An OE looking deck that does not suck...maybe.

[StereoInstaller1]

http://www.deutscheautoparts.com/View/Volkswagen/Jetta/MK31994-1999.5/Electrical/Radio/6Q0-051-228-B-6Q0051228B/546/114

Yup.

Bluetooth, Aux, USB, SD (HC even!) CD and has pre-amp outputs.

I have a guy who is the original owner of an E24 M6 getting one of these with a full GAS system in a couple weeks, I will post a full review.

In the meantime, any thoughts?

Luke

[Vtec?lol]

Would look killer if it wasn't for the chrome/shiny knob. Any idea of the display? I assume dot-x.

[jaywood]

These are big in the VW world

[mcaden]

I like it a lot, although pretty pricey. You will need to buy a harness to adapt, right?

[bmwman91]

Wow, there may finally be a worthwhile replacement for the CD43. Swap the red LED's for some orange ones and paint the chrome stuff black, and it is probably almost perfect. The glossy black plastic is not ideal, but this has to be the closest to stock that you can get with those features.

[MaxBell]

[StereoInstaller1]

Wow, there may finally be a worthwhile replacement for the CD43. Swap the red LED's for some orange ones and paint the chrome stuff black, and it is probably almost perfect. The glossy black plastic is not ideal, but this has to be the closest to stock that you can get with those features.

Agreed, I am kinda excited. The E24 M6 that I am doing one in is getting the same amps I have in my car, a custom 8" box, and our passive crossover network. Should be a more than adequate test to see if it is a worthy choice, since I know what to expect from those amps. I will follow up the threads I started about this, it really is pretty exciting.

I like it a lot, although pretty pricey. You will need to buy a harness to adapt, right?

Agreed...and not just one harness, either. If in an E30, you need an antenna adapter from Motorola to Euro, the power/speaker harness and if you plan to use amps, you also need the pre-amp output harness.

At least on the newer BMWs you can get an adapter from flat or round pin connectors to IEC, so it should be plug and play with the right adapters.

My only real bitch is the onboard mic. No one makes phone calls anymore anyway, right?

[bmwman91]

What about the onboard mic? Does it have one?

[BlackSpeed66]

It does have an onboard mic. Hard to see in the pics in the thread but there area tiny little slots near the volume knob where the mic is.

Anyone have an opinion on what streaming with A2DP is like? What kind of quality? I'm old-school and prefer to hardwire my tunes....

[Holland]

Do like, quite a lot actually!

[StereoInstaller1]

It does have an onboard mic. Hard to see in the pics in the thread but there area tiny little slots near the volume knob where the mic is.

Anyone have an opinion on what streaming with A2DP is like? What kind of quality? I'm old-school and prefer to hardwire my tunes....

Its good enough that FLAC or 192K .WMA files sound almost as good as CD...if you are doing 70 with the windows down.

YMMV.

Luke

[AndrewBird]

Did you see my comment on Facebook about it? According to the owners manual, it will only recognize the first 999 songs on the flash drive/sd card. Anything past won't even show up.

[StereoInstaller1]

Did you see my comment on Facebook about it? According to the owners manual, it will only recognize the first 999 songs on the flash drive/sd card. Anything past won't even show up.

No, missed that somehow, but almost all decks do something like that, but since its per folder, with a 999 folder limit, I think it will do fine for most people.

Personally, I will be switching to a bunch of 8GB thumb drives for my car music. Even my 16gb takes too long to read, my 32gb was miserable...4 or 8GB fits enough to read and flip through quickly. I would like to have at least half of my 350GB collection, but until access gets way faster and easier, no thanks.

[henryki]

I have a Sony DSX S300BTX, I think thats the model Number not too sure, but its USB internal and external, and bluetooth streaming, I've had it for a few years now and no complaints, but thinking about throwing a kenwood in there pretty soon

but my buddy had this kenwood in his E30 http://www.crutchfield.com/p_113KIV7...1.html?tp=5684

gotta try to find it some where else, but the colors are fully customizable on a RGB scale, pretty cool, plus you can just plug in a USB and acts just like an iPod even down to the interface, what I mean is pick a song, go back to the menu and it is at the same spot unlike my sony.

[bmwman91]

I had a 2012 VW Jetta rental car for the last 2 days, and it basically has the newer double-DIN version of the radio Luke posted (but the cheap rental car version with no SD card slot or BT). The sound system in the car was above-average for a stock one, so the head unit is at least as good as any other. Based on what I have seen of head units, I can almost guarantee that the single-DIN one has identical guts to the double-DIN one that I played with in the rental car.

One annoyance is the LCD display. LOTS of backlight bleed-through and sort of crappy viewing angles. Modding the backlight LEDs to 605nm orange to match the E30 interior would be a very good thing on this. If I can find wiring diagrams for this radio, I will probably give it a shot.