These obscenely cheap Chinese eBay stereos...do they work?

[Hard-Drive]

I need to buy a new car stereo. Now this bit's important. It's for a 30 year old Defender which I've just bought, with a very agricultural 200Tdi engine, a wind roaring roof rack, very little sound insulation, and some speakers stuffed in the existing wobbly headlining, and pretty much non-existent vehicle security. It really, really does not need to be good.

I was amazed when trawing eBay to see a huge amount of choice for less then twenty quid. I just need to be able to listen the the radio and plug in an iThingy for very occasional driving when I might want to drown out the metallic clatter of a Land Rover with some music. That's all. So for twenty quid this Chinese tat seems like a not a bad buy.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Car-Bluetooth-Stereo-Wir...

Has anyone got any experience of this, or one of the other many hundreds of units available at that price point?

I would want proper "knobs" rather than touch screen...I went and spunked a few hundred quid on an all singing all dancing Pioneer double din with satnav on my Porsche, and promptly hated it as the satnav is a bit pants, the iphone interface a pain in the arse, and the lack of tactile buttons mean doing anything apart from turning the volume up or down is an eyes off the road job. Besides, a flat 6 at full chat sounds better than Adele at full chat anyway.

So for £20, what's the worst that could happen? Thoughts?

[StottyEvo]

Just get a Carsio at least you'll know it works

[ToothbrushMan]

well your local big bass shop will do you a £30 stereo that at least if it breaks you can take it back. one from chinanot so easy to exchange but for £20 you could almost treat em like Bic biros - throwaway, like most things now.

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

Hard-Drive said:

It really, really does not need to be good.

Then it'll fit the bill perfectly. Go for it.

[smithyithy]

I've had one and it was fine.. Tacky blue lights and cheap switches, but it worked,

But in my shed Polo a few years back I picked up a mech-less Sony with SD / Aux /USB from Halfords for £40.

Well made, all the features I needed and 12 month warranty from a large store.

[foliedouce]

I'm planning to do a double din conversion in my Defender so you can have the Alpine unit out of mine if you want it. The only thing is it gave up the ghost last month, but as it's less than 18months old I suspect it's a connection issue rather than a head unit issue, however I can't be sure.

Let me know

[shoestring7]

Ear phones and your iPod? That's what I use in my noisy old heap.

SS7

[littlebasher]

I bought a cheapo Chinese special once

It caught fire in the dash, interesting drive on the M1 when you get flames coming out of the CD slot!

[Hoofy]

littlebasher said:

I bought a cheapo Chinese special once

It caught fire in the dash, interesting drive on the M1 when you get flames coming out of the CD slot!

[littlebasher]

Hoofy said:

littlebasher said:

I bought a cheapo Chinese special once

It caught fire in the dash, interesting drive on the M1 when you get flames coming out of the CD slot!

Shame I can't find the photos that I sent to the eBay seller for a refund. Surprisingly, he didn't want it returned!

[OldGermanHeaps]

It doesn't surprise me. I used to work in a power supply design and testing lab. We Used to rip apart chinese designed power supplies that claimed to have similar specs to ours but were a quarter of the price, they had tuv and ul approval logos plastered on them but those organisations had no record of testing them for approval and they were seriously dangerous pieces of crap, no primary-secondary isolation, failure of 1 cheap component could electrocute you or burn your house down, underrated components, entire safety circuits missing, undersized wiring. From seeing what I did there i'm surprised there hasn't been more stories of people being killed by imported ebay tat.

[hotchy]

littlebasher said:

Shame I can't find the photos that I sent to the eBay seller for a refund. Surprisingly, he didn't want it returned!

Im surprised they never blamed you for putting the wrong type of cd in etc

[Skyedriver]

hotchy said:

Im surprised they never blamed you for putting the wrong type of cd in etc

Prodigy?

[Easternlight]

Skyedriver said:

hotchy said:

Im surprised they never blamed you for putting the wrong type of cd in etc

Prodigy?

ISWYDT

[HustleRussell]

Where do we suppose the mid-market stereos are made?

It's not a cutting edge technology. It's not a lot of money, and you don't need it to be good. That said, a five year old kenwood or similar is probably going to function like new and cost a similar amount of money.

[Hoofy]

Skyedriver said:

hotchy said:

Im surprised they never blamed you for putting the wrong type of cd in etc

Prodigy?

[Krikkit]

HustleRussell said:

Where do we suppose the mid-market stereos are made?

It's not a cutting edge technology. It's not a lot of money, and you don't need it to be good. That said, a five year old kenwood or similar is probably going to function like new and cost a similar amount of money.

It's not really about where they're made, but more about who designed them, and for what budget. Even the cheapest Kenwood etc is going to have power circuitry which is safe and well made.

[anonymous-user]

Plenty on Amazon for £20, with the added bonus that you can send back if rubbish!

[98elise]

littlebasher said:

I bought a cheapo Chinese special once

It caught fire in the dash, interesting drive on the M1 when you get flames coming out of the CD slot!

I think thats your answer.

Its £20 delivered, so imagine just how much money went into R&D or testing!

i'd by a second hand branded one from a bootfair, or ebay. Alternatively the cheapest one in halfords.

[Max5476]

I know it's a lot over budget, but if I had to go back to something with no noise isolation i would not go with anything built in and would get a pair of these:

https://m.bose.co.uk/GB/en/home-and-personal-audio...