Headunit upgrade question Options

[cHinaman727]

Gotz a question.

What, in your opinions, should I get for:

The best price
Best sound Quality
Best Appearance

Also, should I save for a DD?

Are there any good deck under 200?

Oh, it has to have iPod compat.

Thx!

[LewFX]

im partial to jvc

[Supersprynt]

If you bump it up to $300 you might have something to work with. I have a Pioneer DEH7800mp which looks good, has alot of sound features, has the ability to add on the ipod interface ($50). Downside: my screen randomly stopped operating, and luckily its within the 1 year warranty so it'll get fixed for free but it unimpressed me in that respect. It was $320ish new a year ago when I got it.

Another trick I learned wth my old cd player - if you go to radioshack and get a ear phone jack to RCA you can possibly plug into the back of your cd player and use an AUX input. This worked with my old Sony Xplod but I basically had to trick into thinking it was the cd changer. By this I mean I had to leave the cd changer plugged into the deck, but the input came from the Ipod.

This post has been edited by Supersprynt: Sep 28, 2007 - 12:58 PM

[cHinaman727]

i think my cd player only has audio out for some reason...

thats kinda why i want to get a new one..

[LewFX]

any aux in is "ipod" ready!! what a scam, 6 years ago, all players had aux in, 4 years ago no players had aux in, now ipod is out and aux in is called ipod compatible!!! and they jack up the price, thanks ighey

[GriffGirl]

In my experience and research, for the money, value, and quality, Alpine has the best units out there. The iPod interface is way better than I've seen on other decks that truly are iPod ready. Expect to pay about $200 for it, plus the cable, (which charges your iPod, it's not just an aux cable) which for Alpine I think runs around $35. You can run the cable to your glove box, pop in your iPod, and have full iPod controls from the head unit without having to fuss with the iPod itself (a challenge at best when you're driving!).

The downside to the Alpine decks, in my opinion, is that the face isn't as slick as some of the others with all the bells and whistles and pretty colors. Other units have gorgeous displays, which I really like... but the Alpine decks have that great user interface and the audio quality is outstanding.

Just my two cents.

[Supersprynt]

A friend of mine had an Alpine with Ipod interface and the downside of that is his Alpine wasn't very good looking and only read one line at a time when scrolling through the songs. Upside I *think* you could skip 1/2 way through the library to get closer to what you wanted, but I'm not sure.

I liked my Panasonic interface better because well there was a color screen and it read 3 lines at a time and worked the same as the ipod interface. IE - You could go by Song/Title/Playlist etc.

[goferris]

i think my cd player only has audio out for some reason...

thats kinda why i want to get a new one..

like i said in one of your other posts post a pic of the back of your deck and i could tell you if you have an input. it you turn off your stereo and hold like the function button (or whatever equivalent your stereo has) it should ask you if you would like the aux on or not. if it gives you that option you do have input so all you will have to do is purchase a cord to plug into the back.
it's really not that hard. most semi decent decks have them. mainly for sat radio or a cd changer. so if it's sat ready it does have an input function that you can use your ipod with. the only downside is that you have to manually change the songs on the ipod not the deck as well as it won't charge your ipod.
if you are set on getting a new deck though i would suggest either 1) Alpine or 2) Pioneer. i have heard horror stories from most other companies.
jvc has a bad rep of breaking on a reg basis.
eclipse are good but most don't offer removable face (if you care about that kind of stuff)
whatever you do stay away from DUAL
i've had several pioneer (actually getting a new with ipod interface either this week or next thanks to rockman) and all have been pretty good.
i had an alpine in my 97 LE that was an older model that i really liked
it really just depends on what you want.
sorry for the ridiculously long post

[azn87]

i like alpine because they are very clean and easy to use. also they have great sound qulity from stock door speakers and the stock seats too. but i think the reason it sounds hella good in my car is because i got a type R sub from alpine.

[cHinaman727]

thanks for all the input guys! im looking into some alpines and pioneers now and i didnt know about the function thing.

my button to change from CD to TUNER is the source button.

are you saykng i should turn the unit COMPLETELY off? cause if it is on and i press the off button once, it turns it half off, like the display will be on, but it wont play anything. If I press the off button a second time, or just hold it down, it shuts the unit down.

im gonna try that but I really believe that the ports say audio out.

[azian_advanced]

if i were to get a stereo, my 1st priority is it would have to be a double-din type. it looks 4x better than single-dins.

[joehernandez]

i would tell you that jvc,

i've had 2 head units for a long time,, the sound is just amazing (well thats depending on the model, mine is JVC 850
it seems tooo plain but it has a loot of features,,, has a lot of watts per chanel, sd card, aux, but i don't think it supports ipod,, but others from jvc they do. i have listen to many headunits in my life and to tell you the truth, mine is one of the best.

[kerosene]

are you saykng i should turn the unit COMPLETELY off? cause if it is on and i press the off button once, it turns it half off, like the display will be on, but it wont play anything. If I press the off button a second time, or just hold it down, it shuts the unit down.

It plays a demo screen