My new car stereo...is awesome :)

The old "Business CD RDS" unit in my M3 gave up the ghost a couple of weeks ago and it looks like a repair is too expensive to be worth it and anyway, it was a chance to upgrade .

Not being of the 'chav' persuasion when it comes to car audio I found this surprisingly difficult. Why oh why do the manufacturers think that what people want is a video game console or alien spacecraft control panel on the front of their HU? Even Blaupunkt (who used to be the last bastion of taste in mass market car stereos) have now lost their way and given in to the silver and multicoloured flashing lights fad .

What a decent HU needs is the following:
- ROTARY volume control
- clear, legible display showing the information you need (landing vectors for alpha centauri not required).
- sensible and ergonomic button layout

Sound quality is a completely secondary concern to me, esp. in a convertible. I haven't yet used a HU that has a sound quality I couldn't live with, they're all more than acceptable.

So, it was with great sadness that I found that all Alpine, Blaupunkt, Clarion, JVC, Kenwood, Pioneer and Sony units all failed miserably in the most basic criteria above. The possible exception was the Pioneer DEHP77MP but that, allthough well designed, didn't fit my extra condition of blending in with my BMW fascia. I wanted my new stereo to look as stock as possible.

So, in the end it came down to the Nakamichi CD-400 or the Becker Mexico Pro CD 4627. Becker should be applauded for bucking the trend and continuing to make car stereos the way they should be.

Now, from caraudiodirect.co.uk both units had a similar price (£450 and £470). However, I started to read about the suspect reliability of the Nak and poor customer service if things went wrong. The NAK also majored on CD performance with the radio part being almost an afterthought. Good radio performance was key for me and the Becker seemed to be much better for that (eg: dual tuners so you never get RDS 'dropout'). I also perferred the looks of the Becker. When I found that I could get the Becker in Germany (from caraudio24.de) for just 327 Euros (inc. shipping and a BMW adapter cable) it was a no brainer. That's about £218 . Less than half the best price I could get in the UK :inferno: .

So I ordered it. It arrived very quickly via DHL and I installed it a couple of days ago. All I can say is WOW! It's an object lesson in how to design a car stereo:



All the buttons along the bottom and the three buttons to the right of centre at the top are 'soft' buttons who's function changes depending on the situation. What they do is indicated above or below the button as appropriate. What you see along the bottom is easily the coolest feature of the RDS radio which they call 'DAS' (Dynamic Auto Store). Instead of having presets, all the currently available FM stations are displayed along the bottom with a 3 letter abbreviation in aplha order. Press the button below the station ID to select a station. If it's a broadcaster that has multiple stations (eg: BBC) then you'd just see BBC. Select BBC and you'd get a new selection of Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, etc. so they aren't clogging up the top level. However, you can configure the top level listing to put your favourite stations first before putting the rest in alpha order. The number of stations is not limited to the 10 buttons, you can scroll along up to a maximum of 29 stations.

Of course if you want regular presets you can chose preset mode (FMSTT, press the button above FMSTT in the display). In that case the buttons along the bottom are labelled 1-9 and you can scroll along up to 29. The radio has two FM tuners which is how it manages the DAS and also how it can transfer you from one RDS transmitter to a new one (for the same station) seamlessly without any annoying dropout.

The main display shows you the station, it's frequency (optional) and which station is currently the TP (traffic announcement) station. Of course you can configure which station you'd prefer to use as the TP station and fix it or just let the radio choose automatically. The 3 soft buttons at the top labelled 'CD', '*' and 'FMSTT' respectively in this pic change mode to CD, select the options menu, or switch to FMSTT (presets) mode respectively.

Now this radio doesn't just have FM and AM. It has LW and SW too! SW on a car radio, awesome. No I can listen to the BBC World service down here . The 'band' switching soft button (labelled FMSTT in the pic) is also clever. It's a bit like Windows task switcher in that it will toggle between the last two bands you've selected (usually FM-DAS and FMSTT in my case). If I then want SW I just have to press it multiple times in quick succession. It's all these little details that just make it so easy to use.

Oh yes, as well as having a rotary volume control it also has rotary tuning which will either flick through your presets or DAS stations, or scan, or do manual tuning depending on the mode you're in.

Last but not least, the display is configurable to be either red or amber and either positive (as shown) or negative (black characters on a coloured background). In the photo it's in red mode. Neither matches the amber lighting of the BMW dash perfectly but they're both pretty close. Also, the background of the display isn't as bright as it looks, that's just an effect of the photo.

So, I'm a very, VERY happy bunny with my new Becker. Sorry about the long post :shame:

Michael.

 

Good choice Michael, I like the way the display on the Stereo matches the one for the A/C. I don't know if that was intentional, Nakamichi's green wouldn't have worked.

I also agree with your views about the sound quality, but I still enjoy listening to music more in a car despite the fact that it's sound quality is nowhere as good as that of the HiFi indoors.

 

The Nak is configurable to be green or amber, so it would have been OK. It doesn't actually match as closely as it looks in the pic but it's pretty good - it was definitely intentional and part of the "looking as stock as possible" aim I was going for.

