"CD IN" light bar nastily bright, 9N Polo 2003

Not sure if this is normal or a fault, would welcome some others' opinions.

I have the Gamma radio/cassette player with a separate CD player underneath that looks like this:

When there's a disc in there the LED (I guess?) bar that lights up across the middle (inside red rectangle) is soooooo bright, and doesn't dim with the general dash lighting.  You can see residue where I've had a couple of layers of black fabric tape blocking it.  Just had the thing out while fitting an Aux input box to the CD changer input on the back, and it got me thinking about whether this might be an internal or wiring fault, as opposed to just a dodgy design???  Can't remember off the top of my head whether the single "CD PLAYER" and "CD CHANGER" indicator LEDs are equally bright, but I think so; there's just not so much of them.

Thoughts please?  

I can get a pic of it lit up later if useful.

Ta,

Pete