# New head unit: Kenwood KIV901BT install notes/pics



## horseoutside (May 29, 2013)

I spent a lot of time browsing threads here and other TT/Audi forums when choosing a new head unit, so I figured I'd try to give back by documenting what I learned.

My 2001 225 coupe has (had!) a Concert HU, central volume knob/button, tape and the 6 CD changer. I don't actually own any CDs, so this was a bit of a problem... had to borrow some! Non-Bose.

I looked at the Alpine IDA-X305, Kenwood KIV700, KIV901BT, and some others. I wanted:

* Large knob (hur hur)
* Large TFT/LCD display
* Mechless. No obsolete optical media, please.
* USB mass storage support.
* Decent navigation of the files stored on the USB device.
* AUX input
* TT stereo flap must close! Tired of removing/replacing the face plate on another stereo in my previous car, definitely want to use the TT's flap.

I ended up with the Kenwood KIV901BT to get all of the above, plus:

* Composite video input. (intended for rear view camera, with a wire for sending it a reverse gear / video interruption signal)
* Bluetooth phone support.
* RGB button colour choosing, so I can get it to match the red/white dashboard style.
* Small amount of fixed internal storage. (512MB)

Despite having Bluetooth support, this HU doesn't act as a bluetooth audio device for playing music from your phone. Maybe they can enable this later with a firmware update, but meh.

Kenwood's site: http://www.kenwoodusa.com/Car_Entertain ... /KIV-BT901
eBay item page: http://www.ebay.com/itm/151016166905

I paid $294.15 including $48 shipping. I paid another €49 to the postman at the door for the VAT because I lost the random parcel tax.  Another €2 for shitty non-OEM Audi radio keys from eBay, (only need to use them once!) and finally €24 for a wiring harness from Halfords.

The total cost of all that was €310. Ouch. My previous stereo was €50!

So, on to the installation.

Removing the old HU was pretty easy, only mild swearing here. Remember to take those borrowed CDs out of the CD changer before you disconnect the HU. The CD changer has power, but the turn-on signal comes from the HU's 20-pin connector and without that you can't use the eject button... 

Found that one of the previous owners cut into the stereo harness. Not sure if it was for another HU or a phone kit or something, but they didn't do a tidy job. Sticky black electrical tape and a badly crimped extension (used as a tap) for the ignition-switched power. After only a little bit of faffing about with the old HU, this broke. Had to repair this. Here's what it looked like:










So I cut that nonsense off, found ~8cm of the right gauge wire, got out the 240v inverter, soldering iron, heatshrink etc and delicately soldered it all up. A little tricky working inside a single DIN bay with a soldering iron and not absent-mindedly melting parts of the dashboard...

For anyone wondering, yes, I was working on this electrical connection with the battery still attached. It was the ignition-switched +12v, which was 0v when I was working on it, so I didn't see a need to disconnect the battery.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished wiring, maybe I'll remember next time I have the stereo out. 

Physical installation of the new HU was a pain in the ass. Either the TT's single DIN bay is really tight or the new HU's cage is larger than it should be. I think it's that the TT's single DIN bay has extra plastic ridges/guides. This made installing the cage pretty awkward, there was a lot of pushing, scraping, swearing, etc. I read of another TT owner trying to install an Alpine HU having a similar problem, apparently he used a hammer gently (?!) to get the cage in. I didn't have to resort to that, but it did take a long time. If you have a similar problem, take your time, look inside with a torch to see where the cage is catching, try inserting it again and put the other corner of the cage in first, a lot of wiggling, and don't push so hard that you bend the cage... 

With that fixed up, it was time to figure out what harness adaptor I need and where to get it. First step: is my TT Bose or non-Bose? Do I even have rear speakers? Are they "active", with their own little amplifier? Sigh. Some climbing around in the rear told me I do have rear speakers, and another forum post somewhere (forgot where, sorry!) told me that the rear speakers have their own little amplifier. Now - Bose or not?

