Double Din Headunits

[LexG]

Hey all, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a fantastic NYE!

I'm thinking about upgrading the standard CD player I currently have In my IS200 but to be honest I have no idea whether to go for a branded HU or an "Un-Branded" one

I came across these head units on eBay : http://stores.ebay.co.uk/blacksilvertech_W...9QQftidZ2QQtZkm : There seems to be a lot of High-Spec ones on here but I wanted to know in advance if anyone owns any "Un-Branded" pieces of kit, I know a lot of people agree with "you get what you pay for" but a few people I know have bought "Un-Branded" HU's and have had no problems but I'm still unsure

I guess the problem I have is that I don't want to spend more than . . say . . 150ish pounds. Is there any branded / un branded kits at this price that anyone would recommend? Preferably DVD / Audio Input for mp3 players etc etc or am I asking for too much?

All help is greatly appreciated

[Rob's Lexx]

seem very well priced mate. may be worth a try, especially at 60 odd quid for a 7 inch double din number!!

[sparkystav]

Mine's unbranded and while it some of the screen are pretty basic displays it does what it says and needs.

No problem at all.

Stav

[yemgi]

I was looking at one of these units but with GPS.

For the ones you are looking at, at this price you can not really go wrong

[sparkystav]

looking properly and their even Bluetooth as well.

Stav

[Bloodygoodbloke]

I bought onw of the double din DVD players and spent an age fitting it as its not got a connector on the end. when it was fitted i hated it. Very basic and ugly sitting in the dash on my is200.

I got rid of it less than a week after buying it because it was bad.

I was more concerned about looks rather than function. but i do know the redio bit was crap.

Saying that mine was not touchscreen and the spec of the ones on eBay look alot better than the one I got.

Give it a try and if like me you hate it then flog it I am sure some boy racer would buy it for his Saxo. ( i made £10 on mine when i sold it on)

[Unregistered_User]

Did you buy from this fella?

J

[mAltezza]

i bought one, off there the 7" double din, £134 delivered, its good for the money, the picture quality isnt great when on the menu's, but seems ok when playing a dvd,

bit of a bitch to fit on the autoleads facia, coz the screen is slightly too big, so you will have to cut a few bits, if anyone needs any fotos or help just let me know,

[LexG]

Cheers for all your comments! Ive decided to not go down the DVD player route and stick with a single DIN unit

Ive come across this unit http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/08-NEW-PIONEER-DEH-P...1QQcmdZViewItem and it has everything that I'm after plus more, Its Pioneer and generally I think there head units have a nice sound to them but I'm surprised how cheap this one is! What do you guys reckon?

[IRLRs200]

Cheers for all your comments! Ive decided to not go down the DVD player route and stick with a single DIN unit

Ive come across this unit http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/08-NEW-PIONEER-DEH-P...1QQcmdZViewItem and it has everything that I'm after plus more, Its Pioneer and generally I think there head units have a nice sound to them but I'm surprised how cheap this one is! What do you guys reckon?

Its coming from Honk Hong so not sure if the radio will work over here, only place i can see it for sale is eBay

[LexG]

Radio not working doesn't really bother me, I think Ive had the radio on once since Ive owner my Lexus (about 4 months). Thats the only place I can find it too - do you think its because it was not released over here? The spec seems spot on - sound quality is the only thing I'm worrying about . . .

[yemgi]

references between Asia and Europe are different. Usually the asian models have more "feature": more sound presets and more screensavers

I had the DEH-P8450MP where in Europe there was only the DEH-P8400MP

[LexG]

So what would your advice be guys . . a "go for it", or "leave it" ? As I'm sure you know more than me about Ice in the Lexus. A quick run through of the spec:

* MOSFET 50W x 4

* MP3 / WMA playback

* WAV file playback

* iPod® direct control with CD-IU50

* USB 2.0 (full speed)

* BMX (Bitmetric Equalizer)

* EEQ

o 5-mode preset equalizer

o 2-mode custom preset equalizer

o 7-band digital graphic equalizer

o Bass Boost

o 2-way crossover: HPF / LPF

o 3-mode selectable loudness

* Rotary Commander

* Direct Sub Drive

* 3 RCA pre-outs (front+rear+subwoofer)

* Level indicator

* Remote Controller

* AUX-in (rear)

130 notes doesn't seem bad to me. Opinions are greatly appreciated

[loggyboy]

Its not double Din, but Halfords do one of there ripspeed in dash dvd players as online only recon unit for £169, but still wil yrs guarrantee.

Ive checked out the brand new versions in store and was impressed with the dvd/screen quality, not sure on how the rest performs tho.

might be worth the extra £40 for peace of mind of returns etc.

[LexG]

Cheers for your replies and time of looking up head units - the only factors that puts me off the Rip speed style single din dvd players is that it covers up half your heater/ac controls, plus I'm not too fond on Rip Speed itself . . just my opinion though

Maybe this will make it easier for me - Can anyone suggest any head unit that is iPod/USB/Sub Input compatible with a nice clean/crisp sound to it? There must be loads of people on here that can recommend :winky:

[DJ Wozza]

A quick run through of the spec:

* WAV file playback

WAV is the standard form Music is stored on a CD with no compression, all the CD's you buy from a shop have WAV files

stored on them as it stands in this use for a Digital Wave Form.

