Quite proud of myself!

West · 26 Aug 2007 at 21:39

Lol, as the title.

Had a bonus on my card from Work last Wednesday, so I decided to treat myself to £200 worth of ICE, on a new Head Unit, as the OEM Mini one wasnt brilliant...

So I go and buy all my bits and peices from Halfrauds (as it was the only decent ICE shop I could use the card in... yay.) and off I trot home to fit... i'd downloaded some instructions and away I go!

Not many bits to take out, and put back in, but I was very pleased with the results:

Sorry about the pics

paradigm · 26 Aug 2007 at 21:40

Sony

Afraid to break it to you, but Sony in-car sucks the big purple one.

West · 26 Aug 2007 at 21:41

paradigm said:
Sony

Afraid to break it to you, but Sony in-car sucks the big purple one.

Was better than the one that was in there before

Sadly they didnt have a lot of choice..

paradigm · 26 Aug 2007 at 21:42

They sell alpine & pioneer stuff, either would have been a vast improvment.

I found that the stock MINI stuff was ok, or at least it is in our Cooper S.

Luke15 · 26 Aug 2007 at 21:43

West said:
Was better than the one that was in there before

Sadly they didnt have a lot of choice..

Still doesn't warrant you purchasing a pos ICE system

If i was you, i would have looked around for abit longer to find a decent one.

BigglesPiP · 26 Aug 2007 at 21:47

I've never seen a SONY head unit suit a dashboard.

And having to hold the off button down for 2 seconds to turn them off it a pain, if you just press off they go into, "These are my features" mode.

paradigm · 26 Aug 2007 at 21:50

BigglesPiP said:
I've never seen a SONY head unit suit a dashboard.

Oh they used to, and they used to be quite good, but this was the best part of a decade ago now. They became really crap in recent years, accomodating the "OMG look @ ma phat ICE, itz got wikkid blu lites innit" crowd, but losing all audio quality and feature-set in the process.

whitecrook · 26 Aug 2007 at 21:53

It only take about 10 mins to change a radio doesn't it?

paradigm · 26 Aug 2007 at 21:55

whitecrook said:
It only take about 10 mins to change a radio doesn't it?

A standard single-din, no external input boxes jobbie, yes, less than 10 minutes.

Try fitting an Avic-X1 into an MX5 though, that takes CONSIDERABLY longer, and involves being upside down in the cabin

BigglesPiP · 26 Aug 2007 at 22:03

paradigm said:
A standard single-din, no external input boxes jobbie, yes, less than 10 minutes.

Try fitting an Avic-X1 into an MX5 though, that takes CONSIDERABLY longer, and involves being upside down in the cabin

I fitted a stereo for a mate last week, was expecting a short bit of soldering because she said she didn't have an adaptor (SONY set vs standard DIN connectors).

When she took the stero to be fitted out of her boot, there were cables dangling out the back of it, the very adaptor required. She thought the wires were part of the head unit.

Mr_White · 26 Aug 2007 at 22:07

You spent £200 on a poor value HU and left the stock speakers in?

Not exactly the best purchase then.

West · 26 Aug 2007 at 22:09

Mr_White said:
You spent £200 on a poor value HU and left the stock speakers in?

Not exactly the best purchase then.

Speakers in the Mini are decent anyway... theres nothing at all wrong with this Unit, it does everything I want it to, it sounds exactly how I want it to, and it looks how I like it to look?

Whats so wrong with that? :rolleyes:

digitalwolf · 26 Aug 2007 at 22:09

The standard mini ICE is rather good and is even better with the bass boost thing.

I'm going to praise you for fitting it though because I know how tricky it is to change the standard HU.

A Pioneer DEH 55BT with the orange LED display setting looks very smart in the mini. It is also a good headunit.

I have one you see

paradigm · 26 Aug 2007 at 22:10

Mr_White said:
You spent £200 on a poor value HU and left the stock speakers in?

Not exactly the best purchase then.

You don't always need to change the speakers to get good results. If they are relatively decent stock speakers to begin with, 9 times out of 10, the increased quality of the internal HU amp in the aftermarket unit will help no-end. Unfortunately in this case, the "uprated" internal amp of the Sony HU is crap itself

Sure, if the car has crap speakers to begin with, change them.

BigglesPiP · 26 Aug 2007 at 22:11

I've found Kenwood Head Units make average speakers sound all right.

Mr_White · 26 Aug 2007 at 22:11

paradigm said:
You don't always need to change the speakers to get good results. If they are relatively decent stock speakers to begin with, 9 times out of 10, the increased quality of the internal HU amp in the aftermarket unit will help no-end. Unfortunately in this case, the "uprated" internal amp of the Sony HU is crap itself

Sure, if the car has crap speakers to begin with, change them.

Not always no, but I'll bet you £100-125 on new speakers and £75-100 on an alpine HU would have sounded far better.

paradigm · 26 Aug 2007 at 22:12

digitalwolf said:
I'm going to praise you for fitting it though because I know how tricky it is to change the standard HU.

No, no its not. Its only tricky if you lack basic hand-eye co-ordination.

West said:
Speakers in the Mini are decent anyway... theres nothing at all wrong with this Unit, it does everything I want it to, it sounds exactly how I want it to, and it looks how I like it to look?

Whats so wrong with that?

It only sounds "how you want it to" because you have bought it. You haven't fitted a better HU, so wouldn't know how it sounds.

If you like the looks then fair enough (I think it looks gash personally), but don't go spouting about sound quality unless you have compared many units.

West · 26 Aug 2007 at 22:15

paradigm said:
.Don't go spouting about sound quality unless you have compared many units.

I said compared to the OEM, there wasnt a lot of choice in my price-range, and store range, it was either this one or a shoddy looking Pioneer HU, all the rest were crap as they were in a much lower price bracket... So I thought this one was the better choice.

Vedic · 26 Aug 2007 at 22:15

Why didnt you just order it off the net? The same model is probably 20-50% less, halfords are a an absolute rip-off for car audio.
Also Sony are not the best car audio manufacturer. Sony's home audio is good, some of their high end hifi is fantastic, but their car audio segment is known for its low quality componenets.

Firestar_3x · 26 Aug 2007 at 22:17

Take it back and buy something from CAD.

You should really read up before you buy things, that HU is a POS.