on radios and such

[Roger M. Woodbury]

I am about to do the radio dance in the 94 100 Avant.  We will be taking
that car to Florida for Thanksgiving and I want to have CDs for the trip.

The car has the Audi Bose system, but no disc player, so I will change the
head unit.  Here is what the local radio guy that I have used for other cars
has said.  He recommends only Alpine (which is what he sells).  A "simple"
Alpine head unit will go right in, AND he can change the color of the
display to red by using a kit for that purpose from alpine that was actually
developed for BMW.  He did this for the Alpine unit that I put into the
Porsche 928 to tone down the display that was so bright and green, that it
was annoying in the other black cockpit.

The only difficulty is that there is no unit (according to him) that will
simply interface with the Audi/Bose system, so we will have to be careful
with volume settings or I guess the Bose amplifiers could cook off.

I am not really satisfied with either the idea of the installation, or the
use of the Alpine radio....seems as though EVERY aftermarket radio looks
like a 50's juke box.  My wife and I want a single CD player deck, though,
and a changer is not of interest.

Incidentally, I have the same system in my V8, along with the CD changer,
and I am thinking that I may change that a bit later on.  I have some
occasional grumblings of mutiny from the rear speakers, and am thinking of a
different system entirely.  If this happens, I may have both the head unit
and the CD changer for sale, should anyone be interested.

Roger