Head Unit Recommendations

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Soldato
Joined
6 Mar 2008
Posts
8,799
Location
Leicestershire
Hi all,

I'm no expert in this field but I've got a budget of around £200 and am interested to know which double din head unit I should go for. I have a Galaxy S5 which I would hook up to with it.

After good sound quality and the possibility of mirroring with my phone, dvd playback would be a welcome bonus if possible for this price bracket.

I've had a look at the Sony XAV 65 and the Pioneer SPH-DA100 AppRadio units which come under budget, would one of these fit the bill?

Compatability wise it would be going into a Mondeo Mk4.
 
I got this one:

http://www.pioneer.eu/uk/products/25/121/61/FH-X700BT/page.html

It costs about £120 but once you add all the accessories you'll need (cables, fasias, cage, wiring, adapters, etc) you won't be far off your budget.

No DVD playback and it's very Halfords looking if I'm honest but its Parrot Bluetooth module works great. You simply get in the car with the phone still in your pocket and when you turn the HU on, it'll connect to your phone and allow you to play your music or make calls using a directional mic which you can position where you want.

If I push in the big volume knob on the HU for a couple seconds, it activates Siri on my iPhone so I can use voice control to call someone or play a playlist, etc - again with my phone still in my pocket as the HU's mic is used. I don't know if it'll work the same way on an S5 but it's the best thing about it imo.

There is a USB port on the front of the HU which pumps out enough juice to power my phone while I'm using it as a Sat Nav in its vent-mount cradle. This is the main reason I didn't get a DVD one as they don't tend to have front USB ports.
 
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You could look into one of these or similar

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-Car-DVD-Player-GPS-sat-nav-NAVI-for-FORD-Mondeo-FOCUS-S-MAX-Bluetooth-iPod-/370886154629?pt=UK_Audio_TV_Electronics_In_Car_Entertainment_GPS_In_Car_Audio_Players_PP&hash=item565a899985

Just installed similar into my Focus, doesn't have DAB like my Ford unit but obviously has sat nav, has Bluetooth for music and phone, can take SD card for music, plays dvd's and can take reversing camera input and fits straight into the dash without needing adaptors.

Still early days and I've not tried all the different features out yet.
 
10610768_10154427130450411_3293481015543362248_n.jpg


Installed yesterday.
 
Bear in mind if you want to use MirrorLink with anything newer than a Galaxy S3 you'll need a hacked version of the DriveLink app, as Samsung stopped updating it for newer phones.

Personally I'd rather the XAV 64BT so it has Bluetooth handsfree (and I think audio streaming) for the times you don't want to have to plug the phone in.
 
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Indeed, I found this out yesterday after fitting my CD-MHL100 MirrorLink device in with my Pioneer AVH-X3600DAB. Irritating. Was looking forward to using ARUnchained to have my full Galaxy S4 Android display on the HU but have yet to check out the hacked DriveLink app. Will be trying that before I send the CD-MHL100 back.
 
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