PeteC

I want to replace the standard unit with a CD/tuner. In the short term, I will retain the existing speakers, but will probably change at least the front ones sometime next year ( - having spent a small fortune on goodies for the car in the 6 weeks since I've had it, I'm having trouble enough getting approval from "her indoors" for the headunit, let alone new speakers!).

I've narrowed my choice down to three models:

Alpine CDM7861R (voted by Car Stereo magazine as best CD under £300)
Pioneer DEHP6100R
Kenwood KDC7080R

On Car Audio Direct's web site, these are all the same price (£240).

Which should I go for, bearing in mind that it needs to sound acceptable with the existing speakers? And is fitting simply a case of pulling out the existing unit, swapping lead(s) over to the new unit, and pushing it into the slot?

Pete

AWD

Someone was tryng to sell a 7080R for £120 on Scoobynet a little while ago. Have a look at the 'Private' section.

rockin'Ru

The Pioneer will give you better tone control and it has the only "true" mosfet built in amp that I know of.You can bridge the rear channels to drive a sub if you wanted.
As for the install,I can't speak for the newer cars but from 90 down you'll need an instalation kit for the dash.Aftermarket radios are wider and deeper[you need the extra 1" of depth or you'll hit the heater ducts].You can use the factory wires if you know what they are and may be able to track down interface plugs[Crutchfield?]to simplify things,but I would run a new heavy gauge wire from the battery to the HU for the constant hot.The factory wire's a little small to run some of todays high powered HU's.
Hope this helps.

john banks

Kenwood 5080R (similar to 7080 except the bells and whistles) went straight into my MY00 Belgian import - easily fitted, ISO plug to ISO plug, aerial lead fits without adapter. 5 minute job - use the metal "U" things that were in the glovebox to extract the old HU as per manual. Cost £153. 7080 is £199 (or thereabouts) from the mail order dealer who supplied me (Advanced Digital Solutions - don't have the number on me, but they were great - beating others prices by 20% or so with good service).

Did sound acceptable with factory speakers (ish) , but even a £72 pair of Kenwoods HQ167DB (now running off a Kenwood amp and still sounding good) in the front and it sounded **MUCH** better. (again not a difficult job - only mod rqd was to junior hacksaw the splashguards - 5 min job each again - no MDF larking around). The factory speakers are pathetic - change them ASAP. "Her indoors" will come round when she hears it - mine did Oh, and some sound deadening will make the speakers sound twice as good! (I tried a before and after). Then you'll want to foam the doors to stop the rattles and maybe put some good speaker cable in - another big improvement.

AWD

Get the head unit first - she'll appreciate the quality of sound - and then later get the speakers.

I've got a Kenwood 7080 head unit and have had no problems with it. I like it and it provides good quality sound. I am no hi-fi buff so I won't spend loads of cash, but it is pretty good IMO.

PeteC

By the time you've added carriage on, Edworthys prices are no cheaper than Car Audio Direct.

Following a suggestion from another thread, I bought the latest Max Power ( - God, what a bloody awful, tacky, mag that is!) for the mail order ads, and I know that I can get the Pioneer 6100R for £200.

I think I'll have to have a wander up Tottenham Court Rd one lunch time and check out the prices there.

Does anyone know if there is a UK magazine (somewhat more upmarket hopefully than M P!) specifically devoted to ICE, with reviews and comparisons?

Mark_S

Why spend that much when you can get them for less at

AWD

Pete

There are a couple of car audio magazines as I remember buying a couple at WHSmiths before I bought my system in January. I can't remember the names offhand but have a look at any decent newsagents.

AWD

I remember having a look at the ads at the back of Max Power and Revs when I was looking to get a new car hifi - those magazines are pretty nasty.

PeteC

Thanks, I'll have a look in WH Smiths then.

PeteC

In the end, I decided to go for the Kenwood 7080, from Empiredirect, for the silly price of £179.99 plus £7.50 delivery. Tottenham Court road dealers were all quoting around £225, so an excellent result.

Thanks for your help, guys.

Is there any knack in getting the Philips junk out of car (a MY00) and the Kenwood in?

john banks

as above, use the U things in the glovebox to extract old one. Need to fit the cage of the new one and then push HU in and click. If there are a lot of bulky wires, try and push them to one side so that the HU goes in without making the dash bulge.

Kevin Greeley

PeteC: I can only see the 7080 on the Empire Direct website for £217.46 !

Do you have to phone or something ?

Kevin.

[This message has been edited by Kevin Greeley (edited 27 October 2000).]

Chris L

PeteC

Have you got the head unit yet? The only reason I ask is that I had mixed results with Empire Direct. I ordered a new video from them a few months ago and they were great - delivered within 48 hours and 50 quid cheaper than anywhere else I had seen.

