The Best SINGLE-DIN Head Units

The Best SINGLE-DIN Head Units: Let us guide you… This guide is for owners of vehicles with a classic single-DIN aperture in their dashboard for a car radio. A standard for parts for cars and all sorts of things, ‘DIN’ as a term is now a little quaint. The plugs for getting power to and speaker outputs from your car radio are also called DIN plugs. Many Japanese radios have little multi-pin socketry of their own on their back panels and you need a ‘DIN adapter’. On one end there’s a mass of wires with a plug that goes in your Pioneer or whatever. On the other end there’s a pair of standard DIN plugs.

Today, there are many cars that have radios built deeply into the electronics and physical shape of the dash. These non-DIN radios cannot be simply replaced and in many cases you don’t want to. On one hand, the new era of less DIN-aperture dashboards has meant the death of the stolen car radio. On the other, it makes improving the sound or features of your in car entertainment a lot harder. For you, though, the owner of a ‘normal’ radio sized housing in the dash, the VFM has never been better. What you can get for your money is pretty awesome these days. Features once rare, are now nearly everywhere, like FLAC file decoding. That is the fab high resolution ‘open source’ music coding format. Another cool thing is the way that digital media have got faster and fatter. It used to be an issue as to what size of SD card or USB stick a unit could read. It separated the digital donkeys from the racehorses. These days they can handle huge storage. My expert installers said they like to keep it ‘small’ at 64GB or 128GB! Bigger will work but the unit will slow down is all. So read on and check out our guide to the best single-DIN head units.

Sony DSX-A210UI (seen at £80.00)

This is bonkers fun for the money. Filled with features that true Guilty Pleasure Carpool Karaoke folks will adore. It has a potent 4x55W chip amplifier that can have a 4ohm to 8ohm subwoofer connected to its rear channels. A DSX range feature, it won’t shake your world but you could be astonished by a high efficiency fifteen incher! Then, there is the bass EQ button on the front. Marked ‘Extra Bass™’. I am not sure what the boost is but it will enrich your music. The price also includes the digital smarts, with MP3, WMA and FLAC files compatibility. There is a ten band equaliser with ten presets. So if all that fiddly stuff looks a bit much, you can try Sony’s settings – all ten of them. There is even one that butchers the main vocal frequencies. This is so Japanese, as they adore Karaoke. It’s about your voice being hearable as you sing along like a shameless banshee. I love it. No fancy new DAB radio but you do get a USB socket that can be wired up for your music. This can be a ‘mass storage’ USB or else your iPhone or Android device. There’s also a front 3.5mm stereo aux socket for anything that outputs headphone level sound.

Dead posh is the inclusion of a configurable steering wheel remote control compatibility. Childish as hell and again about the the fun factor, is how you can even have sound-synchronised illumination.

Kinda bling, kinda boom, kinda LAAAAA! Deserving of being here with the best single-DIN head units’ group.

• Single DIN mech-free FM radio with USB/Aux and iPod/Phone playback control
• Onboard Power: 4x55W @4ohms
• Subwoofer direct connection – you can plug a head unit wire into a woofer
• Extra Bass™ button and 10 Band EQ with ten presets including Karaoke mode

Kenwood KMM-BT508DAB (Seen at £150.00)

This unit is firmware upgradeable. So if a new digital decode format comes along, then Kenwood could enable you to upgrade to add it. There are some astonishing features for the money (I may just be showing my age here…) like DSP and DTA. Digital Signal Processing and Digital Time Alignment. The DSP would be about the 13-band EQ. A bit more serious than the Sony one, it only offers eight presets. The four signal output RCAs on the back have a rich 2.5V signal which is a high end feature, too. This head unit is made for creating sophisticated systems. There is a 2-way crossover network or else a 3-way one that will require a bi-amp connection for your speakers. Rather than just a press-go-boom bass enhancer they have a five step, one decibel at a time bass booster circuit. This means you can apply the extra thud more carefully, with more flexibility. Digital Time Alignment is very ‘in-car’ and pure high end. You do not sit in the middle unless you own a McLaren F1. So one speaker is ‘too close’ and your ears can tell. If the ‘too close’ speaker is digitally delayed by one millisecond per foot, it will sound as if you are in the middle. Then, the weird bit is called Psycho-acoustics. Because the sounds arrive at your ears at the same time, you perceive it as right in front of you. That makes proper stereo and done well, is astounding to hear the effect when switched in and out.

