Car stereo advice...

[NiceCupOfTea]

Wondering if anybody can help me with any advice here.

• must be decent sound quality
• must look subtly and not chavvy
• volume knob not buttons
• CD MP3 playing
• USB / memory card sockets for MP3 playback
• Bluetooth for phone calling
• DAB would be nice but can't find anything with this and the above

Not fussed about iPod connectivity.

Looking to spend no more than £200.

Manufacturers I have been looking at are Alpine, Kenwood (are they good quality?), Blaupunkt, & Becker (seem very pricey). No Sony. Are Clarion any cop?

I'm having trouble finding all the stuff I want, looking for personal recommendations!

Thanks in advance!

[wadgebeast]

A lot of it depends on the speakers as much as the head unit. I've got a JVC in my alfa, which has a volume knob rather than buttons and it's reasonablygood. Kenwood make excellent car stereos, but the one I had in my MG was a button volume control and drove me nuts, especially trying to sort the volume out while wearing gloves with the hood down.

Clarion decent - they were standard fit in some of the VWs. Blaupunkt v expensive and some of their stuff isn't a patch on Sony / JVC / Alpine.

[oobster]

Recently swapped the standard headunit in my 2007 focus for a Kenwood unit.

http://www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk/products/car/...

It IS a wee bit flashy - the front panel changes colours - but this can be turned off deep inside the menu.

It's got bluetooth, a volume knob, USB for plugging in a memory stick etc, and it sounds pretty good too.

Removeable front, and plays mp3 CD's too.

[samuelellis]

tbh avoid sony kit, they dropped quality back in the early 90's and just sell cheap kit

What head unit do you have at the moment? reason i ask is that most of the sq comes from the speakers and the enclosure (IE the door/how the speaker is mounted)

I would probably recommend posting this on www.talkaudio.co.uk but be warned your budget will soon increase and at a very scary rate as the headunit you put in will more than likely be held back sq wise by speakers, then once the speakers are changed by lack of amp power in the headunit, then once you have a amp for the speakers lack of sound-deadening in the doors and so on, and so on, and so on

[ALawson]

I have a Blaupunkt head unit, its ok running MP3 from a USB drive, the ipod interface is not the best. Bluetooth works ok, but can only store 5 numbers.

Volume is controlled on a rotary know, seaching for tunes is via a series of key presses.

Becker stuff is the dogs!

[RJB_666]

Alpine are among the best, the sound levels can be tweaked well and they always look good and subtle. I've invested in a pioneer with ipod and bluetooth. The ipod's great quality and through the same cable you can run any usb device. Also perhaps just my opinion but they look great aswell. Mine was pricey possibly just because it was a double din unit.

[funkyboogalooo]

all the answers you could ever want plus some. go to the forum
http://www.talkaudio.co.uk/

[NiceCupOfTea]

Thanks chaps.

I currently have a couple of Sony MP3 players, crap is not the word. Both have random faults that keep cropping up, not a patch on my late 90s Minidisc deck.

I'm aware of the importance of speakers and will be replacing those at the same time - problem with the rear ones is that it takes 4x10s which are not exactly common. I'm not about to chop holes in the parcel shelf either

[paoloh]

Nakamichi.

[El Stumpo]

Hi, can i just ask what car you have mate? I work in a car hi fi shop and will help you if i can and no, no plugs here as you are prob down south and im in scotland

[Alfa_75_Steve]

This one:

http://www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk/products/car/...

Put one in my company car a couple of months ago. Absolutely brilliant.

Bluetooth bits are licensed from Parrot.

[NiceCupOfTea]

El Stumpo said:

Hi, can i just ask what car you have mate? I work in a car hi fi shop and will help you if i can and no, no plugs here as you are prob down south and im in scotland

Saab 900 (79-94)

2x 4in speakers on the dash, 2x 10x4in speakers in rear wings. Only 10x4s I can find are fairly crappy and expensive (and come from the states!)

