radio/bluetooth question

tupac_healy

Just wondering what units out there will let me play music on my phone (galaxy s3) using bluetooth?

Sick of wires and I could do with a new headunit anyhow!

Redisle

I would recommend this unit. I have it and it's fantastic. It's one of the top rated radios in this price range on testfreaks too. Plus you can adjust the colours to suit your dashboard and even pair more than one phone at a time.

sentient_6

tupac_healy wrote: »

Just wondering what units out there will let me play music on my phone (galaxy s3) using bluetooth?

Sick of wires and I could do with a new headunit anyhow!

Basically any unit with bluetooth. Check out caraudiodirect.co.uk.

JohnBoy26

Alpine is the only way to go imo. Their quality is unmatched by any other maintream brand in my experience.

Halfords have one on sale for a reasanoble price at the moment. http://www.halfords.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_11101_catalogId_15551_productId_869163_langId_-1_categoryId_212600

biko

What's your budget OP?
Lidl and Aldi both sell stereos with bluetooth.

JohnBoy26

biko wrote: »

What's your budget OP?
Lidl and Aldi both sell stereos with bluetooth.

They are pure and utter sh*te though.

biko

An earlier thread where Aldi radios were discussed. It's pretty clear John doesn't like them where many others, including myself, do.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056873395

JohnBoy26

biko wrote: »

An earlier thread where Aldi radios were discussed. It's pretty clear John doesn't like them where many others, including myself, do.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056873395

Put them up against any mainstream brand and they are rubbish. You get great features fair enough but I always prefer quality rather than quantity. The radio in them has a poor reception and the sound quality is sub par which is probably down to the cheap components they are made with.

For a few quid more you can have a decent radio like the one I linked above which has much much better quality in every way than the aldi lidl units.

biko

So now "pure and utter sh*te" means "not as good as name brands" is that it?

JohnBoy26

biko wrote: »

So now "pure and utter sh*te" means "not as good as name brands" is that it?

No they are rubbish full stop. My point is a named brand is worth the extra money because at least you will have a decent quality unit at the end of the day.

dgt

Personal experience with radios from both stores. They are crap at best imo. If one want's a media device where a radio is not important I'd sooner use my phone. A lot of people didn't like me saying that they are crap either.

Have a look round halfords and pick something with a decent name OP

Witcher

Redisle wrote: »

I would recommend this unit. I have it and it's fantastic. It's one of the top rated radios in this price range on testfreaks too. Plus you can adjust the colours to suit your dashboard and even pair more than one phone at a time.

+1 Have one myself and it does everything ya could want and it's still pretty cheap.

keith_d99

If you have Aux In - this works a charm!

Bluetooth to Aux Belkin

No wires - just press the button once and it will create a bluetooth connection to your phone and resume whatever music was last played on the phone

tupac_healy

Redisle wrote: »

I would recommend this unit. I have it and it's fantastic. It's one of the top rated radios in this price range on testfreaks too. Plus you can adjust the colours to suit your dashboard and even pair more than one phone at a time.

2 people have recommended this one in particular, might go for that so as its a reasonable price too!

As long as it will play my music via bluetooth I'm happy out

JohnBoy26

tupac_healy wrote: »

2 people have recommended this one in particular, might go for that so as its a reasonable price too!

As long as it will play my music via bluetooth I'm happy out

That JVC is a nice head unit, however that Alpine I linked is a higher quality unit than the JVC and can be got for not much more money ;-) either way though you won't go wrong as both are reputable makes.

dahamsta

biko wrote: »

An earlier thread where Aldi radios were discussed. It's pretty clear John doesn't like them where many others, including myself, do.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056873395

That was my thread. Ending up buying a Sony, but only because the budget units weren't available at the time and I wanted to get going. If they were available I would have bought one, the isolated complaints simply aren't credible up against the praise I've seen. Maybe they just got duffers, I don't know, but the units definitely don't deserve the bizarre level of hatred spouted about them in that thread or here.

Anyway, the Sony is an older MEX-BT3900U that can be had for a nice price and it's working great, plays music well and cuts into and out of handsfree like a champ.

I went a bit deeper into my pocket for my own car, just installed a Kenwood KDC-BT92SD, which is another older head that I reckon will be replaced very shortly, but it's a 2nd generation version so it's very well set up. The screen is superb on it, four lines of info plus icons, perfect for a gadget/data nut like me.

Compact underseat sub next, plus a DIN mount CB, since I have a spare slot. Then I think I'll look into upgrading the stock speakers and amp. Old cars are fun.

biko

At some point the sound system will be worth more than the car

JohnBoy26

dahamsta wrote: »

That was my thread. Ending up buying a Sony, but only because the budget units weren't available at the time and I wanted to get going. If they were available I would have bought one, the isolated complaints simply aren't credible up against the praise I've seen. Maybe they just got duffers, I don't know, but the units definitely don't deserve the bizarre level of hatred spouted about them in that thread or here.

Anyway, the Sony is an older MEX-BT3900U that can be had for a nice price and it's working great, plays music well and cuts into and out of handsfree like a champ.

I went a bit deeper into my pocket for my own car, just installed a Kenwood KDC-BT92SD, which is another older head that I reckon will be replaced very shortly, but it's a 2nd generation version so it's very well set up. The screen is superb on it, four lines of info plus icons, perfect for a gadget/data nut like me.

Compact underseat sub next, plus a DIN mount CB, since I have a spare slot. Then I think I'll look into upgrading the stock speakers and amp. Old cars are fun.

I can assure you they are not good units, and I can alsso assure you it's not a duff unit I got, mates of mine had these cheap lidl/aldi head units as well and every one of them were just as bad as each other.

dahamsta

biko wrote: »

At some point the sound system will be worth more than the car

Probably not. There is a ridiculously expensive brake upgrade though...