Blaupunkt Bremen SQR 46 DAB
Posted: Sun May 17, 2020 2:14 pm
Having dabbled previously with a couple of cheap secondhand units from eBay (a vintage SQR 39 and a VW Beta) to replace the silver Sony CD stereo that was installed, and I use that term loosely, in my Scirocco when I bought it in 2017 I decided to bite the bullet and invest some lockdown savings in a “new” vintage-looking unit from Blaupunkt.
If your car has correctly wired ISO connectors this should be a plug-and play swap, the only potential hitch being it needs a switched live. The generations of bodges on mine took a couple of afternoons to sort out. There are some discrete accoutrements which I didn’t use but which would not look out of place - a small, wired hands-free microphone and a stick-on DAB aerial.
This aerial adapter from Eightwood enables both FM and DAB to use the original wing-mounted aerial. There are a number of such devices available and this was the smallest, tidiest one I could find. It doesn’t need separate power and instead takes its power via the DAB aerial port on the SQR 46 which has to be enabled in the settings menu.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01MRIFCDD
All in all I’m quite pleased with the results. IMHO the plastic fascia could have been engineered to be a bit more authentic (thinner and darker) but it doesn’t look out of place and is certainly an improvement both visually and sonically from the Sony.
Now to tinker with the RGB adjustments for the display to get the best match for the dash lights ...
If your car has correctly wired ISO connectors this should be a plug-and play swap, the only potential hitch being it needs a switched live. The generations of bodges on mine took a couple of afternoons to sort out. There are some discrete accoutrements which I didn’t use but which would not look out of place - a small, wired hands-free microphone and a stick-on DAB aerial.
This aerial adapter from Eightwood enables both FM and DAB to use the original wing-mounted aerial. There are a number of such devices available and this was the smallest, tidiest one I could find. It doesn’t need separate power and instead takes its power via the DAB aerial port on the SQR 46 which has to be enabled in the settings menu.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01MRIFCDD
All in all I’m quite pleased with the results. IMHO the plastic fascia could have been engineered to be a bit more authentic (thinner and darker) but it doesn’t look out of place and is certainly an improvement both visually and sonically from the Sony.
Now to tinker with the RGB adjustments for the display to get the best match for the dash lights ...
