Cheap Chinese double-din head units

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Harpreet

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Looking to upgrade my sound system in my w209. However I'm a cheapskate. ive seem these Chinese head units flood the market offering everything. Is it too good to be true? Has anyone ever had any experince with them? :dk::dk:
 
Don't touch them. I brought one for the father in laws viano 2 years back and within 24hrs it drained the battery.

These units offer a lot of functions but lack the ability to go into power save when off, when I checked with a meter the unit was pulling 700-800mA in standby compared to the factory unit on 15mA.

Luckily I sent it back and got a refund.
 
If you already have Command system you lose a lot of the in-dash functionality, such as GPS dash clock sync, and nav display, radio station etc.
As I already have the pre-wired telephone system as well, I see no real advantage in changing the head unit.
I use a DAB add on which gives me all the sound improvement I need, and have a Garmin satnav for traffic.

If you just have a basic radio, then it could be worth trying a swap, but there does seem to be mixed reviews on the Chinese units reliability.
 
I had one in my VW Passat - it lasted me well for 3 years until I sold the car, as far as I am aware it is still going strong.

General functionality was reasonable, Graphic Interfaces were a lot to be desired but once you got used to it it was fine. The RDS visual representation was absolutely rubbish, however the sound was good.

As others have said, whilst you can maintain Steering controls you do lose the indications in the dash MFD.

I note that some of the newer ones have vastly improved the graphics and indeed improved functionality. If I had an older car I might be tempted with one of the Dynavin N6 units, especially if I had a 10 year old Comand system.

Steve
 
In my opinion - not for a modern car (as in less than 10yr old), and definitely not with a satnav (they overheat badly and lose connection all the time).

I had one in my old W168, just DVD/SD/USB/Reversing cam etc, didn't have to worry about instrument cluster integration and steering wheel controls, as these were not available on W168. Generic unit - Xtrons 601 - without GPS: worked well for nearly four years, until I sold the car (still working fine I'm told). Rather primitive user interface with all the limitations of WinCE operating system.

Wouldn't touch any of these now, as I have a factory-fitted power sound system with extra speakers and subwoofer, etc and none of those Chinese contraptions will be able to run it properly, if at all. Will eventually upgrade to NTG2.5, just have to live without reversing cam for now.
 
I had one of the cheap single-din units with a flip-out touch screen. Actually not so bad, but broke within 12 months...
 
Not sure I would trust one of them in my car not to overheat/catch fire.

Have you seen the cheap iPhone chargers that use bell wire? - I can imagine the build quality of these being in the same ballpark.
 
if your going aftermarket, buy a decent one like Alpine/Kenwood. I have a kenwood D/D 7inch screen. I lost the cluster display that I had with Comand 2.0 but gained so much. I can play a dvd9 full of Mp3, direct control of my 80gb ipod. hands free, read out my sms messages, reverse cam, updated maps and custom POI etc etc.
 
I bought one for my golf. It was a "factory look-a-like" one.
And it did look the t1ts.
Sadly the radio reception was all but nothing, the bluetooth conectivity was sketchy, quality of hand free calls was terrible and the satnav software dreadful.
It ran 2 layer software or something (?) which meant everytime you wanted to go to satnav you got a "booting up" black screen. The satnav interface was rubbish and generally did what it wanted.

I bought it as I got a new iphone with the tiny plug which now doesn't work with the factory system in the car.
Needless to say I sent it back and got a full refund.
I'm looking for a single din Alpine unit now as all I want to do it to be able to play music off my phone!
(What was wrong with cd's??!!)
 
Not sure I would trust one of them in my car not to overheat/catch fire.

Have you seen the cheap iPhone chargers that use bell wire? - I can imagine the build quality of these being in the same ballpark.

This ^^^^ China seems to be utterly unregulated as far as electrical items go. I would steer well clear!
 
An update for people that were in the same boat:
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Got this pioneer unit cheap from gumtree, which is solid but miss that oem feel and am doing a facelift, so yeah. But no issues after a year!


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i put an xtrons in the volvo a last year,
and as every one has said you get what you pay for , overall im happy with it
but,, radio RDS is useless, i never could get steering wheel controls to pair up, cd dvd player packed up, (who still uses cds and who is watching a dvd while driving?)

sd card player works and gps works well no overheating, never flattened battery, it dose every thing i need for the same price as a tom tom,

i was going to get another newer one for my newly acquired W123, (which came with a cd player and cassette deck separates system) but then i came to my senses and just got a caliber retro classic style single din,
 
i put an xtrons in the volvo a last year,
and as every one has said you get what you pay for , overall im happy with it
but,, radio RDS is useless, i never could get steering wheel controls to pair up, cd dvd player packed up, (who still uses cds and who is watching a dvd while driving?)

sd card player works and gps works well no overheating, never flattened battery, it dose every thing i need for the same price as a tom tom,

i was going to get another newer one for my newly acquired W123, (which came with a cd player and cassette deck separates system) but then i came to my senses and just got a caliber retro classic style single din,



Xtron doesn't have the best reviews online and yeah you can't go wrong with that but I love the look and fit of these after market units that are made to look stock. Eonon dont do any for merc unfortunatly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I had one of the cheap single-din units with a flip-out touch screen. Actually not so bad, but broke within 12 months...
@Spinal besides breaking did you have other issues? Would you recommend it?

Sorry for being off-topic. I'm looking for advice on single din head units and my last resort is the forum.
I've been looking for a good one and I couldn't make my mind up. All the reviews on the net seem to be hype. They are downplaying flaws and hyping any common sense feature like the volume knob. There are many brands that make stereos and they have almost unlimited selections. What should I be looking for? On the other hand I've came across a different website. The blogger says it as it is and holds nothing back. It's a bit critical for my taste. That has put me on the fence. So where should I get started?

Any ideas?
 

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