Head Unit Question

[E55BOF]

Since you're thinking of Chinese now,

Pardon our interruption...

With the advantage that you're not dealing with an import, or return, to the eu.
Tbh there are loads of other Chinese kit on the bay, that can very this way or that.

I'm not thinking of Chinese; Dynavin trades in the UK, and is a Companies House - registered (since 2020) company (admittedly pretty tiny) based in Beckenham, with company accounts up to date.

TBF, if I were, I would probably buy an Essgoo unit; they're about the best of the Chinese companies I've looked at on Trip Advisor, with 50% of reviews 5-star, but the 20% 1-star reviews rather put me off. That unit you've posted doesn't look quite as well-fitting as the Dynavin one, either, or for that matter the Joyx junk I'm replacing. It's mainly potential reliability that concerns me, though...

 

[m80]

I'm not thinking of Chinese; Dynavin trades in the UK, and is a Companies House - registered (since 2020) company (admittedly pretty tiny) based in Beckenham, with company accounts up to date.

TBF, if I were, I would probably buy an Essgoo unit; they're about the best of the Chinese companies I've looked at on Trip Advisor, with 50% of reviews 5-star, but the 20% 1-star reviews rather put me off. That unit you've posted doesn't look quite as well-fitting as the Dynavin one, either, or for that matter the Joyx junk I'm replacing. It's mainly potential reliability that concerns me, though...

Sorry.

 

[E55BOF]

It's complicated, but I'm learning. A big thank you to member m80, who has helped me to a little more understanding than I had before.

Dynavin is out, I think. No response to emails, and I've come to the conclusion that theirs are basically stock Chinese units, but at three times the price. There's a link to an excellent Youtube fitting video on their website, but as it's for the previous (D8) model head unit, it doesn't help as much as it might. From the fact that the steering wheel controls and the subwoofer control feature on the existing head unit do nothing, I rather think whoever fitted it didn't bother with a decoder for the MOST optical link, so I'll need one of those at least.

The fitting kit to connect up everything including the MOST will add about £300 to the cost of the head unit, so about £600 upwards in all for just the hardware. Hmmmmmmm...

I think I'll give another Chinese unit a go at about a quarter of that. At the moment an Essgoo unit looks favourite - 50% five-star reviews on Trustpilot - but it will depend on what I find when I remove the existing head unit. If the OE connections look right, I'll give fitting a new unit myself a go; if not, or if I f**k it up, I haven't lost much at worst, and I can just throw money at it then, same as usual...

 

[m80]

Dynavin sell on Alibaba apparently. Basically that's Chinese kit.
I looked at Essgoo. While they have their own website their kit looked to be a bit behind the times. They have a presence on ebay too. I see them as a Dynavin wannabe.

The Chinese kit has evolved over the years, a little. There is a continuing improvement in spec.
They fast instal the later software.
The early kit wasn't as user friendly, they now cater for the lesser aware. But there is some lesser models and older (not sold fast enough stuff) from what I see.

My view is it is worth taking a punt, as long as there is support like ebay provide. If it 'aint right then it's their problem not yours / ours.

There should be a choice of 3 adapters. The wrong one's won't plug in.
You will be unlucky if it doesn't plug and play and you should be testing the experience within minutes.

Octo Core = 8 core processor.
4 gig ram, or greater, so the unit runs smoothly.
I find any more than 5 gig of media in the internal memory and I spend too long looking for what I want, so big memory imo is irrelevant.
DSP for better music.
As high a spec for the screen as possible. Lower rated screens just don't look like quality when fitted.

Sorry can't help with MOST connectivity.

Tbh most of this will be understandable after you've fitted one and realise it isn't complicated.

 

[E55BOF]

It all depends on what I find when I remove the existing unit. If there's a bunch of OE coloured individual connectors corresponding with what is variously described as 'AV Cable' and 'RCA Harness' in the ad for the new head unit, game on; if not, maybe not immediately. MOST connectivity shouldn't be a problem. At the minute I'm thinking of this one:

Pardon our interruption...

which has a capacitive discharge screen, 4GB RAM, but only a quad-core processor; most of the 8-cores on Ebay seem to have only 2 GB RAM. There's no DSP, but perhaps ASP is as good? (TBH, I'm no audiophile, so quite easily pleased with the sound quality, and the car is quiet enough, but no S-class, when moving anyway...).

Or if I'm feeling flush, maybe this one, which is about as close to a high-end Chinese brand with a name to protect as I've found:

Pardon our interruption...

Pricey, but maybe worth it. Unless, of course, anyone knows of a better...

(There is an 8-core/4GB RAM cheapo unit, but it's nearly twice the price, Chanceux brand (too close to chancy?), and being sold openly from China by a seller named 'Audiofunfun'. It may be unfair and immature, but I just couldn't bring myself to buy from Audiofunfun... )

 

[m80]

Pardon our interruption...

For the price it seems the spec is good.
The Xtrons unit is better granted, but I've found the 4 gig of ram to be acceptable, so 6 gig should be smoother.

