Cheap generic head units.. do they annoy you too?

[barefoot]

I never used to bother about after market stereos or correct font number plates...

And then I came on here, 

I only joined because I thought it'd be a bunch of blokes who couldn't be arsed to wash their cars every Sunday morning.

 

 

My life used to be so simple.

[tooSavvy]

My 'ex Station' ToMM© has the factory head. However the LCD has 'black bleeding' and cannot be read

 

When he went to France I don't know if they listened to toonz (iPod) with a cassette/dummy head player thinggie?

 

I have a USB/bluetooth jobbie [plugs into the ciggy socket] with a 3.5mm output port.

 

If I cannot get that option working then a 'usb direct' head unit will be on the cards...

 

TS

[DaveDorson]

I never used to bother about after market stereos or correct font number plates...

And then I came on here, 

I only joined because I thought it'd be a bunch of blokes who couldn't be arsed to wash their cars every Sunday morning.

 

 

My life used to be so simple.

 

 

I found myself looking for dealer sets earlier.  Being an 03 car, they're not as easy to get as you'd think.

[carlo]

The French, as is often the case, had the answer in the 90s; steering wheel column controls and a cover which went over the radio.  No distracting lights and an anti-theft system all in one.

 

Although if I had a modern I'd be more concerned about the ridiculously bright infotainment screens, I seriously don't know how people can drive properly at night with them glaring constantly at them.  I suppose it balances out the piercing headlamps of all the other moderns coming in the opposite direction.

[alcyonecorporation]

The French, as is often the case, had the answer in the 90s; steering wheel column controls and a cover which went over the radio.  No distracting lights and an anti-theft system all in one.

 

Although if I had a modern I'd be more concerned about the ridiculously bright infotainment screens, I seriously don't know how people can drive properly at night with them glaring constantly at them.  I suppose it balances out the piercing headlamps of all the other moderns coming in the opposite direction.

You can dim the dashlights on my Leonard by turning the screen off or piddling with a good old fashioned rheostat.

 

It combines death Xenons with a conventional handbrake and a button that says STOP/START:OFF.

 

It's not bad for a modern wotsit bob.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

 

Clarion's FZ102E is one of my favourite modern head units - just a pity they don't make them in any other display colour.

I like that a lot. Nice subtle design and I'd imagine good quality buttons....

 

Main market for aftermarket stereos is the 17yr old market so I guess that's what the bling is for.

 

However the Sony high res stuff is nice IMO, assuming you can still get them?

 

 

Edited to add.....fuck that I wouldn't pay that for an entire car:

 

https://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product_m-sony-rsx-gs9_p-40024.htm?gclid=Cj0KEQiA5IHEBRCLr_PZvq2_6qcBEiQAL4cQ0-8w6xrlHHFhrYhAD3H3qWvmkRNCqOvYR6mIGdrLOroaAhYQ8P8HAQ

 

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[Noel Tidybeard]

This new Merc of mine has an aftermarket replacement Sony headunit. It chirrps at me annoyingly every time the ignition is turned off (I think as a prompt to takes its FACE OFF) I hope there's come way of silencing it as its driving me crayzeeee!!!

 

check through menu for caut alm- if its there it can be disabled

 

the sony thingymebob in the renner is linked to the joystick- which is nice and has fully customisable illumimation so with dash lit it is orange to match car and in day time green just because i can!

[forddeliveryboy]

I've given up allowing such silly modern stupdities bug me, let alone wondering about the mentality of the designers who think you need dolphins/hellos when you switch a flippin radio on. The Sony's bebo-bebo used to really grate.

 

Just need to get over the poncey term for what was once universally known as a car radio.

[Richard]

Forget this new-fangled RDS nonsense. The Volvo 4 Microprocessor RX-2Q radio/cassette is the future:

 

2012-03-12_19-50-10_835.jpg by E Honda, on Flickr

 

 Some new-fangled RDS nonsense, yesterday.

 

2015-10-18_05-09-07 by RichardB5, on Flickr

[Shep Shepherd]

The OMG VOLVO SOUND BOX is the best OEM head unit I have so far encountered, even better than the all-singing, all-dancing 'AS3' set-up that The Aero has, in my opinion. I like it so much that I kept the one from my V70 when I sold it, even though I have no use for it. No doubt the car subsequently ended up with a Halfords generic special 

[BavarianRetro]

Period looks in a modern stereo:- Continental

 

http://bavarianretro.com/blog/?p=380

[Shep Shepherd]

That looks Ã¼ber-nice 

[Guest Breadvan72]

Up market(?) early eighties CHOONZE-A-MATIC still in active use.  Note extra tiny graphic equaliser controls to adjust while doing 90 in outside lane.  

 

Bonus glimpse of futuristic* trip computer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pete-M]

I've got a Bluetooth Sony in the Mercedes and a BT Pioneer in the Golf. Both have colour and dimmer settings to match the stereo illumination and colour to the car's dash illumination.

 

More often than not people don't bother adding the illumination feed, resulting in the blinding radio illumination chaos you describe. It's 5 min to match them up.

 

Bleeps, dancing dolphins etc are normally curable in the menus.

[UltraWomble]

TBH I'd love a shitty generic head unit as the factory fit thing is shite.

 

Cant remove any of it without the air con / heater / demister / immobiliser all throwing a wobbler and not working.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Mucho spenner, and not all that period, mostly:-

 

http://www.classiccarstereo.co.uk/

[alcyonecorporation]

I like that a lot. Nice subtle design and I'd imagine good quality buttons....

 

Main market for aftermarket stereos is the 17yr old market so I guess that's what the bling is for.

 

However the Sony high res stuff is nice IMO, assuming you can still get them?

