What CD Head Unit to buy?

[StuartFZR400 0]

Okay the old ones packed up and time to replace it. Standard rado speakers are well, lets say dated.

 

Anyone bought a decent cheap system recently?

 

Ones I've looked at:

Alpine CDE 9843 R/RM 4x45 £110.00

Clarion DXZ 558 RMP 4x52 £135.00

JVC KD G611 (4x50) £117.00

Kenwood KDC W 5031 £120.00

Panasonic CQC 3301 £86.00

Pioneer DEH 4700 £86.00

Sony CDX R 6550 £100.00

 

or do you go up a level a bit to the likes of:

Panasonic CQC7301 4x50 £160.00

JVC KD LH811 4x50 £160.00

???

 

Or is it all much of a muchness and when you're buying cheap it doesnt matter cos it'll always sound naff; so buy what looks best?????? :?:

[chrishill 0]

no matter what headunit you buy the standard speakers will let it down badly. I'd consider one of the cheaper options and some upgraded door speakers if you're on a tight budget.

[mrbeige 0]

Spend as much as you can, and get an Alpine preferably the one up from the one you have looked at so you get changer control, which can be converted into an aux input at a later date for only about £15.

 

And as chrishill suggests upgrade the speakers as well, as standard ones are going to let it down being 10years+ old

[Kevin Bacon 5]

£86 for a CD head unit, jees.....

 

That's £16 more than it costs to fill a VR at today's Optimax prices, which I can burn off in about 150 miles.

 

That's unbelievable.... a good brand CD HU for the price of a meal for two, whilst petrol and fags are more expensive than cocaine.....

 

Anyway, the Pio DEH 4700 and the Clarion are going to be the best sounding ones. Avoid cheap Alpines, they really are cheap...and nasty.

[mrbeige 0]

Avoid cheap Alpines, they really are cheap...and nasty.

 

Oh, I always thought Alpine stuff was pretty good, but I've always had high end alpine head units....I'll retract my previous alpine recommendation then....

[bristolbaron 11]

yup pie in ear would be my choice.

[sciroccotune 0]

try to get an older alpine unit, one that has come down in price..... you will like it.. E.g i spent £300 on my HU and its about £150 if that now..

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Oh, I always thought Alpine stuff was pretty good,

 

Some of it is, but the budget ones aren't much cop tbh. The 9835R is probably the best head unit they've ever made, a much better buy than their F1 status and a tenth of the price!

[StuartFZR400 0]

Cheers lads. I think this will be a good thread for anyone looking; so keep comments flowing.

 

So it seems to be a toss-up between going super cheap & naff, or saving up a tad to do it properly, including speakers. (much like my kenwood stacking syst at home; lasted me years and quolity is top).

[samm_cvr6 0]

you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

But I got a Kenwood KDC-309 in my run about Uno, £99.99, includes free fit! then I got some speakers (Kenwood) for £39.99 I think from Argos and I'm pretty impressed, does me fine anyway.

[StuartFZR400 0]

I can only find the Alpine 9812 and 9855 for £250 & £280 respectively at a cheap place. The 9835R seems to be asking £400+. Which is fair enough if thats your boat lads. Not quite for me; cannot agree that you get the same experience as you can get in a decent sized room at home. Thats an idea; do yu think the Celestions will fit in my boot? haa maybe not :D

[Claret Badger 0]

buy cheap buy twice

[chrishill 0]

But I got a Kenwood KDC-309 in my run about Uno, £99.99, includes free fit! then I got some speakers (Kenwood) for £39.99 I think from Argos and I'm pretty impressed, does me fine anyway.

 

which is basically what i was saying, even the standard headunit (which I doubt any corrado still has!) would sound miles better with different speakers, technology's moved on a hell of alot since VW slapped in that paper nokia crap.

 

cheap doesnt have to be naff, its just not up to the job of satisfying an hardcore audiophile. I've spent about £150 on door speakers, dash speakers, 12" sub and a 4 channel amp, some of which was second hand admittedly, but still thats cheap as feck and it sounds bloody good to me, and i'm fairly picky.

[samm_cvr6 0]

yea, different people have different priorities and standards, where Im happy with my £140 set up, LOL, others hardcore audio heads will find it not so good.

I do have a good ear and apreciate good quality sounds, which is why my home stereo is a good set up, with top quality connector leads and speaker cables.

Call me a grandad but I don't really like music in my car too loud so I wouldnt apreciate a good set up as much probably.

