What double din hu's?...

[SNH]

What are you using?

Oe or aftermarket?

currently have the stream hu but I'm looking to upgrade. I have a 7" flip out screen from my golf but I fancy a nice double din unit. It'll be powering a Rockford amp and a sub or 2.

Post your pics if you don't mind.

Cheers

Si

[RobM]

No pics yet, but I'm running the Kenwood DNX521DAB. I wanted a stock look, integration with the cars systems (optical parking, climate control, maxidot etc) but the functionality, quality and flexibility of a high-end aftermarket system. This is all of that

[Guest]

I'd be interested in this too, the Stream unit doesn't even play the iPod! 

[bigman1976]

What sort of budget are you thinking? The Kenwood DNX521 is a great unit, but it's the thick end of a grand to buy.

[Guest]

I'd be looking at the thin end of a grand As little as possible to allow me to play the iPod and maybe bluetooth. Maybe take a Bolero out of a crashed car!

[SNH]

Not that much tbh, a along as it's iPod/USB compatible and will power 1 plot 2 amps that's all I'll need.

[FUBAR]

I'd be looking at the thin end of a grand As little as possible to allow me to play the iPod and maybe bluetooth. Maybe take a Bolero out of a crashed car!

 

Remember if you want ipod functionality with the Bolero you will also need MDI as well (likewise with the Columbus). That said both have SD slot in front and you can fire on a lot of music on a 32gb card and be a lot less miffed if someone stole that.

 

I went Columbus as I didn't like the Bolero, no additional ICE to speak of with regards to amps etc so can't comment. But in your shoes I would keep eye out on the Kenwood units on ebay just in case.

[flat-eric]

I have a Pioneer SPH DA100 in my octavia vrs.

 

If your a bit of a tech geek its a cool unit, very ipod friendly.

 

no cd drive, purely android / phone / ipod. the built in handsfree is good and easy to use.

 

Rob

[SNH]

Am I right in thinking I can't just throw any stereo in? What's all this canbus malarkey?

Not really shown much interest in it since we got it tbh so I'm still learning

[JohnMcL7]

Am I right in thinking I can't just throw any stereo in? What's all this canbus malarkey?

Not really shown much interest in it since we got it tbh so I'm still learning

 

No, you can't just fit any stereo straight in - it needs to be a CANBUS compatible unit for that (CANBUS is the communication system the car uses to talk to the different parts as far as I'm aware) so that's mainly VW units and a few others, there's a few brand name ones plus a few cheap Chinese ones.  I believe you can fit non-CANBUS units but it takes a little more work to do so.

 

I spent a while deliberating the options and went with a Kenwood DNX520VBT which I bought for around £500.  The main reasons I chose it were because it would drop straight in (aside from getting a different trim shape, the Bolero/Stream are the same shape but pretty much everything else is different), my car is a 2006 and its gateway was too old so it would need upgraded if I fitted a Bolero stereo to avoid the battery drain when the unit was turned off plus there's an auto backlight issue with the newer Bolero units on older cars.  I considered a Columbus unit as there's a firmware patch to avoid the battery drain issue but went with the Kenwood as Nick posted a review here about how much he preferred the audio quality over the Columbus and that was mainly what I was interested in.  The integration on the older 520 unit is not great, it drops straight in but it doesn't show the parking sensors, no climate control display and it doesn't connect to the maxi-dot display but then as I don't have either of the latter two that was no concern to me.

 

John

[SNH]

Thanks john

Much appreciated.

Mines a 55 plate so an early one the as yours, it is an aftermarket one that I'll be after to run my amp etc. the ken wood you mention does keep popping up wherever I look so like I'll be leaning towards one of those.

[flat-eric]

Mine :-)

[RobM]

They do know how to make a good looking unit, those Pioneer folks!

[SNH]

That is a nice unit, the only downsid for me is there's no CD player.

[Dread1977]

I went for the ANS-810, intergrated with OPS etc in the car, heater controls will display on it if you have the FL controls, can play USB, IPOD etc, has navi, even managed to hook up an android phone with the Torque app on it via an MHL and HDMI converter!! not a bad unit at all and the new one is apparently much better... from audiosources although if you have the money id go for a Zenec.

 

[RobM]

I looked seriously at the Zenec before going for the Kenwood, they look really good. The only downside for me was the DAB unit is separate (cost and physically) and I liked the idea of a Skoda dealership supplying and fitting it, although you really do pay a premium for it :(

[Dread1977]

Agreed, I had seen the Kenwood unit in the dealers a while ago, and although it looked nice the price was way too much for me!! and its not hard these days to unplug a stereo and shove a new one in especially as its all block ISO connectors, it took me less than 10 mins to fit my ans810, and now i have it down to a fine art as I keep adding bits to it!! next up is an XBOX in the boot but with all the cables run to the front glove box so all i need to do is open the box and grab a controller!!  that will be a project for the new year though as currently im working on integrating a Raspberry PI into it...

