Have noticed something a little worrying recently...

A number of manufacturers are starting to totally integrate the audio
system into the car, eg Audi with the A6 and A8 (with their MMI system),
BMW with the i-Drive, and apparently Peugeot are jumping on this
particular bandwagon as well.

This would all be fine if manufacturers would fit decent kit to the car
in the first place. But recently I had an A3 as a courtesy car, with the
Bose premium sound system. The Bose system served the primary purpose of
showing up just how bad the head unit was.

In this particular car it was the Symphony 6 CD, cassette and tuner
double height head unit. Which isn't too bad, but not a patch on say an
aftermarket HU from the likes of Sony, Alpine etc. Indeed when I got my
A4 back from the garage, the first thing I noticed when I got into it
was how much better the audio system was (factory speakers, Sony MEX-1HD
head unit, XM-4060 amp, twin JBL 10" subs).

In fact I'd go so far as to say that I wouldn't buy eg an A6 for this
reason, you can't replace the factory head unit with aftermarket, as
there isn't actually a "head unit" to replace.

Any comments?

--
Glenn Richards Tel: (01453) 845735
Squirrel Solutions http://www.squirrelsolutions.co.uk/

IT consultancy, hardware and software support, broadband installation