Brabus Roadster Head Unit upgrade - retro feel?

[Lucid]

Bit of an odd question, and one that i cant seem to find anybody talking about anywhere, so i thought I'd ask for suggestions.
My Grundie headunit has had its day and i need a new one thats better at driving component door speakers and an underseat sub.

But the thing is, i dont think a lot of 'modern' head units would look right in a 2002 designed interior...
Its all very well having the latest toys, and i need a headunit thats up to the job of iphone and decent power as well as IQ/sound scape adjustments for the rather odd shape of the cabin..

so my short list is:

Alpine iDA-X305S
Kenwood KIV-700
Pioneer DEH-8400BT

But the thing i keep coming back to is how they would look in a grey facia adaptor in a ten year old grey plastic interior....
Afterall, the roadster is nearly a classic car, so questions of " whats suitable" are going to become more prevelant as time goes by...

All of those three players sound great, have great specs and would work brilliantly in a roadie, but i would argue that only the Pioneer would 'look' right?

Your thoughts please, as this subject is driving me mad!

[137699]

Re: Brabus Roadster Head Unit upgrade - retro feel?

The Grundig absolutely is up to the job - if you set it up right.

Firstly how have you wired up the speakers? You should have the door speakers wired to the front output and the tweeters to the rear - then make sure you have "SOUND ON" (crossover network) enabled on the head unit, and loudness off.
Set the bass subwoofer to cut in at 120hz & lower and set the gain to a sufficient level you're comfortable with - then set the bass on the head unit to zero.

I ran this exact set up at the Smart Festival 3 yrs ago and no-one could beleive the standard Grundig headunit was producing the quality & power of sound that it was. I had people asking if they could look behind the centre console to see if they could find the "real" radio I was running there.

[fat_rick]

I agree entirely with my friend with the number for a name.

Simon (Satan59) has the Pioneer and the unit looks fine, albeit the wrong colour lighting, but sadly the surrounds don't match the rest of the plastic. If I could get a properly matched surround I might consider a change myself, for bells and whistles, but as it is I'll stick with the Grundig.

[NeilP]

Re: Brabus Roadster Head Unit upgrade - retro feel?

that pioneer deck is super!

as for the whole iq/sound stage, that will strongly depend on how you actually wire up the speakers (e.g. if you upgrade to a set of components and then consequently run them actively etc)

and if so, I'd be inclined to spend more and go for the DEH-80PRS as it offers all those features for time alignment and auto equalisation etc built in to the tuner itself making it childs play to get a really good set up without investing huge amounts of time and money into the car!

[madDan]

Re: Brabus Roadster Head Unit upgrade - retro feel?

The Grundig absolutely is up to the job - if you set it up right.

Firstly how have you wired up the speakers? You should have the door speakers wired to the front output and the tweeters to the rear - then make sure you have "SOUND ON" (crossover network) enabled on the head unit, and loudness off.
Set the bass subwoofer to cut in at 120hz & lower and set the gain to a sufficient level you're comfortable with - then set the bass on the head unit to zero.

I ran this exact set up at the Smart Festival 3 yrs ago and no-one could beleive the standard Grundig headunit was producing the quality & power of sound that it was. I had people asking if they could look behind the centre console to see if they could find the "real" radio I was running there.