Hi all, Considering a new head unit for the wagon (one with iPod and Bluetooth). I've always had Alpine gear, and fancy one of these: Linky Anyone got/tried one? I want a bit of real-world feedback! (And no. I won't be using the stupid Facebook function.)
what do you want to use it for? as one of the big selling points is the facebook/phone connectivity. What car is it going into?
I want to use it for everything it does bar the Facebook functionality, really. It'll be in a Fiesta, but surely the car it's going in is not really relevant? It's fitted with decent speakers etc anyway!
for about £100 cheaper, you can get the alpines with built in Parrot Bluetooth, which does BT audio, MP3 via USB with Ipod Controls. basically the same thing Linky that does pretty much the same, and bar for a few shiny bits, it will still be as functional as the one you linked, but at £100 less RRP. reason i ask, is is for that sort of money a double din unit, one of pioneers new App H/U's might be a better choice, and i wanted to see if it would fit before recomending it. Pioneer Linky Link to a online shop, as Pioneer doesnt put RRP on their website, linky thats a whole different thread right there. as the speakers need to be matched to the cabin size and shape. your seating position relevent to the speaker position. and if you are running them from the H/U amp alone or a seperate powered amp(s), how many speakers, what they do etc. i could go on for ages about this
Og god, flash backs!! I did sound design on a show a few weeks ago (I normally do lighting or video) and one of my bosses rants was on the subject of high end car sound systems! tl;dr Get it right once and you'll never understood how you managed to cope with your previous set up!
I got one of these from Halford for around £200;http://www.alpine-europe.com/index.php?id=1339&L=2&href=cd-head-units19/cde-w233r&level_num=product This one doesn't have blue tooth, but there is one that has it. Which revision of the fiesta do you drive? I'm in a mk2 focus which will take a double din unit, but it did need a slim facia to make it flush with the existing dash. It replaces the HD6000 stock radio well. The feature I use the most of is the ability to plug a usb stick full of mp3s in the usb plug and it'll happily play them away. Get a 8gb micro usb stick and it'll live in the slot permanently.
Sounds stupid, but why not buy an OE unit with bluetooth etc built in? Nothing upsets my OCD more than seeing a lovely integrated dash with a flashy Comet special in it. (And by that I mean pretty much any aftermarket head unit - almost all of them have trinkets and blinky lights that look bloody awful)
Yep, and being a total audio nut, even though the car is a runaround, it's proper! (I've spent years dabbling with car audio... I'd looked at the 174 (and others - friends have the lower end models) and might just plump for one of those, but I'm a sucker for shiny... Cheers for the input all (+rep) - but I'm still looking for someone that's tried the unit in their car, really! @Krikkit - I'd thought about that - but it's the daft 1.5DIN unit which you can't get a BT h/u for, and I'd be spending almost the same for a Parrot MKi with iPod and BT and I'd have to shove a screen on the dash. Nightmare.
Back in the days when I listened to music in my car properly (i.e. didn't need the boot space ) I used to stick a bit of paper over my old Alpine head unit when driving at night because the blue lights were ridiculously bright even when dimmed
Bloody ridiculous - I had the flagship unit a couple of years on the trot which sounded incredible, but had the same problem. Burnt retinas/in-car dazzling at night. Annoying. I'm pretty sure I kept an old birthday card in the car to do the same thing...
Understood! I better bug out of this thread in case you bring pictures that make me weep with an un-matching dash. I recently ripped out a cheap HU in my car (it came without one) and replaced it with the OE-fit CD player that was an option at new, it looks so good, especially matching the shade of the cluster lights etc and switching to low brightness when the lights come on.
@Krikkit my pioneer head unit allows you to set the dial lighting to any RGB value, so i matched it to the stock coloring! i'm sure other brands have a similar feature still doesn't look amazing, but at least it doesn't stick out much
Been thinking about a new head unit for my S3, unfortunately everything I've looked at seem horrible compared to the factory fitted unit (they've got an awful lot more bells and whistles though)
Available at Halfords for £199. http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...uctId_875559_langId_-1_categoryId_265857#tab1