It mentions the 2 types of amps, I'm not sure which yours is.

If you buy keep a note of the passwords. Later it's very possible you'll want to access the deeper settings with those.

 

[pete12345]

Not quite the same Mec, but I fitted a Hizpo Android to my W203 Sport Coupe. 8'' 7862 2din Android Car Multimedia Player for Mercedes Benz CLC W203 C-Class C180 C200 CLK200 CLK W209 GPS Carplay Auto 4G RDS - AliExpress 34
Prices seem to have gone up a lot, but I went for the S6 8-core with 8G ROM & 64G Ram. It was £140 at the time. Don't bother with less than 6-core device because they are too slow these days.

Hizpo do versions for most Merc centre console layouts, but do double check measurements.

As above getting all the wiring to the right places can be challengine, but once in place it works pretty much seamlessly with the car. It runs Google Maps, Waze, etc. I added DAB+ Radio & Agama custom UI (see pictures).

Main challenge was finding the correct CAN-Bus settings, but once this was done the steering wheel buttons, door open & reverse detection all worked with no extra wiring.

Both Android Auto & Apple CarPlay work well, although I don't use them mainly because call quality is better using the head unit as regular bluetooth hands-free.

Google voice search also works, but I cannot get it to link to Waze !!

Lastly, the unit is only 2.5CM deep, so plenty of room behind for all the wiring.

 

[E55BOF]

That Hizpo would not look right in the W164; somewhat to my surprise, a 9" touchscreen unit does look OK.

Hizpo do do a dedicated unit for the W164, but with 1GB RAM and 16GB ROM. No thanks. There are others, but most of the links actually default to super-cheap units on Ali Express. No thanks again.

Xtrons are quite well-known, and have a UK presence, with an HQ in Warrington, and UK customer and tech support (so English as a first language) by email. That's a big plus for me. Hizpo have no such facility.

Still Xtrons, I think.

 

[pete12345]

Yes I did specifically say it's for a W203, and not the same car. We had an Xtrons in my Wife's freelander for a while, but it was buggy & kept randomly rebooting. Swapped it for a buch more powerful Joying with more CPU & Memory.

Main thing is search carefully & check compatibility for things like bezel size & CAN adapter. Also delete most of the Chinese apps, and create a separate Google account for the HU. That way it will not delete your phone contacts !!

Also decide if you want larger screen, or physical buttons.

 

[E55BOF]

Joying no longer list anything for Mercedes, or I'd have one of theirs.

I'm only looking at W164-specific units; they all have the same mounting brackets specifically for the W164, and the correct size bezel. Xtrons, and in fact most of them, point out that there are two possible sizes of opening in the dash; mine has the one they all quote. A mounting kit for a generic double DIN unit would add £120 or so to the cost.

My car has the Harman Kardon setup, and all the ads refer to the need for an (optical) decoder for that as well as the CANBUS.

I rather think that quite recently a factory has started making W164 specific mounting hardware, and numerous Chinese head unit manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon. Xtrons is, afaik, the longest-established and best-known one covering the UK market, and has the best reputation to protect. Add to that, they have a UK operation and UK-based customer support, and if I'm going to buy a Chinese-branded unit at all, to have the best chance of getting one that works first time it's beginning to look like a no-brainer to get one of theirs.

 

[pete12345]

Not sure about the HK system in Mercs. My old Range Rover's use old-fashioned balanced twisted pair line audio. In your case it depends if the optical link from the head unit to the HK system is autio feed, or includes communicaitons as well ??

There's a Connects2 adapter, which looks like it takes the L+R Line outs from the Android & converts to optical, but if your HK system has multiple elements you might need something more sophisticated ?

Didn't know Xtrons now have UK prescence, so prob worth talking to them. Also see if the unit you want has threads on XDA-Developers forums.

Main advantage I found with all Chinese brands is the ability to use whatever Android apps you want, rather than what Pioneer, Kenwood, etc provide.

 

[E55BOF]

That adapter is indeed the one required for the ML. Several of the head unit manufacturers include images; two optical ports side-by-side, red and white connector plugs, three wires.

Only the prices vary. Dynavin want £200 for theirs; the Connects2 is on offer for £185; the cheapest on Ebay, from Xtrons, is £99.

There's one small possible niggle with the Xtrons, in that the cooling fan operates automatically only at 90 degrees C. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 used is an old processor, released back in 2019 (according to XDA-Developers; nothing on Xtrons), and it seems to me that if it gets up to that sort of temperature it's asking for trouble, so why not set the fan to turn on automatically at a lower temperature? I did find one unit that let you adjust the fan automatic activation temperature, but I can't find it now...

I'm going to email Xtrons asking about help with the various single-wire connections the unit has, and see what sort of reply service I get. That will determine where I'm going, but I'm not sure I'm not beginning to get cold feet; Xtrons is not a UK-registered company, the business address is for a warehousing and storage company named Everbst with a Chinese director, and recent reviews (in 2025) mostly suggest the customer service is poor at best.