Xophertony

like the title says i am thinking of purchasing a Blaupunkt Seattle MP74 from http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/ they have it for $349.00.

i was wondering if anyone has purchased this deck and weather or not it is any good. any complaints? i would go check it out but the only place that carries Blaupunkt in my area is 35 miles away and only carries two moddles. and neither of them are this one.

i just wanted to post this before i buy it. it always sucks to buy somthing and THEN hear stuff like "oh, my friend purchased that deck, and in the night, it snuck into his home and murdered his whole family " well you get the idea....

thanks guys

ScrapMaker

you are going to be getting an external amplifier, correct? you may look into getting the blaupunkt with no internal amp... the thing runs cooler, lasts longer, and sounds better.

forget which model though.

oh yeah, and it's cheaper.

Xophertony

none of them have the organic display. i realy like organic display.

spartyon

If you really like the organic display check out the higher end Pioneer decks. I have a 8600mp and wouldn't trade it for the world. It has everything that I need.

ScrapMaker

what about the fact when you turn the navigation ****, all you can see are the first 8 letters of a song name?

that's it's only fault...

oh and the auto Time Alignment is worthless... but I think every deck I've listened to with that sounds like crap.

auto EQ is okay... since I'm too lazy to do it myself.

Xophertony

are you talking about pioneer with the 8 charecters thing?

the reason i do not want a pioneeer is because my last pioneer broke after a year and a half and it was a 300+ unit.

spartyon

my 8600 is still going after 3.5 years.

ScrapMaker

heh, yeah every headunit is gonna break in a year or two, if you use it a lot... I've never had one last a whole year, which is why I have the 4-year replacement plan...

my 8600 has an intermittent problem where it just won't open up when I push the eject button, and lately it's been cutting off and on... just a fluke I'm sure, but hopefully I can hold off on getting it replaced until there is a good headunit I can upgrade to at Best Buy... because with all the problems this deck is having, I'm sure they won't fix it, and instead, give me in-store credit.

So far, it looks grim to me that we will see a quality unit coming out anytime soon... maybe Kenwood, Pioneer, JVC, or Panasonic will suprise me.

pshh, if Sony had worked 10 more minutes on the design of their MPX-9950 headunit, it would have probably be in my car instead, but it was sluggish and didn't have a removable-faceplate... stupid.

spartyon

my faceplate has a little tab that you push in which allows the faceplate to drop down manually and then you hit the eject button. I rarely use the radio and 99% listen to cds. The only thing that I dont like about it is the lag between mp3 songs.

ScrapMaker

erm... the 8600mp is by far the FASTEST deck, in regard to between-song time. It's nearly instant...

that's one of the things I look at on every deck I buy

but you say you have an 8600? there's nothing 'manual' about it... you must be referring to a second deck you own?

spartyon

Sorry, I am very confused lately between work and trying to find a school who needs a k-9 teacher. The deck that I own is a 7400mp. My friend owns the 8600mp. I love mine...except for the mp3 lag.

7400mp

ScrapMaker

whew... okay...

Xophertony

damit! thats why i need to find a place to test the deck, what if it takes forever to que songs? how come no one carries blaupunkt!?

ScrapMaker

I've seen some Blaupunkt stuff in some of the custom shops... but not much...

that's like asking why no one carries Pioneer Premier, High-end Panasonic decks, and Kenwood Excelon decks...

seems that only crutchfield offers these decks with a manufacturers' warranty.

search around on epinions and such until you find a good review on the unit. People will usually talk about the tracking time.

Xophertony

good idea, the few places i saw that sold them all had no reviews. i think i will hit up a couple of car adio forums as well. thanks

DISTURBthePEACE

Im jumpin to this thread now I guess . Eclipse is quick on loading cd's, ejecting cd's, and skippin thru tracks and bringing up id3 tags. that pioneer is also very quick. Panasonics are ssssslllloooowwwwww at skipping tracks.

ScrapMaker

the older pioneers, new JVC, new DUAL, new panasonic, and new sony (even the 9950) are very slow at mp3 id3 tags, and about as slow track-to-track...

my kenwood kdc-mp922 was MUCH faster at bringing up the id3 than my pioneer 8600... and to top THAT off, my Jenson MP3510, one of the first mp3 decks ever, besides AIWA, was instantaneous. You could not measure the time it took for the deck to change songs, or display the song information for that matter. I changed it out becuase it was a crappy one-line text display, and no sound-shaping capabilities...

kubus_stroinski

i have the blaupunkt monte carlo mp34 deck in my car. ive been really happy with it. it cost 299 canadian and i had it installed in the store. it looks really sharp in the car. the screen looks good too. its a really big screen and i like how it doesnt have the cd slot through the face. i dont have an amp hooked to it but i have alpine 4x6s in the dash and then blaupunkt 6x9s in the back. the deck sounds really good with the setup i have. it also loads the mp3s almost instantly if you've listened to the particular mp3 cd previously. if youve taken it out, it will take a bit to load but still not long. my mom has a different mp3 deck from blaupunkt and it always takes the same long time to load mp3s and its the same with my friend's really expensive panasonic deck. the newer blaupunkt stuff loads mp3s fast though and i definately reccomend it.