Tried to order a new Sony headunit about six weeks ago from ED and it was constantly out of stock. I had to do a lot of chasing and eventually cancelled my order. If you do have problems, you can try

PeteC

Kevin,

The £179.99 price was in their ad in Max Power ( - the only thing that sh1te mag was any good for!!). I don't have their phone number to hand but presume it's on their web site. If not, let me know and I'll dig it out on Monday.

Chris,

WhenI placed my order, I checked that they had it in stock. I'll keep my fingers crossed then, as the next lowest quote was about £13 more (which was still a damn good price compared to most!

Pete

Kevin Greeley

FWIW, I found the Kenwood 7080R on

chiark

On the TCR, one place that has constantly impressed me is Citysounds. They've got a large car audio section out the back, and they really know their stuff. Andy looked after me very well when I bought my stuff.

Some other places on TCR took the, er, mickey. I *hate* the "pick a price, tap it into a calculator, press some random buttons and then say what comes into your head" attitude.

AWD

chiark

I know what you mean. They tap away and com up with a price which they say they can't go below as they would be losing money. But then amazingly when you get a better quote from another shop - they somehow manage to tap away again and get the price lower.

Nowadays, I use TCR to go window shopping but I haven't bought anything there for at least a couple of years.

PeteC

Kevin,

I've been keeping an eye on letsbuyit.com, and looking at the lack of movement on the car audio kit ( - the units that I looked at seem to have no buyers), I don't think you've got a snowball's chance of getting the price down to £185 (it's currently £200)unless you can persuade some mates to go in with you.

By the way, they've updated the prices on the empiredirect site - the 7080 is now shown as £179.89. I was told that I should receive mine today or tomorrow, so I'll let you know when it arrives.

Chiark/AWD,

Know what you mean about many of the places on the Tottenham Court Rd. I tend also to use them for window shopping, although I did pick up a GPS unit from one of them a couple of years back at a very good price. It started playing up after a few months, but they changed it without any aggro at all.

[This message has been edited by PeteC (edited 01 November 2000).]

AWD

A friend of mine got some of the Phillips DECT cordless phones from TCR a year ago - and got a good price as he bought 4 phones. They are good for multiple purchases as they will bring prices down. Apart from that, I am wary of some of those shops. They all claim that they are the only 'Sony' or whatever dealers in the whole of TCR and that all the other shops are selling grey imports. Not sure who to trust when everyone badmouths everyone else.

Edited due to bad typing...

[This message has been edited by AWD (edited 01 November 2000).]

AndrewC

Anyone know if the 7080 is compatible with the Kenwood steering-wheel mounted remote control?

AndrewC...

PeteC

I finally fitted in my new Kenwood 7080 on Saturday, and I'm very, very pleased. I'll probably go that last mile and change the speakers as well, but to be honest, I could certainly live with the current sound, which is a huge improvement over the standard Philips.

I didn't find it all that much of a doddle to fit though! Extracting the Philips unit was easy, but I found it a real swine to get the cage out. Straightening out the tabs that had been bent in at the bottom wasn't too bad, but I had real problems with the ones at the top. In the end, I distorted the top part of the cage out of shape so that I could free it.

Fitting the new cage was OK, but getting the head unit was a bit of nightmare. I've no idea what an ISO connector is, but the connector in the back of the unit has small round pins, whilst the plug which came off the back of the Philips has flat pins. No problem, because the Kenwood comes with an adaptor harness. However, with this attached (which in itself is quite bulky), plus the other surplus leads coming out the back of the unit, there is a hell of a lot of wiring that you've got to find space for. Eventually, with a lot of shoving, I managed to click home the unit in its cage, but there is a whole load of severely squashed wiring now behind the centre console!! I just hope I haven't caused any damage in the process ( - none apparent at the moment).

John, how on earth you managed to fit yours in 5 minutes I just don't know. It must have taken me nearer two hours!

Anyway, I'm pleased with the end result.

Pete

mattski

I had a 7080R ... for a day! I took it to
get fitted and the black faschia around the
kenwood was too big to fit in my dash.

Take note guys the Kenwood will not fit
properly in earlier cars!

Luckily the dealer was really good and done
me a superbdeal on a Pioneer DEH-7100R... very please with it, although I would have liked to hear the kenwood :O)

Regarding speakers..definately change them!
I bought some Pioneer TS-E series speakers
and put them in all-round. The fronts where
a doddle, literally replaced the factory ones
the backs are odd, the unit fits but the
grill is *slightly* too small. A sub will
be good too, although I have yet to figure
out a way of stopping it flying around the
boot ;o)

Matt

AWD

AndrewC

There is a remote control option for the 7080R. I think that it costs about £20-30. I didn't bother with it when I got mine.