Car stereo advice

dave oc

Im in the market for a car stereo and am just wonering where's the best place to get one, either online or elsewhere. It doesnt have to be anything fancy just needs to have a aux in.

Also does anyone know would Aldi or Lidl will have one coming soon?(Or when was the last time they had them?)

Thanks
D

Have a goo in Halfords, they have a good range.

I'm not a big fan of the ones with silly displays and tiny buttons though. They are a distraction to use.

What car do you have? Sometimes there are kits you can get to integrate aux to the on board system.

Gary ITR

I got one a while back from aldi (or was it lidl?) usb connection, it can play from a usb key, sd card reader. Can't fault it at all

crosstownk

Stay well away from Aldi/Lidl if you seek good audio reproduction. Save your cash and buy a brand like Pioneer/Kenwood/Becker etc etc.

colm_mcm

crosstownk wrote:

Stay well away from Aldi/Lidl if you seek good audio reproduction. Save your cash and buy a brand like Pioneer/Kenwood/Becker etc etc.

agreed.

drdre

crosstownk wrote:

Stay well away from Aldi/Lidl if you seek good audio reproduction. Save your cash and buy a brand like Pioneer/Kenwood/Becker etc etc.

I would agree with you.I got the best deal around awhile ago
I got the sony mex-1gp hard drive headunit for only 170 euro from argos because they were clearing they stock for a new catologue.It was a latest headunit and is valued at around 480 in halfords

JoeySully

Just mgot my new pioneer with stterin remote and adapter loom from www.incarexpress.co.uk

very happpy fast reasonable postage and saved 100€ on street price

daedalus2097

Installed a new Sony unit in my car a little while back. MEX-BT5000 or something like that. Anyway, fantastic unit which plays MP3s from CD or via BlueTooth streaming from your phone's memory card, decent handsfree built in (also BlueTooth) and it has an aux in which I've wired to a handy little socket just below the glovebox. Cost a fair bit though, and has a fairly big, flashy screen which I'm not a fan of, but it's very easy to turn it off and just have the basic information displayed with no flashy stuff...

Ordered it from Komplett.ie, was the cheapest I could find at the time without going to lesser-known (or lesser trusted) websites.

ambro25

ALDI's Tevion one, if you can find it. Aux in, Bluetooth, MP3 CDs, etc, etc. for peanuts (re. feature set when compared to branded stuff, e.g. Kenwood/Pioneer/JVC etc) . Have had one for 6 months now, so good I asked Subaru dealer to take it out the old car and put it in the new car (but it's fair to say the standard Subaru CD one is nothing to shout home about ).

Don't know what you guys are on about with audio reproduction. It's just as good as midrange branded headunits (from having a listen of a few in Comet and of a Kenwood in a same car). And it's the speakers that matter, not so much the head unit :rolleyes:

crosstownk

You can have the best speakers in the world, but if you've a substandard amplifier you're wasting you're time. An amplifier also needs a good power supply in order to be always able to amplify louder passages of music without clipping or distortion. In my experience, budget brand head units fail miserably in this regard.

Ultimately, it depends what you want from a head unit - if you're after features and aren't too worried about sound quality then by all means buy a budget brand. But if you want crystal clear audio reproduction scross the audio spectrum then you'll have to buy something of better quality.

But as you point out ambro, there is no point in having a good quality amplifier if the speakers aren't able to handle the quality that is being supplied to them.

Personally, I prefer to use seperates and steer clear of any head unit amplifier. There's a lot to be said for the quality gained by using a network of amplifiers. More difficult and expensive to install, but if you're fussy about how you're music sounds then it's the ultimate way to go.