Head Units have become as ugly as tennis shoes!

[Tungsten 10+ year member]

What is it about the current trend of putting so much {Bling Bling!} into a head unit's design? When you look at the latest Crutchfield catalog, you can almost see where the major manufacturers like Kenwood, Pioneer and Sony must have hired displaced designers from Nike and Reebok to design their latest face plates.

Everything is colored in hues of silver and fake chrome, sporting electroluminescent displays, neon glow buttons and animated screen savers of whales humping. WTF?

What happend to the art of subtlety? What happend to the notion of ergonomic design? What happened to the idea that the more sedate the faceplate, the less likely it is to catch a passerby thief's eye? For the love of all that's holy, what happened to the color BLACK?!?

Shopping for a tastefully designed head unit these days is like trying to find a pair of plain white sneakers at Foot Locker. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/banghead.gif.8606515f668c74f6de0281deb475b6fd.gif

Thank God for Alpine, Eclipse and a few others who have resisted the urge to make their head units look like something that fell off of a Zoron Battle Cruiser from the planet Playtex and was scooped up by government MIBs in the Arizona desert. Well, except for the Alpine CDA-7995 that is. But everyone is allowed one brain fart, I guess. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

Click to read more...

 

[Tungsten 10+ year member]

WTF is that? Who designed this monstrosity? I thought Andy Warhol was dead for crying out loud. Was this thing devised by epileptic apes at an all night cocaine binger or what?!?

 

[Tungsten 10+ year member]

And this thing... it screams "White male, single, 40 years old. Interior decorator. Drives a silver mist Mazda Miata, enjoys Barry Manilow music, White Zinfandel and long moonlit walks on beaches with shaven Latino altar boys."

Gag me with an 8-track.

 

[Tungsten 10+ year member]

Did George Lucas get into the head unit business or what? I look at this and I think, "These are not the droids you are looking for" and start hearing the chorus for Mr. Roboto in my head. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto,

Mata ah-oo hima de

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto,

Himitsu wo shiri tai

 

You're wondering who I am-machine or mannequin

With parts made in Japan, I am the modern man

 

I've got a secret I've been hiding under my skin

My heart is human, my blood is boiling, my brain I.B.M.

So if you see me acting strangely, don't be surprised

I'm just a man who needed someone, and somewhere to hide

To keep me alive-just keep me alive

Somewhere to hide to keep me alive

 

[BigBoomer 10+ year member]

ghey...//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

 

[BigBoomer 10+ year member]

all we need is a decent BLACK hu with all the bottons and everything thats requred to play a cd or radio or whatever....

 

[B&R Innovations]

Because they are actually trying to sell these headunits.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume you've never had to buy headunits for girls...

they all want something colorful and pretty.

Mcintosh headunits are ugly but hella good

SO ify ou want an HU without a gaudy face buy one of thoes...

 

[TheGrimReaperKD 10+ year member]

Originally posted by B&R Innovations Because they are actually trying to sell these headunits.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume you've never had to buy headunits for girls...

they all want something colorful and pretty.

 

Mcintosh headunits are ugly but hella good

SO ify ou want an HU without a gaudy face buy one of thoes...

The h/u is the brain of ur system, why wouldnt you want it to look awesome...like the pioneer 840mp, awesome

 

[80_Cutlass_mn 10+ year member]

Hey I like all the bling bling, I guess thats why I practically love Panasonic.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif So what if they atract thieves, THATS WHY THEY MAKE DETACHEABLE FACEPLATES!!!. If you are worried about someone stealing your h/u just take the face with you, thats why I do, but then again I dont have to worry very much cuz my current one is an AIWA but hey it still looks nice (to me), just wish it had more features like 2 sets of preouts, wireless remote and thats all im worried about. But for me the more features the better, thats why I am looking into a Pioneer DEH-P3500 cuz im on a budget.

 

[mofojordan 10+ year member]

I definately agree with Tungsten. I can't even find one headunit that will match nicely with my dash, air cond, and other buttons in my car. It seems it just wants to stick out of my dash. Sometimes I miss my stock radio face....

If you thought the car audio the scene was bad, have you taken a look at the home audio section? Those mini bookshelf systems are hilariously funny looking. I'm sure they sound really good with their 400 watts, but I wouldn't dare put them on my bookshelf or living room table. What's up with silver and all those wings and extensions on them?

 

[Tungsten 10+ year member]

Originally posted by TheGrimReaperKD The h/u is the brain of ur system, why wouldnt you want it to look awesome...like the pioneer 840mp, awesome

I can appreciate an awesome looking faceplate so long as it isn't gaudy. The Pioneer 840MP is gaudy. I had a 940MP and hated it for much the same reason. GAUDY.

Kill the christian, kill the christian

Kill the christian, kill the christian

Kill the christian, kill the christian

Kill the christian...dead

That is terribly offensive, much the same as it would be if you were saying "kill the black man" (substitute the N word for maximum effect) or any other completely asinine statement. You are perfectly free to express yourself in whatever manner you wish, but that's one way that I would think any rational person would avoid. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

 

[mofojordan 10+ year member]

Oh yeah, I think the Sony Xplods's are the winner in the category. What was Sony thinking? They have beautiful digi cameras, laptops, and desktop computers, why can't they make a hu as clean and classy looky as their VAIOs.

 

[Tungsten 10+ year member]

Originally posted by shrinkydinx isnt the trend in shoes these days simplicity? nike air force ones, adidas superstars, etc?

Really? I'll have to look for those when I shop for shoes next. The last few times I searched for simplicity in tennis shoes, it was like searching for the lone straight female in a sea of porcine Rosie O'Donnell clones. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

 

[Tungsten 10+ year member]

Originally posted by mofojordan Oh yeah, I think the Sony Xplods's are the winner in the category. What was Sony thinking? They have beautiful digi cameras, laptops, and desktop computers, why can't they make a hu as clean and classy looky as their VAIOs.

Werd.

 

[jer_stud56 10+ year member]

its very hard to find a plain pair of white shoes any more, they have all changed to different colors. So now i have SS2G's. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

- pe@ce