Buying a new Headunit. What's yours/recommendations?

daveg

I'm just about to buy a new headunit. Just wondering what other people have bought and what recommendations you would have. Any links to sites selling headunits would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

stevenmu

http://www.incarexpress.co.uk do good prices, much cheaper than irish stores (especially the bricks-and-mortar ones).

I got a sony cdx f7500 (I think 7550 is the current model) off them a while ago, it worked out about €300 I think. It was very, very good (so good infact some little scumbag decided he wanted it :mad: ). A lot of people don't like the sound from sony's, saying it sound artificially enhanced, but this series broke that tradition when it came out. It has good clear reproduction of both CDs and MP3s, good EQ presets plus a configurable one (7 band I think it was), and really good soundstaging (the ability to make different sounds in stereo really sound like they're coming from different places). It has good sound enhancements too, D-Bass for better bass, MMPE (or something like that) to restore lost fidelity to MP3s (this actually worked really well, not just like the crappy 'loud' function some units have). It has a nice OLED screen too with the standard animations and some nice visualisers. It also has the same basic circuitry that their top of the range (up to about €1000 anyway) units have, except I think the preamps were only 2v instead of 4v.

I'm sure others can recommend some good alpine or pioneer units that are good too (they're generally said to be the 2 best makes).

gabgab

If you know exactly which one you want its worth a browse on ebay aswell,

daveg

I'm thinking about either a player that will play MP3's on DVD or a bluetooth enabled player (or ideally both). I'll check out the Sony range stevenmu, and I agree gabgab eBay is pretty good for headunits.

Funxy

Ive had sony's, alpines, blaupunkt .... but without a doubt my favorite will always be pioneer. I was so annoyed i didnt try them sooner. Check out their range and im sure there'll be something there you like. Sonys look cool but are sooooo overpriced just like everything in their range As far as im concerned sony have gone downhill. I have a pioneer DEH-P80MP and an amazing pioneer subwoofer. Heres there page: Pioneer and i bought it online from Car Audio Direct good luck!

bp_me

There are good deals on headunits to be found from German sellers on ebay.

mondeoman

i got a blaupunkt seattle of these guys .the stereo is brilliant & i had no problems with post etc.very reliable shop.
that same stereo is nearly €600 here :eek: including P+P (£15)
it came to €300 2 for the price of 1 .

blastman

daveg wrote:

I'm thinking about either a player that will play MP3's on DVD or a bluetooth enabled player (or ideally both). I'll check out the Sony range stevenmu, and I agree gabgab eBay is pretty good for headunits.

Not sure what the sound quality is like, but I know the latest JVC DVD players will play MP3 from DVD. I'm looking for replacement options myself to get rid of my Japanese frequency-covering stereo.

mayto

i have the jvc kd-dv6101 dvd car stereo and its very good.i got a in-dash screen for about 120 euro to go with it.only downside to it is you cannot fast forward mp3's.you can hook up a dab tuner to this unit (about 100 euro) if it ever comes here. you can get the jvc 5101 ,same as 6101 other than cannot add dab tuner i think.the 6101 and 5101 can be got from german site http://www.technikdirekt.de/main/page.xp?pageid={AA940E3D-06D5-4FC7-A88D-269E63A5438C}&SESSIONID=R/E1WCB2UQUFRYCGL8CZJT&DS=2&TS=2602354247&history=set
for 288 (for 5101)and 320 euro,incl. del, for the 6101. i bought from a dvd home cinema kit from them last year ,which was very heavy but delivery was still only 22 euro.also check out the sony mex-r1 dvd car stereo on the same site at bargain price for 275 incl. del.i do not think you will find the sony cheaper anywhere. the sony will ffw mp3's but seek time is meant to be very long.check out avforums.com under in-car entertainment ,both sony and jvc units are discussed there in detail.

Thumper Long

pioeer have a new stereo out that has built in bluetooth so turne your stereo into a bluetooth phone kit that can be paired with 4 phones, they also do an ipod plugin that is pretty cool aswell pixmania link

scargill

I'm selling a brand new Sony MEX-R1 DVD Head Unit. It plays MP3 off DVD (the reason I bought it)

It doesn't fit my car (bummer) - if you are interested I have it for sale over here

shabbyroad

I'm very interested in that Pioneer unit but am trying to find out exactly what additional parts I'll need. I'm replacing a standard mercedes head unit (I think it's a blaupunkt/becker unit) but am not sure if I would need a blaupunkt-to-pioneer wiring loom or if it's all standard ISO connectors.
Particularly like the idea of being able to remove my old (and soon to be useless because Nokia changed the hardware) handsfree kit and want to add the iPod adapter to the system.

Any suggestions on sites that give basic information on this type of install ? I'm competent enough with electronics but don't want to buy a head unit and find halfway through the install that I need to put it all back in again and order an additional cable.

lomb

Go blaupunkt they do a excellent sat nav system thats 450 euro with a good internal amp/ preamp out if u want it see here http://www.bluespot.co.uk/stock/e1_redwhite.asp

get an external 5 channel alpine amplifier
http://www.hendoncarstereo.co.uk/cgi-bin/show_popup.cgi?prod_id=MRVF450&url=http://www.hendoncarstereo.co.uk/trolleyed/2/index.htm

and a sub or 2, a couple of tweeters and a couple of crossovers, adnd some decent mids and u will have an audiophile sat nav system for 1400 that will go between cars easily.

thes

dahamsta

I love Blaupunkt gear, had a car full of it at one stage, but the design of their head units is just awful these days. I couldn't have one of those things in the car. Which is a pity, because it's just plain logical to have a German head unit in a German car.

I just had a Sony CDX-R3350 I bought from Amazon UK installed, seems pretty good so far. Wish I could figure out how to skip albums though.

adam

daveg

I've been doing my research and it appears the DVD headunits take "2 minutes" to load the disc. FFS. scargill shame I missed your sale. Why wouldn't it fit in your A3? Would this be the same for an A4? If so I'm fecked.

daveg

Thumper Long wrote:

pioeer have a new stereo out that has built in bluetooth so turne your stereo into a bluetooth phone kit that can be paired with 4 phones, they also do an ipod plugin that is pretty cool aswell pixmania link

This one too is at the top of my list. Nice looking player and bluetooth handsfree thrown in. I wonder what the bluetooth quality handsfree is like though?

scargill

daveg wrote:

Why wouldn't it fit in your A3? Would this be the same for an A4? If so I'm fecked.

I had the car in for a service on Friday and was going to get them to fit it for me. (I didn't want to fit it myself - car is new and these dealers can be a bit fussy about warranties if I buggered something up)

They told me it won't fit in the new A3 dash - that the unit was too high. The service manager is going to email me a list of compatible units today.

I still find it hard to believe that the units aren't a standard size.