[SNH]

Does it have preouts to run an amp?

[Guest]

Will a Bolero be a straight swap for the Stream or does it need other work to avoid battery drain? Having said that, will an aftermarket unit need extra work?

[JohnMcL7]

Will a Bolero be a straight swap for the Stream or does it need other work to avoid battery drain? Having said that, will an aftermarket unit need extra work?

 

It depends on which CANBUS gateway is fitted to the car, revisions older than K (a VCDS scan will identify it) will have the battery drain issue if the Stream is replaced by a Bolero but those after a K should be fine.  I believe K itself is meant to be fine but I've seen some people say it isn't, some say it's ok.  If you have the older gateway you'll need to replace it with a newer one, the cost I think is around the £100 mark plus fitting and coding.  Cars likely to have a new enough gateway are MY2007 cars but as always it's not definite, I have the Stream MP3 unit and red calipers on my car which I believe makes it an MY2007 car but the CANBUS gateway revision is H.

 

The other issue is that most of the Bolero units now don't have a light sensor on them (early ones did) so they don't correctly light up and dim on older cars although I don't believe a solution has been found to that aside from to flick the sidelights on and off.  I haven't been keeping up with the stereo talk recently so I might be out of date there.

 

The Bolero is the same shape as the Stream though and I think it's the only one that is, the other Skoda and VW units are a slightly different shape so you need a different trim.  For the non-VRS cars it's not much of an issue as the black trim is normally cheap but some of the silver trims are around £50 from what I've seen.

 

I don't know exactly what would be needed to fit a non-CANBUS stereo, you'd need a trim adapter and some additional wiring to connect the stereo to the correct power so that it switches off and on with ignition.  The CANBUS stereos don't need this as they can communicate with the car to know when to switch off/on.  I never really looked into this option that seriously though as I wanted a drop in unit so hopefully someone else can give you a better idea of what's involved.

 

John

[Dread1977]

Does it have preouts to run an amp?

Not sure if this was aimed at me or not, but the ANS810 has 3 pre-outs from memory.. a front, rear and sub out!! rear out for 2 screens, separate camera in for parking cam.. loads really.. if you google ans810 it will take you to a VW forum, there is loads of info on there.. its quite OEM looking in both physical appearance and GUI 

[Guest]

Thanks JohnMcL7 for the very informative reply! I haven't really decided what to do, the Pioneer unit above looks very good in the car. If there wasn't much more to fitting it I'd take that option over the Bolero and all the extra bits that go along with it.

 

I wonder are there any other options? I have used XcarLink's on previous cars and found them great for connecting the iPod. Has anyone fitted a Parrot kit? Would be handy to have the phone and iPod connections in one unit.

[Dread1977]

Thanks JohnMcL7 for the very informative reply! I haven't really decided what to do, the Pioneer unit above looks very good in the car. If there wasn't much more to fitting it I'd take that option over the Bolero and all the extra bits that go along with it.

 

I wonder are there any other options? I have used XcarLink's on previous cars and found them great for connecting the iPod. Has anyone fitted a Parrot kit? Would be handy to have the phone and iPod connections in one unit.

 

Go for the ANS810 then, I guess i forgot to mention that it has built in hands free and also comes with IPHONE/IPOD connection lead that you can run into the glove box, also has a USB lead so you can put songs/movies etc on a stick.. (I also ran this into the glove box) 

 

This unit also has 2 SD cards, one for NAV, one for MEDIA... you can also stream music via bluetooth from iphone or android..

 

This unit comes with all the connectors you need, no poncing about changing CAN gateways etc, just a simple pop off the trim, undo the 4 torx screws, slide old unit out, plug in new unit, shove wires to the left hand side (took some figuring out) and job done..

 

If your car has park sensors then it will display on the screen.. I cant say for sure as yours is a 2006 but my 2007 did without changing anything..

Edited 4 December, 2013 by Dread1977

[SNH]

Does look a decent unit. Only 1 on ebay aswell

[Paul007]

In a pre FL Octy, besides the canbus issue, you won't get the same info displayed on the screen - parking sensors etc, if you have them. I had a Bolero in a pre FL Octy, went straight in, no coding, no nothing required but maybe I was lucky.  It also hooked up to the CD multi changer that was still there too so I had CD x 1 x 6 and 32gb on a card.