Cheap vs Expensive Car Stereos - TESTED
Cheap vs Expensive Car Stereos - TESTED
The stereo in the miata is an actual piece of trash. This week on Money Pit, Zach decides to test three different 7” touchscreen head units at three very different price points. Whichever fits the bill the best gets to stay!
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Content
0.24 -> you've probably found yourself shopping
2 -> for car stereos maybe
3.52 -> browsing amazon or best buy and you may
5.839 -> have noticed
6.56 -> that there are some that are super
8.08 -> expensive some that are
10 -> super cheap and there are plenty right
12.24 -> in the middle and they all kind of offer
14.24 -> the same thing
15.2 -> so how much is the right amount of money
17.119 -> to spend well i don't really know so
18.96 -> today
19.6 -> i bought three different stereos that
21.6 -> offer pretty much the same
23.119 -> options at wildly different price points
25.519 -> and we're going to install them in the
26.56 -> miata and figure out
27.84 -> how much is the right amount of money to
29.599 -> spend we'll look at user interface
31.439 -> features sound and how they feel overall
34.16 -> to determine
34.88 -> how our money is best spent i'm zach and
37.12 -> this is money pit
38.48 -> let's make some noise
47.13 -> [Music]
54.64 -> okay so when i bought the miata it came
56.8 -> with this very terrible
58 -> head unit it doesn't work the screen
60 -> doesn't turn on
61.12 -> and it turns off completely after about
63.199 -> 15 minutes
64.159 -> so hopefully today we're going to find a
66 -> new good replacement for it
68 -> so we're going to be looking at three
69.04 -> head units today starting with this
70.72 -> cheap one but while we look at them
72.32 -> we're going to be kind of grading them
73.84 -> on a few things
74.64 -> how they feel in general like kind of
76.56 -> build quality the features that each of
78.56 -> them have
79.119 -> the usability how the user interfaces
81.36 -> sound and how each of these sounds
83.439 -> compared to one another then we'll just
85.2 -> kind of do an overall summary and an
86.96 -> overall kind of confusion level with
88.799 -> each
89.28 -> so without further ado let's open up the
91.2 -> first one i got it on ebay and it was 50
95.04 -> expectations are kind of low oh we got a
97.759 -> whole list of features look at this
99.759 -> 7-inch touchscreen 1080p video format
102.88 -> mosfet amplifier fm radio mule function
106.64 -> mule function what does that mean
110.32 -> this thing weighs like nothing it feels
114.24 -> like it costs 50 bucks
115.6 -> it gets a big fat f in the in the feel
117.52 -> category so far but
118.88 -> let's you know let's go install this
120.479 -> thing and see if it works see if we can
122.159 -> figure it out and
123.119 -> if it makes any music all right so the
125.6 -> first thing we're going to do
127.119 -> to get this 50 head unit installed is
129.599 -> remove our 23
131.28 -> head unit uh and then we've got to
133.92 -> figure out how to make this work
135.52 -> with our new stuff so if you just got a
137.84 -> head unit whether it's a 50
139.28 -> one or a 2 000 one or whatever you got
141.68 -> it's gonna come with
142.64 -> some sort of pigtail or pigtails like
144.48 -> these and what these do is connect to
146.72 -> the back of the head unit
147.84 -> so here you can see in the miata what
149.68 -> we've got going on here
151.519 -> is the wiring harness the pigtail that
153.599 -> came with the head unit is then
155.2 -> spliced into this vehicle specific
158 -> wiring harness
159.04 -> which is actually these two pieces that
160.959 -> connect straight into my
162.48 -> factory mazda connectors here we're
164.239 -> going to reuse this this mazda connector
166.959 -> portion of this wiring harness because
169.28 -> it's still good
170.08 -> all we need to do is cut this old
171.76 -> harness off and then
173.2 -> we'll reconnect to our new stuff then
175.84 -> i'm gonna cut
177.04 -> all of these right here okay so that i'm
179.68 -> just left with the oem
181.2 -> connector style harness on this side
183.04 -> because i need to reuse these
184.4 -> all day i need to reuse these
188.959 -> all right so we got the harness for the
190.56 -> first the cheap head unit
198.8 -> all right so we've got the
204.08 -> we've got the harness for the first head
206 -> unit uh all ready to go
208.08 -> so far the confusion level is pretty low
210.48 -> uh the only thing
211.599 -> is that they never told me what this