[chrishill 0]

StuartFZR400, take a look at this http://www.performancevwmag.com/classifieds/ad_photo.asp?id=37462&c=United+Kingdom

 

thats what i've got, paid £200 for it 2nd hand about a year and a half ago and its cracking, for £120 you could do ALOT worse.

[_Monkey 0]

I'm running an alpine 9815rb and it's a fantastic piece of kit, i paid £360 for it but it's about 2 years old now so it'll be well cheap! I've tried the rest and i always got noise through amplifiers, but the alpine's got built in suppressors, there's a lot going on behind the scenes on the high end alpines!

[StuartFZR400 0]

Stuff gets better each year. Shame about the face of most units though :( UGLY

 

Bought the JVC LH811 (keep wondering if the Calrion would sound better). The sound is just fine. Time to save for some speakers. Took a short while to figure out the wiring in the VW is different to most other makes; it now doesn't loose its memory.

[davidwort 0]

I've got one of those DEH4700's and it's pretty good, especially for the money, I had an old, but top of the range Alpine unit before, and with the exception of a few features, like auto volume adjust and 2 sets of pre-outs I can't fault the Pioneer (facia trim surround is a bit flimsy).

MP3 feature is great, no need for a cd changer anymore.

 

David.

 

 

Okay the old ones packed up and time to replace it. Standard rado speakers are well, lets say dated.

 

Anyone bought a decent cheap system recently?

 

Ones I've looked at:

Alpine CDE 9843 R/RM 4x45 £110.00

Clarion DXZ 558 RMP 4x52 £135.00

JVC KD G611 (4x50) £117.00

Kenwood KDC W 5031 £120.00

Panasonic CQC 3301 £86.00

Pioneer DEH 4700 £86.00

Sony CDX R 6550 £100.00

 

or do you go up a level a bit to the likes of:

Panasonic CQC7301 4x50 £160.00

JVC KD LH811 4x50 £160.00

???

 

Or is it all much of a muchness and when you're buying cheap it doesnt matter cos it'll always sound naff; so buy what looks best?????? :?:

[Neil VR6 0]

I recently bought a base model Alpine CDE-7841R for about a £100 and put it in my GF's MX5. It sounds really nice with the £50 Fusion speakers I got to go with them. It's also got a built in high pass filter to stop the speakers from receiving potentially damaging sub-bass frequencies and it goes surprisingly loud and keeps the sound very clean indeed. I can't reccomend it enough; not too many flash buttons, just nice sound quality. The radio's good as well, it tracks the signal really well if you travel accross frequency boundaries. Can't see any downsides really for the money! :) It's also got one pre-out with a remote sub adjuster should you ever go down that route.

[blackcat 0]

buy cheap buy twice

 

yep, too true. I bought the cheapest stereo I could when getting one for the golf. It was absolutely rubbish. If I turned the volume up over a certain volume it didn't work. So I took it back added another £50 and got a better one!!

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I can only find the Alpine 9812 and 9855 for £250 & £280 respectively at a cheap place. The 9835R seems to be asking £400+. Which is fair enough if thats your boat lads. Not quite for me; cannot agree that you get the same experience as you can get in a decent sized room at home. Thats an idea; do yu think the Celestions will fit in my boot? haa maybe not :D

 

I like the 9855, nice unit. 9835R is no longer made, so anyone still asking £400+ for one of those is having a giraffe....it's so last year, LOL! But it's the unit I have and after a testing a bunch of cheap uns and good uns, it was the good un I settled on.

 

I tell you what, for a no nonsense, nice looking, SUPERB sounding little brute, try and get a Pioneer P77-MP. The looks are retro and simple (love it or hate it) but the sound is BIG and effortless, one of the best Hi-Fi HUs for value in recent years.

 

And you'll never get in house responses in a car, no matter how much you spend, but it's fun trying :-)

[fla 9]

Hmm, i'm looking for an HU around (and if poss UNDER) £100. What would be suggestions here? That link that was posted in this thread earlier has obviously been sold - iirc it was for about £120, but dont remember which one. Unless someone has a good secondhand unit that plays mp3s too they want rid of?

[VWci 0]

What do you think about Blaupunkt ? (Blaupunkt Brighton MP35 for instance ;) ) i like its oem look...

[fla 9]

Whats this Kenwood like: Kenwood KDCW4031? Its only £80 on Empire Direct? There's also the basic Alpine CDE9843RM with Orange display (which wouldnt suit as my clocks and switches are red and blue). Any ideas on the performance of it and can you easily change the orange colour?

Thanks