T3RVO
Member
No doubt some of you guys have come across this issue many times before.
Originally my 2002 C32 AMG Estate had COMAND and Bose.
The COMAND head had long since been thrown away before I bought the car which came with a very poor quality combined navigation/audio head unit. It was one of those models that comes with a photocopied manual that was translated directly into English by a juvenile giant panda.
Whoever fitted the cheap head unit soon discovered its incompatibility with the Bose amplifier located in the right rear wing. So they installed an aftermarket amplifier capable of (a) receiving analogue signal from the head; and (b) behaving reasonably well with the Bose 2ohm speakers.
It wasn't long before a cooking smell filled the car and the head unit's touch screen display died. I pulled the unit from the console and removed the power connector so I could complete my journey without being distracted by things like onboard fires and blue flashing lights.
In haste I bought and fitted a fairly decent Kenwood 2-DIN head unit with Bluetooth, which hooked up to the aftermarket (analogue) amplifier that was floating around under the boot floor. The sound quality is reasonable but I never found the canbus (?) connection in the car's console for the fitting kit I ordered with the head unit, so the steering wheel controls for audio and phone don't function.
What I really want is to obtain a Radio + CD (nothing more, I don't need telly or navigation or phone) head unit that has optical output for the Bose amp and will permit use of the steering wheel controls. I've hardly used the Kenwood's Bluetooth so I'm not bothered about phone connectivity - there is an old Nokia cradle installed and if I was bothered I could perhaps source a Bluetooth adapter for it (no doubt at some wild cost). I'm not bothered about navigation as I have a portable Garmin unit with lifetime updates, so why would I want Comand with an old outdated disc?
In any case I know where I'm going. Sometimes.
I favour an Audio 20 as it's a 2-DIN size but the Bose sound quality and steering wheel controls are the primary desires. Good quality radio, CD and the ability to control it without crawling around the dashboard while driving are my needs.
Can I just buy a used head unit from eBay with a part number starting with 203, or do I need to seek out other specifics - particularly the optical output?
Many thanks for your attention!
Jerry.
Originally my 2002 C32 AMG Estate had COMAND and Bose.
The COMAND head had long since been thrown away before I bought the car which came with a very poor quality combined navigation/audio head unit. It was one of those models that comes with a photocopied manual that was translated directly into English by a juvenile giant panda.
Whoever fitted the cheap head unit soon discovered its incompatibility with the Bose amplifier located in the right rear wing. So they installed an aftermarket amplifier capable of (a) receiving analogue signal from the head; and (b) behaving reasonably well with the Bose 2ohm speakers.
It wasn't long before a cooking smell filled the car and the head unit's touch screen display died. I pulled the unit from the console and removed the power connector so I could complete my journey without being distracted by things like onboard fires and blue flashing lights.
In haste I bought and fitted a fairly decent Kenwood 2-DIN head unit with Bluetooth, which hooked up to the aftermarket (analogue) amplifier that was floating around under the boot floor. The sound quality is reasonable but I never found the canbus (?) connection in the car's console for the fitting kit I ordered with the head unit, so the steering wheel controls for audio and phone don't function.
What I really want is to obtain a Radio + CD (nothing more, I don't need telly or navigation or phone) head unit that has optical output for the Bose amp and will permit use of the steering wheel controls. I've hardly used the Kenwood's Bluetooth so I'm not bothered about phone connectivity - there is an old Nokia cradle installed and if I was bothered I could perhaps source a Bluetooth adapter for it (no doubt at some wild cost). I'm not bothered about navigation as I have a portable Garmin unit with lifetime updates, so why would I want Comand with an old outdated disc?
In any case I know where I'm going. Sometimes.
I favour an Audio 20 as it's a 2-DIN size but the Bose sound quality and steering wheel controls are the primary desires. Good quality radio, CD and the ability to control it without crawling around the dashboard while driving are my needs.
Can I just buy a used head unit from eBay with a part number starting with 203, or do I need to seek out other specifics - particularly the optical output?
Many thanks for your attention!
Jerry.