213.44 -> brown wire was for
215.2 -> uh so i don't know let's plug it in and
217.28 -> see what happens
218.4 -> okay so right now i'm just uh making
220.56 -> some connections we're connecting the
222.959 -> speaker wires at the moment so now the
224.959 -> only thing we got to do is connect our
226.64 -> ground
228.799 -> sweet and now we should be able to plug
231.04 -> it in and turn this puppy on
233.76 -> welcome the most satisfying part of all
236.4 -> you ready
241.12 -> hey you know what at first glance this
242.879 -> screen doesn't look
244.48 -> like complete trash i mean it's pretty
247.36 -> clear
248 -> okay let's see here bluetooth i want to
250.08 -> connect my bluetooth phone how do i go
252 -> back
252.56 -> home it is slow to the uptake on the
254.72 -> clicks that's for sure
257.12 -> damn this is annoying plenty of uh typos
260.56 -> in this thing
261.12 -> actually speaking of which i figured out
262.56 -> what uh the mule
264.24 -> setting was mute confusion level
268.16 -> increasing maybe it's already attempting
271.199 -> to pair and i just don't know it let's
272.72 -> see what's going on here
273.919 -> car bt baby there she is you know what
276.72 -> sometimes
278.16 -> sometimes the the device knows better
280.4 -> than you
281.52 -> clicked it pair it immediately sweet now
284 -> it's time
285.28 -> to see what it sounds like
291.19 -> [Music]
294.84 -> christ
300.4 -> okay so we've been messing with this
301.6 -> thing for a few minutes now and
304 -> here's our findings so it definitely
305.68 -> feels cheap the knob when you turn
307.68 -> the volume up feels very cheap when you
310.16 -> click the touch screen it takes a minute
312 -> for it to register and sometimes
313.52 -> doesn't at all the font is ridiculous it
316.32 -> looks like times new roman on here which
318.24 -> honestly would just drive me crazy the
319.84 -> only way it could be worse is if it was
321.039 -> comic sans
322.08 -> but you know what the fact is it was 50
324.639 -> and it does turn on
326.24 -> the screen works so in that sense it's
328.4 -> sort of an upgrade from this old one
330 -> which
330.8 -> the screen didn't work at all but there
332.479 -> was one weird quirk with the music thing
334.72 -> which is that you have to be on the
337.36 -> bluetooth
338.08 -> screen for it to be playing music so
339.84 -> we're here now we'll go to the home
341.199 -> screen
343.199 -> go home and it stops playing your music
345.039 -> but then you go back
347.759 -> and it starts again how annoying is that
350.88 -> the next thing i think we should do as
352.24 -> far as testing this is try to give
354.16 -> somebody a call see how the hands-free
355.919 -> calling works because that's kind of
357.199 -> important
360.16 -> all right let's give old null a call hey
363.199 -> can you hear me now
370.96 -> yeah a lot of engine noise can you still
372.479 -> hear me
374.88 -> not super clearly actually uh can i get
379.039 -> is i'm gonna give it a rating oh all
381.039 -> right told me about it
382.16 -> all right all right cool well hey we'll
384.72 -> take a seven for sure i'm sure whoever
386.56 -> made this thing would be happy to
387.919 -> receive a seven from nolan
389.84 -> so that's cool that gives us a benchmark
391.919 -> um yeah
393.199 -> i guess that's the last test really for
394.72 -> this one we're gonna go back to the
396 -> house now and uh
397.52 -> give the second one a rip
399.17 -> [Music]
403.039 -> okay for our second head unit the middle
405.039 -> of the road one
406.4 -> this is from pioneer it's called the dmh
408.72 -> 1500
409.52 -> nex uh right off the bat this thing
412.56 -> lists
413.12 -> some features that the last head unit
415.68 -> didn't have
416.4 -> of course apple carplay android auto the
418.88 -> last head unit didn't have those this
420.319 -> one does
421.039 -> an extra set of pre-outs compared to the
422.72 -> other one we got three sets here
424.72 -> this is ready to be controlled by your
426.24 -> steering wheel uh that's the kind of
428.24 -> stuff that i probably wouldn't hook up
430 -> but yeah it's cool
431.039 -> in case you want to otherwise you can
432.479 -> connect two phones to this head unit all
434.24 -> right let's pull this thing out
435.44 -> oh my god instructions i forgot what
437.52 -> those look like
438.479 -> right off the bat as far as features go
440.72 -> it seems to have a pretty long list
442.24 -> compared to the last one
443.599 -> and feel it definitely feels a lot