 

 

Edited to add.....fuck that I wouldn't pay that for an entire car:

 

https://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product_m-sony-rsx-gs9_p-40024.htm?gclid=Cj0KEQiA5IHEBRCLr_PZvq2_6qcBEiQAL4cQ0-8w6xrlHHFhrYhAD3H3qWvmkRNCqOvYR6mIGdrLOroaAhYQ8P8HAQ

 

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Denon, Nakamichi and McIntosh all made high end double and single DIN head units.

[sierraman]

Cannot stand aftermarket head units. They rarely fit properly, sound tinny as fuck and the buttons are distracting as they are so small. To top it all they look naff.

 

We've one in the Focus at the moment. It could drive a lesser man to murder. As soon as I can I'll be finding the OE CD player and fitting that. Just before I smash that glowing insipid red Sony pile of shit to pieces.

[beko1987]

The Lidl/Aldi stereo i inherited out the ex Beko ZX lost its signal continuously too, it drove me mad. I picked up a nice sony with USB input of a facebook sale site for a tenner and that works great. All the flashing lights drive me mad too so i'm glad I'm not the only one.

Amen to that, it was a right pain. Was Aldi I think. Ace at Bluetooth music and USB music, shit at fm or phonecalls. Why do you think I left it in...

 

The citroen radio in the xantia is stealth, as half of it doesn't light up! I had to put a bit of tape over the led on my cheapo Bluetooth to aux thing though, as it was proper bright. Not such an issue when driving as it's hidden behind the steering wheel, but in the dark, when reversing it lights up the entire back of the car.

 

Amy's jvc does the stupid lights when ive had the battery out. Got to turn the demo mode off, and you can dim the lights down, but she's never been fussed so I've never bothered doing that.

 

I always found pioneer ace. I had an old pioneer unit once in my first car, you could choose about 93 colours and shades, matched up a treat to my 206s orange dashboard. Sadly it broke as I used to take the faceplate off all the time incase of omgtheft.

[tooSavvy]

.... just bought this :-

 

 

£5.99 delivered

 

 

TS

[Richard]

That is a thing of wonder. I could be persuaded to sack off the Sony adapter for that.

[Station]

http://www.halfords.com/technology/car-audio/car-stereos/sony-rsx-gs9-bluetooth-media-receiver

 

Have put original radios back in my cars, but would have one of them, and the Contental looks nice.

[New POD]

Having had the MX5 with a none working aftermarket goodmans for 7 years, last summer I fitted some ex display thing from helfrauds JVC. It works. It has a clock, you can plug a phone in and it plays CDs. It is not very user intuitive and has too many functions hidden via menus. But hey I've managed to get it to work. Unfortunately I could not fit the Cavalier tape deck as it was broke.

[Timewaster]

Modern stereos piss me right off.

 

Im sure most people don't want 8 different bass patterns and 58 menus for each function only to discover you can't turn it down to order your drive thru because you accidently touched a button while looking for the volume and now all you can do is wind the balance left and right for the next 30 seconds while you embarrass yourself by blasting the McDonald's teenager with your REO Speedwagon best of.

 

I guess as most cars have a reasonable head unit so a replacement would have to be something special?

 

When I can be bothered, I am putting the original stereos back in my cars.

[RoadworkUK]

My A4 still contains what must be the only 1998 Audi 'concert' head unit whose rotary encoder dial hasn't gone tits up. Odd stereo system, that. The FM sound is a bit thin, but there's clearly nothing wrong with the speakers or amplifier - the feed from the CD changer is bloody good, even delivering proper lows.

 

Original Phillips unit in the Rover, too, with changer control. I won't be changing it, but it sounds pretty terrible - even well-produced CDs sound like Atlantic 252.

[overrun]

It doesn't have to be stock for me, but I can't stand garish blingy flashy shit. I do like the look of that Clarion, I thought it was a stock Rover 1990s unit to begin with.

 

This. I hate all that disco light BS. I always have.

I remember about 15 years back, my mate was amazed with his Pioneer 'Dolphin'. Remember them?

 

I used to stick with inoffensive Sonly MD decks (pre-Xplod crap). Although I did have a Sony Active Black thing in a runaround, but I kinda liked how the whole display side was one big graphic equaliser, and the display was mostly white.

 

What pisses me off the most is when the flash and scroll shit, beep and don't match the factory illumination!

[conkerman]

I have a Kenwood kdc bt61 in my focus. Its pretty good. Does phone, music over Bluetooth. You can set the lighting colour from a load of options. Its a few years old now so should be cheap on the bay.

 

 

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[The Reverend Bluejeans]

My radio requirements are complex.

 

- somewhere to insert a CD

 

- A volume knob

 

- knobs for treble/bass/balance

 

- buttons to select R2 and R4, Smooth FM and a seek button.

 

All taken care of by various old Blaupunkt and not so old BMW head units.

[Vince70]

I had a lovely old Kenwood mask in the Z3 when I bought it but it was way to complicated for me to work out. so it's now chucked in the loft.

 

I changed it for a Bluetooth iPod compatible Blaupunkt which I bought from eBay Germany as I didn't think it looked as fussy like most modern stereos and I liked it so much that I bought another for the winter snotter.

 

Obviously even I didn't fit it upside down.

Only thing I will say is their not as good quality as the old 80s Blaupunkt stuff but at around £50 to £60 a pop you can't really go wrong and the hands free on the Blaupunkt is brilliant.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Is Blaupunkt still Blaupunkt? Or have they been bought by someone else?

 

I remember the Blaupunkt Nevada, available in a range of garish colours :

 

 

 

 

In black it's a nice subtle unit

 

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