Aftermarket Android Head Units

Aftermarket Android Head Units

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the_engineer

Original Poster:

317 posts

184 months

Saturday 2nd May 2020
quotequote all
Afternoon all!

After the slow demise and ultimate passing of my Porsche pcm1.0 into audio afterlife, i now need to replace it with something. Sadly, the pcm1.0 is beyond economical repair and second hand replacement units are very expensive (especially considering it’s 25 year old technology) and likely to fail the same way at some point.

I’ve had a look round what’s available in the market and aside from the mainstream Alpine/Pioneer/Sony stuff which is old dependable and what I’d normally default to, however, I see a large supply and range of (typically) android based head units from the Far East in my research..

Does anyone have any experience of these? What are the “leading brands” to consider?

I must say looking at various (but not recent) videos on YouTube they do look very cool and the range of functions very impressive. I’m no audiophile by a mile so am happy not to have ultimate sound quality (plus the 996’s NVH isn’t the greatest environment for recreating studio quality sound) - it would just be nice to have something for the long drives occasionally I do.

Thoughts and recommendations would be much appreciated! I need more projects for lockdown! biggrinthumbup

Bodo

12,422 posts

273 months

Saturday 2nd May 2020
quotequote all
Recently, there was a news item that introduced a retrofit PCCM for older cars from Porsche https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-germancars/por...

the_engineer

Original Poster:

317 posts

184 months

Saturday 2nd May 2020
quotequote all
Thanks! I did come across that, but It’s quite pricey(!) and a few bits I’ve read suggest a lot of that is (understandably) “Porsche tax” rather than the latest and greatest tech in the unit coffee

peterperkins

3,209 posts

249 months

Saturday 2nd May 2020
quotequote all
If you can fit them in without it looking like a bodge and wire them in,
then the cheap e-bay android specials are remarkable value for the functions offered.

I bought a cheap bezel off fleabay to tidy up the edges and make it fit my double din space.
OK The interface can be clunky and a bit slow but bang for your buck they are difficult to beat.

The instruction are in Chinglish and they aren't exactly intuitive but for £52 with free delivery......
Just imagine after all the transport costs and middle men etc
they must be knocking these out for less than £20 somewhere, and still making a profit!!!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/9218S-Upgraded-2-DIN-An...

I have one in my car.. Music on a USB stick and away you go.

The inbuilt mp3 player is fairly pants.
I downloaded one from the marketplace that remembers where it is inside mp3 files between drives.
I have loads of huge audiobook mp3's and it resumes at the point it left off with one tap of the screen.