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I few months ago, I happily took ownership of a 2004 Miata LS. I've wanted one for 20 years, and overall I'm enjoying the hell out of it. I'm about to go into a detailed backstory here for a bit, so if you want to get to the important parts, skip the first 3 paragraphs.
After repairing a few mechanical issues, the car is well-sorted. What's left is the radio situation. When I first got it, the owner before me had put in an aftermarket Single-DIN Pioneer unit. There were so many problems, though. It stayed on all the time unless you removed the faceplate (fixed by re-doing wiring harness correctly). It didn't drive the rear speakers (fixed by replacing a fuse). And it sounded just plain bad (fixed by turning off the high-pass filter). What I was left with sounded OK--very hissy noise floor, though.
So I decided to revert back to stock. I found the correct OEM Bose head unit on FB Marketplace. Definitely an improvement in several areas. First of all, it had some tailored EQ settings for "top up" and "top down" driving, and also support for speed-sensitive volume control. Keep in mind that this is a convertible, so ruler-flat response is not the goal here. I need emphasis on certain frequency bands to even hear what the hell is going on. A few other pluses: it knows when to correctly raise and lower the radio mast, and also just FEELS much higher quality than the Pioneer.
Unfortunately, the stock OEM radio has no way to play via my phone. So I found a device called the Crux BTS-MZ1, which is a pretty cool invention that plugs into the "CD Changer" harness on the back of the head unit, but delivers Bluetooth, Aux jack, and USB. What more could you want, really? Unfortunately, it may be too good to be true. If you try to play files off a USB drive, the controls are terrible at best (basically just a guessing game where pressing the same button will get you different results each time), and it doesn't seem to be able to handle more than 6 folders on a drive. So USB drives are out. So how about Bluetooth? Unfortunately, the Bluetooth reception clicks and pops constantly, like an old LP. I can sort of tolerate this, until I think about how much this device cost. (OTOH, the aux jack seems to work without problems, so there's that)
***backstory ends here***
So I'm looking to see what my other options are. Having Android Auto & Apple CarPlay is appealing, but those units start at around $300. And I can't help but worry that, since this is a convertible, an expensive radio would be very appealing to thieves. I see that Am*zon has a variety of no-name brand double-din head units at like half that price. To me that $150 makes a big difference in me worrying every time I leave the car unattended in a parking lot.
Has anyone here ever tried ANY double-DIN head units--name brand or otherwise? I'm curious about your experiences. As far as amplification goes, I don't really need anything more than basic LR Front and LR Rear, because the output of the head unit goes into these Bose amps buried deep in the dash that actively drive the door speakers. There is no subwoofer--and there doesn't really need to be one. The Infinite Baffle subs in the doors seem to dig down into the 30 Hz range, so I'm good there. I don't have the time or patience to reverse-engineer it, but I think the active amps in the dash must have some sort of filtering in place because they make really good use of the OEM drivers in the door.
After repairing a few mechanical issues, the car is well-sorted. What's left is the radio situation. When I first got it, the owner before me had put in an aftermarket Single-DIN Pioneer unit. There were so many problems, though. It stayed on all the time unless you removed the faceplate (fixed by re-doing wiring harness correctly). It didn't drive the rear speakers (fixed by replacing a fuse). And it sounded just plain bad (fixed by turning off the high-pass filter). What I was left with sounded OK--very hissy noise floor, though.
So I decided to revert back to stock. I found the correct OEM Bose head unit on FB Marketplace. Definitely an improvement in several areas. First of all, it had some tailored EQ settings for "top up" and "top down" driving, and also support for speed-sensitive volume control. Keep in mind that this is a convertible, so ruler-flat response is not the goal here. I need emphasis on certain frequency bands to even hear what the hell is going on. A few other pluses: it knows when to correctly raise and lower the radio mast, and also just FEELS much higher quality than the Pioneer.
Unfortunately, the stock OEM radio has no way to play via my phone. So I found a device called the Crux BTS-MZ1, which is a pretty cool invention that plugs into the "CD Changer" harness on the back of the head unit, but delivers Bluetooth, Aux jack, and USB. What more could you want, really? Unfortunately, it may be too good to be true. If you try to play files off a USB drive, the controls are terrible at best (basically just a guessing game where pressing the same button will get you different results each time), and it doesn't seem to be able to handle more than 6 folders on a drive. So USB drives are out. So how about Bluetooth? Unfortunately, the Bluetooth reception clicks and pops constantly, like an old LP. I can sort of tolerate this, until I think about how much this device cost. (OTOH, the aux jack seems to work without problems, so there's that)
***backstory ends here***
So I'm looking to see what my other options are. Having Android Auto & Apple CarPlay is appealing, but those units start at around $300. And I can't help but worry that, since this is a convertible, an expensive radio would be very appealing to thieves. I see that Am*zon has a variety of no-name brand double-din head units at like half that price. To me that $150 makes a big difference in me worrying every time I leave the car unattended in a parking lot.
Has anyone here ever tried ANY double-DIN head units--name brand or otherwise? I'm curious about your experiences. As far as amplification goes, I don't really need anything more than basic LR Front and LR Rear, because the output of the head unit goes into these Bose amps buried deep in the dash that actively drive the door speakers. There is no subwoofer--and there doesn't really need to be one. The Infinite Baffle subs in the doors seem to dig down into the 30 Hz range, so I'm good there. I don't have the time or patience to reverse-engineer it, but I think the active amps in the dash must have some sort of filtering in place because they make really good use of the OEM drivers in the door.
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