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A/V Recommend me a new car stereo please

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Cleggmeister, 18 Oct 2013.

  1. Cleggmeister

    Cleggmeister Of reasonable knowledge...

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    Hi folks,

    My lovely "new" Mercedes W124 200E came with a lovely c20 year old Blaupunkt Cambridge radio cassette. While it works OK the only cassettes we have are my wife's mixtapes (which have to be heard to be believed) and I'm missing some of the more common modern features.

    Features below are a must:
    1 din
    Aerial up/down "trigger"
    RDS
    CD, preferably which will play discs containing MP3 files
    Bluetooth so I can take hands-free calls, and maybe even fire in tunes from my Android
    And finally, nothing with flashing lights and ****

    The car has it's original speakers installed and they work fine, so nothing too powerful required I don't think.

    Any recommendations or advice gladly received!

    Over and out.

    Cleggy and his lovely new Merc :)

    [​IMG]
     
  2. Margo Baggins

    Margo Baggins I'm good at Soldering Super Moderator

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    What I did was went to Halfords and bought the best one I could afford that had all the features I wanted! I liked the Philips range they had there and managed to get (what I considered) to be a great head unit for only 60 I think it was. Though - it isn't what you are after as it has no CD or bluetooth, it is fairly well lit up but it doesn't have 'flashy light syndrome'.

    Have you been to see what is available/on offer in your local halfords?
     
  3. Cleggmeister

    Cleggmeister Of reasonable knowledge...

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    Thanks Margon, I haven't but I will this weekend. Thinking about things a lack of CD wouldn't be an issue so long as I could play via bluetooth. £60 sounds like a good price for yours - I've not really considered a budget - up to £150 maybe...
     
  4. Margo Baggins

    Margo Baggins I'm good at Soldering Super Moderator

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    I wasn't too fussed about bluetooth as I was only really after sd card slot and iphone compatability - I don't think any in the price range I was looking at had bluetooth, they were in the next "bracket" above, but I reckon you could definitely get what you want for under that budget. In my halfords the staff are actually really helpful, and the guy got me kitted out with the radio keys I needed to remove the old unit, an aerial adaptor and the correct wiring loom to fit the new head unit, think it took me 30 mins tops to take out the old one and put the new one in.
     
  5. Cei

    Cei pew pew pew

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    Sony's efforts seem to love lights and flashing stuff - my mum has had two Sony after-market stereos and they both have a disco mode when turned off that you can't disable. Bit annoying, but otherwise excellent stereos. That said, things may be different now.
     
  6. Cleggmeister

    Cleggmeister Of reasonable knowledge...

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    Thanks folks, good points.
     
  7. mrbungle

    mrbungle Undercooked chicken giver

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    I had one of these bad boys when I was a teen and my crappy astra didn't have a CD deck.

    [​IMG]

    Worked perfectly!

    bang your phone on that and your away lol
     
  8. freshsandwiches

    freshsandwiches Can I do science to it?

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    Haha. I still have mine in my tool box if you want it.
     
  9. Yeoo

    Yeoo Minimodder

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    Sound absolute c***though. I have always been a fan of alpine or pioneers (pro range)

    I am all about HQ though hence running JL Audio everything off a Alpine.
     
  10. Somer_Himpson

    Somer_Himpson What's a Dremel?

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    DO NOT GO TO HALFRAUDS FOR A CAR STEREO, I REPEAT, DO NOT GO TO HALFRAUDS FOR A CAR STEREO.

    £205 for this Alpine USB/DAB/iPhone model which I have in my MK3 Golf.
    http://www.carsoundsandsecurity.co.uk/store/cde-136bt/
    Quality, understated looks and great features.
    Plays my music via BT from my Android Phone and if you are mental and have an iPhone, that is covered as well.
    Also rear USB is available as are 3 RCA pre-outs if you are going to amplify the speakers and/or add a subwoofer.

    Or this cheaper model at £119.99
    http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/pro...e-173bt.html?gclid=COHeqZbCoroCFbLJtAodUQIAFw
     
  11. Cleggmeister

    Cleggmeister Of reasonable knowledge...

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    Merci bien, I'll check those out. Just had the Blaupunkt head unit out, connected the outputs to the correct speakers, cleaned the terminals and pots and it sounds....

    Like the 1980's

    :)
     

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