445.919 -> better it feels like a much nicer piece
447.919 -> of equipment
448.96 -> so that all bodes well we say we install
452.56 -> it
454.319 -> see if we get a nice click here i'm
456.8 -> pretty sure we will
459.039 -> yeah nice click sweet
462.8 -> all right let's see if she turns on
469.12 -> shut up so the first screen up choose
471.759 -> our language let's go with
473.36 -> anglish speaker mode settings do not use
477.36 -> the unit in standard mode
478.8 -> there goes the stool
482.08 -> all right well so right off the rip the
483.759 -> screen looks a little brighter looks a
485.199 -> little crispier looks a little clearer
487.28 -> a little more high definition if you
489.599 -> will okay
490.639 -> oh no not french please i'll never know
493.44 -> how to go back
494.56 -> okay there's our home screen hey that
495.919 -> looks pretty nice what do we got here
497.84 -> all right
498.24 -> first thing let's try to connect the
499.52 -> phone damn there she is
501.84 -> ready to go just starts playing
512.719 -> that's way louder than the last one so
514.64 -> loud in fact i didn't dare to turn it
516.719 -> all the way up
517.519 -> oh my god have yeah i didn't even think
519.76 -> about how the sensitivity on the screen
521.519 -> is which is exactly what you want i
522.88 -> didn't have to think about it
524.08 -> when i click it knows it and it does
525.92 -> something let's do carplay
528 -> see what's going on there see if it just
529.92 -> works when i plug in
531.2 -> ah ah hey now there we go
534.8 -> sweet well carplay pulls up and then you
536.8 -> got the old uh
537.839 -> map so i can use some nav which is nice
540.72 -> for going places and
542 -> getting where you're trying to go all
543.6 -> right let's go to bluetooth
545.279 -> we'll play some music all right now
548.48 -> let's go to the home screen and see if
550.48 -> music keeps playing
553.76 -> oh that's cool you can go away from the
556.88 -> bluetooth screen and it keeps playing
558.32 -> music just like exactly like what you
560.08 -> would want it to do
561.36 -> in other terms of sound i don't know how
563.839 -> it sounds on a phone call yet so why not
565.839 -> drive around the block and bug nolan
567.44 -> some more
569.6 -> thank you so it's probably worth
571.76 -> mentioning that the pioneer head unit
573.839 -> does come with a bluetooth microphone
576.32 -> that you can put wherever you want but
578.399 -> that's what you get when you spend more
579.839 -> money
580.64 -> oh dude you sound so much better
583.92 -> heck yeah so that said can you give me a
587.12 -> rating
588.64 -> i'm going to give this a nine dude nine
592.08 -> say eight point five okay all right i'll
594.48 -> take it
595.519 -> nolan said he could not believe how much
597.6 -> better i sounded
598.88 -> he gave me an 8.5 out of ten
603.519 -> he started with a nine and i said nine
606.64 -> where do we go from here
611.279 -> we are on to our final our third and
613.68 -> final our most expensive head unit
616.64 -> so this is made by kenwood it cost me
619.839 -> over seven hundred dollars and
622.88 -> it does have a pretty long list of uh
624.64 -> features it looks like namely the first
626.72 -> thing i noticed
627.6 -> is that you can do carplay and android
630.32 -> auto
630.8 -> wirelessly so this one actually does
632.56 -> have a cd player in it and a dvd player
634.88 -> so i mean honestly in 2020 i don't
637.839 -> really care about that but
639.519 -> i guess if you do then this has that so
641.92 -> there you go let's open it up let's see
643.44 -> we got going on
644.399 -> inside the backs this is the heaviest
646.88 -> box
647.76 -> by far
652.56 -> all right
659.44 -> okay cool well that's about all we're
660.64 -> going to be able to tell by looking at
661.92 -> it now let's install it
663.36 -> see how she does ah a nice click
667.36 -> we've got some spaghetti going on back
669.279 -> here this makes me
673.68 -> all right she's powered up let's see
675.04 -> what's going on first off just looking
677.04 -> at it
677.6 -> at honestly looks well it looks similar
679.92 -> in screen
680.64 -> quality to the uh to the pioneer but the
683.519 -> font is a little
684.72 -> less pleasing to my eye so far so first
687.6 -> thing we're going to try to do is try to
689.12 -> get my phone
690.16 -> paired up to the head unit get the
691.68 -> wireless carplay working
693.2 -> and then we'll see how it sounds
695.76 -> bluetooth
696.56 -> maybe that add the phone
