CircuitCity wants $150 more for CD player install

[bigtisas]

Circuit City is having a free CD player installation promotion this week. I headed up there this afternoon and tried to replace the stock BMW radio with a Sony CDX-GT300(not the best match for the interior but close). The CC salesman said the installation is free but the BMW stock radio has a separate amp and he needs to re-wire the unit, so he needs to charge $150. Does that make sense? Should I pay the $150?

TIA.

David
92 525ia 151k miles

http://www.circuitcity.com/IMAGE/product/detail/son/PC.SON.CDXGT300.CN.JPG

[winfred]

id get the adapter plug and wire the new head unit through the stock amp, that way the crossover is still in the circuit and sending the signals to the proper speakers, the plug usually costs $10-20 plus about a dozen butt connectors to hook it to the new unit

[Anton CH.]

A. Sony explodes are junk.
B. All the rewiring is done in the adapter harness. The amp just recieves the speaker output on the headunit.

[DanDombrowski]

Doing what winfred said isn't a bad idea, but when I did mine, I opted for 2 adapters that circuit city sold me - a BMW to universal connector, and a universal to sony adapter. $30 for the two, so if your time isnt free, then get those. If you mind splicing wiring, get the adapter and splice it in with the connectors.

Word of waring on the universal adapters - theyre wired wrong. The power antenna wire is routed to turn on the trunk amp, which is wrong. That way, the CD player will turn off the trunk amp and you only get the radio. Its a quick fix, but know that its going to be there.

You absolutely do not have to let CC rewire the trunk amp, I would advise against that.

[winfred]

i have actually chunked a sony cd player out the window after ripping it out of the dash, i had wondered if they gotten better


A. Sony explodes are junk.

[winfred]

the wires on the adaptor should be color coded to the wires on the head unit so it's not a big deal


Doing what winfred said isn't a bad idea, but when I did mine, I opted for 2 adapters that circuit city sold me - a BMW to universal connector, and a universal to sony adapter. $30 for the two, so if your time isnt free, then get those. If you mind splicing wiring, get the adapter and splice it in with the connectors.

[SnakeyesTx]

Sony = fail. They get really hot (behind the face.. where all the components are). They burn out fairly quick, and their warranty process is just slightly easier than sitting in the gas chamber. They should stick to home audio :D Pioneer Premier FTW! I've had the same headunit (DEH P850 dual screen) in *4* cars already and it just keeps going. Sure it doesn't have a pretty full color screen, but its potent, has a great EQ that I can tweak, and it still has a very clean and modern look to it. The only reason I *might* replace it is for another one with the 6/7" screen but I don't see that happening in the near future.

Note : This was on my 95's harness. I'm not sure what was the first year it was used. Just take your factory headunit out of the dash and look at the back of it. If it has a nice fat black molex about 2 1/2" x 2" then continue reading.

I bought the adapter harness for about 15 dollars, the antenna adapter for 3 and wired it myself like always. When I put it all together (I put an amp and 2 12's in the trunk while I was at it), I had subs only and no speaker output. A couple of folks here (I think it was gmannino specifically - thanks!) told me about the factory amp/x-over issue. Basically all you have to do is bridge the blue wire of the adapter harness (it should be labeled -remote- or -power antenna-) to the white (it might have turned off-white or cream from heat or age.. mine was almost cream colored) wire of the factory bmw wiring.

Since I had an amp in the trunk for the subs, I had the blue wire split to both amps. (One to the blue wire going to my trunk which I ran myself, and one to the white BMW wire.) I used one of those doubler-clip things for wiring where you crush the metal tab over the wires to lock them down and put the protective cover on. Easy stuff. Save yourself the money, its a very simple, yet gratifying process to install it.

Last step... don't forget the beauty ring when you're all done :D

[bigtisas]

I don't know anything about car audio installation. I guess I'll let the Bestbuy or CC take care of it. I don't really like the Sony either but they have the closest colors (black and red LED) to match the car's interior. I personally like the Nakamichi more but it's expensive and doesn't come with an aux port for my mp3 player.

BTW, how difficult is to do the installation myself? Never done anything electrical on the car before but I read the bmwe34.net. Seems doable.

[SnakeyesTx]

I did the headunit install myself in under 10 minutes.

That doesn't include soldering the adapter wires to the stereo's harness. That part took me about 15 minutes on my kitchen table, but once you get that down, 10 minutes of plug and play install :D

[Vanguard]

I just had a JVC head unit installed last weekend. All it needed was the harness that came with the radio, a bmw harness adapter and an antenna adapter. Took about 10 mins tops. Find someplace else (other than circuit city) to have your radio installed.

http://mobile.jvc.com/product.jsp?productId=PRD6000002&pathId=52

The JVC arsenals are a good match for a black dash. I had a regular JVC KD-G820 installed (silver) which goes pretty well with my grey interior but wish I'd ordered the aresenal instead.

http://www.jvc.com/Resources/00/00/75/50.JPG

[bigtisas]

The JVC arsenals looked better than Sony but I checked CC and Bestbuy, none of them carries the arsenals. :(

[Paul in NZ]

I find all this quite Interesting.Guess what the std "BMW" head unit and CD player are in my car?.......Sony
http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/kiwi535/int.jpg

[genphreak]

Paul that was in the days when Sony knew what it was making. These days its all about ripping off its hardware customers with sub-standard nobbled products, in order to fleece them into buying content forever afterwards...

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2552 (http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/z/e/200606/ipodwmv/DB_crap.wmv)

Basically Sony only make CRAP these days, ie products laced with Content, Restriction, Annulment, and Protection