Hi All,
When we bought our Burstner Aviano i640G it had a Blaupunkt radio in. I didnt try it during the test drive but I assume it was broken because during the pre delivery checks the dealer replaced it with a Sharp radio which did work but was awful both visually and functionally! It had also been "slung in".
It was not really an issue because we had decided that we wanted a double din media center anyway.
We decided against a built in satnav because a portable one is more flexible and has the benefit of lifetime free map updates (unlike the built in ones - why is that??). So, I looked around and eventually settled on a Kenwood. The important things were a) good ipad/iphone integration, b) DAB radio (i know it is controversial but i have had one in cars for years and although not perfect i wouldnt be without it) c) CD/DVD d) ease of use
Fitting was pretty straightforward. The two plastic lugs which divide the single din radio from the binnacle (you can see them in the first pic) above have to be cut off but after that its plain sailing.
Second pic is the finished article, i think it looks good. Unfortunately the DAB aerial did not arrive on time so it has to come out again to be fitted...sigh

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Very nice looking, now put that CD back in it's case at once

Looks good. Good luck with the aerial. I did quite a lot of research when fitting my JVC unit and found that vertical and high up were the two main criteria for the aerial.
I have a Ford Transit cab so the screen is heated with inbuilt filaments......hopeless for screen aerials.
Managed to fit a magnetic aerial above the cab in the overhead pod and seems to work well.

I wonder if using a ground plane might help with reception in these none metal MHs, it was a well used trick back in the days of the CB radio, as were antennas of varying fractions of the wave length, some better than others.

http://www.radio-electronics.com/inf...requencies.php

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the comments. Yes, quite right about the DVD lying around, I am a terror for that!

he aerial still has not arrived but is imminent! I will let you know how it works. I an very sceptical myself about glass mounted aerials but this one is designed for this head unit and looks like it is of good quality. It gets grounded to the chassis and gets very good reviews so we will see. The FM/AM aerial works fine. This is the link to the DAB one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...ilpage_o00_s00

John

I thought DAB was the 'future' and a technological leap forward.
So far I have only heard problems about DAB radio. Is this another con.?

Ray.

I don't think it's a con, it's just nowhere near as good as it was meant to be, and the private take up is somewhat lacking meaning there is less investment in making it work more gooder.

Ray,

I have had DAB in cars for many years now and although not perfect its pretty damn good. I like radio 4 extra and you can only get it on DAB. The signal does drop out sometimes, but normally not for long and if you have a good receiver it will auto switch to FM if the station is there also (like BBC 1, 2, 3, 4 etc)
The aerial is key. The one i got is not suitable unfortunately. It needs to be earthed to the windscreen frame and it turns out that its just not practical on my A class so its gone back and I have ordered a splitter which allows you to use the existing aerial. If that doesnt work then I will have to look at a dedicated one

John

By the way, as an aside, whilst fitting my radio I decided to make the clip board removeable. In older Ducatos the clip board (above the radio in the center of the dash) folds up so you can read whats clipped to it however, in later models, with passenger airbag, it is fixed horizontal.
It seemed to me to be a lot easier to fit the radio with a "hatch" right above it so i removed the clipboard. its just two screws at the front and the rear just slots in. It wont go back that way because the screws are covered by the radio cage but I want to keep it removeable anyway so I will probably velcro it

John

Maybe DAB does not work in France....................................
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/ab...istening.shtml

Ray.