Blaupunkt COLUMBUS 100 BT MP3 and FM Bluetooth Car Stereo Receiver with USB, SD and AUX Port and Remote Control

UPDATE: I've owned it for 6 months now, and I hate this thing. The power cuts out occasionally, so I lose my station presets, my clock, and what song I was on (if using USB stick). Blaupunkt should be ashamed to have their name on this garbage.Original review:This isn't a Blaupunkt. Not a "real" Blaupunkt. I wasn't expecting anything fancy at this price, I did have my expectations low, but I was still expecting something that deserved the Blaupunkt brand name. Before I get into it, just know that this is made in China. If you want a Blau because it's German, leave now! I'm ashamed of Blaupunkt for doing this, but if you just think of this as the best Chinese head unit at under $30 and ignore the brand name, you might be OK with this thing.I got it for 3 reasons. Low price, small form factor, and bluetooth.Price/value: I bought this for $30 right when it came down from $32, and now the price has dropped to $28... I'd buy it again for $28 but not a penny more.Form Factor: My dashboard doesn't have enough depth for a full DIN (long story) and these digital-only units are shorter. It was still too long by about an inch so I had to modify my dash. Afterwards, I opened this thing up to see what was inside (because it felt empty, haha), and sure enough it was mostly empty. It has 1 circuit board behind the screen, and one circuit board mounted to the back of the big empty case. They could've made it MUCH smaller.BT function: Works fine so far. Haven't tried calls yet, but I mainly wanted BT for music. Pairing works, and the sound quality is fine (I'm not an audiophile).Sound quality:FM is very bad. It sounds like a 30's record player, treble to the max. Also, the reception is worse than the typical $100-200 units I've had before. At least I have no feedback/noise.I swear this listing stated that it had AM as well. That was one of the reasons I bought it... But no AM in this unit.USB and BT sound fine. I haven't tried the SD card slot yet.Build quality:The face sticks out a lot (and yes, I have it seated all the way into the dash). Buttons feel a bit cheap, but OK. The volume knob feels a little too cheap, I don't really enjoy turning it, I'm gentle with it because it feels like it could break. Screen is a very basic low-res LCD. I laughed when I looked at the back and saw that the antenna port didn't line up with the hole in the case, and right next to it there was a "QA PASS" sticker. LOLMOD button sometimes doesn't respond.The clock only displays for a few seconds - there's no way to toggle it so it stays on constantly. This is VERY annoying, because lots of people use the head unit as their clock (including myself). But when the unit is off, the screen shows the clock, so at least there's that.It likes to skip the first second or two of a song when using USB.The song navigation is crap. Basically, all the songs on your whole USB drive get put into 1 list, and it plays through them. There's no way to select album, folder, etc. I like the +10 and -10 buttons, it makes it a LITTLE easier to go through thousands of songs... But here's an idea, if you have to keep it simple - make a button that goes to the next song tagged with "track number 1." Probably too much to ask. My workaround is to keep a few USB drives in the car (older, smaller ones) and only load like 5-10 albums on them, so I can navigate through them with the +10/-10 buttons.There is no illumination input, meaning it won't change brightness with your headlights. So during the day, the screen (i.e. the clock) is too dark when shut off, and just a bit too dark when it's on. At night, the screen is just a bit too bright when off, and WAY too bright when on.So basically, the brightness issue and the annoying clock means you can only use it during the day when knowing the time doesn't matter to you. And when you do use it, you have to use BT because the FM is atrocious and storage drive navigation is way too crude.I give it more than 1 star because, technically, it does the 3 things that I wanted. I can only give it 2 stars though because, frankly, it's an utterly miserable Blaupunkt, regardless of price. If this was branded as something else, I'd give it 4 stars.

I have used this product for 6 weeks and it has worked great. It plays music over Bluetooth, AUX (standard 3.5 mm), FM/AM radio and also USB. Before I ordered this, I spent some time searching around for similar products with the same functionalities and price range.I mainly use this stereo to listen to music from my iPhone over Bluetooth. I use AUX time to time with my friends player and I also use the FM radio. Everything works great! As soon as I start the car, the Bluetooth automatically connects to my phone. The connection is very stable. When playing over Bluetooth the tune is clear, I hear no noise, buzz or distortion (There are Amazon reviews for other stereos where customer complains about noice/buzz using Bluetooth).When using AUX or Bluetooth, the stereo displays 'AUX' or 'BT'. It is not possible to have time shown all the time. Pressing 'CLK' button only displays clock for a short time.The stereo comes with cabling harness (12-port color coded) that connects to the stereo itself. The product manual describes the colors of the cables.I replaced the original stereo in a 2003 Honda civic LX. For dash installation, I bought "Metra 99-7899 Dash Kit For Honda Civic 01-05". They fit well. But you need to make some adjustments yourself to fit the enclosing frame.Good things to have for installation:* Wiring harness for the specific car* In-Sure 2-Port Connectors or other connectors for joining cables* Dash Kit (Unless the car stereo pocket is DIN size)* Car dash tool kitsI'm pleased with this product and I recommend it to anyone looking for a cheap stereo with good sound and style.

I love this player. FM, SD, USB, AUX everything works well (well SD/USB UI could be a little better).Best of all, the amplifier can be configured in at least 3 different ways. The amp IC ( TDA7377) provides for it and Blaupunkt's clever implementation allows it just by how the speaker wires are connected to the amp wires.a) 4 speakers stereo x 10 watts (per spec).b) 2 speakers stereo (bridged FRw/RR and FLw/RL) x 20 watts eachc) 1 speaker mono (bridged FRw/RL or FLw/RR) x 20 watts.a) is explained in the user manual. I'll explain how to do b) and c) later.In my case I'm using configuration c). This unit is driving a single AR18 (8 in woofer, 50-20kHz +-3db, sens 86db). I sounds terrific. It will be my portable garage, shop, outside, where ever I am working music source. Plenty of volume with only a 12v power supply. I thought I was going to have to make internal mods to get bridged operation and both stereo channels in one speaker, but NO! Blaupunkt's implementation allowed me to combine both channels while at the same time operating in bridge mode just by connecting my speaker wires to the proper amp wires.I do wish the SD/USB MP3 player interface was a little more capable. You can skip forward and back by track, 10 tracks, or folder but there seems to be no ability to handle treed folders. Well for $25 one can't expect perfection. If needed, I can use my cell phone UI through the AUX input to more easily navigate my music library.Please note you need to keep power supplied to the unit or you will lose your FM, MP3, etc settings When turned off via the front panel, the wall wart was only drawing 0.5 watts.Update 6/6/17a) 4 speaker config from manual (10W each)front left, white +, white/black -rear left, green +, green/black -front right, grey +, grey/black -rear right, purple +, purple/black -b) stereo bridged (20W each, fader set for equal volume from front and rear)left, white +. green/black -right, grey +, purple/black -c) mono bridged (20W each, fader set for equal volume from front and rear)white + purple/black -orgrey +, green/black -