Any 575m owners replace car stereo lately?

I have searched the site but haven't seen posts of any help.

I would like to upgrade my 2002 575 factory radio with reasonable 2017 audio tech options. I can't live any longer without bluetooth hands-free calling, and some improvement of factory sound would be great. Not looking to make any mods of factory speaker cutouts - just replace factory radio/speaker components in original cutouts.

Searched the site, but don't see anything recent that might reflect new tech. Any thoughts or recent experience from the community is appreciated.

Purists will say hell with the radio - but we all need to move to hands-free calling and the old factory units don't allow it. Has anyone had a good recent experience with stereo replacement?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

 

There was quite a neat Pioneer installation a couple of years ago and I think a few folk tried the Ferrari branded super stereo which is a Clarion

 

Whats wrong with the tape player thats in the car? LOL

 

I agree, the standard stereo is so bad, it only works for traffic announcements, maybe not even that. I put new Pioneer speakers up front, and no difference in sound quality at all was noticed, probably because there is no pressure chamber behind them. CLEVER solution Ferrari!!! Let Us know what you do. )

 

With upgrading of parts it very much depends on what you are replacing. If the original was pretty good to begin with or the part you are putting in is as mediocre as the original, you often aren't really upgrading.
Speaker quality is the biggest factor when sound is concerned. Even the very best head unit won't make up for poor ones. Speaker quality varies very, very wildly - even within brands; for car use I have good experience with Phoenix Gold, Magnat and MBquart. But all of those have better and worse ones, sometimes they get it right and more often they don't, or not really.
As for headunits, Bluetooth is indeed the biggest reason for people to upgrade. Kenwood, Blaupunkt and many others have good ones. In my experience there are few to no (bar cheap Chinese) poor sounding units, choose by functionality first.

Tape player? Even the 456 had ditched that when it came out in '93...?

 

I am less interested in sound quality than functionality. I think I will look for a good quality head unit (as 166&456 suggests) that has an AUX port and Bluetooth to start with. Then, once that is done, may decide to try some different speakers. May not get to this for several weeks - need the salt to clear from our roads before taking the car out. Thanks for the comments. I appreciate them. When I make changes I will post them.

 

See my mods thread. I have the Pioneer Flip Out and its quite good.

 

Patrick, it's a challenge to find a good single DIN slot head unit that will fit in our 575's console. I installed a Pioneer AVH-X7800BT in my 575 last year, and I'm very happy with it so far. I did not change anything else; I kept the OEM speakers as they were, although I did add four more OEM speakers from a 550.

The difference in sound quality from the head unit alone is impressive. My 911 has the Burmester system, and while it sounds excellent to my non-audiophile ears, the Pioneer unit in my 575 has better clarity, especially for hearing a caller's voice.

The microphone pick-up is excellent as well. I mounted mine in the upper left corner of the headliner, where the side rail and upper header panel meet. It's about as perfect a spot as I could find, and it almost disappears up there.

The bluetooth works great. It has a USB input, and that's what I normally use as an interface. It also has Pandora and I think Spotify built in, but I find it easier to use those apps on my phone. It also has an input for a backup camera as well.

One potential detriment to the unit is that it does not mirror the phone display. For example, if you're using a map/navigation app on your phone, it does not duplicate the map on the stereo screen.

Installation was easy. I ordered the screw-type wire connectors and the VW adapter harness, and it only took about thirty minutes to incorporate the adapter harness onto the OEM stereo harness. Removing the factory unit requires pulling the center console out, which isn't too bad; first remove the steering column and the glovebox to get to the side bolts (10mm, two on each side), then remove the switches and the HVAC unit to get to another two 10mm bolts in there. Finally, IIRC, pulling up the center tunnel behind the console exposes two more 10mm bolts aft of the ashtray. The engineers sure went overkill on securing that console.

After that, you can pull the shifter out (F1 trans or gated), then finally lift the console out (disconnect the two plugs into the ashtray first) and get behind the head unit and remove the screw from the bracket behind it. The WSM might describe it more detail and cover things I might have forgotten.

I routed my USB cable between the console and side carpet on the driver's side. There's a small gap that allows movement and no pinching. If I can find some photos, I'll post them later.

Here's the link to the unit I have:

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-qqUSSkLjCij/p_130X7800BT/Pioneer-AVH-X7800BT.html

 

Thanks Bryce! I will look into this.