704 -> well so far this is the most confusing
706.48 -> to get my phone hooked up to
708.16 -> which isn't saying much because the
709.36 -> other two were so easy but
712 -> uh this one seems to be giving me a
715.2 -> little trouble
716.639 -> all right so it took a little bit of
718.16 -> figuring out this so far has been kind
720.24 -> of the clunkiest user interface
722.32 -> uh in my opinion it's been kind of
723.92 -> difficult to figure out how to get
725.279 -> everything connected just right
726.639 -> but it is connected now we've got our
728.959 -> wireless carplay
730 -> working which is pretty cool that's a
732.399 -> that's a pretty cool feature
734 -> no plugging it in and car plays up there
736.56 -> so
737.12 -> now we've got that working let's see how
739.36 -> it sounds
750.88 -> sounds pretty good although in honesty
752.639 -> that was max volume and that was not as
754.48 -> loud as the pioneer
755.839 -> sound quality at a normal volume is
758.639 -> equally good to the others
760 -> so in terms of feel and the way the
762.8 -> touch screen works and feels
764.639 -> it's pretty good i mean it is definitely
767.04 -> on par with the pioneer which is what
768.72 -> you'd expect for a more expensive
771.839 -> unit but it's definitely not better than
773.839 -> the pioneer in any appreciable way
776 -> it feels the same i actually have less
778.24 -> luck with my swiping
780.399 -> than i did on the pioneer takes a few
782.16 -> tries sometimes now the last thing that
784.24 -> we need to do
784.959 -> is give my boy nolan a call and see if
787.12 -> this thing sounds like 700 bucks
789.36 -> so uh nolan how do i sound
792.56 -> uh dude
795.76 -> the last time more buffing oh and i
798.48 -> can't hear you i have the volume
800 -> all the way up there's a lot of
802 -> puffiness now how fast do you go now i'm
803.76 -> going 30.
805.6 -> last time last time i was going faster
808.32 -> than this and you could hear me better
809.44 -> and i could hear you better i have the
810.88 -> volume all the way up now and
813.2 -> that's all i got so can i get a final
815.279 -> judgment yeah i'll give it a score um
817.76 -> i'd give this like a
819.44 -> 6.5 6.5 okay
822.8 -> so much all right
826.24 -> so you heard it from nolan it gets a 6.5
828.959 -> or maybe a 7.
830.24 -> uh that's not very good for a 700 unit
833.04 -> so let's go back to the garage
834.399 -> tally it all up we'll stack these things
836.24 -> up against each other and make a
837.76 -> decision
840.24 -> okay so we've spent the day comparing
842.399 -> three different head units at three very
844.32 -> different price points so let's talk
846 -> about the cheap one first
847.44 -> the cheap one cost fifty dollars and in
849.519 -> terms of feel
850.56 -> it feels like it costs fifty dollars the
852.88 -> screen doesn't
853.839 -> look great and the click-ability of the
856.16 -> screen is pretty bad
857.279 -> on to features uh it has next to none
860.399 -> so that's nice it does have bluetooth
862.399 -> and that's the biggest feature i was
863.519 -> looking for because i want to be able to
864.88 -> bluetooth music from my phone to my car
867.04 -> while i'm driving the user interface on
868.88 -> the cheap one was
870.639 -> pretty bad although we still hooked up
872.16 -> our phone pretty quickly and if you know
874.16 -> what you're doing
875.04 -> it's just kind of ugly to do it it was
877.44 -> the quietest of the three
878.959 -> by a pretty big margin though and that's
881.04 -> not okay for me because i
882.639 -> need this thing to be as loud as i can
884.959 -> to combat all the wind noise
886.56 -> and lastly in terms of bluetooth call
889.36 -> quality
890 -> the quality was pretty good it just has
891.519 -> a built-in microphone wherever it is on
893.6 -> there
894.16 -> uh you heard it i think no one gave me
896.32 -> what a six or six and a half
898 -> he was pretty pleased with it and for 50
899.76 -> bucks that's not bad
901.44 -> all right moving onward to our middle of
903.6 -> the road price point
904.8 -> 300 for this pioneer head unit in terms
907.839 -> of feel this was a huge leap from the 50
910.16 -> unit the screen looks nice the
912.16 -> resolution is very good and the click
914 -> ability was great
915.279 -> actually the click ability on the 300
917.199 -> piece was probably
918.399 -> the best throughout let's talk about
919.76 -> features so we do have bluetooth
922.16 -> here this also has apple carplay and
