Which head unit - DAB and MP3/AAC/etc?

[MitchT]

Probably letting the side down somewhat, but I know NOTHING about head units! I have an 18 year old BMW 3 Series (E36) which I've owned from three months old and it's always had the original BMW Business RDS cassette/radio unit in it. Due to my massive music collection being in digital format and the fact that I'll have to embrace DAB sooner or later I'm wondering what head unit to get to put in. I need something that'll do DAB and will hold my substantial collection of MP3 and AAC music files, or has a slot for a USB stick so the files can be played straight from it, but will at least display track into on a screen so I know what I'm doing when trying to select artists/tracks.

Is this the kind of thing I need to be looking at?

[defblade]

Yes, that looks like the sort of thing; there's no shortage of units that will do what you want.
The only thing I would add is that I always go for one with a rear USB (they are thinner on the ground) as I like to to have all my music on a USB stick (currently about 60Gb on a 64Gb stick, so may be time for an upgrade soon!) in the glovebox rather than hanging out the front of the unit all the time.

[gmaz]

I would also add that for DAB you may need an additional compatible aerial.

[MitchT]

Thanks for the replies.

Aerial wise, my car has a thing called "Aerial Diversity System". I don't know what that actually means but there is no visible aerial anywhere on the car so maybe there are aerial wires running to various locations on the body to maximise reception without an external aerial actually being needed. What that may mean for DAB reception I don't know!

[gmaz]

MitchT said:

Thanks for the replies.

Aerial wise, my car has a thing called "Aerial Diversity System". I don't know what that actually means but there is no visible aerial anywhere on the car so maybe there are aerial wires running to various locations on the body to maximise reception without an external aerial actually being needed. What that may mean for DAB reception I don't know!

Then you would probably need one of these splitters

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Connects2-CT27AA136-Unive...

The unit you linked to (and most other ones too) have 2 separate aerial connections for DAB and FM. I'd check my local ICE dealer for advice, and I don't mean Halfords.

[Squishey]

I've just fitted a Pioneer DEH-X7800DAB to my Puma. My criteria was the same as yours; CD, USB, BT audio, BT handsfree and DAB. Also, I wanted something with green illumination to match the standard dash colours - the Pioneer has multiple colours so can be customised to match any dash. It's fantastic and I'd highly recommend it!

With regard to the USB; just buy a small/slim flash drive like the Sandisk Ultra Fit.

Here's a picture of the HU with the above flash drive, and one of the windscreen mounted DAB antenna: