Factory Installed Radios

Factory Fitted Radios, commonly know as OE (Original Equipment) radios are those as that are fitted or installed into your car as standard at the Factory when your car is manufacture. They can also be bought from your car dealer as a replacement should your factory radio fail at some point.

OE radios are manufactured by various suppliers including Alpine, Blaupunkt, Becker, Clarion, Delphi, Ford, Fujitsu Ten, Grundig, Matsushita, Philips, Toyota, VDO, Visteon. These are not to be confused with Aftermarket car radios that can be explained as radios not fitted at the factory and on the opposite are for public sale and are found on car audio websites and in car audio shops, etc.

These have the attractive packaging and large investment put into marketing by each brand for retail sale as as a superior upgrade to the standard factory fitted radios. But having said that Factory fitted radios are now far higher in quality and performance than they were as little as 5 to 10 years ago.

Aftermarket radios fitted as OE radios
But having said all that many car dealer/manufacturers are now fitting aftermarket radios as standard and this is a bonus for you the driver as you can then add an Aftermarket CD Changeran Aftermarket MP3 Changer that has overall far better perfromance than a dealer OE cd changer and they cost alot less than from your car dealer.

Add-on CD Changer kits
ADD A CD Changer offer a large range of CD Changer, MP3 changer and Mini Disc Changer Factory Packages to fit the majority of Factory fitted radios in the UK as this option becomes ever more popular year on year. Why? Simply because there are so many advantages to keeping your standard radio and adding-on a CD changer.

The most obvious and favoured benefit is that you retain the integrated look and functionality of your cars current radio set-up and by doing so you will prevent the need for any extra accessories that would ultimately cost you more expense if you were to add an aftermarket radio as the alternative option.

View the OE Changer Kits for Factory Car Radios:
CD Changer * MP3 Changer * Mini Disc Changer

Unique Design
As many cars OE radios' are a unique shape, design and are integrated into the dash they are a completely different shape to an aftermarket radio DIN (standard European radio size - approx 2" high) and as a consequence if you were to fit an aftermarket radio you will more than likely need to invest in a fascia adaptor to enable your dash hole left by the removal of your OE radio to be reduced to a (DIN) sized aperture to accept an aftermarket radio.

In most cases you will also need other Installation Accessories including a harness adaptor lead to convert your standard OE radio wiring to ISO (International Standard wiring connector) specifications to fit an aftermarket radios' wiring connector and further expense would be added if you have a Stalk Control on your steering wheel that controls your radio as you will need a Stalk Control, SMART lead. When fitted this will give you functionality of your new aftermarket radio via your steering wheel controls.

Advantages of keeping your OE radio
Theft deterence is another very important issue that keeping your standard OE radio provides. There will be no visible signs of adding a CD changer as this will be well hidden in your boot, under a seat or in your glovebox. This is further understood because a potential theif's main goal is to find and ulimately steal an aftermarket radio such as a Alpine, Kenwood, Sony, etc simply because they are far more desireable than an OE radios and would be worth more money on the black market.

Expensive car Dealer Prices
Aftermarket CD Changers when combined with a CD changer interface provide a far superior alternative to a car Dealer supplied CD changer. Simply because you can pay on average £350 to £500 from your car dealer for a CD changer that hasn't exactly been built using the most reliabile and performance producing components mainly due to the large profit margins that car dealers choose work with.

Some Aftermarket CD changers Do Not need an interface in order to work with Factory Fitted radios and will connect directly to OE radios. These include Blaupunkt CDC-A03, Clarion DC628, Grundig MCD-46, Philips RC026, VDO CDC026, CVO Dayton CHA-602S, CHD-602S and the Visteon 2080. These are all high quality CD changers that basically serve two roles as you can also connect these to Aftermarket radios as well as some OE radios.

Burned CD's
Aftermarket CD changers are far more reliable, are more functional and give overall better performance and the most important advantage being that they ultimately produce better sound. Aftermarket CD changers also play CD-R and CD/RW burned discs whereas Dealer supplied CD changers will in most cases play CD-R (however they don't guarantee this) but they will not play CD/RW discs.

View the OE Changer Kits for Factory Car Radios:
CD Changer * MP3 Changer * Mini Disc Changer

Article Source: http://www.christiannotepad.com

Ben is a successful technical consultant on design of iPod systems and writes regularly for ipodcarkitdirect.co.uk