After a whole lot of conflicting shite, eventually http://www.nexxia.co.uk/PDF_Files/PC9-408.pdf‎ cleared it up. Mine is non-Bose according to all three rows of this table from the above PDF:









(reproduced here to help future explorers in case that PDF gets moved)

I have *four* wires in the end of that 20-pin connector, not the *six* that the Bose system uses. The picture shows *zero* wires in the left side of the connector. The key here is the two missing wires pointed to by the first row of the table.

Anyway, with that nonsense out of the way I could figure out what connections I need to get out of the new HU.

Oh yeah, the Kenwood KIV901BT doesn't use an ISO connector, it uses Kenwood's own one. Great, thanks lads!









(Picture from eBay)

So I was going to have to do a bunch of manual wiring anyway. Well, no problem, I have the stereo pinout and the car pinout.

I got an Autoleads PC9-401 from Halfords for €24. (On sale for some reason, wasn't going to question it!)

http://www.halfords.ie/webapp/wcs/store ... yId_212460

I cut the ISO connector off the adaptor harness and started matching up the pinouts from the stereo and the car, occasionally running out to the car with a multimeter to verify it. Glad I did because the car pinout I was working from was wrong! Permanent 12v and ignition-switched 12v were reversed, and the chassis ground wasn't labelled on the pinout at all. Rather than cross over the wire colours in my adaptor harness and make it confusing, I used a screwdriver to release the incorrect pins in the car-side of the adaptor harness and swapped them over.

Roughly, I made these connections and tested it in the car after each group:

* Chassis ground, permanent 12v, ignition switched 12v - HU powers on/off when turning the ignition to the first accessory position and I didn't blow anything up. 
* Left front amplified audio +ve and -ve - it works!
* Right front amplified audio +ve and -ve
* Dashboard illumination signal line, which lets the stereo know when the dashboard lights up and dims the screen/buttons. Can be turned off/adjusted in the menus.
* Rear amplifier power signal from the radio to the 20-pin connector, and RCA connectors for the rear left/right *unamplified* line-level signals.

The rear speakers worked first time, I was pretty happy with that!

On amplified/non-amplified audio lines: The PC9-401 harness adaptor is designed to take the *amplified* outputs from the ISO connector and deal with them appropriately. In my car, that's to pass through the ISO-amplified front signals and to attenuate the ISO-amplified rear signals down to line-level where the built-in rear amplifier will be happy. This HU provides amplified and line-level outputs. I need the HU to amplify the front signals, but if I already have a rear amplifier (that I'm not going to remove!) it's pointless for the HU to amplify the rear signal, for the harness adaptor to attenuate it, and for the rear amp to bring it back up again. Dumb. There's a heatshrink-covered PCB provided by the PC9-401 harness adaptor that handles the attenuation down to line level. I cut off the heatshrink and found some resistors:









(Picture taken after I desoldered the three car-side harness wires on the left)

Yeah, I'm not going to bother using this if I already have line-level rear outputs from the head unit!

So, here's the hacked up harness adaptor I ended up with:









Audi TT Mk1 Coupe Non-Bose PC9-401 to Kenwood KIV901BT
(Unused cables from the HU-side are heatshrinked and bundled with a zip tie)

So, here's what it looks like now:








(Stereo-supplied plastic surround, no wider TT one for it yet, I'll probably just cut one myself from either plastic or brushed aluminium to the OSIR surround dimensions!)









(Lots of room for the button under the flap. I didn't include proof that it closes, but it does!)

Exposing accessory cables through a convenient hole for the cigar lighter power cable.








AUX 3.5mm, USB port, and microphone.
Cigar lighter assembly removed, not going to be reinstalled. I'll be installing a new 12v power port somewhere else, probably beside the passenger's right knee, and I'm planning to install a phone dock in this area.

