if you are looking for tweak-ability....the Blaupunkt has a 27 band EQ....

I cant speak for its SQ. Seems to be a good deal. Try to find a local Blau. dealer in your area and do and listen to one....most dealers should have at least one, as it is basically their flagship HU.

John

 

3 blaupunkt dealers here and NONE of them carry the Bremen or any of the MP74's. heck none of them were even familiar with the Bremen aside from the fact that they could order it if i wanted to buy it!

i'd rather have a HU that sounds clean out of the box as tweaking will never "fix" an unclean signal. true i've never listened to the Blau but i have listened to other 5volt, 1bit DAC head units and none of them (once set to flat) have sounded remotely as nice as the 24bit, higher volt counterparts (assuming a flat setting).

i wish they did have it somewhere to demo, its a hell of a deal! i wish i knew why crutchfield has it 1/2 off though when the thing just came onto the market 6-8 months ago? something we dont know about it? simply ordered too many and they never sold?

 

modifry's email is actually: bob @ modifry.com

http://www.modifry.com/

his DCI will work w/ some Blau HU's.
http://www.modifry.com/products/dci/irdci_details.htm

 

You guys lost me in all the mumbo jumbo, I don't know anything about this stuff, and I'm thinking the Bremen might have to much tweaking ability for a novice like me that just wants to put in some Hard Rock CD's and have them sound great.

 

NO SUCH THING! You can always tweak some more! (I am a bit of a perfectionist...) it is not that hard. The Blaupunkt I think actually comes with a microphone that you plug in, and it "hears" the sound, and adjusts levels accordingly. I am not sure as to how accurate these systems are....no substitute for the human ear...IMO.

I would not buy a HU without listening to it first. I think it is kinda sketch that the authorized Blaupunkt dealers do not have at least 1 of these units!

IMHO, the 24bit converters make a HU sound better "out of the box" (like stated above...set "flat"), but the EQ on the Blaupunkt should pretty much erase any advantage to the converter, as you are picking SPECIFIC frequencies that you want to set. You are basically, as I understand it, setting the Q curve on the gains. You can set them as tight or as broad as you want.....greater flexibility.

Read PJK3's thread on frequencies and how they pertain to different sounds. This is basically a guide on how to set the EQ on a HU to the type of music you listen to. It also explains, rather well (might I add), exactly what each function of an EQ and PEQ does and how to adjust the levels properly. I am also pretty new to this, but Phil has taught me a LOT about this stuff.

The one thing I have learned....DO NOT BUY WITHOUT LISTENING! If you have to, make a road trip to a relative, or something like that, to a larger city, where you can find a store to listen to this unit. Different people like different sounds...I like a separation between the mids and highs (sound stage-wise), and this is why I placed my tweeters under the A-pillars....away from the doors. This is a $350 decision. You do not want to get stuck with something that your ears do not want.

John

 

Keep in mind it is going in a CONVERTIBLE and a noisy one at that. Unless you run around with the top up (still noisy) or the hard top on all the time I (personally) don't see the sense in over doing the stereo in a convertible. When I drive mine the top is down and spending mega bucks is not going to make it sound like a concert hall winding to redline and going 80

Can you hear it over the wind and car and traffic noise? Is it clear? No distortion? Then it sounds good enough for a convertible. Having a xx band auto EQ with an included mike sure sounds like overkill in a roadster to me.

Dennis

 

Mine is crystal clear at 90+ w/ top down. You really only lose sound beginning at 100+. Still have mids, bass, and highs. There is some washout, but not as much as you would expect. Because it IS a convertible, that is WHY you have to go all out with the stereo, anything less, and it is useless.

New speakers and a new HU make a WORLD of difference....hell, even just new speakers make a HUGE difference. My HU is in for repairs now, so I am just running my stock '00 HU to the new Balupunkts, and it is a helluva big difference over stock. Much clearer, ESPECIALLY with the top down!

john

 

please bear in mind that an EQ's function is not to FIX poor sound but rather to tailor a certain sound to your own personal liking. thinking that the pioneer will sound better "out of the box" but that the Blau can be adjusted via it's EQ settings to sound better, to me, is a misnomer-it'll never happen that way. even at best an EQ isnt a decent band aid for sub par sound. take a crappy $80 aiwa, run it through the best variable bandwith parametric eq you can find and you'll still end up with crap sound, just it'll come off a bit different

i'm not saying the Blau has crap sound, i have no clue because noone stocks it for me to demo it. I live in Scottsdale, AZ and nobody in the valley nor Tucson stocks this head unit. makes me wonder why if it's Blaupunkts pride and joy they dont have it sitting in showrooms across the world?


Good Link for learning a bit about EQ's and how they work.

 

I know how an EQ works....I am not saying that they will turn a frog into a prince, but a more adjustable EQ will lend more flexibility to tuning to each person's personal liking. In order to get better sound, you would need a better filter (which the Pioneer has). I have not heard the Blaupunkt, I was simply saying that the tweakability of the Blaupunkt might lend it an advantage over the Pioneer when it comes to personal preferences. A good EQ can make some difference.

John

 

gotcha. good point