Got the new headunit chosen and installed finally. Went with a pioneer unit. 7 band equalizer, bluetooth, mp3 wma aac compatibility = wayy cool. Here are some pics...





Sound quality is transformed over the stock headunit. Still planning on upgrading the stock speakers, but the difference nowis amazing to say the least.

 

Did you install yourself?

 

Would like to know if you installed as well. I got my dvd player to fit nice and have power but found no harness that worked with the speakers. Did you by-pass the harness with the speakers?

 

I did install it myself. Total time was about6 hours with 2part runs included. There is a harness for the stock amp. Metra 70-1787 is the part #. I got mine on eBay. There were lots of them on there.The stock Audiheadunit uses preamp outputs to the Bose amp, not speaker level.Makesure that when you hookup the preamp connections from the headunitto the harness you puta "ground loopisolator" betweenthe twoto eliminate the loud pop when changing any settings or sources. $19 at radio shack, cheaper on eBay.The hardest part was getting all the wires back inside and the headunit in place. If you notice I also had to put the headunit behind the bracket in order to get the door to close. In the third pic you can see the little mic for the bluetooth aspect of it. Works quite well actually :-)

 

By the way.. Here is a link that ANYONE doing audio stuff should read through. This thing is like Encyclopedia Car-Audio.

One of the BEST tutorial and formula websites for car audio fundamental information and learning. It has everything you'll ever need to know about anything car audio/car electronics stuff. The column on the right has all the subsections. I recommend anyone that's gonna install themself read this. soooo much good information and a TON of graphic illustrations and built-in calculators (for box building, voltage, impedance, wattage, wire sizes, fuses, acoustics, sound waves, etc)

For instance... if you're looking to build an enclosure, Just go down to the box building sections and you can just enter the speaker specs and your desired height, width, etc... and it'll calculate all the rest (ie port sizes and placement if you want vented, or angles if you want a slanted face enclosure)

All you'll ever need to know. man. hope it helps

 

Not to jack the thread, but would dynamatting be beneficial for sound quality, or is it mostly marketing hype?

 

That link contains plenty of info, it is a great link thanks neur0tic. BTW, I don't know why, but this thread has inspired me to do a carputer. Don't know which software I'll use, but planning on a Refurb'd Mac Mini with the Intel Chip, bootcamping it to run XP if I need it. I prefer OSX but we'll see what software is best. 10 inch VGA touch screen where I removed the ashtray. hoping for all the goodies, am/fm/cd/dvd/sirius , then with GPS, Bluetooth Phone, Itunes to store music and watch videos stored on the HD, and vag com all on demand. I have only seen software that works with XM, but I've only been researching for an hour. I need my Sirius fix for the Stern and Bubba the Love Sponge. Okay, now I jacked the thread, I apologize for the geek in me.

 

Thats it!!!!! Metra 70-1787 . I was Googling and found this in England AUTOLEADS-PC9-408.I was told that you have to do the speakers through the RCA outs and that the partwasn't made by a major company. Thanks. Buying it asap.

 

Also just found this Fotki on it from MarTT.
http://public.fotki.com/martt/audi_tt/mods/radio/

 

keep in mind that if you're into audio... computers do NOT have even 10% of the sound quality capabilities of a real headunit that is also a computer... but is hard-coded for ONLY audio. 90% of computer sound cards will be total crap in comparison to any mid-high end car audio. If stock HU sound quality is good enough for you... then it wont be a problem... or if you plan to keep a real head unit. but if you planto run your audio from the computer... prepared for a big loss of SQ