Conference terri::cars_uk

    Ian,
    
    I cannot offer advice about model types but would like to point out
    a couple of things.
    
    First of all does she intend to order the CD player with the car or
    pay in full for one herself after the car is fitted ?
    
    The fact that Renault do not offer one does not mean she can't order
    a specific model CD player. The car will be delivered with it already
    fitted.
    
    If she buys one after the car is delivered, she will be well out of
    pocket if it gets stolen because DEC only pay �100 for personal
    possessions in the car.
    
    Roy

    Re .1
    
    Fear not - she will order the car with CD player already fitted.  The
    difficulty was knowing which one to specify.
    
    Since I entered the original Note, Hertz have apparently recommended
    the Kenwood KCAR 10.  Anyone any comments on this model?
    
    Ian
    

    Ian,
    
    	for whats it worth. I investigated and bought/installed a CD in my
    16V 626 5 door a couple of months ago. Looked at most of the Japanese,
    American and European offerings. As a general rule all the Alpine
    and Kenwood stuf I saw had poor signalling componentry and bad
    electrical isolation. For e.g. the Kenwood top CD model with CD and
    tuner only (i.e. not a head unit) here (badged KE3100 I think?) had
    good signal seperation but when you used the remote you could literally
    hear the hum induced - BUT it looked great! Alpines were all nice but
    still havn't got their radio reception componentry up to speed in my
    opinion. Plus it was advantageous price-wise to buy all the kit I
    needed from one distributor which limited possible manufacturer
    combinations. Whatever you may hear an Alpine stockist tell you,
    compressed paper cones do not make great speakers (Alpine use paper) and 
    cant compete with the polimer and resin cones in some ranges.
    
    	I ended up with a Blaupunkt Munchen (Munich) CD unit ('only' 8 bit
    and 4x oversampling but the sound is so sweet and rich and clear you
    can feel it!) with Blaupunkt A60 amp driving a pair of Magnat Grifitti
    5th rear speakers (2 way 6 inch) and 4" Pioneers in the front (didnt
    want to cut open the front door panels). Would not hesitate to go out
    tomorrow with the same cash and buy this set-up again. If I win Lotto
    next time I'll put a pair of 5" Magnat or Blaupunkt speakers in the
    front (2 way, seperate tweeter and midrange) - would probably want to
    upgrade my amp to 4 channel 70W at that stage.
    
    	I imagine the European stuff we get here comes off the some
    production line as the stuff distributed in Europe but your local
    stuff should be cheaper - GO FOR BLAUPUNKT and MAGNAT!!
    
    	Your friend has made a good decision - CD in the car makes it a
    whole lot of fun!
    
    
    
    P.S. Assuming $'s, the final decision makers are the the two little
    wiggly things on the side of her head! - dont buy product spec's
    and buttons - "20bit, 18x oversampling, remote control, removeable
    front panel, etc..." gear is just a wank if your ears dont like it.
    
    Al
    

    At my local Renault dealer they offer a Pioneer C.D. autochanger to be 
    fitted from new, but its a dealer fit option rather than a Renault
    option. The stereo has the C.D. input socket on the front and can take 
    a C.D. player or autochanger with the appropriate remote control for
    it.
    
    Nick.

    
    
    Renault do offer a Cd player for their 16v 19. It has Two part numbers
    one is for the multiplay unit, the other for an adapter that fits
    behind the main tuner/cassette unit.
     I dont have the part numbers anymore but if you phone Renault UK they
    should be able to help..
     If not mail me and I'll see if I can track the part Nos for you.
    
    keith.

    I assume that in doing this you will lose the remote control options
    for sound level etc etc?
    
    
    Greg

    
    
    No I dont think so..but if you phone 081 514 6525 (this is the Renault
    dealer I spoke to) I'm sure they can help.

I put a quote in for a CD in my R5GT Turbo about two years ago.


The quote came out about 1000 pounds above the normal lease cost.....


                      KR 

    Has anyone tried one of these portable CD players which you pllug into
    the cassette slot on your stereo system?
    
    Cheers,
    
    Greg

    Yup,
    
    I got a Sony Carman for my birthday which has a plug in cassette and
    runs off the cigarette lighter. Its excellent. As long as you use the
    headphone jack rather than the recommended external jack. Sound can be
    a bit bright, but tapes of CDs are like that anyway. I leave the player
    on the passenger seat and generally have very little problems with
    jumps unless the road has some really sharp holes.
    
    
    Paul

Doesn't the 19 16V's cassette deck have a plug for CD's. I'm sure it
would be much better than using a cassette emulator.

    re. -1
    
    Yes it does, it has a C.D. input socket on the front.
    
    But does anybody know how these work as the cassette doesn't have a 
    switch for c.d. to tape, so how do you get the sound from the c.d. to
    play through the cassettes o/p.
    
    Nick.
    
    
    

�    Yes it does, it has a C.D. input socket on the front.
�    But does anybody know how these work as the cassette doesn't have a 
    
    If it's like my Clarion, simply putting a jack plug into the socket
    will switch the audio feed to CD.  Much like when inserting headphone
    plugs into a stereo, when the speakers go into 'mute'...
    
    J.R.

    
    The R19 16V doesn't have a cigarette lighter anyway.
    
    Tim

Yep, I've got a SONY carman, worked beautifully until I got this car...

it's got a Phillips RDS radio/cassette in it....Phillips have a policy of
making their cassette players spit out dummy cassettes, so that you have to buy
their car CD players, and no jack plug either... 

coniving, cheating, cheap sods that they are....


If you want RDS go for the Blaupunkt at least they (as far as I know) don't try 
to cheat the customer...

    Re .14
    
    	The R19 16V doesn't have a cigarette lighter??? Are you sure???

    
    re .16 
    
    Well, mine (and the other 3 I've been in) haven't.
    
