Not your usual car stereo question.

[Major Fallout]

I cant believe I'm asking an ICE question!
I became a full member of PH on Saturday, by getting myself an MK1 MX5.

I love the car, but it came with a radio that I'm sure is HAL 9000's evil brother. Plus it has no knobs only lots of tiny little buttons that are all too close together.

So my question is:
Is there a cheap radio out there, that has a simple on/off, volume, and station selector thingy?

[defblade]

Yes, there are some ~really~ cheap simple ones available.

But they're rubbish.

If you're desperate, get down to your local indie motor factors and ask for their cheapest old one.

Or, have a play with the half-decent ones, and see if you can get on with any. The Pioneer and JVC joystick systems I find pretty simple.

[mig25_foxbat2003]

+1 to Pioneer systems. They're chunky and simple for the most part (a bit like Lisa Riley, but they sound a lot better)

[AndrewW-G]

Havent a clue what it's like, but at £50 with bluetooth, mp3 / usb etc, doesnt look bad value

http://aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/special_buys3_158...

[DennisTheMenace]

Look for becker, nice simple stereos with good sound quality , although thata a mission to get in an mx5 anyway .

[petrolsniffer]

I've got one of these great for the price! http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product_m-in-phase...

Sd,usb,Aux no cd though if you still use em!

[Meoricin]

AndrewW-G said:

Havent a clue what it's like, but at £50 with bluetooth, mp3 / usb etc, doesnt look bad value

http://aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/special_buys3_158...

Compared to the others available for sub-£50 it doesn't look that special. I'd prefer to have the USB/SD card slots on the front. That 'In Phase' one looks awesome though. If I didn't already have a rubbish stereo with usb/sd card/aux, I'd buy that in an instant.

[Major Fallout]

No matter what radio I have, it will sound horrid in an mx5 with the standard speakers. So quality is not at the top of my list.
What is, is the ability to switch it on and off and turn it up and down, without looking at it when I'm bouncing down a B-road.

[maniac0796]

mig25_foxbat2003 said:

+1 to Pioneer systems. They're chunky and simple for the most part (a bit like Lisa Riley, but they sound a lot better)

I found my pioneer to be the worst laid out radio i'd ever used.

Just go to the scrapyard, and ask for the oldest radio ever. Failing that, some motor factors must have some unsold stock they couldn't send back?

[defblade]

Meoricin said:

AndrewW-G said:

Havent a clue what it's like, but at £50 with bluetooth, mp3 / usb etc, doesnt look bad value

http://aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/special_buys3_158...

I'd prefer to have the USB/SD card slots on the front.

No no no. USB on the back. That means the hard drive lives in the glove box without wires running all over the place, and you have ALL your music available, ALL the time.

[Major Fallout]

petrolsniffer said:

I've got one of these great for the price! http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product_m-in-phase...

Sd,usb,Aux no cd though if you still use em!

Thanks this one looks like the winner at the moment.

[defblade]

DennisTheMenace said:

Look for becker, nice simple stereos with good sound quality , although thata a mission to get in an mx5 anyway .

I was going to mention those, but he did say "cheap"

[Major Fallout]

maniac0796 said:

Just go to the scrapyard, and ask for the oldest radio ever.

Fantastic idea! Thank you

[rudecherub]

defblade said:

Meoricin said:

AndrewW-G said:

Havent a clue what it's like, but at £50 with bluetooth, mp3 / usb etc, doesnt look bad value

http://aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/special_buys3_158...

I'd prefer to have the USB/SD card slots on the front.

No no no. USB on the back. That means the hard drive lives in the glove box without wires running all over the place, and you have ALL your music available, ALL the time.

Hmm. useful on one level, but how much music do you want in a car? 32gb sd card or similar holds a lot of tunes.

on my pc I think I have approaching 100gb and that's thousands of hours. I actually like to put a series of more recent albums on a card for my phone, simply because on the move I don't have the time to surf for a play list or album.

[busta]

Clarion units have always done the simple things simply without trying to look like a child's toy. This one has a pretty obvious on-off button and a big volume knob.

http://www.bassjunkies.com/audio/clarion-cz100e

[parapaul]

I was just about to say Clarion

Not the pinnacle of audiophile sound quality, but for a replacement HU they're straightforward and nice looking

[defblade]

rudecherub said:

Hmm. useful on one level, but how much music do you want in a car?

ALL of it!

rudecherub said:

32gb sd card or similar holds a lot of tunes.

And, to be fair, when I started on this system, 32Gb cards didn't exist (or were so far off my budget they might as well as not have ). Although 32Gb wouldn't hold it all now, so I'd still be back to swapping from time to time.

In the mean time, I put new albums in a directory called "new" to start with, for ease of finding (or even remembering what I've added....)

[Colonial]

defblade said:

DennisTheMenace said:

Look for becker, nice simple stereos with good sound quality , although thata a mission to get in an mx5 anyway .

I was going to mention those, but he did say "cheap"

Could maybe pick up a second hand Nakamichi CD400

Had one in my old e36. Very, very, very, very simple head unit. Great SQ as well.