Can anyone recommend me a head unit that would suit the Coupe's interior? That would mean...

- completely black front
- no cheap old LCD display (good quality new ones that don't leak light considered)
- no curvy spaceship looks
- no chrome / polished alu / looking parts

Features
- SD card reader would be fun
- iPod connection would be fun
- Wouldn't mind some kind of fold-away front (I saw a radio with a front that turned 180° with basic functions for radio on one side and card reader / ... on the other)
- Very good quality reception and sound

I have a Becker Mexico Pro at home. I fitted it into one of my earlier coupe's. It looked perfect. It's the only stereo I have ever thought looks right in the coupe. I don't think the standard does either!

I will be fitting it again to my crono once I have sorted out the code lock - need to get it unlocked as I lost the code.

If I am home for more than 10 minutes soon, I will do this. I'll look and see if I have a picture of it installed somewhere and post if I can find it.

Bad side is, they are expensive. Sound quality is very good. Needs to have extra's bought for the iPod connectivity.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004HJ5GAO?tag=anan06-20

Looks like it might suit the Coupe if thats the look you want.

Can't find a pic, do have this one though of a pioneer I think from my red plus. It looked okay. I still use the iPod nano now in my crono. It's a handy little thing.

This one is in there right now. Looks spot on.

Ollie... are you kidding?

Hey its got most of the features you asked for, if you can live with the Fisher Price "My First Radio" looks

I have a slight feeling audio quality will follow the looks. I bet it looks okay in a Gwiz or Tata Nano.

Snob

Doesn't quite meet all of your requirements, but I have one of these in my Coupe

As with the car itself, its distinctive, unusual, performs well, but is a bit of an acquired taste

Clarion FB289RBT

I like that! Couple of questions:
Does it have a 'mute' button anywhere?
Is iphone connection only via bluetooth? And if so, does that work ok in practice?

Hi Kayjay, I had a Pioneer DEH88-PRS Black

http://www.pioneer.eu/uk/products/archive/DEH-P88RS-II/page.html

Lovely looking and great sound, although the head unit suffers from earthing issues...

I quite like that shifty! Does have metallic buttons though, which I don't like... but I think I'll have to look at he pioneer range.

Something else though... why does it not have channel buttons for the radio?

I have a Kenwood KIV-700 which costs a lot less now (under £150) than a few years ago. Connects to iPod via cable you can put in the glove box, Bluetooth is however unfortuantely a £100 optional extra with KCA-BT300 box. Can connect to (modern) CD changers too (my old Kenwood changer is too old, but with an iPod, it's not really needed).

The right hand button works like a joy-stick, nudge left or right selects pre-programmed or station search.

Its by far the best sound I've ever had but two things that may put you off

Must be installed by a pro, probably worth installing an earth kit to the coupe as well. A previous coupe owner had one of these (think his name was ChrisP, He had porsche alloys on his coupe x) anyway he had a full reference Pioneer install that would have sounded stunning. This obviously comes at a hefty cost.

The other issue is the lights sourrounding the silver dials could not be turned off, it is quite distracting and bright at night.

But it didn't half look and sound good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S7sAqJ80EA

I still have mine although the RCA fuse has blown again, due to the coupes poor earthing, or more likely my installation skills...

Dave, I thought about that one, remembering your bought one. How is the display though... is it a high quality item, or is there quite a bit of light coming off it, even when it's black?

The display is hardly "retina" quality at around 150 ppi. I'll have to experiment with it to see how much light comes off a "black" display. I'm sure you're not looking for plasma-deep blacks, are you worried about the display being too bright and off-putting? I can't say I've noticed, the head unit is mounted quite low down in the centre console remember. If it's distraction you want however, you can set up the illumination to cycle through all the colours of the rainbow.

With any head unit you get, you'll at least have the satisfaction of the main volume knob being closer to hand on the left of the unit...

Volume is dictated and enhanced by the 3-year old in the back most of the time. As is the choice of song.

It sounds good Dave and I can even forgive it the chrome bits.



I hope it's not that which makes the unit cost over £ 100.

Judging by the video's it looks easy to use and easy to pick music. If the iPod is connected, can you still use that to navigate, or does the radio take over completely at that time?

I vote the becker too, have HiSpeedPro unit, and there is no better radio reception quality, the audio also is very good, the design is absolute match to the coupe console. Only some issues with the display could appear, also its dot type, forget about colors and modern graphics, additional connectivity bt/i-things only via additional adapter. But its definitely the 90's car stereo:)

Don't need colours or graphics, even want to avoid if possible.

The head unit takes over, with the iPod showing a screen saying that it's acting dumb or something like that.

As for screen brightness, like most LCD panels, it gives off a lot of "light" even when it's supposed to be "dark". It does have auto-dimming option, but TBH the head unit is so low down in the centre console that it's never distracting when driving.

I second the Kenwood, its the best one yet for me:

http://www.garaget.org/?car=1476&image=2504641

Infinitly adjustable in both color, brightness and sound set-up. I use Spotify a lot so I then use the aux, steering it with the iphone. Also with the display set to a large clock, instead of the one i had at the boostgauge. The aux-cable i have coming up through the handbrake boot, when I use it. (I use a lot of cd aswell, being a nerd of music myself..)