    Tim          

    re:Cigarette lighters
    
    Well, not that I use it, but mine has. Try looking next to the litter
    bin, by the gearstick, between the front seats. Lift up the flap, and
    there it is. I can't imagine they would delete it ?
    
    Colin

    
    No, I definately haven't got one. I feel robbed. Mine's 14 months old,
    perhaps it was ommitted from my model and I confess not to looking in
    the litter bin of the other 2 I've been in - seems a strange place to
    put a lighter.
    
    Tim

    I think the litter bin is really meant to be an ashtray. In which case
    locating a cigarette lighter there is not unreasonable.
    
    I notice that some manufacturers are offering their cars without a
    cigarette lighter (and ashtray?) as a no cost option (BMW, Mercedes?)
    
    Roy

    If you decide to buy a Philips car CD player you could purchase one at a
    discount price through the PHILIPS STAFF SALES at Colchester (0206
    575115). Ask to be put through to staff sales and speak to Peggy Hunt.
    Tell her Rory from Belfast referred you to her.
                                       

    Well my car was supplied on 2nd August last year, i.e. probably shipped
    in June/July => 13ish months old. I wouldn't be too worried about not
    having a cigarette lighter - discourages bad habits !!
    
    BTW - Yeh, I was trying to think of 'ashtray', but the word didn't
    spring to mind, probably because I don't use it as such ;-)
    
    Col

    The problem with not having a fag lighter is that there is nowhere to
    plug into to get power to the external CD player.

    
    I've just recieved a quote for a 16V with ABS, Leather interior, Super
    gloss paint, and a renault dealer fit multiplay cd.....
     
    All for the one and only, never be repeated price of 1338.00

    Assuming I want to get some kind of portable CD and plug it into the
    jack plug REnault have so nicely marked 'CD', what do I need?
    
    
    Will a straight 2 phono to jack plug do? Or do I need a special CD
    player?
    
    Cheers,
    
    Greg

    stereo 3.5mm jack to stereo 3.5mm jack would be my bet Greg.
    
    I have a sony DiscMan, about 5 years old now, but that has a line level
    out socket at the back which is a 3.5mm stereo jack. A cable is
    supplied which splits this into 2 phono plugs if you want to plug it
    into your home stereo, but I guess you cassette/radio just has one
    socket.
    
    after I got it sony bought out a car-specific discman which seems to
    feature better shock isolation which can be a problem. My
    reccomendation would be to go for the ruggedised-car discmans or you
    will end up driving around with your discman jammed between your legs.
    This seems to gve the best isolation.
    
    Is that a CD player or are you just pleased to see me :-)

    Last question.
    
    CAn i just make up a power cable from my cigarette lighter to the
    adaptor plug?
    
    Greg

    You can get a sort-of-flexible arm thingy that a cd player can sit on
    that is supposed to isolate suffiently they sell them in argos I think
    no experience of them so can't comment, just thought I'd point it out.
    
    Richard (young)
    

    re .28
    
    You can buy an adapter that will convert the voltage from the cigarette
    lighter socket to the voltage your CD player likes. It probably runs on
    3, 4.5 or 6V depending how many batteries it normally uses, and you
    could seriously hurt it if you give it 12 - 15V.
    
    Andrew

    Greg,
    
    I use one a bought from tandy cost aboy #9.00 and covers a range of
    voltages. All you need is a voltage regualtor that takes in a higher
    voltage, stabilizes it and then supplies a lower regulated voltage.
    
    an LM317 is a semiconductor which uses a potential divider to give a
    range off output voltages. My advice would be to buy bthe Tandy unit as
    it all nicely packaged.

    With something as valuable as a CD player, you want to protect it as
    much as poss. from your car's 12v supply. If the Tandy has on board
    stabilisation, it will cut out the horrible spikes (as high as 100v
    plus) that can appear on a car's (rough & ready) 12v line
    
    Andy

    Well I went for it!
    
    My What Hi-Fi mini reviews stated that the Technics 'defies skipping'.
    
    So I spent a pleasant hour or so in the shop, shaking various portables
    to test how much they skip.
    
    In the end I bought a Technics SL-XP150 for �119 and I'm very pleased
    with it. On the total 4 hours of driving done over the weekend it never
    skipped once, this included 3 level crossings where I was convinced it
    would skip!
    
    Technics do a cigarette lighter adaptor, so I reckon I'll play safe and
    get that!
    
    Greg

    I have a Technics that I play in the landrover sometimes. It hardly
    skips at all.
    
    Simon

The Sony car-discman  doesn't exactly "skip" but it does remove the head from 
the disk and reposition it where the jolt occurred.

You don't miss anything, but you can get "pauses" in the play...

:-)

Greg,

I reckon breaking your leg was the best thing to happen to you for some 
time.

You break your leg then you get :

Satellite TV
car CD player
And now you're looking for a Mountain Bike!!

Anything Else??

Malc 8^)

For those that don't know him, Greg is at home with a Bust leg from 
SKiing, he now spends his time convincing his wife that all of these 
things are essential to his recovery!!

(Sorry Greg, I couldn't Resist!)

    re .36
    
    Malcolm:
    
    CD player courtesy of Digital Opportunity Channel's Capital Bonds.
    

    A quick word of warning. 
    
    
    I got the Goodmans car adaptor kit for �34, as Technics were pleased to
    try and sell me just the cigarette adaptor for �28!!
    
    
    BUT the cigarette lighter on the Goodmans isn't long enough for the
    Renault. I spoke to Goodmans who say there's is a 'universal' adaptor
    which works on most cars, but has problems with French cars.
    
    SO i need to buy another part and do some soldering!!
    
    Greg