I have a DEH-p5000UB from my subaru, one of the best headunits ever. I really want to put it in the MINI but its blue and its gonna look retarded.

What other headunits are out there that will match the MINI's amber?


(and yes im not on HK)

 

I think the best looking head unit - with matching amber light is the Nakamichi CD-400 Car CD Player. Super high end sound and looks. It on the top of my list anyway....

One problem - I'm not sure how well it will play with an Ipod.
There is probably some way to add an aux input, but not with the features you see in some of the Alpine or Pioneer Ipod compatible head units.

Personally, I think the SQ of cds is superior to an ipod, but suspect that in a very few yrs, the cd will go the way of the cassette player.

 

I dropped in a Clarion vrx785bt which is very similar to the Clarion vz709. It originally had a blue / white buttons which were very annoying. Because the faceplate was removable, there is a light bar that passes through the removable faceplate. I painted the two windows (small 1/4" x 1/8" clear lenses) with Orange/amber translucent paint. This gave the buttons a amber appearance. It looks great, a slight shade off of the ORANGE that Mini has choosen across the lighting scheme.
These units are especially good for the Mini if you are looking for a full screen GPS/Nav, Bluetooth, etc. Reason is that the unit "hangs out" an additional inch or so, with the unit close, which means when the motorized 7" LCD pops up, it clears the dashboard lips under the speedometer.

 

Most of the JVC line of head units have 30 preset colors to chose from and you can also do a custom color - giving up to 30,000 color options. I'm partial to the KD-R900, which can be had for about $190, and has front and rear USB and Bluetooth. I hear that the KD-R810 is a more popular model, and is a little cheaper. I can't tell the difference between the specs.

 

Alpine (the maker of the Boost HU) has HUs that can be configured to match the MINI amber. Like my CDA-9887.

 

I can vouch for the JVC heads -- I put one in my previous car (Nissan SE-R Spec V) and was able to match the dash color perfectly (a more yellow-amber color than the MINI's). Plus it allows different colors for night vs. day (lights off vs. on), but in the MINI there's always red LEDs.

It also had HD Radio (near-CD quality sound from all my local stations), USB/iPod input (with full iPod control), was Sirius and Bluetooth ready, and had a 7-band EQ that really allowed me to tailor the frequencies to what the stock speakers could handle and made them sound 1000x better than the factory head. The JVC name doesn't carry much clout but it should.

 

I love my JVC KD-R900

 

I just installed the Kenwood KDC-9336 and it looks very good.


A few things I liked about this unit:
1) Made for Ipod - high speed connection that you can control the Ipod through the HU
2) Built in Blue tooth
3) Satellite Radio Ready
4) I was able to match the colors of the HU to the Mini
5) great sound - 5 band graphic equalizer. THere are presets and you can save your own settings as well. THere are active crossovers in it, if you want to control what frequencies are going to your sub on the fly.


2) Blue Tooth built in

 

Rock on! I just installed my JVC KD-R900 last night. So far I'm lovin it. Now I have to clean up my MP3 collection.

 

That looks really good in there, Sean! Are you able to adjust the contrast on that unit to tone down the "background" brightness of the display?