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Last Updated: 7/26/2010
Resources
The Stereo System
Blaupunkt, a subsidiary of Robert Bosch Ltd. is the European market leader in the car radio industry.
Web: http://www.blaupunkt.de
Crutchfield Corp. is specializing in audio and video equipment for the car.
Address: 1 Crutchfield Park
Charlottesville, VA 22911
Phone: (800) 319-8264
Hours: 8am-midnight (ET)
Email: advisors@crutchfield.com
Web: http://www.crutchfield.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is America's largest online retailer as of January 2010.
Address: 1516 2nd Ave.
Seattle, WA 98101
Phone: (800) 201-7575
Web: http://www.amazon.com
Buy.com is an internet Superstore.
Address: 85 Enterprise Suite 100
Aliso Viejo, CA 92656
Web: http://www.buy.com |
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Disclaimer
| The fabrication, modifications and designs you see on this web site are completed by myself. If you duplicate these modifications you do so at your own risk. I do not endorse or make any claims to their safety, performance, On-road or off-road worthiness. Any "Product Reviews" are my sole and personal opinion. These reviews are on items purchased from or provided by reputable aftermarket suppliers. All registered trademarks belong to their respective owners. |
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and others of interest.
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My OEM system was pretty much on the end of it's life cycle. The speakers were completely shot in three of the doors and the one still working produced a very dull sound at best. The receiver was working but the CD changer was missing the unit which carries the CD's and thus pretty much useless for anything but listening to radio. I needed a replacement and I needed it fast!
A stereo system that best meets my needs and fits into my budget wasn't going easy to be found. There are virtually millions of units, speakers, amps, and what not to choose from.
All I was looking for was a simple receiver unit with Radio and MP3 capability, two sets of speakers for installation in all four doors, and a new shorter rubber antenna. It all had to fit within my 500 dollar budget I have set aside for it.
I found Crutchfield and this company was not only a life saver for a car stereo newbie like me but seemed to have everything I wanted. I did some browsing on their site and used their vehicle selector to narrow my searches and options. One in-dash mountable unit jumped at me right away, the Blaupunkt Brisbane SD48 Digital Media Receiver and I purchased it for about 160 bucks with free shipping directly from their site.
I received with the unit all neccessary installation gear free of charge which is just one of the reasons I decided to buy from them. It just makes the install easy and saves a lot of time which normally is lost through shopping online to find all the additional stuff needed to get this into the dash.
The Blaupunkt Brisbane SD48 Digital Media Receiver
| The Brisbane SD48 replaces the CD drive mechanism with a full array of new music technologies. There is a front-panel slot for an SD/MMC card that can pack hundreds of hours of music on a chip the size of a postage stamp. |
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The Brisbane is iPod-ready with an optional adaptor, and a front panel Aux input connects anything with a headphone jack. It has a handy remote control for the basic functions of the SD48, an integrated USB interface for thumb drives and external hard disks, and last but not least it is Bluetooth ready with an optional interface for wireless hands-free operation of my cell phone and even MP3 audio streaming. However, Bluetooth compatibility with this receiver may vary, depending on the phone and service provider
With all these impressive capabilities, plus a premium radio tuner, I will never need a CD drive for playing music in my truck again.
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The Brisbane SD48 includes a remote.
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I wanted a simple unit which offers a good tuner and full MP3 capabilities.This unit from Blaupunkt fullfills all my needs I want from a Car Stereo System perfectly!
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I can load up my superfast Patriot Memory 4GB Xporter XT USB flash drive (I got it from Buy.com for 20 bucks) with the all the music I want to listen to and none I don't.
I have lot's of fun the evening before hitting the road with creating playlists and selecting songs. I get into the car next morning, plug the flash drive in, and I am good for hours of musical entertainment. Now that is too cool!
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My 4GB USB flash drive
stores lots of music!
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Here are the Technical Details:
Data carrier
USB-removable storage: USB 2.0
Formatting USB-removable storage: FAT 32
Memory cards: MMC, SD, SDHC
Audio-Player
Playback format: MP3, WMA
Title display: ID3-tag (Version 2), File names, Folder names
Bitrate (kBit/s): 8-320
Variable bitrates: Yes
Radio
Type of tuner: Analogue Receiver
Wave bands: UKW, MW
Codem-concept: III+
Travelstore: Yes
Station memory: 25
Search analogue (Scan): Radio
Interference suppression: Yes
Frequency response (Hz) -3dB: 35 - 16.000
General
Installation location: 1-DIN-slot
Front panel: detachable
Colour: black
Key illumination (Day): red
Key illumination (Night): red
Demo mode: Yes
Demo mode activation: S3 + S5 + On Key
Changer control (DMS): Yes
Height x Width x Depth (mm): 50 x 179 x 150
Equaliser
Number of bands: 3
Type: analogue
X-Bass: adjustable
Sound-Presets: Classic, Pop, Rock
Source specific sound adjustment : Yes
Amplifier
Number of channels : 4 Channel
Max. Power (Watt): 4 x 50
SinusPower at 14,4V (Watt): 4 x 26
Display
Type: DOT (1-line)
Colour: VarioColour (4096 colours)
Clock display: Yes
Inputs
Antenna (number of): 1
USB (number of): 1
Aux-In (number of): 2
Aux-In (connection type): 3.5 mm phone jack
Aux-In (features): Front Aux-in, Audio Mix
Telephone Mute: Yes
Bluetooth: via interface
iPod (features): via interface
Command and Control-control bus (number of): 1
Command and Control-control bus (features): extremely fast control of external sources (e.g. iPod, USB player or a Bluetooth device, etc.)
