Changing 1 CD Player To 6 CD

Hi All, I have a pre facelift Freelander 2 with the Alpine Sound System, I decided to remove the existing head unit which is only has the 1 CD function and replace it with the 6 CD unit which is identical in every way except the amount of CDs you can feed in, all connections on back match, fibre optic links etc, the radio part works fine but it’s not seeing the 6 CD function, now I subsequently heard this unit will need programming in via a laptop and software that only the main Land Rover dealers hold, I contacted my local independent Land Rover specialist and they said they’d have a go but it’ll cost me £90 and they don’t have much hope of being able to program it correctly so I emailed both local main dealers near me and have had no response from either, has anybody else tried to do this and have success, does anyone other than the main dealer have the ability to program in and update the software on LR factory fitted stereo systems, thanks guys

Are cds still a thing?

Hahahaha yeah I’ve had that a lot, I’m a dinosaur and still love all my CDs from the 90s, we do a lot of holidaying in the highlands and the FM signal is hit and miss, the dab signal doesn’t exist so we end up going through countless CDs, I have no desire to buy again all my music to put on an iPod so it’s CDs all the way

But you can download all your CDs to an IPod or USB pen with no loss in quality,
Just done this for my Daughters car and instead of carrying boxes of CDs she just plugs in a USB pen,
Very convenient way to listen to your own music,

I know what you’re saying but I’d then have to buy a laptop I’d never use plus I’d have to go through the best part of 1000 CDs, the way I do it is I have a CD wallet and just rotate my car stock every month, works for me

sharmanator43 said:

I know what you’re saying but I’d then have to buy a laptop I’d never use plus I’d have to go through the best part of 1000 CDs, the way I do it is I have a CD wallet and just rotate my car stock every month, works for me

Click to expand...

How you posting here then? Smartphone? Then get a Bluetooth head unit.

goonarmy said:

Are cds still a thing?

Click to expand...

Absolutely, if you like decent quality un-compressed music.

goonarmy said:

How you posting here then? Smartphone? Then get a Bluetooth head unit.

Click to expand...

It's not that easy, as the HU is integrated into the electronic system, so changing the HU looses the vehicle time keeping ability (no time on the nav screen) or dash LCD, the PDC fails to work, the amplifier stops working, along with the sat nav. So no, changing the HU for anything other than an OE isn't going to work.

Europa486 said:

But you can download all your CDs to an IPod or USB pen with no loss in quality,

Click to expand...

No loss of quality??
There is a huge loss in quality. It might not be noticeable on crap modern Bluetooth speakers, but I can instantly hear the difference between CD and MP3s on my home HiFi. There's a massive loss in dynamic range, so there's no argument in this are. MP3s are good for space saving agreed, but that goes hand in hand with a reduction is sound reproduction.

It's probably not really notable on mediocre car stereo system's, but definitely is on a decent car audio systems.

The FL2 Alpine HU will play MP3 CDs, if you should choose to have quantity over quality. It also has a 3.5mm aux input, so you can listen to music from your phone or MP3 player, all without messing up the vehicle electronics.

Nodge68 said:

No loss of quality??
There is a huge loss in quality. It might not be noticeable on crap modern Bluetooth speakers, but I can instantly hear the difference between CD and MP3s on my home HiFi. There's a massive loss in dynamic range, so there's no argument in this are. MP3s are good for space saving agreed, but that goes hand in hand with a reduction is sound reproduction.

It's probably not really notable on mediocre car stereo system's, but definitely is on a decent car audio systems.

The FL2 Alpine HU will play MP3 CDs, if you should choose to have quantity over quality. It also has a 3.5mm aux input, so you can listen to music from your phone or MP3 player, all without messing up the vehicle electronics.

Click to expand...

What sort of mp3 is lower quality than cd? Reminds me of the old napster days when low quality was the ones to download cos they would take 48 hours but broadband and music quality has moved on since then.

goonarmy said:

What sort of mp3 is lower quality than cd?

Click to expand...

Err, all MP3s.
The higher the bit rate, the more information is in the music. The bit rate of CD is 1,411 kbps and almost 5 times higher that of MP3s 320 kbps. And the higher the bit rate, the more accurately the signal is measured and so reproduced.

Bit rate has a direct impact on sound quality. When an original recording is compressed into an MP3 file, a lot of information is lost.

It's the audio equivalent of going from an old black and white CRT TV (MP3) to a modern Full HD TV (CD Audio).
There's simply no comparison as far as audio playback quality is concerned.
This difference in audio quality is noticeable with even a mediocre HiFi system, so why everyone insist on MP3 is beyond me.

Nodge68 said:

No loss of quality??
There is a huge loss in quality. It might not be noticeable on crap modern Bluetooth speakers, but I can instantly hear the difference between CD and MP3s on my home HiFi. There's a massive loss in dynamic range, so there's no argument in this are. MP3s are good for space saving agreed, but that goes hand in hand with a reduction is sound reproduction.

