Whats A Decent Mp3 Head Unit?

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

Hello,

 

I've been out of the loop on car audio for a while and i'm looking at upgrading my head unit at some point. I could do with a couple of recommendations!

 

My current head unit is an Alpine IDA something which is a non-cd head unit with USB input. Quite high up in the range at the time IIRC.

I like the thing sound and feature-wise, except one intensely irritating feature it calls 'banking', basically when you start the car, it has to scan the entire usb drive for every file, before it will display anything other than 'banking' on the screen. You also cant change the song during this period and it will tend to repeat the song it starts on until it has finished banking, which can be 10minutes+ depending on size of usb drive

I also miss the convenience of grabbing a cd on the way out to the car.

 

What I require

- CD player

- USB input (preferably at rear so I can run the cable to the glove box)

- needs to be able to handle a massive usb stick or even small external hard drive, so I don't need to change the thing all the time

- equalizer with plenty of adjustability (my current one only has low/mid/high adjustment, would like much more)

- couple of pre-outs

- decent sound quality

- decent and easy to read display

- decent reviews!

 

What I don't

- I never listen to the radio so any radio features are irrelevant

- I also don't have any apple products, so again any features aimed at ipod/iphone are of no interest

- not bothered about bluetooth stuff

- I don't use my phone in the car so hands free related stuff isn't required

 

I have had a look online for top 10 lists etc, but I could never actually find any of the top ones for sale anywhere, presumably due to different model numbers in different countries. I seem to recall kenwood coming pretty highly

 

So chuck some suggestions at me please

 

 

[Anthony 1,000]

Have a look at some of the mid-top end Pioneer stuff from the last few years which should meet those requirements. Used stuff doesn't attract the same premium as Alpine so you can get a lot more for your money if you're looking at used rather than new.

 

The USB side of things works spot on - I think I've got a 8Gb stick in mine at the moment and it starts playing within 2-3 seconds. My brother has an older higher end one and again, it works very well and has been faultless.

 

I've always found that Alpine units tend to sound good (if a touch bright) but whoever is in charge of the interface design and feature implementation needs shooting. Maybe I've just been unlucky, but reliability wise they've been quite poor for me - of the three I've owned, all of them have failed or had problems in some way (failed internal amp, failed display, and a dicky volume knob), whereas all the Pioneer units I've owned are still working fine other than the CD eject mechanisms seem to get a bit lazy.

[scbond 15 1 Cars]

My personal recommendation is to get a Sony DSX and ditch the CDs. They store an iPod/iPhone where the CD tray would've been. All internal and concealed and no scanning the device.

[MikeC 10]

Clarion would be the way i would go, but everyones opinion is different.

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

Anthony- Second hand or reconditioned is probably the way I would go, can't justify buying new. Do you know of any model numbers that are worth a look? There seems to be thousands of them!

 

SCBond - I've already ditched the cd's with the current one, but would like the versatility with the new one, also, I dont have an ipod/iphone

 

MikeC - I'm sure I had a really nice clarion years ago and rated it quite highly, I've also had a nice kenwood at some point but it got stolen

[Rjuhar 52]

If yo really want top sound and adjustment options with stage/delays... find yourself a used Blaupunkt Bremen MP78. Warm sound, plenty of settings, usb cable at the back plus cd. It's a reference sq headunit.

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

I had a quick look for an MP78, but couldn't find anything less than £300! which is a little out of my budget unfortunately

[scbond 15 1 Cars]

 

SCBond - I've already ditched the cd's with the current one, but would like the versatility with the new one, also, I dont have an ipod/iphone

 

 

Pretty sure they also work with standard MP3 players, although I've never tested it. It would need to be a similar size to an iPod Classic to fit in the tray. Otherwise you'd need to use the external USB port (there's two of them). Can't recommend it highly enough!

[sp_en_ny 14 1 Cars]

I have had Pioneer, Kenwoods and Alpine's in the past, When I bought my 205 a couple of years back the first thing I did was plant an Alpine head unit in. My personal opinion is whilst Alipine's are generally a tad more expensive then the rest for the same or similar spec the look and feel is much more solid and pleasing on the eye.

[Rjuhar 52]

Or, if you can live with playing mp3s from CD:

 

http://www.klangforum.info/shop/catalog/images/deh_p77mp_large.jpg