (mmm, red!) so I'll stick with it.

Any technical questions about this or other similar Pioneer head units, I'm more than happy to answer them.

 

[iknownothing]

went for the Alpine CDE-103BT - CD Receiver with Bluetooth. Very impressed. Great ipod and phone control