It's probably not really notable on mediocre car stereo system's, but definitely is on a decent car audio systems.

The FL2 Alpine HU will play MP3 CDs, if you should choose to have quantity over quality. It also has a 3.5mm aux input, so you can listen to music from your phone or MP3 player, all without messing up the vehicle electronics.

Click to expand...

Sure ,,, but not in a bloody car driving on our pot marked roads,

Nodge68 said:

Absolutely, if you like decent quality un-compressed music.

Click to expand...

cannot like this enough!

Driving over bumps is the only problem and my 300tdi cd player, OE, had a sort of shock-absorber base, which cut a lot of that out. The aftermarket one in the Disco TD5 has 6 more discs but does tend to drop out a bit over the odd bump. One fine day I'll get around to designing and making a shock absorbing base for it. But on long motorway runs it's great.
As for MP3, if I get bored of the discs in my player and do not have time to change them, i just plug in my old fashioned batt powered MP3 payer, via a gizmo that goes into the tape player. It works just fine!!! The gizmos were so cheap when wifey spotted them that i told her to by three of four and we have them in all sorts of cars.
Of course she plays sound from either her iPad or her phone via the aux socket on her DAB radio, and she seems happy with it.

Lots of ways of skinning this particular cat!

Europa486 said:

Sure ,,, but not in a bloody car driving on our pot marked roads,

Click to expand...

Modern car audio systems rival those of decent home systems, in fact the Alpine 9 speaker setup of the FL2 is particularly good, and road/engine noise is virtually inaudible, so the sound system sounds even better. I can definitely hear the difference between CD and MP3 on my FL2's Alpine system, MP3s distinctly lacking in low frequency, high frequency and attack of the music. MP3s loose the harmonics in acoustic guitars, lack clarity in bass guitars and muddy up hi-hats, snares and cymbals. Vocals become weak and uninspiring too. In all music types MP3 is most definitely inferior, it's only benefit is large amounts of music can stored in a small file, but that comes with a massive drop in sound quality.

Stanleysteamer said:

cannot like this enough!

Click to expand...

You can like it once, if you click the like button.

Nodge68 said:

Err, all MP3s.
The higher the bit rate, the more information is in the music. The bit rate of CD is 1,411 kbps and almost 5 times higher that of MP3s 320 kbps. And the higher the bit rate, the more accurately the signal is measured and so reproduced.

Bit rate has a direct impact on sound quality. When an original recording is compressed into an MP3 file, a lot of information is lost.

It's the audio equivalent of going from an old black and white CRT TV (MP3) to a modern Full HD TV (CD Audio).
There's simply no comparison as far as audio playback quality is concerned.
This difference in audio quality is noticeable with even a mediocre HiFi system, so why everyone insist on MP3 is beyond me.

Click to expand...

The compression means that the sound is comparable but the storage space is reduced with minimal sound quality loss.
Even in my 12 speaker vehicle there is road noise and engine noise so to say its a noticeable difference is a bit of a misnomer. Its as good as the digital radio signal although that is better now its stereo. Bluetooth can be a bit glitchy both at home on my sound bar system and my car but not enough to take away from the music significantly.

I would buy a box that holds 6 CDs and keep in on the seat next to you. Very reliable and does not need programming.
Having driven a Merc with a 6 CD unit it was more trouble than it was worth, took it out and went to single head unit, simpler and more relaible. It was no more convenient that swapping a CD each time in a single unit, if fact I could change a DC quicker than scrolling through the select CD menu then watiing while the gears and do-dahs moved.

Well I’ve really started something lol, but I tend to agree with everything nodge has said, occasionally my wife uses her iPhone plugged in to the AUX port and it’s definitely loses something off the top and bottom when pitted against CDs, the Alpine system when set up to how you like it will rival any top end car stereo system around today and I just have no ambition to retrofit something that’ll basically sound like a bag of spanners because it’s not compatible with the fibre optic links, I know you can buy converter boxes but the reviews are awful, plus I like the look of the original head unit, I am currently waiting for lots of people to get back to me who claim to use SDD so watch this space cheers guys

sharmanator43 said:

Well I’ve really started something lol, but I tend to agree with everything nodge has said, occasionally my wife uses her iPhone plugged in to the AUX port and it’s definitely loses something off the top and bottom when pitted against CDs, the Alpine system when set up to how you like it will rival any top end car stereo system around today

Click to expand...

It's a known fact that MP3s are compressed to the point that they affect the sound quality.

No audio file will play MP3s on a decent sound system, as the difference between CD and MP3 is very obvious.

sharmanator43 said:

know you can buy converter boxes but the reviews are awful, plus I like the look of the original head unit, I am currently waiting for lots of people to get back to me who claim to use SDD so watch this space cheers guys

Click to expand...

I suspect the Gap Diagnostics IID will also allow CCF modifications too, so someone nearby might have one of those.