A quick run through of the spec:

* BMX (Bitmetric Equalizer)

OMG what is this gonna be ? Bearing in mind it already states it has some form of graphic equalizer, with custom settings

or presets, how bad is the choice of your music going to be that it has to go through all this processing before you get to hear it ?

Cheap 'n' cheerful is always going to be exactly what it is. If all you want is something to do

the job and on a small fixed budget, then no-one can critisize buying a cheap no-brand E-Bay

Head Unit. I would realy suggest going for the best you can afford, and although that sounds

like an easy cop out, or me maybe being a snob, please bear in mind that Music is my business & my life.

I have found many times to my cost that cutting corners on sound equipment is a truely false ecconomy.

Either the thing will have a short useable life, or you will listen to it and be reminded that quality was just

a question of saving up bit more. We can't always afford what we want, thats why previously I

drove other makes of cars. Get the very best you can afford, and at least try to hear it before you buy.

I have a pretty good sound system in my IS200, after junking the entire Lexus system.

The Head unit is made by Alpine, & of high spec with lots of extra functions, more in fact

than you would ever need for a CD/Mp3/WMA/Tuner. It even comes with a remote control,

just incase I lose mobiltiy in my left arm. I went CD rather than DVD for my system as

every DVD deck I listened to music through, sounded worse than the CD Head Unit I eventually

purchased. As Music Quality was the primary reason for my install, a CD Head Unit had the edge.

I did hear 1 DVD player to come close but as that was approx £1400 I gave it a miss.

Specs mean nothin in all honesty on any unit unless they actually give you an improved

listening experience. A lot of the time it's just to impress.

For example some of my ALPINE-CDA-9855R Head Unit "Blurb" is listed below.

The useful functions I haven't listed such as Volume, Track Section etc....

SwingFace

Ready for iPod®

Bass Engine Pro™

6-Channel Digital Time Correction

6-Position HP/LP Digital Crossover

Subwoofer Level Control

Bass Focus

5-Band Digital Parametric Equalizer

3- Way or 2-Way Digital Channel Crossover

Media Xpander™

All of the above are in reality nothing but either gimmicks, or fool you into thinking they are making your

music sound better. Quite the opposite is infact the case. I had twiddled and Tweaked with the sound settings,

crossover points, Graphic & Parametric Equaliser settings, and finally with the Digital Time Correction over 6 months

since the system was installed convinced I had a better sound.

At a recent Dyno Day meet @ TDi, I had let several members listen to my system, and they all seemed fairly

impressed with the results (except for maybe my taste in music).

I however was not happy, and spent a week with the system at ear bleeding levels to find out why my ears

were telling me that it wasn't sounding as good as it once had. After checking connections, earths, cables etc

it came down to this. Once I had master re-set all the settings to how the Head Unit came out of the box

without any of the extra adjustments the unit was capable of it sounded sooooo good again.

My point is (sorry about being long-winded) you may find a bargain that you are happy with,

but in all honesty if you by any Head Unit with lots of techno bits & bobs, once in a while I'd suggest listening

to some music again, with them all switched off. You might be suprised at what you discover.

With whatever Head Unit you decide to buy, at the price quoted you will get something to do what you need it to.

Performance wise it won't be up to a £600 Alpine or Kenwood unit,

but sound/£££ ratio will be great if it lasts.

Please let me know if i can be of any help.

[Vyker]

My word Wozza, you've even convinced me! and I'm not even buying a new unit! :o

Very good advice there, I especially like the little "insider info" on the DVD laser vs CD laser.

*Puts that info into his wikiBank at the back of his brain, ready for his next ICE discussion*

[Rikos]

Where do i buy is my question

Very good bit of info their wozza!

[loggyboy]

A quick run through of the spec:

* WAV file playback

WAV is the standard form Music is stored on a CD with no compression, all the CD's you buy from a shop have WAV files

stored on them as it stands in this use for a Digital Wave Form.

The standard cd fromat is CDA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Book_%28a..._CD_standard%29

http://www.coolutils.com/Formats/CDA

WAV is the standard uncompressed audio format for PCs/Windows

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV

[DJ Wozza]

Loggyboy I may not have the specifics exactly stated correct, but if you read this excerpt from the

Wikipedia web page you mention about WAV's you will see it kinda backs up my comments above.

the most common WAV format contains uncompressed audio in the pulse-code modulation (PCM) format.

PCM audio is the standard audio file format for CDs, containing two channels of 44,100 samples per second, 16 bits per sample.

[loggyboy]

I was just calirfying as your comment was a little misleading, as if you write a CD with WAV files on it it wont play on a normal CD player.

Audio CDs do not use WAV as their sound format, using instead Red Book audio. The commonality is that both audio CDs and WAV files have the audio data encoded in PCM. WAV is a data file format for computer use that can't be understood by CD players directly. To record WAV files to an Audio CD the file headers must be stripped and the remaining PCM data written directly to the disc as individual tracks with zero padding added to match the CD's sector size.

[DJ Wozza]

we are kinda going

Maybe if you re-read my last post all will become clear.

[Rikos]

Now now ............... let's all live in harmony and accept that your both right! (I could be a politician)

[loggyboy]

(I could be a politician)

lol, and you'd come up with something completely different yourself, and insist you were right too.

[DJ Wozza]

and still get us to vote for him !