I've put up with this crap head unit for too long. I was hoping someone would produce a good double din to replace the existing but so far I have found nothing.

Anyone out there who can recommend a double din unit or a single din if I have to? any advise? The car has two keys, with each one the head unit and car remembers all the settings including electric seat position, mirror position, radio station, volume, even antenna height......

..is there a unit out there that will do the same?

i doubt there'll be an aftermarket HU that will interface with the car's computer like the stock one (for memory settings).

also check whether a replacement HU will be plug and play. don't some stockies integrate with the alarm too? not sure.

double-DIN HUs are pretty expensive. not so much coz they're double the size, but coz there's not much of a market out there for them. plus you may be paying for a 'source' that you won't actually utilise (eg: tape player, minidisc, etc). i don't think there's any that a simply CD-tuner.

brands like alpine, kenwood, pioneer, clarion, etc produce them. not many stores will have them on demo boards, so you'll probably need to refer to catalogues. and a good one will probably cost at least $1500.

as such, you're probably far better off going with a single-DIN HU, and filling in the empty DIN space with something like a storage pocket, fischer CD-holder, custom panel for car audio accessories (eg: voltmeter, subbass controller, etc).

good luck

Since your exisitng headunit is so intergrated to you cars system, have you considered moding the exising headunit to ouput a digital signal, then install an eternal dac, and then re-run the converted signal back into the headunit for colume control etc.

yes.... i'm sure he has obviously thought of doing that as it seems like such a very simple thing to do....

I have no idea what ur talking about

Maybe u could just mount a new H/U somewhere else so that u can retain the stock H/U an settings, but run ur system through the new one.

i like gookis's idea shame not to many places i know of would be willing to even try such a thing tho

I'd start by ringing up a few well known electronics repairers, pref ones that specialise in audio equipment.

I wouldn't worry to much about picking up an external 12 volt dac as you see them on ebay all the time, average price is $100-$200 USD

Thanks everyone, yes I have considered a lot of options. Is it possible to interface the existing head unit to another unit? Because it has not been worth it I removed the 8" Korean subs that were installed in the parcel shelf and put new kicker splits in the front with a 60w RMS amp. Shiny_car - the car has a satellite alarm/motitoring (holden assist) which it totally separate from the stereo. Separate alarm in the boot as well. Only 350 of these cars were made.

I am now considering a single din dvd motorised unit but with excellent sq. Where can I get an adapter kit for converting to single din (with pocket) and which head unit would suit? I'll pay whatever I need to as long as it's "value for money".

I install everything myself, don't trust anyone else!

the 'majors' offer some excellent model HUs with high quality picture quality and excellent built quality. you'll of course need to add a separate dolby digital decoder/processer to take advantage of dolby digital 5.1 and 6 channels of sound.

alpine, pioneer and clarion would be worth a look. as too kenwood and eclipse (not sure on availability here).

expect to pay at least $3K for one of these good ones.