after market rear USB connection head units?

[Mitchy G]

Hey guys. im after a stereo for my car but i dont want to plug my ipod into the front of it, i would rather have a usb cable running from the back of the unit into my glove box.

My question is. Who has a head unit that has this feature, or has looked at them, and what do you think of this or think of your own unit?

[HOLEIN1]

ipod/mp3 player connectivity has become more and more popular over the last year or two - one just needs to have a look at one of may new cars to realise that many now come with or have some sort of provision for the connection of these sorts of devices...

all brands have this feature available, hell i purchased a el cheapo pioneer unit from JB Hi Fi a few months ago for my brothers mates work horse for around $180, and this included full ipod and USB device control as well as the cable needed for the connection

i personally have a alpine unit and ipod adapter and couldnt be happier with it, despite it being a few years old now. it has served me well. i personally think that the alpine range has the most 'user friendly' sysetem of finding/searching for tracks which comes in handy when you have a decent libary with you.

others may say other brands are better. best option would be to go down to your local retailer and have a look yourself. that way you can pick something that suits you, and also just as important, something that looks good in your car.

new models just have a cable which you plug into the rear of the unit, which you then route to where you want it in the car i.e. glove box, armrest, centre console. this is much easier than in the past which required a seperate adapter box which had to be mounted in the boot, under a seat etc...

hope that helps

[MattyT]

Most modern alphine / clarion / sony / pioneer / everything else units have this sort of feature. Do some research, google some of the brands, ask a few stereo shops (not a jb hifi!) and take a look at mobileelectronics.com.au too - theres a wealth of info out there.

For me, Ive got an older Clarion unit which has a USB input on the rear, but you need a seperate adaptor for ipods and apparently said adapter is a p.o.s.

[dylan8]

I have a Pioneer 7" display with fullspeed ipod and all the other gear. If your using a Ipod i would recommend getting a full speed one. My mates have simular for both ipods and HDs but they are very slow loading up and some dont read it as a ipod, they just play random songs off it, so finding the song you want can be hard.

The displays are good if you want to spend a bit extra, heres a pic of mine.


If you can go down to JB or something and have a play with a few i would.

Ipod in the glove box, charges off hte unit, only time I need to get it out is if im updating songs, or playing a movie off it (you have to manually search on the ipod to start it for some reason)

Two downfalls with mine would be the songs with medium to long titles go over the length of the screen, so you cant see the end of the name. and there isnt a 'search' option, you can scroll through names etc, but i think it would be good to have a function that you can key in the letters of the name of a song to narrow it down.

Positives are it looks pretty stock when folded away (so people don't steal it), number of screen + button colour options, these are pretty close to VW factory colours (new screens apparently have full 256 options!) Can plug a number of different things into it, and can expand with things like aerial upgrades to get TV etc.

Hope that helps