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General Connecting mp3/wma player through CD changer?

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General Connecting mp3/wma player through CD changer?

trackdayqueen

trackdayqueen

1985 AE86 Sprinter Trueno
Parked in the garage
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Right, please believe me i have searched long and hard on this topic, but still haven't got a definitive answer, so thought it worth flaggin up as surely its got to be useful for a fair few on here.

Okay, have a new (3 day old) Multijet with stock CD/Radio. I would like to play my WMA (windows media audio) files somehow through the stock CD/radio head unit.

Obviously the immediate option is to go for a lead that connects where the CD changer goes and hopefully use my WMA/MP3 player with that. But the question is, will it work? I cannot find a conclusive answer on the forum.

I really don't want to change the head unit.

I have heard that the dension link works with the ipod, but i don't have an ipod and that will cost me a fortune to get kitted out with all that stuff. I'd much rather buy an MP3/WMA player and use that seeing as all my current music is in WMA format.

Any ideas? Obviously there is the FM transmitter option, but i'm not keen on it. Way too much faff.

Reason i want to find a solution for this is because in my previous car i had a JVC DVD player that could play WMA/MP3 format, so got my entire music collection on 3 DVDs (well over 200 albums).
 
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Alan.D said:
You have the same little MP3 sticker above the headunit screen so will play MP3 but not sure on the WMA
Click to expand...

It won't play WMA.. MP3 is fine but even then its limited by the small size of a CD. So its not a great option really. I could only fit say 10 albums on a CD. Even then i will have to recode from WMA to MP3 which is a bit too much of a PITA really. I only have about 5 albums on MP3 compared to well over 200 on WMA.

I don't mind shelling out for a decent WMA player type thingy if there is a way to connect it to the stock CD/Radio head unit.
 
You might need to pull the pins out of that blue connector and push them into the yellow connector as I said in the post you linked to but otherwise should work fine.
 
Um, how is an FM transmitter thingemybob more faff than removing the head unit? Even my sister managed to set it up with no problems! Also, you can move it from car to car, with no faff. And they're only £10. In fact, I can't think of a reason not to get one!


Oh, wait, yes I can. iPods with enough capacity to store my entire music collection (and if it doesn't store it all, what's the point?) are over £100.
 
Sound quality of the FM transmitters is crap compared to connecting directly to the back of the HU, and once you've made the lead you never again have to retune the transmitter or radio to listen to your music.

Thanks for the link to Bluespot, I never actually got around to doing this so I've ordered one those for £7 shipped (cheaper than buying the pins, cable, and jack + time crimping and soldering). Should come in handy during the festive period as I'll be doing some long distance drives :)
 
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rbrian said:
Um, how is an FM transmitter thingemybob more faff than removing the head unit? Even my sister managed to set it up with no problems! Also, you can move it from car to car, with no faff. And they're only £10. In fact, I can't think of a reason not to get one!


Oh, wait, yes I can. iPods with enough capacity to store my entire music collection (and if it doesn't store it all, what's the point?) are over £100.
Click to expand...

Sound quality is crap. Also you have to keep retuning on long drives which i seriously CBA with. I don't get your point about ipods. Especially so seeing as i'm not going to buy an ipod anyway due to all my files being WMA. Creative Zen (£120 for 8gb) looks fave at the moment.
 
Okay got the lead, went to fit it and err there is nowhere to plug it in to. Its a blue connector which surely can't replace the existing one which seems to be full of connections, so its completely wrong.

Remember someone else saying that you have to wire into the yellow connector block. This looks possible as there is currently only one wire going into it, so reckon i can get my partner to have a bash at that.
 
trackdayqueen said:
Okay got the lead, went to fit it and err there is nowhere to plug it in to. Its a blue connector which surely can't replace the existing one which seems to be full of connections, so its completely wrong.

Remember someone else saying that you have to wire into the yellow connector block. This looks possible as there is currently only one wire going into it, so reckon i can get my partner to have a bash at that.
Click to expand...

I've yet to have a look at this on mine but the pins in the blue connector are probably the same, push the barbs in and pull the pins out, then push them into the yellow housing, job done ;)
 
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Just finished putting this lead onto my 2007 Panda Dynamic headunit (without MP3) and I'm well chuffed! Very easy to route the cable into the glovebox as there is a big hole on the top of the glovebox and plenty of room to get your hand up the back of the dash to fish out the cable. The hardest part for me was getting the pins out of the blue connector to put into the yellow connector on the back of the headunit. I used an awl and forced it up the sides of each pin to flatten the locator wings then they just fall out.
Well worth doing and the 3.5mm jack plug means I can use my phone, ipod or any music device really! Sound quality is a million times better than my iTrip FM transmitter, no hiss and plenty of volume. I'll need to try and see if I can fit it to our Multipla now:D.

Scott
 
equaliser said:
The hardest part for me was getting the pins out of the blue connector to put into the yellow connector on the back of the headunit. I used an awl and forced it up the sides of each pin to flatten the locator wings then they just fall out.
Click to expand...

Other option is to slowly cut the blue connector to pieces with small wire clippers, no need then to risk damaging the pins.

Cheers.
 
Okay Mark (boyf) sorted it. (y) Cheers for all your help. :)

Was actually relatively easy once we'd mopped the blood up from when he was lacerating himself from getting the connectors out of the blue plug!

Only thing is, have tried to set the 'external audio volume', I can adjust it fine, but it never maintains the setting, so the volume level on AUX is noticably lower than either the radio or CD.

Does anyone know how you set it?
 
You need to crank the volume up on the mp3 player, this is what happens in most cars as the output is at headphone levels which are very low.
 
b1g1an said:
You need to crank the volume up on the mp3 player, this is what happens in most cars as the output is at headphone levels which are very low.
Click to expand...

Well i can do that, but it still isn't at the levels of say the radio or CD. There is an option to adjust the external audio volume, which adjusts the media player level perfectly. Only trouble is, I can't set it.

Whatever i do as soon as it comes out of the menu the volume level drops again.

Just wondered if i'm doing something wrong and why i can't set this input volume?
 
That setting is for the phone kit, you just think it's for the aux input because that's the input you have it on when entering the menu. Try it with the radio selected and you'll get the same effect.
 
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