924.24 -> android auto
925.76 -> wired you know you got to be plugged
927.36 -> into your phone in my opinion that's
929.199 -> the biggest leak the user interface on
931.12 -> the head unit overall
932.8 -> was also very good it was very easy to
934.72 -> use connecting my phone was very easy
937.199 -> everything was pretty intuitive this one
939.279 -> this 300
940.399 -> unit was the loudest of the three and
942.48 -> that's really what i'm looking for i
944 -> want
944.399 -> as much noise out of the speakers as i
946.24 -> can get so i can hear them over all the
948.24 -> wind
948.959 -> so i think nolan gave me what an 8.5 on
951.199 -> call quality on this and i got to tell
952.72 -> you
953.04 -> 8.5 that's pretty good now let's talk
956.32 -> about
956.88 -> the big daddy this 700 plus dollar head
960 -> unit from kenwood
961.12 -> this screen looks very nice the
962.88 -> clickability is very good
964.32 -> you know swiping i had some issues every
966.48 -> now and then but overall it was pretty
968.32 -> good
968.8 -> however there wasn't much of a leap
970.88 -> upwards over
972.24 -> the middle of the road one in terms of
974.32 -> feel so now
975.36 -> features this thing is pretty loaded i
977.6 -> honestly didn't even know how many
978.72 -> features i had when i bought it because
980.32 -> i was still coming through features when
981.92 -> i was swiping through the menus stuff
983.36 -> that's not even listed on the box or the
985.36 -> website
986 -> like you can add gauges to this somehow
987.839 -> you can add a radar detector to this
989.92 -> thing somehow
990.959 -> the biggest feature in my opinion is
992.72 -> that you get to move up to
994.48 -> wireless apple carplay and wireless
996.959 -> android auto
997.839 -> which is really cool it's a little bit
999.839 -> fiddly to get it figured out
1001.36 -> but once it's figured out it's done and
1003.279 -> that's very convenient now let's talk
1004.88 -> about sound
1005.839 -> sounded great at a normal listening
1007.519 -> level at max volume it was a little bit
1010.399 -> quieter than the pioneer
1012 -> so the last thing that we got to talk
1013.68 -> about on this was the bluetooth sound
1015.839 -> quality
1016.399 -> and i went out i drove i called nolan
1019.279 -> and he said it sounded worse
1020.72 -> than the middle of the road one said he
1022.399 -> heard more buffeting and this one also
1024.319 -> has a bluetooth microphone that you can
1026 -> put wherever you want it and i put it in
1027.679 -> the same exact spot as this one
1029.839 -> and i drove the same route at the same
1031.6 -> speeds so with all that said
1034 -> all that taken into account for me and
1036.24 -> the miata
1037.28 -> the head unit that it's gonna have to be
1038.959 -> is of course the middle one
1040.48 -> it does what i want for the cheapest
1042.319 -> amount of money that's exactly what i'm
1044.4 -> looking for
1045.36 -> okay so now that we finally got our
1047.52 -> decision and i mean
1049.2 -> come on let's be honest we knew it was
1050.559 -> gonna be this one all along but now that
1052.559 -> we've actually made the decision we've
1054.24 -> done the work we've made the decision
1055.919 -> the only thing left to do
1057.84 -> is to permanently install it in the car
1059.919 -> but you've seen me do that and if you
1061.52 -> don't remember how to solder
1062.799 -> check that video out in the link
1064.24 -> wherever eddie decides to put it if you
1066.16 -> want to know more about how we ended up
1068 -> with
1068.32 -> music in our cars then go check out this
1071.52 -> my favorite episode of wheelhouse of all
1074 -> time trust me
1075.039 -> you will not regret doing it thank you
1077.76 -> so much for watching
1079.12 -> make sure you subscribe to the channel
1080.64 -> and you have the notification bell
1082.24 -> rung because we're putting out shows
1083.679 -> every single day if you want more of me
1085.84 -> you can get it at zac job on
1087.52 -> instagram and make sure you follow donut
1089.76 -> donut media
1090.88 -> i almost forgot to say you know the
1093.039 -> sweet awesome song i've been playing all
1094.96 -> day
1095.36 -> did you love it of course you did we're
1097.44 -> also making a
1098.559 -> full length music video so if you have
1101.2 -> any footage that you think belongs in a
1103.36 -> pop-up up and down headlights music
1105.28 -> video
1105.84 -> then send it to us and we'll put it in
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7pUT0gbZZQ