I need a new car radio/cd player. Should I go straight to Halfords?
No, I thought not. Any recommendations of what and also where to buy.
Is there anything in particular that I should be looking for? 40w, RDS etc
TIA
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I bought one mail order.
Real quick insured delivery and saved about £100.
Look for the adverts in the likes of "Max Power" and "Fast car" Unforunately there is a penalty for the cheapness.
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ARGOS seem good value if you just want a mainstrem model, some include fitting at your choice of location. Worked fine for me, specialists Sextons turned up and did quick clean job with no 'extras'.
PG
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Bought a 4 speaker 25w face off RDS radio/cassette for £5 from a shop in Batley, West Yorks. They were ex catalogue returns - needed 3 trips to the shop though to make one good one out of 3!
Used to think RDS was important for my commute up the A1 from Catterick but radio stations use it for advertising, to promote programmes etc. Although local in North Yorkshire/ County Durham stations solicit for traffic reports from your mobile, they only ever broadcast RDS bulletins at regular times so it's impossible to react. Disillusioned with RDS, I subscribed to Trafficmaster to get more maningful, accurate reports.
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Darcy,
Arent you getting mixed up between RDS and the Traffic Program. RDS allows the tuner to identify and follow a radio station as you move between transmitter areas, the traffic program interrupts with local traffic news. It is usually simple to turn off the traffic program but retain the benefit of RDS tuning. I use RDS all the time...wish more home HIFI tuners had it as well!
regards
Ian L.
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Ian
Yes, you're right. My commute needs a non-RDS radio to be tuned twice to stay with radio 4.
TA and TP are the traffic announcement features I was disappointed in.
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Absolutely right, RDS (Radio Data System) with AF (alternate frequency - the radio follows the station) is an absolute must have. I've come across some cheaper sets which have RDS and so display the station name but which don't follow the station, so be careful.
Regards
John
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What do you want it to do?
Are you looking for something that works, the end.
Something to expand into a sound off quality ICE installation.
A descrete but high quality system
........ etc
The more information you provide the more help we can be
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I just want to replace the standard (defunct) system in a Sharan. I don't want HiFi at inflated prices. Just a radio with a cd player.
Good enough but nothing outrageous. A Marks and Spencer radio not Gucci or the Pound Shop!
Does that make sense?
If H@lfords were to be highly thought of I could pop down and chat to them. However I can't believe that it would be a place that those "in the know" would recommend.
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You might not get much sense out of Halfords, but their branded goods are the same as anyone else's and at least you can take it back and get a replacement if it doesn't work. Mail order is OK if everything works as advertised, but problematic otherwise. You can compare specs easily enough on the Web, but take power outputs with a pinch of salt (RMS figures are the only meaningful ones).
Consider changing the speakers, too - factory fitments are pretty basic, and a pair of tweeters at dash level can make a huge difference to sound clarity.
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I got a spare Kenwood + CD player. Kenwood has 47W per channel. If you are in London make me an offer - otherwise might try and persuade the wife to put it in her car but she doesn't really seem to care one way or the other! Having said that if someone does want it I suppose that she would suddenly want it in her car!!!
I got it for my last car, as the previous one got stolen but I sold the car about 3 weeks later! If interested I can get all the numbers and details...
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I bought a blaupunkt Lausanne from www.caraudiodirect.com for only £99, but now they have gone up to £134. Very good service from them.
Check out their special offers hope i get this link right
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I was looking at this model; is it any good - btw it is now £119 in Halfords
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Graham
When my son replaced the radio/CD in his Alfa GTV he bought one that plays audio or MP3 CDs. That way he burns a CD of his choice in MP3 with 10 hours of music. He then doesn't need a CD stacker in the boot - just one CD.
If you want to know more, come back and I'll get details from him, but I think it is Kenwood.
HTH
Ian
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It's certainly nice to be able to record your own CD compilations for in car use. The playback can be a bit hit or miss though and dependent on the compatibility between the player and the brand/type of CD blank you use. For instance, my Clarion unit is perfectly content to play back music burned on to so called 'blue dye' blanks, but is often less than happy with silver and green dye disks (skips or often won't even register). Suspect it's to do with the depth of laser pits and CD redbook standards or something.
Anyone else experienced unreliablity with in car CD players and home recorded CD's?
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I bought the Kenwood KDC-MP6090R unit eight months ago, and so far it's played everything I've fed it - either CD, CD-R or MP3-encdoded CDs. THe sound quality is excellent (although a speaker upgrade was required), and it hasn't skipped once (even over the sleeping police cars where I work). Kenwood are releasing quite a few new MP3-capable players in the next month or two. Have a look at www.incar-discount.co.uk
Andy
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Graham wrote:
>
> I need a new car radio/cd player. Should I go straight to
> Halfords?
>
> No, I thought not. Any recommendations of what and also where
> to buy.
>
> Is there anything in particular that I should be looking for?
> 40w, RDS etc
>
> TIA
Check out www.bluespot.co.uk for a Blaupunkt model, this will fit your Sharan with no probs.
Andrew
www.hispecgolfs.co.uk
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Graham,
There is currently a very nice Kenwood flip-front top-of-the-range headunit doing the black-market circuit in the Nottingham area.
It was taken from my car last night.
Mark.
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Graham,
I can recommend Halfords. They sold me the same unit at near enough same price as at bluespot.co.uk, and threw in a connector plug for free that they were otherwise charging about twelve quid for. There can be some bargains in the 'end of line' glass cabinet'. E.g. my Blaupunkt radio was reduced from £199 to £99.
Regards
Rob F
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I have also had good service from Halfords in their speaker range. Glass cabinet you mentioned above is a great place for a bargain as i managed to talk the salesman down from £45 to £35 for a pair of Sony tweeters to go in the pasenger doors. Always worth a look if you can stand the pushy staff!
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The problem of home burnt CDs is usually because the burner is (as you say) not absolutely using the red book standard. One other reason is that some blank CDs are not suitable for high speed recording. Speed is normally specified on the blanks and if it doesn't say X12 or X16 it isn't and you'll probably end up with coasters.
I had two Phillips CDD3160 burners and they were both cr*p. If you managed to burn a complete CD you would find that the only player that recognised it was the Phillips burner that created it. I've now got a Creative 12 speed with burnproof technology and it's fantastic. No compatability problems at all.
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A friend used the following site, said they were no problem, and a real discount on what Halfords will offer you.
www.hendoncarstereo.co.uk
I also brought a pair of Kenwood 50w speakers from some chap in Yahoo auction, cost £25 new and boxed and have been sweet ever since. Auctions can be very risky however, so be careful. All depends how much sound you really want, and whether you want top quality reproduction.
good luck!
p.s i have a sony CDX-CA600 which i find ample for my needs, gives a good play on CDs, no jumps!
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Thanks fgor all the responces.
Regards 8-)
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Graham,
Actually, on a limited budget, Halford sell a Kenwood RDS radio/6 x CD changer combi for £250.00.
I fitted one of these (not bought from Halfords, but the previous model bought from a specialist car audio shop at the same price) and I have to say I'm very pleased with it.
Like all 'cheap' car audio you need 'loudness' on and the upper frequency bass is a little over the top, while the realy low tones are simply missing. BTW I'm using the standard Audi fit speakers.
But, when all is said and done, it's quite acceptable to me, and I'm used to *good* home hi-fi.
Martin.
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Many thanks for taking the trouble to reply. I used bluespot.co.uk, they sent an Alicante by return and it fitted straight in. What more can I say except good price and excellent service.
Rgds Graham
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