Show me your head unit!

[Ben J]

I was actually looking at a pioneer too, then I found this
I assumed poor speakers = bad sound?

I find the headunit makes a MASSIVE difference in sound quality, the oem mk3 ones were pretty awful. Run off an amp with a HPF to block the bass to them, the stock mk3 speakers actually sound pretty damn good in my opinion. I've been running stock speakers amped for a couple years now, had planned on upgrading them when I bought my sound system but ran out of funds. I eventually blew the stock tweeters and so put in some new ~$100 (which i realise is pretty cheap and nasty relatively) speakers in and they sounded like ass compared to the mk3 ones, so I sold them to a friend, bought some jaycar tweeters and put the stock speakers back in the doors. I'll upgrade them one day when I can afford a nice set, but until then, I'll keep running the stock ones, for what they are they're actually pretty good in my opinion.



My headunit at the moment glows green, but it looks far from oem. I'm not a fan of it's appearance, but it does everything else I want An older pioneer one probably is the way to go, they make some really nice headunits

[ffoff]

I've got a pioneer unit which charges my iphone and all. Allows you to select music from the iphone not the head unit itself which is awesome. It lights up blue, but its got a feature that blacks out the head unit after 5 seconds. The absolute best at night having music playing but no annoying lights blinding you!

[shooitt]

I always tried to preserve the OEM look when I owned a couple of Volvos and an 89 Chrysler New Yorker. No one likes a shiny silver head unit in a boxy brick.
One of the Volvos had a Clarion (can kinda see it in this pic):

FZ709

One had a pioneer (which I can't find any photos of) ...if I find a pic I will post.

And the Chrysler had a Clarion too:

CZ309A

Just some more ideas

[MattyT]

I've got a clarion DXZ776USB myself. It's far from an OEM look, but it is black and you can set the illumination to whatever you want out of 728 colours. At the time, it was one of the few headunits that had the combo. Always seems to be hard to find.

Since we seem to be getting a little off-topic here, the sound from my stereo is ****. No bass at all. Ive got Alpine Type-X splits an an old skool Alpine 2-ch amp. It SHOULD sound awesome, but it doesnt. I know nothing about car audio so I've never tried to improve upon it, save for fiddling a bit in menus.

[Ben J]

The mk3s are pretty nicely set up for audio, a basic subwoofer should improve things a lot, and then take the bass out of the speakers and the sound wont distort before your ears start hurting

Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk 2

[KI11Z]

Pioneer now makes head units where you can adjust the display colour to suit your taste:

DEH-3450UB Car stereo with Front USB and Aux-in, iPod/iPhone Direct Control, Custom RGB/Multi-colour Display and Buttons (2012) - Pioneer Car Stereo - Digital Media Receiver

Pioneer DEH-3450UB Car CD MP3 Tuner - ($149.85)RYDA Car Audio

I have the previous model of this head unit in my car and it is top quality.

i've been looking at these though they look too space agey for my liking :p haha

I've got a pioneer unit which charges my iphone and all. Allows you to select music from the iphone not the head unit itself which is awesome. It lights up blue, but its got a feature that blacks out the head unit after 5 seconds. The absolute best at night having music playing but no annoying lights blinding you!

whilst the blue is unacceptable () haha, the feature of blacking out the unit is awesome! i've never seen that before and even if my unit lit up green, I think i'd prefer it to be off at night too...... very cool......

I always tried to preserve the OEM look when I owned a couple of Volvos and an 89 Chrysler New Yorker. No one likes a shiny silver head unit in a boxy brick.
One of the Volvos had a Clarion (can kinda see it in this pic):

FZ709

Just some more ideas

THIS IS AWESOME! i've been trying to track down this style of unit! i'm in love!... now should I spend the money on one.....

...........Since we seem to be getting a little off-topic here, the sound from my stereo is ****. No bass at all. Ive got Alpine Type-X splits an an old skool Alpine 2-ch amp. It SHOULD sound awesome, but it doesnt. I know nothing about car audio so I've never tried to improve upon it, save for fiddling a bit in menus.

This is my issue exactly and i'm no car audio expert either........ i've spent money on some powerful splits front and rear, all amp'd. i've only done the rears at the moment but i'm so devastated with the severe lack of ANY low end that i've stopped the installation till I get the rears sounding right..... the tweeters distort before I can barely feel the woofer move :/

I really don't want to compromise the minimal space the cabrio has with a subwoofer....... The thing that frustrates me is how the **** do standard systems in the newer cars sound as full as what they do, WITHOUT a subwoofer?!?!

[ffoff]

whilst the blue is unacceptable () haha, the feature of blacking out the unit is awesome! i've never seen that before and even if my unit lit up green, I think i'd prefer it to be off at night too...... very cool......

AFAIK you can get my head unit in green as well. I'll have to dig up the model number for you. CBF walking out to my car at this time of night haha

[Mk3 AAA]

You know my feelings on this, the 2 fast 2 furious robo-cop looking ones with disco lights and pop off face-plates have never really done it for me, although I respect there isn't much option in the cheaper units. Could you maybe go one of the later Audi single dins? DO NOT buy an Audi Concert like in my mums car, it has a music hating wizard that controls the volume for you, options LOUD or off, or varying aggressively between the two.... BUT the sound quality is pretty mint for a factory system, Blaupunkt head unit.

[shooitt]

THIS IS AWESOME! i've been trying to track down this style of unit! i'm in love!... now should I spend the money on one.....

They shouldn't be too expensive now. They ARE as simple looking as they get....but its more of a form before function headunit, especially if you're used to having the 1-6 buttons for radio and shuffle/repeat functions. You've gotta scroll through menus using the sensor touch panels on either side of the screen...hazardous to use while driving hahaha.

But it looks sexy.

In my Vento I've got the latest Blaupunkt headunit with Bluetooth. It's gloss black but because it was designed by Germans it seems to look perfect in there lol.

Sent from my WT19i using Tapatalk 2

[anthony--t]

I've been thinking about stereos lately as my vento has everything stock. Was considering one of those Jaycar headunits but also found this on the Jaycar site, thought it could be cool. Run a sub for all the bass and run sock headunit and speakers.

Speaker (High Level) to Line Level Converter - Jaycar Electronics