Tuesday 18 October 2011

Helping Your New Head Unit Fit In


Aftermarket car stereos are built to a standard. While this means they will fit almost any type of car, it also means they’re not designed to match the style of any individual model. Whether your new stereo is a DIN or double DIN fitting, fascia adaptors surround it to give it the same appearance as the rest of your dashboard.Lots of people want the best stereo for their car.

Whether you’re after something with better sound quality, if you want to be able to listen to digital radio on the go, get better reception or an integrated SatNav or DVD player, it can be an exciting purchase. But there’s a problem a lot of people don’t consider until they come to fit the stereo; it just doesn’t look right. To fit your new stereo you’ve had to take off the fascia that surrounded the old one, and now it won’t fit back on again. A fascia adaptor can help. They’re available in both single and double DIN sizes and will help blend your new car stereo into your old car dashboard.

“DIN” stands for “Deutsche Industrie Norm” and is, as as those of you who speak a little German will have guessed, the standard measurement for all aftermarket car radios sold in the UK. A DIN is 2 1/8 inches tall and 7 /18 inches wide, with depths varying depending upon the make. Other common measurements of aftermarket car stereo include the double DIN, which is twice the size and is generally the dimension used by the more showy car stereos boasting LCD screens, SatNavs, DVD screens and the like.

If your old car radio is a standard DIN or double DIN size, then fitting your new one should be the work of mere moments. If, however, it isn’t – as is the case with most retail cars – then you will be needing a DIN adaptor kit/double DIN kit. These aren’t complicated; they fill in the empty socket left by the removal of your original car radio, leaving a socket into which your new DIN or double DIN aftermarket stereo can be fitted. And there you have it. Your double DIN kit has left you with a spanking new stereo complete with LCD screen, iPod socket and everything else you could possibly want to blast out your Basement Jaxx on the Monday morning commute.

Only, it looks a bit odd. A bit sticky-outy, if you know what I mean. It doesn’t sit well with the rest of dashboard. You might have better sound, but you’ve cheapened the appearance of your car as a whole.

This shouldn’t be too much of a shock. Your new car radio wasn’t designed to fit in specifically with your make and model of car. It was designed to fit equally well into a Peugeot 206, a Skoda Fabia or a Ford Mondeo. You need a fascia adaptor. Each is a plastic frame that fits around the outside of the new head unit, blending it into the surrounding design of your car. The genius of the piece is its simplicity. It doesn’t obscure the display or controls of the stereo, but it does make it look smart. DIN and double DIN fitting kits allow you to fit an aftermarket car stereo without radically altering the appearance of your car’s dashboard. Fascia adaptors are available for a wide range of major car brands, including Seat, Nissan, Saab, Jaguar and Vauxhall.

Please do note, however; some fascia adaptors will require you to buy the appropriate “cage” to hold your stereo and fascia in place. Finding a matching cage and fascia adaptor can be a pain, but the best car audio suppliers will offer both as part of the same deal where appropriate.

A fascia adaptor allows your car to have style, consistant design and the very best quality of music and audio. Like all great ideas, it is simple but effective. You don’t need any technical expertise to fit the adaptors, it’s a quick process and one even the staunchest of technophobes can perform with ease.

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