magic numbers

Further to the disco II...

No sign of the magic numbers for EKA or Radio, anyone know if you can get these from the dealers for the asking, same as you could with the disco I?

Also, there's a little grey plastic tag with a 4-digit number, attached to the spare key ring. Is that actually a useful number, and if so for what?

Naturally, the garage have had the battery disconnected so now the radio's off.

Mind, I could just replace the head unit. Anyone know if there are gotchas replacing the original head unit with summat else? The manual talks of a power amp under the passenger seat on high-end audio, which I suspect this has got from the amount of speakers - 9 altogether!

The 6-CD changer is all very well, but it's a pain to put CDs in, being under the seat, and it's too old to play MP3 discs anyway, so I'm not that bothered to use it if I put a new head unit in. The manual is coy about how the power amp (if there is one, I've not looked) is connected. It doesn't seem to have a connection to the head unit, so I assume the speaker wiring goes from the head unit via the normal ISO outputs to the power amp, which spreads the signal around the car.

Reply to
Austin Shackles
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I think that the EKA's Testbook-readable if you're stuck. Have you looked inside any manuals etc. for bar-coded slips or scribbled down radio codes? Tried asking the previous owner if he's got anything left behind?

Reply to
Dougal

"Austin Shackles" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Should be able to get that from dealer matey.

Reply to
Nige

On or around Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:28:55 -0000, "Nige" enlightened us thusly:

yeah, I'll call there tomorrow if I have time. It does have a power amp, Harmon Kardon, no less. There's posh, innit.

Still might fit a more modern head unit, though, I like being able to have 1 CD with about 10 album's worth of MP3s on it - also, as a general rule, MP3 seems to have less issues with skipping on bumps - I reckon it's cos it's reading less data per second and also presumably converting to straight audio of some kind, it's got more time to relocate the read point and get the next bit before it's played the bit it's on.

Also, front aux input (and bluetooth, if I can afford it) are bonuses.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

I use a cassette adapter to plug my MP3 player into the system, works ve= ry well. Or you can use one of those FM transmitter things but they take power (batteries or 12v) so less convient than the passive cassette adapter.

Larger supermarkets have both but don't pay more than about =A315 for transmitter.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

I use a cassette adapter to plug my MP3 player into the system, works very well. Or you can use one of those FM transmitter things but they take power (batteries or 12v) so less convient than the passive cassette adapter.

Larger supermarkets have both but don't pay more than about £15 for transmitter.

Reply to
cyberwraith

On or around Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:23:38 -0000, "cyberwraith" enlightened us thusly:

I've got one of them things, with the transmitter and they're neat. However, once I got the head unit which plays MP3s, I prefer putting 'em on CD, 'cos the MP3 player has a habit of going flat...

Reply to
Austin Shackles

Is yours the original unit?

Reply to
Nige

Can;t remember where I got it from but I got a Kenwood with MP3 compatibility, aiux input, but no bluetooth for about ?30 ... Last years model, so cut-price, fitted straight into the Disco ... though mine's a 300 Tdi not a D2 ... !!

When Juliet gets home I'll get the receipt and post the URL .. )

Reply to
Paul - xxx

On or around 27 Feb 2009 15:14:36 GMT, "Paul - xxx" enlightened us thusly:

different system. I tried a JVC in it, and it failed to power up the amp.

so for the moment it can stay standard. Standard one is an Alpine, I think, feeding into the Harmon/Kardon amp. However, it uses more of the ISO connector than most makers do..

got the magic numbers from the dealers, though, no hassle.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

"Austin Shackles" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Cool

Mine has a Panny front end, does mp3 etc & i have the fuill HK system.

Reply to
Nige

Did you have to go into the dealer, or did they give you them over the phone? Did they ask for the V5 or anything like that?

Cheers,

Matt

Reply to
Matt M

On or around Sat, 28 Feb 2009 20:05:11 -0000, "Nige" enlightened us thusly:

what unit is in yours? any chance of a model number? Although I found out that one of the other connections from the head unit is "spatial mode enable", although it wouldn't be fatal to lose that.

It's a pity in a way, the system works great and has got massive power. I can put thumpy music on like a chav, now. Or better yet something like Carmina Burana.

I reckon it can be made to work with 'most any head unit, spatial mode aside, as it's only looking for an "enable" signal from the head unit to the amp. Hopwever I was slightly surprised that the power antenna signal didn't do that. Might just've been wrong pin connections though.

The other option is to find somewhere to re-site the CD changer, so that passengers can get at it.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

On or around Sun, 01 Mar 2009 16:05:44 +0100, Matt M enlightened us thusly:

They're *supposed* to ask for proof of ownership. I happened to be just down the road from the dealer, so I went there in person and proffered the receipt, which they accepted.

however, I've heard of it being done by phone.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

I want the EKA 'just in case' type of thing - had to use it once on my old P38, and if you don't have it you're really buggered! Bound to need it on bank holiday weekend or something as well.

I'll try ringing the dealership near my parents, the one down in Bristol where I used to live couldn't give a **** if you've got something more than 6 months old. Problem is I'm in France - the dealerships here are all miles away, and they're all worse than the Bristol dealership in terms of customer service!

Matt

Reply to
Matt M

Not sure if this is going to be useful, but I stuck a neat lucky goldstar mp3 head unit in my old peugeot. Does MP3, aux and bluetooth, which sounds like a great idea, but it creates a mean echo with my nokia (was better with the blackberry) and struggles to connect.

Reply to
madhatchetman

Not sure if anyone's pointed this out yet as I've not been following the thread, or if you've thought of it yourself, but many head units with autochanger capability also have cheap leads available that terminate in a stereo jack plug so you can plug in an MP3 player or somesuch. Hie thee off to an independent stereo shoppe for a quote.

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

On or around Mon, 2 Mar 2009 22:47:17 +0000, Ian Rawlings enlightened us thusly:

The unit in the disco, I reckon predates most of that kind of stuff, and hasn't got aux input as a function. After all, good as it is, it's state-of-the-art from 10 years ago - there weren't ipods, MP3 players or any such things then.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

It's precisely those kind of stereos that have the conversion lead I'm talking about, more modern ones have aux inputs, but older ones with head unit functionality often get after-market leads available that fool the unit into thinking it's got a CD player attached but in reality it's just an aux input. I had one for an old cassette unit with a CD autochanger support port, cost me about 20 quid.

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

On or around Tue, 3 Mar 2009 17:46:35 +0000, Ian Rawlings enlightened us thusly:

Ah, I see what you mean. The auto-changer is connected via part of a fancy connector with lots of pins in 3-parts-stuck-together which also connects the rear headphone thingies. The anklebiters tested those today, and they work; interestingly the main volume goes down when they're plugged in, and also they can have the radio fed into them while the main ouptut is on CD, f'rexample.

clever stuff. There are loads of blutetooth-to-FM things on fleabay, so might go with one of them. some have a 3.5mm jack input as well; then go with solid-state rather than MP3s on CD. Phone's got 8GB of memory, after all, should get plenty of music on that.

Having played a bit with the system, it's bloody good - the mutli-changer is commendably non-skippy too, despite (or maybe because) that it's not actually attached under the seat as it should be.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

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