Best place to buy a double din car radio in ireland.

muddle84 · 11-03-2014 9:23pm #1

As the subject says. Were is the best place or website to buy a car radio in ireland?

colm_mcm · 11-03-2014 9:27pm

What price range are you in?

muddle84 · 11-03-2014 10:04pm

in or around €200 maybe a bit more if i see something i like

colm_mcm · 11-03-2014 10:53pm

Do you need:
Bluetooth
iPod control
Touch screen
Reverse Camera input?

What car is it for?

muddle84 · 11-03-2014 10:58pm

Thanks for your replies Colm but I'm just wondering how does needing to know all this answer my question?

colm_mcm · 11-03-2014 11:15pm

Because if you want all that stuff you won't be looking at mainstream brands and will be in chinese ebay territory.

If you want a non touchscreen stereo you'll easily get a good quality unit in the likes of Halfords, which despite its bad press for selling tat, actually have done good deals on head units.

Of course, online will probably be cheaper, caraudiodirect.co.uk is worth a look, as is ebay once you're buying new.

15-03-2014 7:42pm

I got one in Halfords a while ago and it's grand. Fitted it myself. It does tend to have a habit of resetting itself every few days, but it only takes 30 seconds to fix it again. Naturally, I blame this on the unit being a bit faulty (and not on me fitting it myself without any clue of what I'm doing).

But otherwise it's grand. One thing I'll say is absolutely 110% make sure you have bluetooth in there. Playing music off your phone is incredibly easy to set up (i thought it'd be a nightmare, but it does it all itself, really).

I bought this one:

http://www.halfords.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=11101&langId=-1&productId=916749&catalogId=15551

and I needed to also get a wiring harness and pieces of plastic for either side to make it fit properly (called a 'facia adaptor'). I got those parts off Amazon. All in all I'd say i paid ~€200-210. And I've never regretted it. Best decision I made since getting the car was a bluetooth head unit. Could sit in that car driving for weeks on end and I wouldn't have a bother in the world.

I'll also say that it makes the sound quality in the car much better also. I was going to start changing speakers and everything, but just changing the head unit has made the audio quality noticeably improved. Not sure how, exactly, but it has. Worlds apart.

JohnBoy26 · 15-03-2014 10:06pm

For sound quality I'd have one of these over a pioneer or any other mainstream brand in fact.

http://www.halfords.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_11101_catalogId_15551_productId_868945_langId_-1_categoryId_212488

muddle84 · 17-03-2014 11:57pm

Would you really notice the difference in a car while streaming through bluetooth between a pioneer & an alpine unit??

JohnBoy26 · 18-03-2014 12:22am

muddle84 wrote: »

Would you really notice the difference in a car while streaming through bluetooth between a pioneer & an alpine unit??

Yes alpine, in my experiece are of higher quality and are better sounding head units compared to pioneer on all sources. Not only that but the newer pioneer units are very gimmick and tacky imo with bright flashing lights and text. Some people like the flashing light and text but I have one of last years pioneer models and I find it very annoying, especially at night.

All in all IMO the alpine is well worth the extra few euro.

bmstuff · 18-03-2014 1:56pm

Why would you bother going double din and not have satnav/video capabilities?

muddle84 · 18-03-2014 2:04pm

bmstuff wrote: »

Why would you bother going double din and not have satnav/video capabilities?

I dont care for video in the front of the car but the unit im looking at does have both!

JohnBoy26 · 18-03-2014 2:11pm

bmstuff wrote: »

Why would you bother going double din and not have satnav/video capabilities?

I don't know what kind of car the op has but maybe it has a double din fitted already so replacing with a double din might look better.

As for video and sat nav, the op wants something under €200 and is only really interested in blutooth as far as in aware.

A decent brand sat nav unit would be a good bit more expensive?

muddle84 · 18-03-2014 2:50pm

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

I don't know what kind of car the op has but maybe it has a double din fitted already so replacing with a double din might look better.

As for video and sat nav, the op wants something under €200 and is only really interested in blutooth as far as in aware.

A decent brand sat nav unit would be a good bit more expensive?

Nope, I said in or around €200 euro, but it is looking like I will go more as I'm now looking at a Pioneer sph-da110 which retails at €350 in halfords. I think it piggy backs off your phones SatNav. I'm quite happy how my phones satnav works so I like the look of this unit!

I have an avensis which does already have a double din and I don't think a single din would look right in the dash as you said!!

I set out with a requirement of just bluetooth but the more I look the more I think satnive would be nice to have on a bigger screen than my phone!

Johntm · 20-03-2014 12:11am

Im also in the market for one, been looking for the last week or so and think i'm going with the Sony XAV-64BT, doesnt have sat nav but it seems a good unit for the price. Also prefer to have the knob to adjust the sound too, buttons can be a pain

This is what im looking at

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CE5DJUC

Best place to buy a double din car radio in ireland.

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