[El Stumpo]

Yes, more often than not it is american cars that use 10x4s mate. I think that Kicker may do some and if you are not desperate i will check tomor when i get to work. As for a unit, personally it would be either Alpine or Kenwood tho Jvc do do Dab units that do MP3 but are kinda Chavvy. You are picking a good time as the new units are comin soon so older units will prob be getting moved out quite cheap
The Kenwood Kdc 6041 is a good unit, 4x50w built in amp which will power your speakers v well, the deck will play cd/cdr/mp3/wma, wma being all important as is better than mp3 for sound quality and is better for compression. It has a usb port on a cable from the back which plays usb sticks etc and also sinlge wire i pod solution using the i pods usb lead. It is also ready for Bluetooth with an external kit which is a kenwood/parrot union, and the Parrot is one of the best bluetooth kits available. This unit should cover all your bases tho the styling is, well have a look and see
If not then Alpine Cde 9880 is a cracking unit which will continue this year, has usb, full speed to i pod connection and built in 4x50 amp( which i dont think is as good as the kenwoods for sheer output but it does sound nice) and the deck will play cd/cdr/mp3/wma and is bluetooth compatible but it is more expensive.

[dpbird90]

samuelellis said:

tbh avoid sony kit, they dropped quality back in the early 90's and just sell cheap kit

What head unit do you have at the moment? reason i ask is that most of the sq comes from the speakers and the enclosure (IE the door/how the speaker is mounted)

I would probably recommend posting this on www.talkaudio.co.uk but be warned your budget will soon increase and at a very scary rate as the headunit you put in will more than likely be held back sq wise by speakers, then once the speakers are changed by lack of amp power in the headunit, then once you have a amp for the speakers lack of sound-deadening in the doors and so on, and so on, and so on

Personally I think the new Sony head units are great, I've got one of their new fangled integrated bluetooth head units. £89 these days, £120 with free fitting at Halfords, excellent quality, and when combined with 4 Kenwood speakers (2x 6 inchers, 2x 4 inchers) in a Seicento it's up there with the best of them, except of course the BOSE system like in my dad's A6. Trouble is, he won't let me listen to Who's Next for me to really decide.

Anyway, this Sony Bluetooth head unit. It's great, it doesn't look flashy, just sort of blends in, even in the Fiat, very good sound quality, especially with top end speakers, does all the functions including iPod/Mp3 connection (through a 3.5mm jack so basically you need a cable with a headphone jack on both ends, a "double ender" if you really must!) and Bluetooth Handsfree, so when you get a call it comes through the stereo, just as good quality as Audi/BMW/Mercedes integrated systems, AND if you have one of those new fangled phones with Bluetooth 2.0 (sometimes noted as "with A2DP") then you can play a song on your phone and via bluetooth it plays through the car stereo (although for some reason with some phones you have to press number 6 for it to play in good quality; no idea why, it just does, but with my new phone it's all automatic anyway). Only thing I have found to be not good is the FM radio reception which wasn't brilliant with the standard Fiat system in (I live in the countryside so should expect it) but seemed a bit worse with the new Sony system, but I recently fitted a new aerial which has resolved the issue.

[minimatt1967]

paoloh said:

Nakamichi.

IIRC they are a little out of budget?

[bodhi]

Alfa_75_Steve said:

This one:

http://www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk/products/car/...

Put one in my company car a couple of months ago. Absolutely brilliant.

Bluetooth bits are licensed from Parrot.

If I needed a new head unit this is what I would have. Haven't had a faulty Kenwood unit in 10 years now. I just miss the MASK disappearing facsias.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Hmmm.

Have found a couple of Kenwoods (BT8041U & BT8141U), and a Pioneer (DEH-P700BT), but all the Alpines seem to need the addition of a £100 bluetooth unit. Seems a bit bizarre seeing as there are several other BT units for around £100 - the cheapest Alpine solution seems to be about £230

[sleep envy]

paoloh said:

Nakamichi.

budget is £200 not £2,000

[Alfa_75_Steve]

NiceCupOfTea said:

Hmmm.

Have found a couple of Kenwoods (BT8041U & BT8141U), and a Pioneer (DEH-P700BT), but all the Alpines seem to need the addition of a £100 bluetooth unit. Seems a bit bizarre seeing as there are several other BT units for around £100 - the cheapest Alpine solution seems to be about £230

BT8041U is a great head unit, if a little chavvy looking.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Don't think it looks too bad - you can switch off all the flashing lights apparently

There's also the Blaupunkt Hamburg MP57

Still disappointed that I have to write off the Alpines