Xophertony

wow, somthing to do with blaupunkt. thanks for the info. i think i will order the deck next paycheck.

ScrapMaker

no finder's fee?

Xophertony

finders fee... yeah let me justNO!

ScrapMaker

fine, if you're gonna be like that.

no cookie for you

Xophertony

there were cookies?

ScrapMaker

not for you, there weren't.

alan_amy140

Being an avid Blaupunkt fan for many years I can recommend the seattle MP74 as well as most other next gen blaupunkts.

I must admit the looks and features of the latest Blaupunkts (except perhaps for the soon to come Memphis MP66) are lagging behind the Japanese head units. Still Blaupunkts are by far the best sounding head units for a balanced sound and a sweet treble. Blaupunkts also excel in their mid range presentation creating a very full sound. Most models especially the 45+ watts per channel units pack a real punch, and if you use them with 6 x 9's or similar you won't need an amp and sub unless you are playing your music to the whole neighbourhood!

Whenever I get a new car the radio is always the first thing to be upgraded. Every time I upgrade I go through about 3 different makes of radios before I am happy with the sound quality. On the 3 occasions that this happened I ended up with Blaupunkt head units. I've tried VDO (weak harsh sound), Clarion (weak, clinical sound), Pioneer (excellent bass, honky treble), Kenwood etc etc, but I always go back to Blaupunkt. The Clarion DHZ849DMP (I think that was the model) looked fantastic in my Honda, and it had great features but boy did it sound crap. The Pioneer (can't remember the model) had a remarkable punch in the low end from its built-in amplifier, but female vocals and spoken word (radio) sounded aweful.

As a youngster I was always a fan of pioneer and I had some cracking systems. However one day I was in a merc fitted with a becker radio, and the clarity, imaging and overall fullness of the sound from the Becker was sooo much better than anything I had heard before. This changed my view of Japanese hifi forever and I knew my next radio had to be of German design. Since my budget didn't allow for a Becker I went for a Blaupunkt unit hoping that the sound would be similar, and it was. Since then I've had a couple of Blaupunkt units and all have been excellent. If you can stretch the the Becker even better.

The sound from the Blaupunkt, and even more so with the Becker is like listening to the music with headphones on! There is an almost 3D presentation to the music, and stereo seperation and imaging is excellent. Of course your speakers will play a big part, but I found as long as you have good quality tweeters in front and larger (6 x 9) full range speakers at the rear you'll be set! The Blaupunkts heads are also great with female vocals, and can still pump out the dance tracks when called for. But the biggest reason I chose Blaupunkt everytime was that I enjoyed the music that much more, and that's the most important thing to me!

ringo234

I have the Pioneer DEH4800MP and I have to say there is no lag between songs with this deck.

For instance on the Sgt. Pepper album where in transitions to With a Little Help from My Friends is just like it was on the 33 1/3 vinyl.

ScrapMaker

Pioneer decks haven't had lag between mp3 tracks for over 3 years.

Kenwood is now instant, but it used to be about a quarter-second to half-second...

Aiwa/Jensen have ALWAYS been instantaneous... say what you want about them, but I had the original MP3510 by Jensen, the song would start instantly, and the track name was up just as fast... you could easily just keep hitting the next key and find what you want..

it also had 0-9 keys on the front so you could just type in the number of the track you wanted without even using the remote.... cool stuff....

I finally got the need for better screens, features, and higher-quality audio components... but if you don't care about looks, displays, and want a good deal on a deck, check out Jensen/Aiwa/Dual....

Xophertony

wow... back from the dead. i ended up doing a radio delete on the car this was going to be for. and when i got my transam it had some nasty JVC $30 piece of trash in it. for real, it would not play all of the sounds. it would just plain DROP any lower sounds. like a bass guitar... could not even hear it. made the songs sound way different. now i have a used pioneer dehp77 (i think?) it ios one of the "fits GM" kind. takes up the whole space, and mounts flush.

i am prety happy with it. don't think i will be spending money on adeck for a while.