Replace the MOST annoying part of the car

With all the rain in and around NYC for the past few weeks, I've been forced to drive with the windows up. Unfortunately, this significantly impacts my ability to hear the 3.6 symphony and had forced me to use the CDR23/MOST stereo system. Not the best. So, I've spent a lot of time looking for iPod/hard drive/anything other than CDR23 solutions, including searching the Rennlist forums. The main solutions seem to be the Dension Gateway 500 (lukewarm reviews), iTrip (not so much) and a complete system replacement (worth about a month's rent; hard to find something that a 18-year old wouldn't love in his Civic). I've noticed that most threads on this topic are from a few years ago, so I'm wondering (hoping) that there has been some breakthrough solution recently that is so obvious that nobody has felt it necessary to post a thread. Does the world's collective Porsche authority know of anything that actually works well? Thanks all

I am installing the AVIC U310BT. Comes with ipod integration, bluetooth and nav. It was around $450 and another $150 for the kit from Eurospeed motors for installation. I am hoping that the install makes it look like 'factory'. I am told the only soln to the CDR23 is to replace the headunit.

Does your car have the MOST fiber-optic audio system?

If you really want to hear the 3.6, uprate your exhaust to PSE, Fister, and / or combine with an Evo intake. It really is a glorious combination.

wait, if getting the iphone/nav/bluetooth integration only costs $450 getting the AVIC, then I need it. I hate the MOST system, but I heard that you'd have to replace the speakers and the amp too. Don't want to spend a grand doing this. The car is noisy, so I don't need audiophile. I leave that to my house.

The MOST annoying part of the car was the CENTER CONSOLE. That thing that rubs on my right leg all the time. got rid if it, though.

Whitey, I already have the Fabspeed exhaust (which I love). The intake is definitely on the list though. What I'm learning (after a month of ownership) is that, while this car wasn't too expensive to buy upfront, it has a way of making me want to constantly spend money on it. From your website, I can see that your car has the same effect! Such is life. Jyoteen, I'm with you, I don't need great sound quality in my car. Given how much time/money I spent getting great sound in my apartment, I would be really depressed if a car (with all it's comprimises in terms of space and materials) could even be modified to house a decent audio system. Loud? Sure. Good? Not in my limited experience. How hard can it be for the guys at Alpine to design a head unit that is MOST-compatible?

all I need is an iphone hookup. I can stream internet radio. That's it. LA radio stations are absolute crap. Hell, i can even live without navigation.

Sorry for the newbie question, but can someone explain what the MOST system actually is? I see that term alot, but no breakdown of what it is. (I'm wondering if by knowing, it'll help me figure out a buzz/decrease-volume that comes into the right speakers when I hit a bump, then hit another bump and it goes back to normal, even when it's "muted". I figure it's a loose connection or ground-shield lifting somewhere. I will start a new thread for that question, I don't want to hijack the OP's thread.)

MOST, as I understand it, is a audio system where the head unit (preamp), amplifier and speakers are connected with fiber-optics instead of copper wires. The same copper wires that are good enough for the highest-end home audio installations (let's not get into a discussion about audiophile cables...). In practice, it seems to limit your choices of aftermarket head units to approximately zero. Porsche, BMW and a few others chose to use this technology for some unknown reason. May have something to do with Navs or something. Surfer, I already mentioned the console delete to my wife. She asked why I thought it was a good idea to spend money to remove something from the car. My answer sounded very convincing to me, apparently not so much to her.

in my non most 02, I hooked up the aux input via a cable order from becker. maybe there is something like that for the most headunit? worst case scenario you can get an fm modulator

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Sometimes it's my passenger(sorry honey)...my wife gets annoyed when I drive too fast!

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Cool, thanks mjdavis. I'm guessing my '01 is a non-most car. What's the easiest way to tell, take a look at the amp and see if it's got fiber running to it?

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Correct. Most is MY03 and up.

+1 most annoying features 1) centre console - GONE! 2) Crappy stereo - I'll get to upgrading it. 3) Complaining wife - keep her out of the car when out having fun. cheers

Just heard this from someone: "No need for complete system replacement. The headunit's built in amp will run the 6 speakers if you wire them correctly. The 2 front speakers are 2ohm each, so need to be run in series. Then you need to remove the sub assembly in the rear, and convert them from parallel to series, which gives you about a 2 ohm resistance. Then just find a small 2 ohm stable amp to then run the subs. Its long winded and slightly complicated, but by no means impossible. If you have a bit more to spend than I did, alpine make a very nice small 5 channel amp, that is stable to 2 ohms." I'm not exactly sure what he's saying. Anybody with car audio expertise have the ability to interpret this? Thanks!

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That all makes sense. I'm an electrical engineer, and have also done all my own stereo installs. Electrical resistance is measured in ohms. I won't go into how a speaker's "resistance" is reactive (i.e. it changes with frequency because the speaker coil is an inductor), cause it doesn't matter to most people doing installs. The take-away is that amplifiers are stable down to a certain resistance (more correctly stated for a speaker, "impedance") measured in ohms. The resistance values of speakers can be added if the speakers are put in series, or halved if two (identical valued) speakers are put in parallel (the equation is actually 1/[(1/R1)+(1+R2)+...+(1/Rn)]. If an amplifier can only support down to a 4ohm speaker, then the front 2ohm speakers in series equates to 4ohm. The rears, if that quote is true, says the rear subs are 1ohm each. In the end, it's all about configuring the speakers to run on a chosen amplifier, which boils down to how many channels and what the load impedance (i.e. speakers) it can drive. If you're running separates (mids and tweets) then you need to make sure that there is a crossover that you're feeding, and not just putting the mids and tweets in parallel or series. A crossover is simply a filter that will send the upper freqs to the tweets and mids to the mids. Sending full bandwidth signals to tweets can damage them, and will make all the rest just sound bad and muddy. There's obviously much more that can be said, but I don't want to bore everyone. Anyone wanting more nitty gritty details or explanations and I'd be happy to do it. I used to teach, and I guess I'm sort of fond of it. Cheers!

if all you want is to run an ipod through your stock system use an iwire, i had one and it was fine, it charged and played, think it cost 50 bucks or so, it just plugs into the back of the becker unit, i did it myself in about 5 minutes including the time spend snaking it to where i wanted it this is the website http://www.iwirep.com/

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that's for a non-MOST car

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MOST is an information transport fabric: it allows the transmission of information between devices on the network (it can be entertainment or control information). The backbone is fiber-optic based. MOST is synchronous, so even relatively simple devices can transmit and receive information, and hardware can be minimized. The fiber optics can be used in harsh environments (like an automobile) and are lighter than copper. It's prevalent in European cars and is spreading to others quickly; 16 auto mfrs and about a hundred electronics and semiconductor companies are members of the MOST cooperation, which sets standards and performs testing, etc. You can read more about it on the internet, or if you're an IEEE member, the Vehicular Technology section of IEEE covers MOST in its publications. Porsche was early to MOST. I consider MOST to be an advantage because adding infotainment or control devices is very simple. For example, the Dension unit works with MOST. It's expensive, but it is really easy to install, and it works. I installed mine in about 30 minutes (included removing the 5.5 pound 6-disk CD player and installing the 0.5 pound Dension unit in its place, and mounting theiIPod). It worked first time, with my nav system showing an iPod interface. All I had to do was connect the Dension to the fiber ring using the connecter that was already there. It was a heck of a lot easier than trying to get to the back of the head unit with copper wires. Pretty simple stuff. Cheers.

Sounds like a lot of you guys really know your stuff. I guess the challenge will be finding an installer with as much expertise as the Rennlist forum.