Microphone sort-of hidden on the steering column trim:








(Small adhesive strip sticking it for now. Not visible to the driver, audio quality tested while moving and it's good!)

Finally, the colour scheme matches the OEM dashboard colour scheme!

















Very pleased with this, glad I spent the extra on this head unit!

Oh yeah, the sound is, to my untrained ears, excellent. Suppose I should mention the sound quality somewhere in a huge essay about a head unit... 

Left to do:

* Better accessory cable routing, probably exposing the AUX/USB cables from inside the sliding lid compartment.
* Make/buy (probably make) a fascia surround.
* Buy and install a radio antenna adapter... but I never use the radio so this might take a while. 

Any suggestions for a good place to hide the microphone?


----------



## Pugwash69 (Jun 12, 2012)

Nice job.

I fed my mic to the right-side of the steering column, then into the dash by the headlight switch and peeping out the the rim of the top air vent. I cut a channel for the wire on the inside of the air vent hole so the wire isn't pinched. It sort of faces me if a little wobbly.

Previously I just had it stuck on the top of the steering column but it obscured the display slightly and kept falling off.

BTW Bose systems say BOSE on the old radio on start-up, and have Bose stickers on the speaker grilles.


----------



## Grahamstt (Jul 22, 2008)

Excellent job and glad you did it cos I was tempted by this head unit after an article on the forum

What made you chose the KIV901 over the KIV 700?


----------



## spaceplace (Mar 10, 2013)

havent read it all as not changing mine yet but if its all correct maybe you should try and get it put up as a sticky?


----------



## Pugwash69 (Jun 12, 2012)

Put a link to this thread in here:
viewtopic.php?f=56&t=172191

Apparently that's how they do it.


----------



## horseoutside (May 29, 2013)

Grahamstt said:


> Excellent job and glad you did it cos I was tempted by this head unit after an article on the forum
> 
> What made you chose the KIV901 over the KIV 700?


Thanks!

I thought that if I'm going to spending that sort of money on a head unit I may as well spend the extra €30 to get the bluetooth feature, and I don't own an iPod/iPhone so having an iPod button isn't very useful. 

Glad I did, I've used it much more than I thought I would.


----------



## horseoutside (May 29, 2013)

Pugwash69 said:


> Nice job.
> 
> I fed my mic to the right-side of the steering column, then into the dash by the headlight switch and peeping out the the rim of the top air vent. I cut a channel for the wire on the inside of the air vent hole so the wire isn't pinched. It sort of faces me if a little wobbly.
> 
> ...


If the microphone is in the air vent and has air flowing over it, does it pick up any wind noise? Good idea though, that location sounds a bit more subtle than what I have.

I had read so much conflicting information about Bose vs non-Bose that I decided the only way to be sure was to rely on the wiring. No "BOSE" on the old HU display, no Bose logos on the speaker grilles so common sense said not Bose, but hard to know for sure. It's also a 12 year old car, could have had anything done to it.


----------



## horseoutside (May 29, 2013)

spaceplace said:


> havent read it all as not changing mine yet but if its all correct maybe you should try and get it put up as a sticky?


Done, using pugwash's instructions. Thanks!


----------



## JoshyTT (Apr 27, 2013)

thats great i used these not sure if there any good for you.http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250603270278? ... 1497.l2649

gotta have that flap in use when i bought my car the pioneer wasnt fitted properly after a fiddle and a push i got it further back and fitted the brackets to stop the hu shooting out under acceleration and now flap shuts with ease 

nice write up


----------



## Shinigami (Feb 21, 2013)

Excellent choice in Queensryche - Empire!!! What a fab ablum it is [smiley=dude.gif] on the other hand...fat boy slim...really...WTF!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:


----------



## horseoutside (May 29, 2013)

JoshyTT said:


> thats great i used these not sure if there any good for you.http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250603270278? ... 1497.l2649
> 
> gotta have that flap in use when i bought my car the pioneer wasnt fitted properly after a fiddle and a push i got it further back and fitted the brackets to stop the hu shooting out under acceleration and now flap shuts with ease
> 
> nice write up


I spotted those, I was wondering about getting them. Cheap enough to take a chance on anyway!