The shallow 100mm chassis means it can go in smaller places. I reckon it’s about Kenwood hoping for more custom installs in things like the RAZR 4×4 action vehicle. A new take of being one of the best single-DIN head units.

• Single DIN mech-free FM/DAB+ radio, Alexa-ready, Bluetooth. MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV and FLAC
• Onboard Power: 4x50W @4ohms MOSFET IC
• Digital Signal Processing, Digital Time Alignment and 13 band EQ
• Short-body 100mmm shallow chassis for ease of installation

JVC KD-DB912BT (Seen at £170.00)

A bit old school now, with a CD mechanism for those who haven’t let go of discs. In contrast, this does have a bang up to date DAB+ radio and the audio sophistication is pretty serious. There are six RCA sockets on the rear for full front/rear/sub outputs, at a decent 2.5V signal output. It plays MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC and AAC audio files and has an audio tech that JVC call K2. This is said to expand the bit rate and frequency response of the digital signal. A big claim, it expands the digital data, as if it was 192kHz, instead of CD grade 44.1kHz. It even extrapolates and adds-in the super-highs above 20kHz. Those are the ‘bat-frequencies’ we are not supposed to hear but really make a difference.

There’s the ability to plug in your phone and boss Spotify or your phone’s music playback by voice control. Then, there’s Space Enhancement, Time Alignment and highpass and lowpass filters. The Space Enhancement is a DSP effect. No idea how the Space Enhancement does it but it makes it sound bigger somehow. The Sound Response feature is a politely termed bass restorer for your lower bit rate recordings. It can re-fatten a weak MP3. There’s a 13 band graphic EQ with 11 presets, too.

If you use the rear left channel alone for a subwoofer, it will drive it at 50W like the Sony can. It is ready for a steering-wheel remote control and you can connect two phones at once for full Bluetooth telephony.

Sophisticated, yet fit for old school disc lovers. JVC have always made some of the best single-DIN head units.

• Single DIN CD/DAB+/FM radio deck, Alexa compatible, USB/AUX front input and Bluetooth
• Onboard Power: 4x50W @4ohms or 2x50W + 50Wx1 subwoofer 4ohms
• Can connect two phones full time, via Bluetooth
• DAB+ tuner will switch to FM automatically if digital signal is lost

Pioneer DVH-340UB DVD (Seen at £180.00)

A disc lover’s dream. A DVD deck bristling with just about every format but FLAC. It can even spin discs from the ancient Video CD era. How’s that for retro-compatibility? It can read and play DVDs you recorded yourself, be they DVD-R or DVD-RW. There’s a video output on the rear to drive a screen and there are six RCA sockets. Four are the front/rear or stereo/subwoofer audio outputs. That means you can drive a four channel amp to run four corners. Or you could run a stereo amp and a mono bass amp. The stereo one from the ‘front’ RCA outs and the bass amp from the ‘rear’ RCA pair, set to subwoofer. It’s impressively flexible to be able to assign an RCA output to do two different things via an internal crossover. Punching above its weight at the price. The top two RCAs are for audio input. There’s a composite (yellow RCA socket) video input for connecting an external video source, like your camcorder’s analogue playback.

The formats include MP3, WMA, WAV and AAC audio plus DivX, VCD, MPEG-4 and JPEG files from disc. Via the USB socket, it can read MP3, WMA and AAC, plus DivX, and MPEG1, 2 and 4.

There’s a decent 4x50W output. You can plug in anything with a headphone output via the front 3.5mm socket, near the front USB port cover. Best of all, it comes with a brilliant remote control with 32 buttons and a four-arrows-and-press control, like home units.

A real value-for-money powerhouse of a DVD deck for being the heart of a fun AV set up. Another top brand when it comes to the best single-DIN head units.

