Aftermarket headunit from China

[Frostee]

Good luck mate, a no-name head unit, boss powered low form sub, don't expect too much improvement.

Dim Sum tastes good, but shortly after you get hungry again and realise you should have paid for a better feed.

You get what you pay for, however I really hope this is an exception for the Joey

[broxigar1983]

Good luck mate, a no-name head unit, boss powered low form sub, don't expect too much improvement.

Factory head units are from Blaupunkt, and Blaupunkt know what they do. My sound system is rocking, no need to replace the head unit IMO

[Joeyjoejoe]

Good luck mate, a no-name head unit, boss powered low form sub, don't expect too much improvement.

Its pretty easy to improve on ****house, the stock head unit that came with my Polo is crap, sound isnt so much the issue as it is functionality, at the moment, it plays CD's, and Mp3's via the Audio imput jack. The new unit has a reverse cam, will be playing mp3s via Sd card, supports Multiple Gps applications, supports Bluetooth phonecalls, Is highly moddable and customizable being WinCe6.
and can play movies/dvd's If I feel the need, (and will be able to output movies via my Pico Projector by re-purposing one of the outputs for secondary screens designed to output to headrest LCD panels)
Wow so many haters on these forums, pfft fine you go spend $2k on the stock one + Bluetooth kit + install costs to find you have far less functionality than my head unit will (hence why i took this path, I saw what the RNS could do and thought wow people really pay that much for this POS? When you can buy a kickass laptop for sub $500 these days why would I plonk $1000 on a unit with less power than my mobile phone). The VW RNS stock unit has a 400mhz processor as opposed to the 600 Mhz processor my unit has, but the VW one is twice the price. Paying $1000 for anything with only 400Mhz of grunt is foolish IMO, maybe back in the 90's this would have been acceptable, but not with the current price level of equivalent tech. Besides I'm a modder at heart, and love to be able to tinker with WinCe6 os, this i could not do with the stock one either.
The sub is to improve bass, thats it, i don't need a 20" sub to boost the bass to a sufficient level that I want, 10" shall be fine for my needs. I want better bass response than the 4 built in speakers (that i don't plan on changing), not louder bass response, so any cheap sub is going to provide that, its not ever going to be cranked to 120Db where it would presumably distort, I'm not installing it for competitive sub comps, just to give me a richer low end when playing tunes at a non-ear bleeding level.
Amazed at how many negative comments are on this thread.

[Frostee]

Glad it's worked out for you. My negativity of cheap Chinese gear is from personal expeience. Pleased to hear you've found some kit that performs. I hope it lasts for you.

[sVWatt]

Keen to hear results of the sub unit - looks good

the RNS doesnt really rock in any particular field - it's just that its a VW unit - easy replacement and integrates GPS and touch etc,

this sub might just add some Q bling to the car

[RoknRob]

You go, joeyjoejoe. Somebody needs to keep the bastards honest. Wish I had known about this possibility beforehand.

For the price, it is deplorable that my RCD510 doesn't have Bluetooth included, and won't play my music from the iTunes store without being converted first. And it's slow....

You are taking a risk, but thanks to you, if others follow your path, it will be a lot less risky for them. On behalf of them, thank you.

Presumably there were no issues exchanging the original faulty unit?

[noone]

Sorry for the negativity. My comment is at sound quality, as that is what the head unit in cars used to do.

I'm coming from a audio enthusiast angle, dropped a stereo into a car most of 10 years ago that cost more than the car.

I get the extra functionality, guess I would be concerned about the audio quality. I am not a fan of Boss products. IMO its better to spend rhe same on a second hand reputable product, but it may work well. Try it in a few different places, placement will likely affect the tonal performance in a big way.

Like I said, good luck, hope it works well for you.

[RoknRob]

Sorry for the negativity. My comment is at sound quality, as that is what the head unit in cars used to do.

I'm coming from a audio enthusiast angle, dropped a stereo into a car most of 10 years ago that cost more than the car.

I get the extra functionality, guess I would be concerned about the audio quality. I am not a fan of Boss products. IMO its better to spend rhe same on a second hand reputable product, but it may work well. Try it in a few different places, placement will likely affect the tonal performance in a big way.

Like I said, good luck, hope it works well for you.

I used to care about the sound quality in the car, too. But none of my small cars have ever been quiet enough to really allow me to appreciate the sound quality from the stereo. Unless I was sitting in the garage with the engine off... But then I would rather step into the next room and appreciate my symphonies through my equipment there.

Besides, when you're listening to compressed music, you're already making a compromise, aren't you?

I do think a subwoofer would help flesh out the spectrum, however.

[Joeyjoejoe]

Bad news, once again the install failed, the unit wouldn't even power up! Going to send it back to china for a refund. So I caved in and bought a Pioneer AVH-P3250BT I get it installed next week. Ahh well lesson learned, one of the guys at Frankies mentioned that they had a VW GTi owner in the other day with the same unit, and had the same problems. Sadly there seems to be no quality assurance in china, lets hope things improve a bit with this Pioneer unit.

[mr_bzr]

I'm interested in that pioneer unit also. Keep us posted please, especially in regards to steering wheel integration. I know the phone button probably won't work but what about volume and previous/next track.

[noone]

ooo, swanky.

Looking forward to seeing where you get to with the new system. Could be a blessing in disguise, unfortunately you didn't even get to see it light up let alone audition it.

[RoknRob]

That's too bad. Was worth a try anyway. Now others will know.

Tell me, did your installers bother to test the unit before ripping your car open?

[Joeyjoejoe]

I'm interested in that pioneer unit also. Keep us posted please, especially in regards to steering wheel integration. I know the phone button probably won't work but what about volume and previous/next track.

Yeah, I'm getting it with a canbus adaptor, and the pioneer steering control adapter (I think its a combined thing with the canbus adapter) so yeah the Volume, and previous/next track will work, but the phone buttons wont unfortunately. I'd assume with my iphone and via mp3's on the SD card/usb drive. I settled on this one because, I figure Ill have my phone for gps (its not everyday i needed it anyway), ill live without a reverse cam, I can re-use the 32Gb SD card i bought for the other head unit for a mass collection of music. I'll let you know how it went next Monday, and take some vids/pics of it in action.

[Joeyjoejoe]

That's too bad. Was worth a try anyway. Now others will know.

Tell me, did your installers bother to test the unit before ripping your car open?

Yeah, they rang me as soon as they realized they could not get it to even boot up, (after wiring everything up) the fan would not spin, screen would not light up, the tech showed me the wiring and explained it all, all seemed wired fine, he had no idea why it would not start up, he'd had 4 other techs look at it too. Still Frankies auto electrics were pretty cool about it this time, and as i bought a head unit from them today, they charged very little for the previous failed install (they had spent a fair few hours at it) Great customer service there and skilled workers, but sadly nothing was bringing that unit to life.

[mr_bzr]

im not very knowledgeable about car electronics. what is a can-bus adaptor? its something to buy separate from the headunit? are there specific adaptors for different models of cars?