Had a good laugh at the idea of your head unit coming out under acceleration. I've had some loose items go flying from the dashboard into the rear "seats", but the head unit is a new one.


----------



## horseoutside (May 29, 2013)

Shinigami said:


> Excellent choice in Queensryche - Empire!!! What a fab ablum it is [smiley=dude.gif] on the other hand...fat boy slim...really...WTF!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:


Can't please everyone all of the time.  For passengers who refuse to be satisfied, I have copied Rick Astley's finest to the internal storage. One press of the 'src' button and they get rickrolled. Glad to have figured out a use for the internal storage feature, I didn't know what else to use it for...


----------



## Shinigami (Feb 21, 2013)

horseoutside said:


> Shinigami said:
> 
> 
> > Excellent choice in Queensryche - Empire!!! What a fab ablum it is [smiley=dude.gif] on the other hand...fat boy slim...really...WTF!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:
> ...


You're a very tolerant guy indeed!

My car...my music...you like it? good! You don't? go for a walk or listen and shut the f*@k up LOL [smiley=dude.gif] AMEN


----------



## TT DWN UNDER (Aug 29, 2007)

The best spot for the mic is in the provided "mic spot" which is the little vent at the top of the dashpod.
You have to gently undo the dashpod mounts and tilt it forward to slot it in somehow...I havnt tried yet
but am planning on doing it soon...not sure if these new mics work sideways or do they have to point straight ahead?

Heres Waks guide for removing of the dashpod to fit a boost guage in the "mic spot" , but its a handy guide to get to the spot...(at the bottom of the page)

http://www.wak-tt.com/mods/boostgauge/boostgauge.htm


----------



## horseoutside (May 29, 2013)

Thanks for the suggestion! I agree, that would be ideal. I'm not brave enough to remove the dashpod yet, maybe in a few months. 

I think this mic will work best pointed straight ahead, but perhaps I can take it apart and remove the casing to make it smaller and allow fitting it facing forward.


----------



## Dave v (Jul 21, 2013)

Great write up.

Is the kiv901 only available from the us?


----------



## X5TUU (Sep 4, 2012)

awesome write up, and really useful info.

as far as the mic goes, strictly speaking you really should have it mounted up next to the courtesy lights as this is where all the manufacturers and factory OEM mics normally are as people naturally speak upward, and mics in/around vents or behind cowels wont pick up the speech very well.

If you look at the main manufacturers of aftermarket BT solutions all the fitting guides are the same in this respect, and I had it proved to me in the VXR as my parrot mic was installed on the centre of the steering cowel just in front of the binnacle and even though facing fwd sound pickup wasnt the best and much improved when the mic was moved to the roof line.


----------



## Pugwash69 (Jun 12, 2012)

It's odd they didn't supply an ISO connector. The Kenwood BT92SD includes the adapter that plugs ISO connectors into the unit. I know, as I have a box here of one ready to fit into my wife's car soon. 8)


----------



## horseoutside (May 29, 2013)

X5TUU said:


> awesome write up, and really useful info.
> 
> as far as the mic goes, strictly speaking you really should have it mounted up next to the courtesy lights as this is where all the manufacturers and factory OEM mics normally are as people naturally speak upward, and mics in/around vents or behind cowels wont pick up the speech very well.
> 
> If you look at the main manufacturers of aftermarket BT solutions all the fitting guides are the same in this respect, and I had it proved to me in the VXR as my parrot mic was installed on the centre of the steering cowel just in front of the binnacle and even though facing fwd sound pickup wasnt the best and much improved when the mic was moved to the roof line.


Thanks!

I've since moved the microphone up into the blank for where my alarm internal movement sensor would be.

Routing wire up the A pillar with trim removed.