Michael.

 

I have fitted that radio to my partner's car (only with a blue display, to match her VW's controls) and it works a treat. Highly recommended by me, too.

 

Hey Micheal that looks really good mate, I was considering that Pioneer "77" but after seeing that I may reconsider.

Then again, I really need MP3 playback...

 

Paul, if your Skoda has the same red/blue lighting scheme that VW's have then, as Markus says, they make a special version with the red/blue colour scheme.

They do make an MP3 head unit:
http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=2826

At the UK site above they're £349....from caraudio24.de they're 379 Euros (about £250) (http://www.caraudio24.de/autoradios/cd/monza-mp3-7887.htm). However, it helps if you can speak German, and, in common with many German websites, they don't take credit cards (I did a bank transfer).

There are several models in that range which only differ in the display colour - you can get grey, blue, yellow and green (aswell as red). However, I don't think that model has such an advanced radio system and it also doesn't have a removable face plate.

On mine, the central section with the buttons is removable.

Michael.

 

Unfortunately Skoda's illumination is green, and not the blue/red schemes. I cant speak any German either which doesnt help (although I do know how to ask the time in German, but I suspect that I would not understand the answer, and it wouldnt do me any good anyway )

 

Oh well, you might just have to pay a bit over the odds then if you decide to get one in the UK. This is the one you'd probably want. I checked, and it does have the fancy Dynamic AutoStore FM tuning and other tuner bells and whistles of the Mexico Pro.

Michael.

 

Now your over the moon with the becker, how about one to replace the dac 64 in the home system?, I can do a dandy 12v supply for it

 

Michael,

The OEM head units in Mercedes cars are made by Becker. Good to see you have taste.

 

- I believe they make the OEM head units for Ferrari and Porsche too. AFAIK some BMW OEM units are Beckers aswell allthough I've only ever encountered Blaupunkts.

Tone, the tuner is the Becker's forte. It's perfectly good enough as a CDP for car use but at home I'm quite happy with the best there is.

Michael.

 

I'm going to put that one on the wall, next to your last quote on the 64, somehow I feel my dull days at work are numbered
If they ever resurrect Saturday nite live, You da' man

 

Hmmm....having a look through this old thread as I'm thinking of replacing the standard unit in my Leon Cupra (it's made by Grundig and the radio sounds cr*p, CD is marginally better).

It looks like caraudio24.de have put their prices up a bit...the Mexico Pro is now 499 euros (that's about £346 - I much preferred the £218 that Michael paid! It's now about the same price as the UK ). I might have to put it on the back-burner for a while (will need to get a new CD changer too as the standard one isn't compatible ) Any other headunit recommendations (same criteria as above - no mini computer games, decent quality, must look as stock as possible (amber lighting)) ?

 

That's because the Mexico Pro was replaced with a newer model shortly after I bought mine (which probably explains the low price I paid for mine). I'm actually very glad I did get the older model because IMO the newer one looks shite: you no longer have the option of a "positive" display (ie red on black instead of black on red) and the "negative" display is so in your face. Secondly, you can't change the display colour anymore, it's hardwired as either red, yellow, green or VW style blue + red. Feature wise about the only thing the new ones have going for them is MP3 (on CD) compatability.

Michael.

 

Personally, I'm not too fussed about that - my laptop is 5 years old and I'm unlikely to spend hours putting MP3's onto it's 6Gb HD! (oh, and the small fact that it doesn't burn CDs either!!!).

There is a cheaper model (Monza I think) which may be ok, but it looks like I'll still be paying at least £300 for a new headunit. The SEAT forums seem to think Alpine units are the ones to go for (reasonable quality at a good price), but I still think they look a bit 'in you're face' and as far as I know, Becker and Nakamichi are the benchmarks for sound quality.

 

I can't stand Alpine's myself. Completely tasteless and un-userfriendly design, which they share with the vast majority of head units these days which seem to be oriented almost exclusively at the chav end of the market.

Of the major manufacturers Pinoeer make a nice HU which isn't too pricey.

Michael.

 

Thats the one I ended up buying for mine. Lovely little unit and a decent sound.

 

Paul - was the stock Skoda unit as cack as the Seat unit (v. poor FM reception) ? Apparently the car speakers are actually ok, it's ust the HU that is appalling.

That Pioneer unit looks ok. I might try and stretch to a Becker though (and put the new CD changer on hold - at least I would get my glovebox back if I didn't have a changer in there!)

 

hmm, the unit in my alhambra sounds ok. fm reception is fine. it's forever pulling in radio oxford when i'm in milton keynes andtelling me about traffic problems miles away.
cheers

julian.

 

The stock Skoda unit was probably acceptable for most people, but for me it wasnt loud enough and there was a lack of punch and bass. The FM reception was poor yes.

I've got the Pioneer now, along with an aerial amp and the signal is far better than before, and the sound is louder and has more punch. The standard speakers arent too bad, but the doors could do with some sound deadening.