Recommend me a head unit

I've broken my head unit by forcing it out of the centre console because I didnt have the correct removal keys

I need a new head unit and would prefer a pioneer becase I have a pioneer CD changer but I would consider buying another brand.

Upto now the front runner is this but I do like the look of the silver alpine ones

I have a budget of arond £150. I dont want one of those budget ones with a Dvd screen, I want a decent sounding leading brand jobby.

If anybody has a decent 2nd hand unit for sale I may also be interested

Dan

The pioneer looks good especially as you can use your cd changer. Alpine are also very good, probably one of the best. If you are going to not use the cd changer then go for the Alpine.

I replaced my standard HU with a Pioneer with Bluetooth for me phone from Amazon. I think it was just over your budget but great sound.

Get one with MP3 playback and you don't need to worry about the changer!

Might have to up the budget and go for a decent Alpine and ditch the changer

Dan

Consider if you want Bluetooth hands free too. As Steve says Pioneer do a good unit as do Alpine and Sony.

It may save future expense for the cost of a bit extra budget now and it so usefull.

Alpine.

Alpine.

Alpine.

What he said

havent used an alpine unit,but had several pioneers one and say seem like a great allround unit and doesnt break the bank.I have had a jvc and sony unit and both just seem to break.Any my old mp3 pioneer unit from 2yrs ago is now in the birds car and aint a bad sound to it either.might snatch it back.I would stick with what you know but its up to you

eskimo had his old Alpine 9812RB up for sale in the Parts For Sale section. I was all set to buy it off him, but then i locked myself out of my house and had to pay a locksmith to get me back in.

Ive seen the bluetooth units. It would be nice to have bluetooth hands free but im not to concerned about bluetooth on my headunit to be honest

Its sold

I was very happy with my pioneer before I broke. The sony ones look abit tacky to me which puts me off

This Alpine looks like a good deal. Its £160 and comes with a cable so you can link your ipod to it and it displays the song names etc...

Alpine CDE-9850RI

I've just blown the budget and bought the Alpine CDA-9855R

let us know how you get on with it as my sony one as broke again.How much was it?

It gets here friday so I will let you know over the weekend when I fit it. Cost £250

Ok I've had the Alpine CDA 9855R fitted for a few days now. Ive only got the standard speakers fitted and the sound quality isnt bad, not as good as I thought it would be. This is more than likely the standard speakers but I had my old headunit with the standard speakers and that sounded much better imo.

The slide touch feature is a annoying. It takes twice as long to do something as it would do if using buttons.

Thge main thing that I dont like is the EQ. You can only set the EQ by adjusting the mode i.e Rock, pop, hip hop, flat etc.. etc.. when I have the unit set on rock the bass at low volumes is powerful and sounds good but when you turn up the volume less than half way it distorts the sound. To listen to music with the volume half way up you need to set the EQ at flat or pop. This greatly reduces the bass and makes the song sound lifeless and tinny. Im sure there must be a way to alter the bass and treble some how.

The headunit looks good but I'm beginning to think I would of prefered one of the latest pioneer headunits instead now

Hello, this might help,

I've just put in the Clarion DXZ768RMP, (£240), still with the standard speakers. CD is great, and radio better than original Clarion head. Does MP3 / WMA discs as well, but haven't tried it yet.

Also looks classy, I think, and a good match for interior. Buttons can have colour illumination altered, and I've matched them to dash illumination. Display is grey-scale only, but not garish, (if you don't set the movie backgrounds!). Only slight drawback I've found is in sunlight non-lit parts of display have a purple tinge, but it's not a big problem.

Simple looks and matching to dash illumination, (didn't go for the top range Clarion as it doesn't have it), as well as good sound were really important to me.

None of the manufacturers seem to care about matching illumination much at the moment.

Found only a Pioneer that did it with buttons and (old style LCD) display, but overall design wasn't for me, and thought Clarion would be better sound. Considered Alpine above, but only four of its buttons could be colour adjusted to orange, and display was still grey.

There was a Blaupunkt (Bremen) where display could be colour matched, but the buttons could be set to only one of 16 colours, so they would have been slightly off. Plus it was almost as much as top-range Clarion, but didn't seem as good or good looking.

I'm pretty pleased with the Clarion. Just wish that the diplay copuld be set to Orange, (or that the top of range one allowed button colours other than blue!).

Long post, but hope this helps

I sold the Alpine CDA-9855R after owning it for a week. I just couldnt live with it. The Slide touch feature was really annoying and I found the bass to sound boomy rather than tight and thumping. The quality of the Radio was also disapointing. I was expecting the Alpine to be great and blew my budget to buy the top of the range model but I wasnt happy with it at all.

I now have a Pioneer DEH-P75BT which I have only just fitted today. The pioneer IMO is a much better headunit. The sound is far less boomy and the clarity much clearer than the Alpine. It also has bluetooth so you can pair it up with your mobile. I must admit this is a great feature, much better than expected. The Radio quality is a huge improvement over the Alpine which sounded tinny. The only thing that the Alpine has over the pioneer is it looks fantastic. The pioneer does look good but the Alpine uncertainly looks the part.

I would recommend the Pioneer DEH-P75BT to anybody looking to buy a Headunit. I got mine from Amazon for £233 which is a great price

Amazon