Microphone with mount as supplied.









Bending and filing mount to fit to the plastic plate.









Mounting microphone to the plastic plate.









Finished - it's completely hidden.









Now that I've done all that, though, I'm tempted to undo it and mount it in the microphone position in the dash, above the clocks. Might just buy another microphone rather than take that pillar trim off again... It's not an awful job, but the fewer times that brittle plastic gets stressed the better.

Yeah, I was surprised not to get an ISO harness with it and just bare wires. It didn't bother me too much, I'm happy to do some soldering.


----------



## Shinigami (Feb 21, 2013)

horseoutside said:


> I spent a lot of time browsing threads here and other TT/Audi forums when choosing a new head unit, so I figured I'd try to give back by documenting what I learned.
> 
> My 2001 225 coupe has (had!) a Concert HU, central volume knob/button, tape and the 6 CD changer. I don't actually own any CDs, so this was a bit of a problem... had to borrow some! Non-Bose.
> 
> ...


Once you connect the external microphone...where does the cable come out from? Does it find its way from behind?


----------



## horseoutside (May 29, 2013)

Shinigami said:


> Once you connect the external microphone...where does the cable come out from? Does it find its way from behind?


I'm not sure I understand your question. There's an audio connector on the back of the head unit, the microphone has a standard 3.5mm audio jack that plugs into it. I ran the cable around the dome light, across the roof at the windscreen, inside the left A pillar trim, behind the glovebox, and over to the head unit. Does that help? Sorry, not sure what you're asking!


----------



## Shinigami (Feb 21, 2013)

Yes thank you


----------



## TomBorehamUK (Feb 2, 2014)

Hi. did you ever get Bluetooth playback in the end?


----------



## horseoutside (May 29, 2013)

No, I don't think it supports it. The bluetooth phone functionality is pretty good and I'm very pleased to have it, but I don't think I can play music over it. Happy enough with music on USB sticks for now!


----------



## dj_saby (Apr 11, 2014)

Hi guys,

The new head unit integration is driving me crazy. I spent countless hours and couldnt find the issue I am experiencing anywhere. It looks like it should be straight forward but mine does not work as it should, 100% clean.
My car is a 2001 roadster with bose and is using the 6 pin mini ISO conector to power rear and front speakers. I am using a new head unit with 4 rca outs which to me it looks exactly the same as the PC9-410 which is the one that everyone recommends. I need to mention I am from US and that's what I found at the online locally stores.
What I am experiencing is strange. I get audio everywhere but the rears speakers/sub have a weaker signal than the fronts which makes the sub almost inperceptible. It is acctuly more bass comming from the front speakers than from the sub. Another thing is that there is no balance on the rear speakers...is seems like they are wired serialy, like one channel set up. I tried to disconnect rca of either chanel going to the rear and I still get both left and right with only one channel connected.
This does not bother me since I dont really need it, but the weaker signal and the sub not being loud enough, is what I definatly need to solve.
Any help would be much appreciated.


----------



## ThreadLock (Jul 19, 2014)

Sorry to drag up an old thread but I have a question about this head unit...

I have bought one of these and had no issues with it until I decided to fit the mic with the view to using the hands free.
After pulling apart everything and fitting the mic, I tested the phone though the head... I can hear the other person but they cant hear me!? After further tested I have found that the problem is my end... Did you have problems with the microphone on this unit at all?


----------



## horseoutside (May 29, 2013)

ThreadLock said:


> Sorry to drag up an old thread but I have a question about this head unit...
> 
> I have bought one of these and had no issues with it until I decided to fit the mic with the view to using the hands free.
> After pulling apart everything and fitting the mic, I tested the phone though the head... I can hear the other person but they cant hear me!? After further tested I have found that the problem is my end... Did you have problems with the microphone on this unit at all?


Sorry about the late reply. Nope, no problems with the microphone. Have you tested it with a PC or tried another microphone?


----------

