new ICE/Sat nav - suggesions

[southendpier]

Dunno - how I've done it but I've lost the face plate off my Alpine. Been listening to the 8 cylinder soundtrack for a month now and sometimes, just sometimes, I fancy listening to some choons.

Fancy getting a new head unit and was interested if we have any ICE nerds who could give some advice. Seem to be in a state of flux at the mo with lots and lots of options. I went into Halfords to have a look around but most of their units just seemed to have lots of flashing lights and looked a tad chavvy if I'm honest. What are the good devices at the moment? Do I want Ipod connections, memory sticks, combination of the two, DVD MP3 players, and is I assume sat nav is now dealt with by PDAs or portable units (what type and make do people have in their cars?) so I should not look at those expensive units where the screen slides out?

So budget of say £400 tops for the unit, fitting by my own fair hands. Already have pre amps and power amps in the boot.

I also have a subwoofer in the helmet hole, thinking of loosing that, and repairing the seat coz I don't like the look, anyone hidden one elsewhere? How hard is it to do? The little 'pod' where the front middle speaker is crying out for better use. Could you stick a compact woofer in there?

Life was easy when if you to paid a little extra you got an FM tape player with "reverse" as an add on. And the real geezers also got ones with a strange but very impressive 'Dolby NR' option Apologies to our younger readers who may not know what I'm on about.

[davidn]

I've fitted a JVC head unit, not too bling (just 4 or 5 buttons on the front panel) and fits in with the style of the dash and a handy touch screen interface plus MP3 compatible whihc give me around 500 or so tracks per CD. Know nothing about decent hifi but it sounds okay, replaced front speakers with Pioneer E-Motion. All sounds fine with the engine off but very tinney otherwise. Like you I didn't want to mess with the helmet hole so fitted a Clarion active sub woofer. it's about 3" thick and the area of an A4 sheet of paper and sits on the floor behind the drivers seat. I made up a false floor with matching carpet to cover it and the wife kindly piped in magnolia to match. Sounds fine. Head unit £250ish, woofer £140, speakers £75 panel £10. Must have listened to it at least 5 times in the last 2 years! so top value for money.
David

[bindit]

I'm on my third TVR and i can count on one hand how often i've used the radio/CD!

[byker28i]

I've got a JVC-AVX2 unit in as I couldn't find anything else that didn't look 'chav'. I didn't want flashing lights & screens etc. It's a DVD unit, great sounds, plays MP3 cd's, can fit a reversing camera to it etc.

£369 in Halfords at the moment:
www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_235343_langId_-1_CarSelectorCatalogId__varient__categoryId_31338_crumb_31265_parentcategoryrn_31265

[byker28i]

Oh and I topped it off with a pioneer active subwoofer in the helmet holder. Only 150W but it's enough to add some bass and make a difference. I got a spare helmet holder and fitted it into the base of that, still leaving a little room for storage

[jensena]

byker28i said:

Oh and I topped it off with a pioneer active subwoofer in the helmet holder. Only 150W but it's enough to add some bass and make a difference. I got a spare helmet holder and fitted it into the base of that, still leaving a little room for storage

I've seen the one in Dave's car - It looks good, suits the car, and sounds good too.

[d_drinks]

Just picked up a nice Alpine head unit with full iPod control - track names displayed, play list access, etc. 4 x 50 watts, silver finish with drop down front for CD loading, face comes off in typical Alpine style. All in direct from the Alpine website inc. postage £170. Seems a bargain to me!

[kevin63]

My unit is on my profile, it's linked to a 300w amp powering a sub woofer in the helmet holder.

[alinton]

davidn said:

fitted a Clarion active sub woofer. it's about 3" thick and the area of an A4 sheet of paper

David, what's the model of that active sub please?

Thanks

Andy.

[jensena]

Dave - I've just got myself a JVC like yours, how did you wire the Handbrake switch cable in? I'm guessing you just wire it to a permanent live supply, but don't want to blow anything up.

[byker28i]

NO NO NO - it needs an earth. I just wired it straight to earth.

It's supposed to be that you can't watch video's whilst you are driving but I couldn't be bothered with running the lead all the way to the handbrake switch. You can turn off the video and just listen to the soundtrack anyway.

[jensena]

Good job I asked I was thinking along the lines of "when you pull the handbrake on a light comes on, so you must be connected to a live source"

[byker28i]

Nope - most switches like that run to an earth on a car. The positive is the other side of the bulb and the switch to earth completes the circuit.