hi all,

thinking of replacing my octavia head unit and speakers picked out rockford speakers. now need to work out what head unit, any help? i hve a pioneer p7020 in my golf which seems to be good i might get another.

What do you want from the head unit?

Rob.

im not wanting anything over the top. just a decent upgrade from the OE. good sound and power. prob 6disc auto changer too. thats why i was thinking of the pioneer one again, but ive not got much to compare it to to see if its good

What sort of budget?

Rob.

Kenny

Fitted similar Pioneer for Friend in octy with OE speakers, he is very pleased with result.

I have Kenwood mask unit similar output and also very pleased.

Only comment i would make on the Pioneer is that it protrudes slightly further out of the Dash than my Kenwood which also has a Black surround and looks a bit neater than his. ( He agrees with this and having heard mine (Before speaker upgrade etc) is probably going Kenwood route next time.

At this sort of level they should all be pretty good and it depends on how you might want to expand system in future

Paul

Kenny,

I've got a Blaupunkt Los Angeles MP72.....only a single cd but has mutli-media car capability and is 4x45w.

Nice silver finish and looks the dog's danglies with it's blue/red lights. Sound quiality is good having a 5 band equaliser. There is also an automatic function which optimises the equaliser for the car and can tune it as per where the listener is sitting i.e for the driver , passenger or the whole car.

I think Geoff (MonkeyHanger) got one recently and is well pleased. Geoff also posted a pick somewhere in this forum.

I've got an Alpine single Ai-Net CD HU + a 6 disk changer awaiting installation, when I get aroud to figuring where to put it all...

I have always found that Alpine kit is better built and more of a 'quality' item than the equiv Sony's Kenwoods etc....

Dazz

Try the Panasonic DFX-783, 4x50 very nice sounding and I have been well happy with it since I installed it a few months ago. Scenic (advertised on here in ICE links) did it for 175 GBP.

There are lots of products to try so don't be afraid to listen to as many as you can. Also, don't take the first deal your local ICE dealer may come to you with as it might be a bit pricey.

Best of luck.......

Cheers

Hugh

Originally posted by ecklad in this post

I've got an Alpine single Ai-Net CD HU + a 6 disk changer awaiting installation, when I get aroud to figuring where to put it all...

I know of an excellent Alpine CD-changer sized cubbyhole...

Personal opinion, I agree with you about Alpine stuff being better built and better sounding. But then I bought Alpine so I would say that...

Rob.

thanks guys im wanting both the head unit and changer for no more than

Head units are a bit like mobile phones, lots of functions and twiddly bits and after about a week you go back to using just the core features that they all have.

This is where Alpine have always scored, concentrating on sound quality and ignoring the gimmicks.

Having said that most of the competition seem to have caught up!

Very nearly bought an Alpine unit but liked the rotating mask feature on the Kenwood.

Is it me or have Sony lost the plot with some of their Head units

Paul

For that money, I'd go for the PACK1134RMP3 on this page.

For the money, you get a 6-CD MP3-decoding changer, and a CD headunit which puts out 4x60W, has lots of useful functions and 3 pre-outs. And it sounds awesome...

Rob.

alpine kits is well worth the money....

Yeah..... not quite sure of some of the latest Sony stuff although I did have a CDX MP70 on order at one point (the one with the pc style cd tray).

Settled for the Blaupunkt as it had everything I wanted and was cheaper....money saved paid for the front speaker upgraded.

Originally posted by SkodiRS in this post

Kenny,

I've got a Blaupunkt Los Angeles MP72.....only a single cd but has mutli-media car capability and is 4x45w.

Nice silver finish and looks the dog's danglies with it's blue/red lights. Sound quiality is good having a 5 band equaliser. There is also an automatic function which optimises the equaliser for the car and can tune it as per where the listener is sitting i.e for the driver , passenger or the whole car.

I think Geoff (MonkeyHanger) got one recently and is well pleased. Geoff also posted a pick somewhere in this forum.

Indeed i did...

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=49501

I own a Clarion DXZ838RMP

It is full of features and sound settings and for

Mine is a Clarion something or other. While it sounds great, a 4 year old child could have designed a more ergonomic fascia. It is silver in colour, with either tiny black labels or grey fluorescent numerals. All the buttons are tiny, and they are all different shapes. During the day the fluorescent numerals are invisible against the silver background and the black writing is legible but only from 3 inches away. At night the fluorescent stuff is nice and legible but the black writing is completely invisible. I have now learnt the position of 2 or 3 crucial buttons so can operate it by feel, but I shouldn't have had to do that. Someone at Clarion needs to get a grip and design for ease of use instead of (dubious) looks.

Totally agree. Usability must win over funtions and looks.

My current musings on head-units centre around big buttons. Not just big but HUGE! I want to be able to stap my finger blindly at the head-unit to change CD or station in the split second I've taken my eyes off the road.

Too many head-units are filled with tiny buttons. Give me a fisher-price version anyday.

Howabout steering wheel controls instead?

Rob.

thats a better idea

Do any of the skoda range have steering wheel mounted controls? Maybe the Superb, as it seems to have everything else!

Sony and the like offer extra stalks, but are they easy to attach (and do they stay in place?), and easy to use?

The Superb has them, but I think it's alone in this.

Are the aftermarket ones actually stalks, or just things that fit on/near the steering wheel?

Rob.

I've only seen stalks for add-ons. Unless you were going to buy a new steering wheel???

My old xantia had controls built into the wheel - very easy to use and no looking down and hunting for which tiny button to press...

My Mondeos (pardon my language) had both - Ford audio units with HUGE buttons AND remote control stalks.... admittedly the HUs take up 2 DIN slots.

The ones I'm thinking of are kind of like remote controls, and just fix onto the wheel with a sticky pad or something. I've driven Vauxhalls with the controls on the steering wheels and I found it to be a bit pointless...

Rob.