Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I purchased the Chicago to be the center piece for my car's multimedia system. In addition I installed a Kenwood four channel amp, an Alpine center channel amp/speaker and two headrest video monitors for the back seats. I also hooked up my XM satellite Skyfi2 unit through a FM modulator linked up through the radio antenna. I used the existing speakers and subwoofer that came with the car stereo unit.
The first problem I encountered was with the installation directions. They are very vague with no detail--just a chart showing the wires. As a fairly experienced amateur installer I figured out most of the wires but was unsure how to connect the parking brake wire. Turns out if you ground it, it allows full time video regardless of parking brake position (not safe but I was not sure of the alternative and Blaupunkt customer service was useless). Frankly too little information is a theme with Blaupunkt. They don't explain anything in the instructions including what the features are supposed to do.
Good Features:
**Great Video Screen
**Clean Sound
**Lots of inputs (3 extra video/audio inputs)
**Two video/audio outputs - great for 2 rear video monitors
**Can handle DV-X navigation system (I did not install this feature)
**Can handle rear view camera (not needed for my car but nice in a bigger vehicle)
**Good 7 band EQ feature - a great improvement over my old bass and treble control
Weak Features
**Bad Instructions - both install and user manual
**Cannot play movie (DVD) sound to rear speakers only - cannot seem to stop Dolby sound separation during DVD play so the whole car has to listen to the video - I guess I'll look into installing a wireless headphone system off of one of the extra sound outputs (my rear video monitors cannot handle sound which may have helped solve this problem).
**Terrible customer support from Blaupunkt USA
**Too much dependence upon the remote control - lose it and you cannot do much with your system
In terms of installation - this radio is much more difficult to install than a simple head unit. You have two parts (the head unit and the brain) and a whole lot of wires to figure out. If you use amps (i.e. the pre amp outputs like I did) you immediately cut out the need for ten wires coming out of the brain. In the end I only used three wires from the brain harness (power x 2 and the remote on wire for my amps).
Overall I am disappointed with the system in terms of movie playback. I am experiencing a lot of problems trying to get the system to do what I want in terms of controlling the sound. Blaupunkt did a terrible job with their instructions and their customer service is just as bad. The radio and CD playback are very good and my XM SkiFi2 has never sounded better. I got this unit for about half the cost of a similar unit from Kenwood or Alpine. For the price I guess I got a good deal. In terms of construction quality this unit is on par with those units (versus a lower quality Jenson unit that I would not expect to hold up over the long term - I also have my personal reservations about the Pioneer unit but it may be excellent).
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