Head unit recommendations

'92 Si VTEC · Post by **jjmartin349571** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 4:10 pm

Hi folks,

For Christmas I want to get Laura a new head unit for her A6 as she currently has the naff Audi Concert tape deck and can't listen to her CD's/Ipod. I've got a few head units kicking about the house, but they all have the usb port on the front, and I want to do a nice neat install with a usb socket fitted in the glove box. However, I can't find any head units with rear usb ports in the budget I'm working to! I swear there used to be loads of sub £120 head units with rear ports knocking about, but I've had a look on a few of the websites that come up on Google and everything is fitted with front usb ports now... Can anyone recommend a head unit that has both a CD drive and rear usb port with iPod control for around £100?

Cheers,
Josh

Post by **lewd lude lover** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 4:24 pm

Cant give you purchase advice but sony are always very 'bright'. Thats good or bad, depending on your prespective.

prahunt · Post by **prahunt** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 3:50 pm

Halfords have one on offer, ex display pioneer double din unit. It's an app function style touch display, so can't use your cd's but it has full plug and play for iPods iPhones, etc.

I just picked one up I'm going to put into my Lude. Only difficulty is tracking them down but if you ask them to check store they'll find one. It's discounted down from around £350 so it's got a lot of fancies,and is only £100 now.
Can wire it in the back for your iPod and iPhones to it is all neat as well.

Model:
Pioneer SPH DA110 DSP

Look it up. It's epic.

prahunt · Post by **prahunt** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 3:50 pm

Also realised this is a bit late for Christmas....

'92 Si VTEC · Post by **jjmartin349571** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 5:10 pm

prahunt wrote:Also realised this is a bit late for Christmas....

No worries, I didn't want to buy a laura a radio that she wouldn't be happy with so she is choosing one with my guidance as her Christmas present so that we get one she likes

Sounds like a great unit that you suggested, but the only problem is that a CD player is necessity (Laura has several CD racks full of albums) and also I forgot to specify it needs to be single DIN as to put a double DIN in the Audi would mean I'd have to swap centre consoles with another car.

But otherwise it's perfect

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Sun Jan 04, 2015 8:13 am

lewd lude lover wrote:Cant give you purchase advice but sony are always very 'bright'. Thats good or bad, depending on your prespective.

aka bum droppings!

(horribly gimmicky too, that's why the newish one in my bb4 has been ripped out in favour of the older kenny from my 3g!)

jj I think usb ports on the front are all the rage these days, 'cause the kids like their 'tech' on show etc.

I'm not 100% up to date with head units now, but if you want rear access (ooerr) I guess you'll probably need to get an adapter for that marque's control bus port that's on the rear of the head unit (e.g. AiNet on Alpines, P-Bus on Pioneers etc.)???

hondaman · Post by **hondaman** » Sun Jan 04, 2015 12:42 pm

Funnily enough i've just this very day bought an Alpine VDE-173BT and its brill, bought it at Halfords in the sale £109

Looks good in the Lude kinda retro or in other words not all chavvy flashing lights and stupid little buttons you can't read

linky linky --> http://www.halfords.com/sat-nav-audio/c ... -bluetooth

'92 Si VTEC · Post by **jjmartin349571** » Sun Jan 04, 2015 1:03 pm

wurlycorner wrote:
lewd lude lover wrote:Cant give you purchase advice but sony are always very 'bright'. Thats good or bad, depending on your prespective.
aka bum droppings! (horribly gimmicky too, that's why the newish one in my bb4 has been ripped out in favour of the older kenny from my 3g!)

jj I think usb ports on the front are all the rage these days, 'cause the kids like their 'tech' on show etc.

I'm not 100% up to date with head units now, but if you want rear access (ooerr) I guess you'll probably need to get an adapter for that marque's control bus port that's on the rear of the head unit (e.g. AiNet on Alpines, P-Bus on Pioneers etc.)???

I have an old-ish Sony unit in my Isuzu and it does what I need it to ok, however if you turn it off it sits there showing the clock for 5 secs and then starts flashing through a list of functions it has. That really drokks me off because it's quite distracting at night.

Yeah maybe the young folks want their iPod cables traipsed all over the car to show how flash they are, but I'd much rather have everything neatly stowed out of sight. I hate loose cables all over the place

That's an interesting point about the rear adapters, I always just assumed they were for stalk controls but now you mention it my Sony unit has an adapter you can buy to control an iPod through the rear. It can't control them through the front though so maybe it's because of that.

I think I'm just going to have to trawl the web/shops and see if we can find her something she likes

Been having trouble with the Audi lately though so if I have my way it'll be gone soon, replaced with a Honda Accord or something. Been considering a Honda Insight too for the mileage she does.

hondaman wrote:Funnily enough i've just this very day bought an Alpine VDE-173BT and its brill, bought it at Halfords in the sale £109

Looks good in the Lude kinda retro or in other words not all chavvy flashing lights and stupid little buttons you can't read

linky linky --> http://www.halfords.com/sat-nav-audio/c ... -bluetooth

Looks good, I used to only buy Alpine stuff for my cars. Looks like the USB control is through the front on that one also though. I think there may be an error on the website too, apparently it's been reduced to £109.00 from the previous high price of £109.99

Post by **indigolemon** » Sun Jan 04, 2015 7:49 pm

jjmartin349571 wrote:however if you turn it off it sits there showing the clock for 5 secs and then starts flashing through a list of functions it has. That really drokks me off because it's quite distracting at night.

Turn Demo mode off? What's the model number?

I used to have one of these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Blaupunkt-Cas ... 1255460112 - USB was via a little flylead that plugged in the back. I only stopped using it cos I got an Empeg

'92 Si VTEC · Post by **jjmartin349571** » Sun Jan 04, 2015 11:14 pm

Can't remember the model code and my truck isn't at home atm so can't check, but I looked online and couldn't find anyway to disable that function. My first thought that it was a shop demo mode but after reading through all the menus and manual there doesn't seem to be a way to disable it. To be fair I almost always have the radio on, but it's annoying whenever I don't.

Cheers for the link, I'll have a gander when I'm on my pc shortly - sounds perfect though