Head Units

[DannyDrama]

Anyone know of any decent single DIN, stock-looking units with bluetooth?

By stock-looking I generally mean no awful chrome or eye-popping design that seems to be the standard these days.

Alternatively, any experiences with retrofitting bluetooth to a stock unit would be great.

 

[DannyDrama]

Cheers for the suggestions guys.

This one from (that link) comes closest but it looks too modern for my car. Tbh I doubt I'll get what I want from an aftermarket unit, yet the stock solutions I've seen are more work-arounds than actual added features. Ones that plug into the CD slot for example, still only read music in a CD format.

 

[DannyDrama]

No idea if it's any good, but something like this?

Or maybe something from here.

Not that old! It's an E46 3-series so it just has to be black and plasticky really. I am rather gutted that some of the classic car ones won't fit though.

If you're just looking for bluetooth phone function, I recently bought a parrot minikit neo HD 2 which is great.

Cheers, I'll have a look into those then.

 

[DannyDrama]

You realise you're a day late, you evil creature?

 

[DannyDrama]

the remote on those has a manufacturing defect.

you will either need to open it up and use a soldering iron to fix or buy a new remote every year or so.

Any idea if you can control music from the phone? That's all I want. Would even do away with the radio and have a dock I can just slide my phone into. I'm planning on using Automate, which essentially turns it into a head unit anyway.

If I got the 9100 (or 9000 in my case with no screen, just a remote) the remote would be stuck in the glovebox unless I had to use it.

 

[DannyDrama]

you can but without the remote you would need to have the phone on (not locked) and within touching distance. i don't know about iphones but my phone locks itself after a while so i would need to unock it to use it every time using your solution.

it's not exactly safe or legal to have a phone in your hand, etc.

so either use the remote and fix it or buy a new one when it breaks. or look at a different solution.

i've had multiple pioneer head units then a parrot kit. the parrot was amazing but after the remote failed i've decided to stick with pioneer head units.

you can turn the led lights off, etc. so they look plain.

I won't be fiddling while driving or anything like that, more like loading up or making a playlist before setting off. I can set the phone to never turn the screen off and even make a simple full-screen widget for back, forward and pause. It's just a matter of getting bluetooth in there with as little wiring/modification as possible.

I might even leave it for a while and do something decent and long-term. Either a removable tablet install or moving it to the glovebox and having another cubby hole.

I like the look of some old Denon(?) units but getting adapters for them would probably be utter hell.

 

[DannyDrama]

Speak to Phil at justcarkits, he'll point you in the right direction.

I did just this - having a big double din touch screen in the middle of the Saab dash sort of ruins the big wall'o buttons aesthetic. It's also a big PITA because of the various amps. The justcarkits lead was expensive (about £80 ) but was completely plug and play and works really well.

The Parrot kit works really nicely, I was torn between the mki9200 and the asteroid mini which is about the same price. I went for the mki9200 because the asteroid is meant to be slow to boot and is android based so could be a bit buggier than the low level firmware in the mki. Only issue I've got is that it mutes the radio when streaming audio, which is good. But when I'm not streaming it randomly cuts in for a few seconds then stops again - happens when I get an alert on the phone (which I understand) but also happens at random seemingly. I end up just turning off the Bluetooth on my phone when I'm listening to the radio but it's a bit annoying. It's still a good solution for a neat install and not expensive

How bad of an idea is it to get Halfords to fit one do you think?

 

[DannyDrama]

Do you like your car?

Only just enough not to do that to it. What kind of connector does the parrot use?

 

[DannyDrama]

parrot uses iso connectors so it depends on your radio in the car at the moment. you will have to get a vehicle specific harness depending on the year.

dont go near halfords, the training the receive consist of sit here and watch this video.

ISO connectors are good, I can get a loom from Halfords hence asking if it'd be worth them fitting it too. Part of me says 'how badly can they mess up a £1000 car, the other part says I don't want to find out.

 

[DannyDrama]

Thanks will do have heard that name banded about elsewhere.

My mate had his fitted by Halfords on his 1 series and it seems a tidy job but I'd still be nervous.

I know what you mean, if it's just ISO connectors it will be an easy job. I just wasn't sure that is what they use rather than some proprietary thing.