Greetings Hive mind!

The old alpine head unit in the truck is getting a bit long in the tooth and increasingly cantankerous, I’ve had it almost 10 years so a good innings but it’s time for an update.

I didn’t read Max Power as a yoof so know bugger all about car stereo’s, I have no idea what’s good these days so I’m throwing this out to the STW collective conciousness.

What I’ve after is:

Double DIN, touch screen.
Android Auto so I can stream Waze
DAB Radio for 6 music.
Plays nicely with Android phones, for handsfree and audio streaming. ideally can recieve APT-X bluetooth.
Reversing camera ready, (If budget allows I’d like to get one of them fitted at the same time.)

Any brands to avoid? Anything to look out for? Any bargains out there in the January sales?

Also, if anyone here knows any good car audio fitters based in the Milton Keynes or St Albans area, (or even better, is one themselves) please holler!

Thanks in advance

I work for a group that includes Focal, a hi-end French speaker manufacturer who also make hi-end in car speakers, amps and DSP. Spoke to their install team when I wanted one, they recommended a Pioneer PH-DA230DAB. It does what you want, but specifically it has auto EQ which is why the install team rated it. This uses a mic to work out the best EQ for your car, important as a car it a fairly horrible acoustic environment!

It was about £300, would recommend some aftermarket speakers too as that’s where money is saved on OEM installs. The install cost was a fair bit, but I had an amp, an active sub and some drive units that didn’t quite fit so intaller needed to engineer something. Sounds pretty impressive though 🙂

I actually had the OEM speakers swapped when I bought my head unit 10 years back, they weren’t anything spectacular so I wouldn’t mind upgrading them but, whilst the focal units look ace they’re well out of my budget sadly.

Great call on the Pioneer head unit though, looks spot on. Thanks

The Kenwood 7019 and 8019 are worth looking at. The later does WiFi connection

Sony XAV-AX100.

Looks much smarter than the Pioneer offerings. Don’t know about the APT-X thing, and double check about DAB, I think it might be an upgrade module.

Any of the main stream brands will likely be an improvement tbh, if only for the features offered. I’d nip down to a local Halfords and have a play with some to make sure you like the ergonomics.

For instance, I like the Kenwood menu system but can’t do with not having a knob (oooer missus) to change volume so the one I was looking at would have annoyed me in use.

Manufacturers normally use the same software over the ranges so once you find one you’d like to use, pick one in the range that meets your needs functionality wise.

Wouldn’t worry too much about expensive speakers just yet as a big improvement will likely need a separate amp and the doors deadening to prevent rattling. At that point it gets much more involved and expensive. A simple upgrade to say £50 – £100 components would improve things, as they tend to be designed and built to be driven from head unit power – although it sounds like this has already been done.

Any thoughts on decent fitters (or anyone who is a fitter) in my locality?

I fitted a Pioneer AVHZ9200DAB to my T6 about 6 months ago and I’m very happy with it.