Voice output: Navigation, Telephone
Outputs
Pre-amplifier (number of): 1
Pre-amplifier (channels, voltage): 4-Channel (2V)
Accessories included in delivery
Instruction book: Yes
Infrared remote control: Yes
Mounting material: Yes
Preamp-cable: Yes
USB-cable: Yes
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Installing the Receiver
The first step was to completely remove the instrument bezel to gain access to the screws which hold the factory radio in place.
The entire instrument bezel is held in place by two simple philips screws on top side of the actual instrument cluster. Pulling gently on the bezel which has a fair amount of clips all around will get it out from the truck.
Once all the switches have been disconnected, the bezel was complete removed from the Durango and placed aside.
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 The next step was to remove the factory radio, for the Durango I only needed one screw driver to do the job. |
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The blue volume knob was very bright and I just knew that this would be anoying when driving nights, thus I placed a black round piece of sticker material over it. Problem solved!
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The original wiring harness was connected to an adapter (supplied free by Crutchfield) and also the rest of the radio install was completed using the free installation gear shipped along with the receiver by Crutchfield. Next was placing the bezel back onto the dash. The complete install took about an hour.
Update 2010 - After two Years of trouble free use:
It's a shame that Blaupunkt has discontinued this innovative model so early after it's debut and Crutchfield does no longer carry the model either (this info is based as of 10-22-2009).
I purchased the Blaupunkt Brisbane after I did a considerable amount of research in 2008. The Brisbane is all solid state, nothing mechanical to break on it. CD's in a truck have always been a nightmare, the countless skips on bumpy roads, the ocassional drop of a CD when inserting it, heat, cold, scratches, and dust do the rest to render a perfect CD useless after a period of time.
Now, I plug in an SD card or a USB Flash Drive and the Brisbane plays all my songs with none of the headaches of a CD player! Searching or selecting the songs is quick, and load time is almost instantaneous with the use of a decent USB flash drive.
Radio reception is crystal clear and it gets every station here. The Brisbane is a good looking and exceptionally great sounding unit if married with a good pair of speakers. After two years of constant use I am still happy with this purchase!
The Antenna
I also replaced my factory (31 inch) metal shaft antenna with this stylish yet functional low profile (13 inch) flexible rubber antenna that will not hit the garage door anymore!
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I secured myself this euro style antenna for only 15 bucks via ebay. Installation was very simple, basically unscrewing the OEM antenna and screwing the new one onto the existing antenna mount. It looks on my Durango much better than the stock antenna too! There was no increase or decrease in performance as far as I could tell.
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The Alpine Speakers
A quality speaker system was next on the list. I selected the Alpine SPR-17s 6 1/2" 6.5 Type R Component Speaker which I purchased for 125 bucks a pair while shopping on ebay. I needed two sets, one for the front and another set to be installed into the rear doors.
My Durango's SLT+ trim package has from the factory the Infinity speaker system installed, and because the OEM Infinity is a component system, I can utilize the original mounting locations in the door panels for the woofers and the tweeters. I will also mount the crossovers within the door panels as this will make for a perfect "hidden" install which I prefer. It just looks professional to me if the factory look is preserved.
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This aproach has been time consuming though, because it turned out that it needed a lot of work and an innovative mind and a good amount of silicone sealing to adapt the Alpine tweeters to the Infinity mounts in the door panels. I have also added sound dampening material and fat-mat against vibrations to the door panels as it was suggested on a car stereo systems website.
In this picture you can see the installation of the sub (bottom right) and the box which contains the crossover (bottom left). I used silicone sealer on the crossover box to make it water tight. |
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I have removed the original tweeters from their casing and then cut and filed it until the Alpine fit perfectly into it. With some additional silicone I have adapted the tweeters to their new home.  |
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Here you can see the completed installation. Everything looks stock and that was exactly what I had intended to do. No ugly cutouts etc. just simply a very good system in the OEM locations.  |
When it was all done and installed, both the end results of my work and the process involved in dealing with the many online resources to purchase the right stuff was much better than I expected. The total cost for the stereo system added up to $400 which isn't to bad at all considering I came in 100 bucks below my planned budget and it still included everything I wanted in a stereo system.
I am, and everyone else who listens to my new car stereo system, is totally blown away with the sound quality. Why didn't I do this much sooner?
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