It's gloss black which in my car goes with the center and tunnel console.

Get ahold of a second hand Mcintosh! Pure porn... And sound is offcourse
Top notch.

click ebay

some info

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=510376

Siden du er hifi frelst

... And then I saw the price.

£130 max.

ive just got a Pioneer DEH X5600BT Although it has an alloy vol. knob the rest is complete black comes with a USB port AUX port IPOD IPhone Android connection, bluetooth handfree. You can change the colours so Im going to match it to the dashlights and dim it down so its not very bright. I did look at the Clarion range which are completely back with no vol knobs etc. Came with the same features looked good in the photos on the net but looked cheap in the shop. Both were the same price £100 delivered. I was aiming for the Clarion for the same reasons as you stated above plus its an updated version of the original!

DEH-X5600BT Here is a link. Although there is a lot of text on the screen you can customize it. All I want is the station I'm listening to, nice and simple, which you can with this model.

Nakamichi do some lovely old head units and you should find a CD400 or cd45z for around £150 off ebay when they pop up. They're CD/MP3 only though from what I remember so no SD or USB.....which stopped me getting one. Still a lovely head unit though....If its a subtle look your after then I'd have a good look at one. Becker are (were) awesome units but too expensive for me. I'm not too clued up on what model to get, probably beys to ask on Talk Audio or DIYMA for advice on these.

Have a good think on what's more important, the stereos 'looks' or what features it has and how it sounds. Personally I go for features/sound and the looks is a bonus. Saying that I wouldn't go for anything tacky looking regardless I how full featured it was. You've still got to look at the thing and operate it (I hate units with buttons everywhere, one bump and you've pressed the wrong button and listening to radio 4)

I'd also stick to the bigger brands like Alpine, Pioneer, Clarion, maybe one or tow Kenwood, but wouldn't touch Sony ever again.

Clarion do a very nice unit called the CZ702e and CZ703e which is basically identical but has an extra USB on the front. For the price (around £170 new!!) I don't think much will touch it. I've seen them go for under £100 on ebay....its a very very good head unit.
http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product_m-clarion-cz703e_c-31941.htm

Alpine have a load of offerings and can get confusing as they're pretty similar. But generally you can't go wrong with Alpine. CDA-117ri and CDA-137BTi are worth a look....loads more available though for under £100 used. I gave up looking though as it gets confusing with al the lower models and the more higher end stuff still fetches big money....so went for another Pioneer!

Pioneer have the DEH-80PRS (I've got one in the Saab that's getting replaced with a DEX-P99RS next week) these are around £270 new and £170/180 used. I'd eat my hat if anything comes close to this for the price and features. Its a fantastic headunit from Pioneer....you need to spend around a grand to go to the next audiophile grade (P99RS)
http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product_m-pioneer-deh-80prs_c-27505.htm

And to give you an idea here's the p99rs, obviously a lot better but the 80prs shares a lot of features (I loved mine but wanted to go 4 way)
http://www.pioneer.eu/uk/products/22/1864/61/DEX-P99RS/page.html

Kenwood I generally stay away from as they can suffer with software issues, although my old '90's 'mask' was a nice unit. Generally the older kit is better than the stuf available now, but the older kit doesn't have iPhone/USB/SD card etc so its horses for courses!

If like me you listen more to USB or iPhone music instead of CD's then this Kenwood's well worth a look. Its mechless so has no cd drive so USB only....but plays FLAC so you get a great sounding headunit for peanuts! There's not many units that support FLAC (gives better sound quality over mp3)
Just have a read of the review below. There's also a slightly newer version which I think has a couple extra features or connections, but still nice & cheap.
http://www.talkaudio.co.uk/index.php/ind...odflac-he-r1476

^^^^that Kenwoods an absolute bargain especially if someone doesn't want to spend hundreds on a system but wants a nice sound. Just add a 2 channel amp, 2 way front components and job done

Going back to Pioneer (my preference) have a look at some of the older PRS series head units like the one posted above, you should get one for £150. These were very expensive back in the day! Not sure if they support USB/iPhone though but still sound great and look/feel nice.

Higher end pioneers do suffer with the Pico fuse blowing though which is usually done when guys hot swap the RCA's (take them out/in with the power still on) so just be aware of that if you do go the pioneer route....

HTH Dai

^ That Kenwood is just what I've been looking for, great post and thanks for the linkage.

No worries

Before you buy it just take a look at the next one up, it's very similar but has a couple extra features and still very cheap.

Cheers Griffindai, did check out the 357 but at £90 compared to the 257s £46 inc P&P, was an easy decision.

I know its sad, but the 257 also won because of the red illumination... can't be doing with mismatched interior LEDs...

Klaas,
if you want decent radio sound you need to go digital. I have JVC DB 852 units in my fleet and the sound quality is superb. I suppose it depends on the digital signal in your location and what channels are available. These units have iPod and Bluetooth connectivity as well. £300 list price but I haven't paid more than £150 for each of my three.