Confused about Blaupunkt

[msk_kapoor]

In this forum i have seen lots of discussions going on about different brands of HU's. But i havent seen anything about Blaupunkt. This raises the following questions in me. Please post your comments

1. Is the quality bad compared to pioneer, sony etc?
2. Is it over priced?

Somebody please give a review of the Blaupunkt sets here.

[nitrous]

I never had a thing for Blaupunkts because of various assumed reasons like no VFM, plain vanilla looks,etc..
But, i've seen Navin recommending a lot of Blaupunkts and i must say, i've started respecting Blaupunkts.

India is a country where most see VFM.People like me like cool flashing OLEDs, touch-screen HUs,etc.. for the lowest price.Pioneer is one brand which suits our indian mentality to a T.By saying this, i refer to most of the Indian car-users to whom every speaker or HU sounds the same .

[navin]

Hey, I suggest YOU listen to anything before respecting them. My views are not sacroscant. In fact I dont know anyone who views are so oblique. For example I am very senstive to any sharpness or harshness and much prefer dynamics to a flat frequency response.

Yes I do believe that every product must make a profit. ALL things remaining equal (given that almost all electronics are made in China by often the same OEMs) a manufacturer can either sell you lights or sound. My best friend (who I have known for 40 years) prefers lights. You should see his eyes light up when he sees hundered of LEDs blinking at him. His ears are different from mine.

BTW Pioneer makes good stuff it is their odd marketing policy in India I take umbrage to.

[Sam Kapasi]

Blaupunkt used to be like Becker. Ugly and built like a tank. Sound quality was distinctly Euro(clean and very laid back, low noise), with special emphasis given to the FM RDS tuner section and build quality.
Unfortunately when the Robert Bosch gruppe opened factory in malaysia- they were faced with the daunting prospect of selling blaupunkt to asians- who had been completely spoiled by the jappo market- lights, features, action, beeps, parametric eq, meaningless abbreviated terms (ASL, SLA, DSP,FTC),dogs and cats doing the stip salsa on the organic screen etc.
The bridge between lowering the price (more and more plastic), making it more attractive (putting stupid lights everywhere, trust the germans to make something attractive apart from cars) and trying to hold on to old fuddy brand values- unfortunately has not been a pretty sight.
I respect Blaupunkt highly today for their decent sound quality and the fact that they are distributed by MICO-Bosch which is India's number one automotive parts distributors.

[navin]

I never thought they (the old blaupunkt) were ugly Sam.

[Sam Kapasi]

I understand that beauty is a metter of perception Navin- but in your days almost all european electronics were far far superior, but very plain looking.

[navin]

I still like plain. In fact I feel that many lower models look better as they are not cluttered with lots of useless buttons.

[jkdas]

Well Blaus should be good, they were/was/is(?) used by some big car manufactures as OEM. I have even bought two Blau units for my friends when I was in uk and now they are damn happy abt it. And it is flashy too with lot of colors.

And I would put Blau as Thinkpads of car stereo....

And, you should see that tiny sub by Blau with 2 8inchers in it. Cool.

And, heard Blaus radio is gr8!

And, who told you Blaus costly? You can get one for even 4.5k ! B&W

[navin]

Flashy. What did Blau do hope thy undo it. I love Thinkpads. I like the plain jane Thinkpad design. I hope they never jazz it up to look like a Compaq or Toshiba.

4.5K with B&W wow! what model.

[5u3zEr0]

I use a pair of Blaupunkt 8" speakers up front as my only set of speakers in my car. They sound really nice and I get good bass up front. They were made in Poland and for Rs.6990 in 2001, I think they were a good buy.

[zaphod]

one of my friends has a single MP3 CD blaupunkt unit in his zen - however i just cannot tell the difference between that and my Nippon Audiotronics MGA MP3 CD system - for me it's loud enough and quite clear even at high volumes with very little noise - even the bass is nice and deep - Okay - id o listen to music loud only occasionally but surely not at the same vol as a 'bling bling homie from the hood' but i just couldnt figure out why people buy such expensive systems. At low to mid volumes there's hardly any difference in the sound quality....

I got this sytem for free with my baleno and am quite happy with it -I spent the mony I'd saved on alloys and Michelins ....

just my 0.02

cheers

zaphod

[Sam Kapasi]

Hello Beeblebrox,
I agree with you on one thing - it's all a matter of perception and appreciation. I spent a lot of money on my alloys and honestly to me it all seems the same.
See what I mean

[navin]

Originally Posted by zaphod

I got this sytem for free with my baleno and am quite happy with it -I spent the mony I'd saved on alloys and Michelins ....

Cool.

BTW how exactly do Alloy wheels improve the ride quality or milage? I got OEM alloys on my wife Sail (OPEL alloys) and my Octavia (Skoda RS alloys) and I dont think they really improve the function but they sure look good.

For my money I think the music system upgrade offered a more perceptable improvement (in sound) than the alloys did (in ride or FE).

[Autophile]

Navin,

Its about the perception..If one person wants to spend on looks and the other wants to spend on ICE.

Alloys do help in improving ride quality. Because of less sprung weight on the suspension.

Besides looks, they are lighter in weight than the stamped wheel (provoided you buy good quality ones (forged).

Cooling of brake discs and calipers is better in alloys than the standard wheel. Hence they last longer.

They don't get bent easily because of more rigidity.

The steering feel gets improved again because of reduction in weight.

But in our country looks is the only reason for people put alloys.

Take off the spider alloys from your RS and put the standard skoda rider rims you will know the importance of alloys

[navin]

All 3 cars we got (Swift, Sail and RS) came with OEM alloys. I figured it was just a fancy. All the stuff you mentioned I figured was just marketing but now that you substantiate it maybe there is a perfromance difference but I have not had the opportunity to experience it.

By that I mean...

Sure they are lighter but on a 1Ton car does the weight difference help in FE?
Sure they are stiffer but how does that help. I have not bent a steel rim ever.

I drove a friends Tdi and my RS and both felt ok in Mumbai traffic. I have not had the chance to compare the 2 cars on nicer more open roads where handling would help.

But the sound system of my friend's Tdi was nothing compared to mine. :-)

Sure I spent money on Alloys (OEM alloys are not cheap) but for the looks. I spent money on my audio system too but for the sound.

I did not mean to ridicule money being spent on alloys I only said that the perceptable performance difference betten a good sound system and a average one is bigger than the perceptal performace difference between alloy and steel rims. Atleast for ICE nuts like me.

Sorry for any misunderstanding.

Hey I am a moderator do i need to applogise! :-) just kidding! :-) LOL. ofcourse i do.