Time to change the NC headunit

[Penguin]

Hi all

Time to change the headunit in the NC. I have a late 2006 NC1 (LE).

Not sure if i want a heading with or without satnav.

So dumb question first - I understand that the Bose unit has an amp - where is it? How will a new unit cope with the seven speakers?

What is the best aftermarket facia? I saw these as a local supplier http://aerpro.com/vehicles/mazda/mazda_mx5_2005. Are they any good?

What Mux cables are necessary?

Any other useful suggestions?

I am not looking for a high end unit - but not bargain basement either.

Cheers

DG

[Gavatron1]

DG to understand more detail around your requirements maybe the following questions could shed light.

What don't you like about the original Bose unit?

What would you change if you could?

What is your budget?

Do you want to retain an original look or would you consider looking at a new look head unit?

What sound are you looking for? i.e louder, treble etc

Do you want to stream music from device such as phone or mp3?

Do you need a mobile phone capability to talk while driving?

Do you want to retain the steering wheel operation buttons on a new device?

Will you look to do the work yourself or by a car stereo specialist?

Tron






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[Penguin]

DG to understand more detail around your requirements maybe the following questions could shed light.

What don't you like about the original Bose unit?

Not overly impressed with sound. Only connects to Gen 1 iPods and mine is failing. Have a Parrot 3200 hands free - would like all in one unit.

What would you change if you could?

Not yet decided if I was a single or double din unit (latter with Sat Nav)

What is your budget?

Depends on what features I get . Not looking for cheapest.

Do you want to retain an original look or would you consider looking at a new look head unit?

Subdued look is all I am after

What sound are you looking for? i.e louder, treble etc

A bit brighter sound - happy with current base level.

Do you want to stream music from device such as phone or mp3?

Yep

Do you need a mobile phone capability to talk while driving?

Yep

Do you want to retain the steering wheel operation buttons on a new device?

Yep

Will you look to do the work yourself or by a car stereo specialist?

Should be able to do myself - installed this type of thing before in other cars

Tron






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[Gavatron1]

Do you think a later Bose unit could do the trick? I'd be interested to do same as it would retain original look.

[Regie]

this would be what you are after, it does almost everything you listed above

http://gromaudio.com/store/usb_adapters ... rface.html

[Gavatron1]

Where would you fit the box?

[Regie]

I've got mine in the glove box, its not big at all

[Penguin]

Thanks Reggie.

How does the hands free work - does it have a separate microphones that you plug in? I cannot see it on the wiring diagram.

DG

[Regie]

Yep u will need to buy the Bluetooth adaptor with it. It come with a seperate mic. I have mine mounted on the windscreen behind the rear view mirror. Works great

[Penguin]

Thanks Regie - will look into this.

[JayMo]

Howdy... I have done what you intend to do.

I take it that you already know that Bose has weirdo impedance to the speakers... and the line levels to the amps are all different so you need line level adapters or a processor... You do loose the roof up roof down compensation... and a roadster isn't the best platform for good sound unless you throw lots of grunt at it, if you are intending to keep the amps and speakers intercepting the signal and processing it has been written up in the interwebs before.
eg a cheap version here that i had bookmarked years ago http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=272802 I don't remember why...

I claimed KM for my car back in the day, so i needed to demonstrate full handsfree connectivity, plus one $hitty tweet, so i did a full bosectomy.

Anyway, you ask about the aeropro fascia kit... here it is, there is a lighting angle difference (the colour matching is better than the photo gives credit)



long shot



I got it and the wiring adapter from Soundmaster in Granville, note that the headunit that I got was programmable for steering wheel controls where I could program what each button signal did (they don't all do that, it needs to say steering wheel remote ready or similar). You are in tazzie, but they should be able to help pick the correct harness (I cant remember which one, and I ain't going to pull the HU to check for you sorry)

Because I am particularly retentive, I didn't want some flashy trashy HU, I want the head unit to look like it belonged in the car from the beginning, as if it may have been there from the begining and match the instrumentation exactly (is that what you mean by subdued?)... So red button illumination, red/white lettering, and a red/black background + all the connectivity. The colour/font/matching was the hardest thing. I landed on JVC for this reason (JVC & Kenwood are the same company, but the Kenwoods did not look correct funnily enough, nor the Sony, nor the Clarion of the day as virtually all were blue themed). In the dark the matching is awesome (when the instrument lights are on).

Note, no single Dins looked correct at all.

Mine is a couple of years old but will do full connectivity, play usb or ipods (via the one USB adaptor) full stream music and stream pause play Tune in radio, Pandora, Aha etc... phonebook, history and full hands free calling etc.

what it drives is a full bosectomy, but that is another story... hope this helps

[Penguin]

Hey JayMo - very clear car and smeg installation. After reading all the work you had to do have gone down the Grom route as suggested by Reggie.

Cheers

DG

[richardnau]

Hi JayMo,

Where did you put the Bluetooth mic?

Richard.

[JayMo]

Hey JayMo - very clear car and smeg installation. After reading all the work you had to do have gone down the Grom route as suggested by Reggie.

Cheers

DG

If there is nothing wrong with the Bose speakers, that is probably a good idea, I have no experience with the Grom.


Richard,

it is not a blue tooth mic, it is a wired mic, and I put it in the top right corner... My theory was this is the closest point to my head (when this was my daily I was roof down unless raining, 2 deg don't care) as my roof was always down . I figured this was tucked out of the airstream an protected to minimise buffeting (it is my theory that more open to the air near the mirror - but I never empirically confirmed this) I took a pic this morning. I forget it's there.

Mini Highjack
I noticed your "Looking Looking" sig, after having my third I'm having to be "Selling Selling" this thing over in the F/Sale thred.