Replacing Music System

[PedalBin]

Has anyone replaced the standard Bolero / Columbus / Amundsen on their Karoq? 

 

I am more than happy with the sound quality it is just the fact the sound files play as single tracks not albums so you always get a couple of second gap between songs which is HUGELY annoying to me, especially listening to live albums and albums where song segue into one another like Dark Side of the Moon, Sgt Peppers, South of Heaven, Misplaced Childhood, etc. This never happened on my Octavia or Yeti and it is frustrating the newest car of the lot does this. 

 

The only way I have found around this is use my digital media player via the USB. However, since the internal Sat Nav no longer receives traffic updates I use Waze via my mobile phone which has to use the USB port. I tried using a spliter but it won't run both at the same time and it is for the longer journeys I prefer to listen to full albums which is when I need a Sat Nav.  

 

I have asked about half a dozen companies who claim on their website to be able to upgrade any car and link it to their systems, e.g. rear camera, climate control, etc and all have come back with "we have no head unit that fits a Karoq, we can upgrade your speakers though".

 

Anyone upgraded / replaced their head unit?  

 

 

[MrSecretPotato]

Why not play the music from the phone while connected via cable (or wirelessly) to the car for Android Auto or Apple CarPlay? You can also use Waze for navigation, make calls easily, and play whatever music you want in whatever order.

If you absolutely need to use the media player, then you need a 12V charger and a cable to keep your phone topped up so that the USB slot stays free for the media player.

[PedalBin]

37 minutes ago, MrSecretPotato said:

Why not play the music from the phone while connected via cable (or wirelessly) to the car for Android Auto or Apple CarPlay? You can also use Waze for navigation, make calls easily, and play whatever music you want in whatever order.

If you absolutely need to use the media player, then you need a 12V charger and a cable to keep your phone topped up so that the USB slot stays free for the media player.

The majority of my sound files are FLAC and do not work on my phone, hence using by Digital Media Player. I cannot connect wirelessly in my Karoq and only have one USB port, so your suggestion won't work I'm afraid.

[MrSecretPotato]

FLAC files can be played on mobile devices. You might need an additional app to play them, but they definitely support FLAC. VLC is one of those apps for example. You put the files onto your phone, start the playback in VLC and you can still utilise Waze and Android Auto/Carplay with a wired connection.

 

This option requires a bit of setup, like moving the files, learning to use the app and configuring it, same for Android Auto/Carplay but it doesn't cost anything.

 

The other option is to use a 12V usb charger for your phone. This is around a few £ only, you can get them on Amazon, eBay, even petrol stations.

 

The headunit replacement is an absolute nightmare. Many of the Cara functions are tied to the headunit. You would get countless faults of the ECUs not being able to communicate with the system and so on.

 

Most expensive and there most difficult if not impossible option.

Edited Friday at 21:55 by MrSecretPotato

[mumpsim]

On 28/06/2024 at 22:37, PedalBin said:

The majority of my sound files are FLAC and do not work on my phone, hence using by Digital Media Player. I cannot connect wirelessly in my Karoq and only have one USB port, so your suggestion won't work I'm afraid.

All Android phones have supported FLAC since Android 3.1 in 2011.  iPhones have supported FLAC since iOS 11 in 2017. As has been said, you need an app.