• Single DIN DVD/CD player with FM radio and USB front socket
• Onboard Power: 4x50W @4ohms MOSFET IC
• BASS/MID/TREBLE eq only, no equaliser
• Comes with 32-button plus four-arrow-and-press remote control unit

Blaupunkt Bremen SQR46DAB (seen at £400.00)

Designed and sold as a blast from the past, ‘Bremen SQR 46DAB’ shares names with a 1986 vintage radio. Blaupunkt call this a cult unit. Even the packaging is retro styled like the original. New Bremen looks deliciously as if it were an old school cassette deck. But the cassette-shaped door hides a trio of audio inputs/connections. Pop this door open and there is no mechanism, but an SD card slot next to the USB A socket. The last round hole is the 3.5mm stereo audio aux input. On the rear, there’s a cord-mounted second USB-A input and mic and steering wheel remote inputs. The display’s upgraded to Variocolor lighting, as is the radio, now an FM/DAB+ unit. The SDHC slot reads up to 32GB cards. Bremen plays MP3 and WMA files only, but it is also ‘Made for iPhone/iPod’. So Bremen has the full control of iOS stuff, and has Android Bluetooth streaming. If your Android phone has files that you can play, you can have them in the car. As to audio tweakery, you get standard 7-step bass/treble controls and a three band ‘semi-parametric EQ. Another great feature is that if you disconnect the battery, the Bremen will remember all your settings. Always a Blau feature that does matter to the best single-DIN head units.

Blaupunkt have always been famous for their radios, being German in origin. Their FM unit is truly a fancy one, even if the DAB+ tuner is the star of this single DIN. Blau see fit to include a DAB antenna in with the unit at the price, which makes sense. You get a sweet little 18-button card-type remote with membrane switches with it too. Last of all, it’s a shorty, meaning no-mech enabling a shallower-depth chassis that can be installed in more places.

A high performance retro treat for Euro-look lovers.

• Single DIN 1980’s Retro-styled DAB+/FM radio with faux cassette slot for SD, USB/AUX
• Onboard Power: 4x50W @4ohms; Audiophile 4V RCA signal outputs
• 18-Button card type remote control included; DAB antenna included
• Short-body 110mmm shallow chassis for ease of installation

Alpine HDS-990 Status (seen at £1,500.00)

This is really an interface and media player/hub rather than a 1-DIN car radio. The main base unit is a single-DIN size and you could easily house it in your car’s DIN slot. At this level of awesomeness, Alpine, masters of high end in-car audio, are expecting buyers to have custom installs. Because even if the system’s brain is installed in a stock DIN location, the screen is a unique not-DIN size. The front panel is termed the commander. You can have HDS-990 as an overlay to whatever is already on your car, since it has speaker level inputs. There is also an’ RCA input and three USBs that support 192kHz/24 Bit sample rate/depths. So it can accept all sorts of digital sources as well as the full-fat Bluetooth streaming abilities. Put simply, this is the most able digital device I ever heard of and can decode everything. And that includes formats I never heard of! How about APE decoding, known as Monkey’s Audio? Thirteen different sample rates, five of which are above the 44.1kHz CD level! And that’s in addition to being able to eat MP3, MP4, WMA, WAV, FLAC, DSD and AAC audio files.

As to fidelity, the Signal to Noise ratio, even measured in the cruel A-weighting, is better than 98dB. A-weighting is about the reality of human hearing rather than the physics-lab flat line. It is a tougher standard and means that the internals of the HDS-990 are absolutely awesome. Alpine even brag about some of the innards being from their Status F1 line. And that is a crazy story. The level of attention to design is called ‘Microdynamics’ and involved hand-matching components. This is as high end as a front end gets, in-car.

A truly awesome state of the art set, at the utter pinnacle of the best single-DIN head units.

• Single DIN hideaway processor Hi Res media player – no radio
• Onboard Power: 4x50W @4ohm
• Alpine STATUS-grade electronics with many components from F1 Status line
• Front screen commander panel is not DIN and needs custom installation