Early days yet, I’ve only had the unit working for a short while but impressions so far are generally favourable.
I like that it fits directly into the (slightly non-standard) aperture used by the original Sanyo unit. It comes with 2 optional surrounds so that there’s no gap if fitted to larger apertures.
The unit is very slim, only an inch or so deep so there’s plenty of room behind it to fit all the wiring.
Sound is as good or better than the original unit and is infinitely customisable to your own taste. Similarly, I gather the panel lighting colours can be adjusted as you want though I haven’t used this yet. The unit works directly with the Mazda’s steering wheel controls, no need for a decoder (as long as you find the right wires to connect - see the end of this post MX5 2012 Venture Edition Stereo Swap Issue.
My main reservation so far is that FM radio reception isn’t great, it’s prone to interference and the AF function doesn’t seem to work. Reception sensitivity is adjustable and counter-intuitively, the lower the number the greater the sensitivity. I’ve just tried reducing it to zero and reception (with the car sat on the drive) is much better. Perhaps that will improve the AF function as well, if not I’ll have to contact their (much praised) customer support.
The unit comes with 3 alternative harnesses to connect to standard ISO connectors, I don’t know whether other Chinese units offer these. Mazda are slightly unusual in reversing the pins for Accessory and Battery, the “B” harness with the unit covers this.
The user manual is online only and rather variable; it covers sound equalizer settings in great detail but doesn’t explain how the radio sensitivity works.
So overall, I bought it chiefly because it’s a good fit in the facia. It comes with everything needed to fit it into different cars with double-DIN openings. It offers far more functionality than the original unit, seems good value to me. I don’t know how it compares to other Chinese head units, of which there’s a bewildering range!
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