aldi stereo head £35

[rainman]

Remeber this? I think a few of you bought one but I can't find the thread now. Anyway - quite happy with mine for playing itunes and having hands-free but I was trying to listen to the radio last weekend and it kept changing stations and also tuning in to traffic reports. I can't find the instructions anywhere so was wondering if anyone knew how to stop this happening - thanks.

[CJH]

Support pages here, including the user guide.

It sounds like you need the TA (Traffic Announcement) function:

TA - (Traffic Anouncement)
Press and hold the TA button so that the unit will
recieve traffic announcement from local radio
stations.
To choose the TA mode, press the SEL dial for
2 seconds, the display will show “TA SEEK”.
Rotate the encoder volume to choose between
the TA SEEK and TA ALARM, after chooisng,
please leave the unit idle for the mode to activate.
In TA SEEK mode, the unit will seek for traffic
announcement program when TA is pressed.
When in TA ALARM mode, no TA/TP is displayed
and the alarm is set off.

[royt28]

if its the one i am thinking of, On the big knob at 9 oclock there is a smaller button marked TA (traffic announcement)

regards roy

[rainman]

thanks, I didn't think of looking for instructions on the interwebs, der.

[discipleofsketch]

Just a heads up - spotted that these are back in at aldi thursday 16th, best £35 I've spent on my van - entire music collection permanently on an SD card in the van

[CovKid]

Extremely good head unit and unlike regular stereos, they aren't as deep so theres bags of room behind.

[CovKid]

Just an update on these stereos as I don't think its been mentioned. They have bluetooth so providing you have a compatible phone, if a call comes in, music on stereo gets muted, press green button on stereo and take the call - hands free. The phone can be in your pocket. Very simple to operate. The head unit has a built in mic. Hakuna and I have found this out and it works brilliantly as we're both on 3 so its costs us nothing.

It also displays incoming phone number. For £35 its astonishing. Bass response excellent.

[ghost123uk]

Just an update on these stereos as I don't think its been mentioned. They have bluetooth so providing you have a compatible phone, if a call comes in, music on stereo gets muted, press green button on stereo and take the call - hands free. The head unit has a built in mic.

I wish I had known the Aldi one had full phone call blue tooth when I got my similar spec/price head unit.

I hate it when the phone rings when I am driving, I sometimes use one of those horrid over the ear BlueTooth sets Mind you, I hate mobile phones anyway, I like the gadgets they have, I just don't like the damn intrusive nature of the phone side of them, but one has to have one for work reasons these days

Aside = I was seriously going to purchase one of those mobile phone blocking devices (radio jammer type circuit) and when friends came round to my house, or when I am sitting with them at the pub, I would turn it on I hate it when rude folks just cut dead a conversation because their phone is ringing. I even stopped socialising so much with one mate (Stuart, 72 Bay VW) because his would go off every ten minutes = very annoying I found.

[SamsBus2012]

Aside = I was seriously going to purchase one of those mobile phone blocking devices (radio jammer type circuit) and when friends came round to my house, or when I am sitting with them at the pub, I would turn it on I hate it when rude folks just cut dead a conversation because their phone is ringing. I even stopped socialising so much with one mate (Stuart, 72 Bay VW) because his would go off every ten minutes = very annoying I found.[/size]

What a fantastic idea
We have good friends who come over regularly - the wife of the couple constantly sends and recieves texts - bledddy infuriating!
Think there may be a legal issue with their use though!

[CovKid]

I turn mine off if I'm socialising - seems only right.

Yep, it has almost everything I'd want from a stereo. Settings for everything. I got rid of CDs a while back as they create so much clutter so MP3 USB suits me perfectly. No moving parts - best bit.

I was quite surprised how well the phone pick-up on the head unit works. Its barely 1mm across - tiny pinhole on the front. Neil can hear me fine even when I'm driving and its literally a one-touch operation. If I don't want my music interupted, I just turn bluetooth off on the phone. Otherwise they're now paired and talk to each other automatically. Beats mics and cables that were the norm years ago. Last stereo I bought was a couple of hundred quid but this one beats it in every respect.

Actually, I only paid £25 as it was reduced. There were two left - should have bought both! You can see phone buttons on pic below. Dead easy to fit in a T25 due to shallow depth - no ramming it against the bulkhead to get it to click in!

[ghost123uk]

Aside = I was seriously going to purchase one of those mobile phone blocking devices (radio jammer type circuit) and when friends came round to my house, or when I am sitting with them at the pub, I would turn it on I hate it when rude folks just cut dead a conversation because their phone is ringing. I even stopped socialising so much with one mate (Stuart, 72 Bay VW) because his would go off every ten minutes = very annoying I found.[/size]

What a fantastic idea
We have good friends who come over regularly - the wife of the couple constantly sends and recieves texts - bledddy infuriating!

Agreed !!

Think there may be a legal issue with their use though!

I could be wrong here but I think they are used in court rooms and theatres, though you likely have to make it clear (with a sign) that they are in use in case of emergency / doctor use etc.


Re that head unit Raplh. In view of the low price I might even replace the non bluetooth one I currently have. Although I am happy with most of mine, it has an annoying method of changing radio stations, involving 3 button presses to simply switch stations = stupid / dangerous bit of design on a car radio. The daft thing is you can do it with one press on the remote control, one day I will get around to Velcro'ing it to the steering wheel.

Raplh, does that one have a remote control ?

Aside = I had a "beat Audio" one before the current one. That one had an annoying issue in so much as even at it's lowest volume setting it was too loud for me to have Radio4 playing very quietly when I go to bed.

As often with these SD card based players, navigating through a lot of tracks / folders on a large SD card is also not practicable whilst driving. I bought a job lot of just 256mb cards and use them like cassettes. Each one has a felt tip pen number on it. 1 = old style blues, 2 = Reggae, 3 = R&R, 4 = 60's, 7 = Johns faves, 7 = Gill's faves etc etc. I keep a post card "menu" on the dash tidy (tidy = mess !!)

[CovKid]

Yes has remote. However mine at least was USB socket only, although you could shove in a card reader I suppose. I just load up a low profile USB stick each week and when I'm fed up with it I just fill it up again. Don't use regular USB sticks in a T25 or you can snap them with the gearstick easily. Low-profile ones almost vanish. I use a 30GB one which is probably overkill but it was a bargain price.

[CJH]

...However mine at least was USB socket only...

Ralph - have you looked behind the removable face plate? Not convenient for swapping cards while on the move I agree though.

[CovKid]

No I haven't Chris. Is there more to this wonderous gadget I have yet to discover?

[CJH]

I don't want to spoil the surprise.