 

I couldn't find any photos solely from the install, but these should give you an idea of what it looks like installed.

The first photo shows the bolts on the side covered by the glovebox door, and also the two aft of the ashtray. It also shows the connectors into the VW harness.

The second shows the screen in use. You might need to zoom in a little. It does cover the HVAC controls, but the screen can be set in memory to open at any angle. I've positioned mine to give me about 1" of relief from the controls so I can still adjust the fan speed while it's open.

The third photo shows the screen retracted. The stereo can still be operated from the phone in this mode, and the stereo buttons on the face still work, too.

This unit works for me, but there might be a better one out there. Hope this helps.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The previous owner of my car fit an Alpine unit with an external mic. Works very well
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The AVH-X7800BT is the best option. There are no 1 DIN car play units. I have the slightly older 7700 with camera/nav/tpms hooked up. It's a good setup.

Also, as you're in McLean, my installer is in a Chantilly and I recommend him. Chris at Driven Mobile.

 

Is that a manual conversion?

 

Also the door handles look different. I have never seen the side window controls on the door pull.

 

Those are not 575M seats, either, at least not the inserts.

 

The interior doors do look redone. See the first pic-- its black with a speaker. Then it's all tan sans speaker.

Joe also points out the F1 paddles and manual gearbox.

I'd love to see more. If I was doing that much, I'd certainly find a way to fit a 2 din unit

 

Bryce have installed the couio 550 interior I sold him in his 575 manual. The 575 mid console is not as big as the 550.

 

Guido, our plutonium-powered 550, has a JVCX80BT. It has an external mic hidden up near the visor. It can connect to our iPhones via either Bluetooth or a Lightening cable that runs into the glovebox which also keeps the phones charged. The radio head controls the phone and music functions. I don't know the speaker brand but they look stock. The speakerphone quality is good enough but people can frequently tell I'm in the Ferrari (e.g. "I hear you're driving your Italian mistress!" "No, I'm driving my wife's Italian gigolo!"). The JVC can be a bit fiddly to use (flexible with many menus via a small fixed screen) such as when changing the sound field a bit when we have luggage behind the seats. That said, it provides a glorious, very detailed listening experience if the MP3 files on the phone haven't been overly compressed. It gets exceptionally loud before the sound distorts. How loud? Well, according to my wife, Cowgirl, you can't hear a cop's siren when he's attempting to pull you over. I don't know this first hand, of course. However, my wife can report this phenomenon first hand...

 

Lol

 

Hmmm, wonder if we remembered to put in the code in the Becker last time she was serviced? Probably not.

 

Lol.

 

I replaced mine with a Sony 3 years ago, not with the original Becker. The reason was because it came with bluetooth so that I could use the telephone without taking my hands off the wheel

 

So is there a general opinion on the best upgrade for a standard 575 stereo? I would like good sound without having to demolish the interior for amps, carve out speaker apertures etc. Ideally, with a head unit that can take Bluetooth music and calls, and a decent soundstage in the car through good speakers in the existing apertures. I wouldn't want an extra screen. Does anyone have suggestions? Just something that brings it close to today's decent car systems.

 

Interesting you say that, ther's been a 575 on mobile for a while now with a 2 din conversion done. I'm not convinced myself....MAybe it's to do with the unit itself or the whole execution, but I just can't put my finger on it. If it was a button-less unit it may look more convincing.

https://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?id=296324132&damageUnrepaired=NO_DAMAGE_UNREPAIRED&isSearchRequest=true&makeModelVariant1.makeId=8600&makeModelVariant1.modelId=21&pageNumber=1&scopeId=C&sfmr=false&sortOption.sortBy=searchNetGrossPrice&sortOption.sortOrder=ASCENDING&searchId=8d382ada-e557-7992-6380-1018795630ce
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

IMO the cleanest solution for the headunit would be the Porsche unit (just get the porsche lettering removed)...I do believe the porsche unit has a porsche intro as well but just something to live with I suppose. It looks factory for cars from 90s and 2000s yet has all the toys.


I've got the original manufacturer written down somewhere but it's on my other computer. It's german and starts with a K I believe. They do more units but without the porsche brand...can't find any pricing however on those. Porsche branded one is ~1100 I believe.

Image Unavailable, Please Login