Blaupunkt [Was: Re: CD player not to buy]

[Elliott Potter]

My vote is a "maybe" for Blaupunkt; I've got a Sydney reciever and a
10-disc changer to go with it...there are good sides and bad sides:

The good:
- Not a removable faceplate.  I find removable faceplates tacky and
cheap looking, and bulky enough that I would never remember to remove it
anyway.  Instead it has a keycard, which probably isn't a great theft
deterrent but it is pretty cool.  I usually forget the keycard in there
too, so no big loss.
- OK, the keycard is pretty cool.  It's one of those smart cards, and it
stores your radio presets, favorite volume level, the color you like the
display (more on that in a sec), brightness, bass/treble/loudness/etc
controls, you name it.  Any feature you can set, is stored on the card. 
Multiple cards for multiple drivers = cool.
- You can set the display and button illumination to whatever color you
want, from green -> orange -> red in about 24 steps.  Very cool.  You
can also adjust the way the display is tilted internally, so that it
points a bit towards the driver for better contrast.  Kinda neat :)
- Installation was very easy; most of the plugs were identical to the
stock Gamma I took out.
- Turns off when you turn the car off and take the ignition key out,
then you can turn it back on (a la A4)

The bad:
- It stores a startup volume setting on your card, but doesn't remember
what the volume was when you turned it off.  Weird.
- There's a little bug, where if you are listening to CD's when you turn
the system off, then turn it back on, the CD's keep playing like they
should but the little display says "NO CD" until the next song starts.
- The cluster of buttons for Power/Mute/Vol+/Vol- is shaped identically
to the cluster of buttons for CD+/CD-/Track+/Track- , so if you aren't
looking it's easy to hit the wrong one.

I thought the stock Gamma system sounded OK (for a car), and the Sydney
also sounds OK (for a car), though the adjustable loudness control on
the Sydney is nice.  I don't want to spend thousands of dollars for a
excellent-sounding car stereo; I save that money for an
excellent-sounding home stereo (or car repairs...) but the sound quality
of this system, through the stock speakers, is not bad.

Just $.02.  Actually, maybe more like $.04 -- a bit longer than
necessary but still worthless :)
--
Elliott