Car Audio questions

[Unsullied_Spy]

I tried ejecting one of the CDs out of the stock head unit in my '02 Ford Mustang GT and it didn't fully eject and now I can't get it to suck the disc back in or kick it out far enough to pull it out (and I don't want to destroy the thing trying to get a $0.02 CD-R out) and after a quick look around it seems like this is a common problem with the stock head unit so I'm not getting another stock one to replace it.

I'm looking for a new CD player for it but I know nothing about car audio. My main requirement is that it has to be reliable, I don't want to have to do this again in a year or two. My next requirement is that the CD player can't be too wildly insane on styling. A lot of CD players I saw at the store just weren't my style. I'm looking for something that will fit in nicely and not look "custom." I like the stock unit because it blends into the dash nicely, isn't obnoxiously shiny or covered in bright lights, and when people look at it all they see is a radio. I'd like auxiliary inputs, I have an XM radio (which I may or may not keep in it) and an MP3 player that I would like to be able to hook up to it. I don't care if it's RCA, USB, or a 4mm jack as long as I can hook up to it. Ford sells an adapter kit to use aftermarket radios in the stock location as well as a new wiring harness and I'll be using both of these parts because I REFUSE to cut up any of the stock parts to install a radio, but I heard that sometimes the head unit and the stock amps work on a different frequency or different resistance or something like that and they don't work quite right. It was only 1 review so he could have just been talking jibberish but I'd like to know any issues before hand.

[Metallover]

I say go all digital and get an iPod with and ipod capable system. Just copy your cd's to your computer and you're done.

In my truck I got a casette-headphone jack adapter and I don't listen to the radio any more. An iPod is a very easy thing to use when driving.

[Unsullied_Spy]

I'm not getting an iPod, too many issues that I'd have to work around. I'd rather keep my reliable old 2004 Creative Zen MicroPhoto. Even MP3/WMA CD capability would be fine, you can get around 300 songs to one of those CDs and that's much more than the 6 CDs that are currently in there.

In my other car I have a casette adapter and I use the Zen there and it's great, biggest problem is the power adapter I have covers the headphone jack so I need to get a different adapter if I plan on running off the car's 12v rather than my battery.

[lincpimp]

I like pioneer head units, the styling looks ok in my various ford products that I drive. I had a few of the oel display models, 860, 930, and few others. I have never had issues with the pioneer units, but these are the 600 plus dollar models. Not sure how the cheaper ones perform.

[kulangflow]

I've always been a big fan of Pioneer too. I've been using them for years and have never had a problem. The one I have now has a USB port, so you can use a thumb-drive, IPod, or any other MP3 player with a USB cable on it. Plenty of power and it sounds great.

I had a 94 gt and put in a sony cd player and later a cheaper alpine. Both of them were great performers and worked well with the other factory Mach 460 amps. The Alpine sounded better. The Sony is a little more stealth in terms of appearance in the dash though.

I have always been a fan of Alpine and Kenwood. Kenwoods stuff was great then went crappy a few years back but their new stuff is very good. Most of their new decks have a usb port on the front or as a separate wired unit that could be mounted anywhere, so all you have to do is plug a memory stick in with mp3s and you are set, I love mine. You can also put custom pictures for the screen to display.

[BrianG]

I too have always been a fan of Alpine. My last two decks have been Aplines, the current one has been used for the last 3 years at least. The feature set is great and menus just make sense to me. I suppose all current generation decks will have similar feature sets though.

I used to also like Eclipse, but it's a love/hate thing; some models/years are total crap, others are good. I'm not much of a Pioneer guy; the quality just seems chintzy, at least in the lower price ranges ($150-$300).

[Snipin_Willy]

I love car audio! I like both Alpine and Pioneer head units, but I side more toward Alpine. Currently I have a stock Navi unit in my 07 Ridgeline with really no way to upgrade it without buying a new double din GPS/Nav. So instead of spending $2k on a new display I bought a sound processor from Alpine, Infinity Kappa perfect 6.1's for the front doors, older Boston Pro 5.5 comps for the rears, 4-channel amp and mono amp from kicker (final thanks to close out prices at Circuit City, RIP), and a 10" slim mount sub to fit behind the rear seat. So everything looks factory in my truck but sounds so much better!

But for you, I'd say either Pioneer or Alpine. Chose the price range and style you like better and buy a wiring harness adapter for you car. Solder a few wire, slide the new head unit it and you're done. Almost every head unit out now is XM tuner ready with mp3/wma ready, many even come ready for mp3 player adapters.

[Unsullied_Spy]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm not totally sure what I want to spend on one. I was looking at Pioneers and Alpines (my brothers have had both and both were good) in the $150-$300 range online @ Crutchfield. I want something cheap but I'd rather spend an extra $100 or so and get a reliable unit than cheap out and have to replace it again soon. I'd like to keep the stock Mach 460 amp setup and just drop in a head unit for now and add a sub to the trunk later on (Crutchfield sells some nice-looking units that won't make it stand out too much).

The car is pretty much a daily driver, but I also take it to shows and don't want it to look like I "punked" it out or anything. Trying to make it functional but discrete.

[slimthelineman]

whatever "factory" amp you have, monsoon system if i remember right, the best and sometimes only way to get it to work right is to run the speakers DIRECTLY off the head unit. its no fun rinning wires and there may be an interface module avalible but its been years since i was up on the car audio.

[NoControl]

I'll also agree with pioneer and alpine especially, as well as Eclipse those 3 are very nice but the eclipse is rather pricey but theres quiet a few perks included. AS for making it have a nice fit inplace of ur stock one, higly unlikely, most the time you need to get a crappy place holder thats molded to fit the stock location and have the headunit plop in the midle. I'm pretty sure you can get a din connector that will connect from ur stock harness to the headunits connector. Now heres a blow to the pocket book for ya, in which case you aARE SCREWED yo have an '02 GM vehicle which has some of the cars computer crap BUILT into the deck...and some of it if not MOST of it you NEED to run your car..so youll need a special "Black box" which helps run some of those systems....problem is most of those units start out at $150 and go up in price, I know this cuz I have a 00' monte carlo and I need to get one of those boxes just to put in an after market deck, btw I checked this info out last nov.

Originally Posted by Unsullied_Spy

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm not totally sure what I want to spend on one. I was looking at Pioneers and Alpines (my brothers have had both and both were good) in the $150-$300 range online @ Crutchfield. I want something cheap but I'd rather spend an extra $100 or so and get a reliable unit than cheap out and have to replace it again soon. I'd like to keep the stock Mach 460 amp setup and just drop in a head unit for now and add a sub to the trunk later on (Crutchfield sells some nice-looking units that won't make it stand out too much).

The car is pretty much a daily driver, but I also take it to shows and don't want it to look like I "punked" it out or anything. Trying to make it functional but discrete.

from my experience cruthcfield is very exspensive, compared to other online stores.

[What's_nitro?]

I'm an Alpine fan, too. My deck was ~300 but even the less expensive models sound great and have lots of features.

[BrianG]

The features I look for in a deck:

- Parametric EQ, at least 5 bands, preferably 7. Helps to compensate for poor vehicle acoustics.

- HP/LP crossover with adjustable slope up to 24db/oct for each output

- High voltage pre-outs.

- Non-fading subwoofer output.

- Defeatable amp. No sense in having it running even with no load if using amps.

- iPod control.

- IR remote. I usually integrate the stock steering controls so they control the deck.

- Look purty.

At the time when I bought my deck, Alpine was the only one that fit these requirements.