car stereo upgrade - pioneer, kenwood.....?

[tapir]

Looking to upgrade car stereo for DAB and bluetooth. No need for CD so looking at mechless headunits. 

Currently looking at:

 

Pioneer MVH-X580DAB Car Stereo Â£107 (halfords)

 

Kenwood KMM-BT502DAB Â£98.52 (caraudiocentre)

 

Alpine UTE-93DAB Â£152.52 (caraudiocentre)

 

 

Any opinions as to best brand/model to go for?

Don't really want to spend more than £150 (got speakers to do as well)

 

Cheers,

[richardmorris]

I have a pure 260 that doesn't seem available any more. Anyway, you'll need an aerial too- I bought one from here http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk that arrived a day later.

[castros_bro]

Rymola is the Autoshite radiogram of choice for your esteemed conveyance.

[tapir]

Rymola is the Autoshite radiogram of choice for your esteemed conveyance.

not sure that will fit in the dash. single DIN.

[Paul Dupart]

These?

[beko1987]

I bought myself a pioneer deh-x8500dab and it's the sex.

 

Well, it will be once I get a proper dab aerial for it, but it's pretty fine without it. I aim to keep it for a good while, and take it from car to car etc

[gadgetgricey]

You must get a proper digital as well. About £20.

Got DAB in the rover with a proper aerial but there is also one in MG I recently bought.

It's like chalk and cheese. The one I installed in the Rover is probably not as good a stereo as the one in the MG, but the stereo in the MG keeps dropping out as it's just got one of those windscreen aerials.

[Hendry]

Both Pioneer and Alpine make really decent stereos, can't comment on Kenwood personally but I always was under the impression they were more of a budget brand whereas Pioneer and Alpine were the top quality ones, I think Alpine are (or were) more function over form and better sound quality while Pioneer were a bit flashier but slightly more fiddly to operate and sound quality was almost as good as the Alpine but not quite. Can't go wrong with either.

 

I think if it's amazing sound quality you want, Nakamichi were supposedly the absolute best aftermarket stereos.

 

Just don't buy a Sony, their tellies are good, their car stereos shite!

[BorniteIdentity]

Well, sound reproduction on DAB is the last of your worries - unless you enjoy the BBC light programme. It's all heavily compressed MP2 audio, so fidelity isn't a concern here. Obviously it's more important if you're playing decent high quality MP3s over Bluetooth.

 

To be honest, you can't really go too far wrong. Just ffs buy a proper metal DAB aerial for outside the car, otherwise you'll find yourself deeply frustrated every time you go past...I don't know... A small bungalow.

 

Go have a play with them somewhere if possible. I'm in the car for 3 hours a day and the most frustrating thing can be navigating the various stations and bands, more than what it sounds like.

 

Good luck!

[dave21478]

^^^what he said.

Ease of use and buttons that are not so small you need a pin to press them are my priority over brand name and sound when buying a stereo.

 

They are all much the same sound-wise especially when listening to music in mono at 4 bits per second or whatever they have squeezed DAB down to these days.

[beko1987]

Yes, dab tuning is a bit bollocks. But I only want planet rock without having to stream it from my phone, so 89%of the time it won't get changed. Usb and a decent phone hands free is a bonus too!

 

I'm happy with my new toy

[Timewaster]

My experience of Sony dab is very poor.

 

The tin foil and sellotape shit aerial they supply picked up nothing at all.

A thru the glass window mount aerial just about gets talk sport and not much else.

 

Unless you spend as much on the aerial as you do on the head unit you will be disappointed.

[Slartibartfast]

My modern has built in DAB that works very well.

 

Previously I had a Pioneer DAB head unit that I found very good. I used it with an aerial like this one http://www.halfords.com/technology/car-audio/stereo-fitting-accessories/sonichi-magnetic-roof-mount-dab-antenna?cm_mmc=Google+PLA-_-Car+Audio-_-Stereo+Fitting+Accessories-_-337060&_$ja=tsid:60494%7Ccgn:GoogleShopping%7Ckw:337060&istCompanyId=b8708c57-7a02-4cf6-b2c0-dc36b54a327e&istItemId=xtilxwrqa&istBid=tztx&_$ja=tsid:35522|cid:344534764|agid:24344212204|tid:pla-211148880244|crid:83789081524|nw:g|rnd:11517599086574513420|dvc:c|adp:1o2&gclid=CjwKEAjw_bHHBRD4qbKukMiVgU0SJADr08ZZqaWMbpgOBNAXc9e5liUeqG--Akmm7jC6OjBZV3mh8RoCrUHw_wcB

 

Signal was excellent generally speaking.

[beko1987]

That's exactly the aerial I was looking at! Well, one of those or a magnetic one that sticks over one of the rear side windows.

 

Good to hear their ok

[PiperCub]

Any of the three make good kit, I've had Kenwood stuff for over 20 years and never had a problem. They certainly aren't 'budget'! (Don't know where that came from).

 

As Bourne says, sound quality is a bit of a moot point on DAB as they've forced high compression rates on the stations outputs so to cram as many in to the available bandwidth as they can. People that have been into DAB from the start will be particularly vocal about this! 

 

The only thing I know about DAB reception is the advice I was given from several sources was to get a decent aerial. 

[trigger]

I've got factory fitted DAB in my Focus, it's a massive bag of bollocks, mostly because where i live there aren't many stations that work on DAB...

[RoadworkUK]

I'm a bit of a fussybollocks when it comes to audio, but will happily suffer DAB.

 

I know it can't even beat MP3 for actual fidelity (and the latter is banished from my music collection), but the choice of FM stations around here consists the BBC stations, Classic FM, FUCKING Heart FM and Dream 100 (which is fine in small doses but sounds very much like it alternates between the first and the latest NOW album).

 

BBC6 on DAB is an easy way for me to stay abreast of actual bands who produce actual music. And I've never had an issue on mobile reception using a Pure Freeway.

[Station]

Kenwood, Alpine, Nakamichi, Pioneer. They only do audio stuff.

 

Modern Blaupunkts are just rebranded Chinese stuff now.

[twosmoke300]

Don't kenwood make blenders ? 😄

[scaryoldcortina]

Don't kenwood make blenders ?

How VERY dare you. That's a professional grade food mixer, not a blender

 

/flounce

[DodgeRover]

All modern kenwood food processors are shite, you need something from the 70s with proper metal gears.

Won't pick up DAB though...

 

Can you check what DAB reception is like in reality in your neck of the woods, I regularly find we have to suffer Radio1 or Kiss on FM on site as there is no DAB

[stripped fred]

This is useful to check coverage:

 

http://www.ukdigitalradio.com/coverage/postcodesearch/