I need to know about car audio!

[Mr. Switch]

So I bought a new mp3 player on clearance from work, it was a Toshiba Gigabeat S30 for $40 and it's 30GB, does audio, video, has an FM tuner in it, and the sound quality kicks my ipod to pieces, pretty sweet for $40.

Well I wanted to hook it up to my car stereo, but i found the part I need for it, but the **** thing is $300!!! An adapter to go from CD Changer to 1/8th mini for $300?! Ford can kiss my a** for $300.

SO, I tried the FM tuner, waste of money, tried two, they don't work, too much static and interference in the portland metro area.

Then I started looking at new stereos. I don't want to buy a new car stereo, but it seems to be the wisest choice, and a kid at a local car audio shop said that the stock ford one sucks for sound anyway. Ok, that makes sense, but i'm sure he's just blowing alot of smoke up my a**, he keeps saying "why would I lie to you?" If someone says that to me, then now I think you're hiding something, dumba**!


SO...

I don't want to spend more then $100 on a new stereo, it's just not worth it for more then that, but it needs a aux port on it, the front would be nice. The thing though, is that I have no idea what to look for, I don't know jack about audio systems. It's like hand me a D3x and i'll set it up in 5 seconds, give me a kenwood to install and I wouldn't know which side is up. I found some at car toys' website for about $80-$120 that look cool on the front, but I'm oblivious about sound quality.

help please!

This one looks really cool, and i can stretch for this:

Pioneer Premier DEH-P310UB CD Receiver

This one looks like its nothing special, but it's cheap, i guess.

Kenwood Kenwood KDC-MP142

 

[HAVOC]

IF I may ask, what type of car are you driving these days Mr. Switch?

 

[Mr. Switch]

Oh i'm still driving the focus, not the yellow one, I totaled it. With the insurance money, I was able to afford a new 2007 focus.

 

[HAVOC]

Nice. Some of us have been on ventrilo lately. You should hop on sometime.

Good luck with your car audio questions. I suck with audio.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

IMO the pioneer, but remember if your replacing the stock system you will also need wiring adapters and most likely a dash install kit.

 

[taintedplay]

for that budget, thats going to suck. first off, youll need a wiring harness and dash kit. that alones around 30. if you can bump your budget to 150 that would help alot IMO. i have the pioneer deh4000ub, and its meh. works fine, but not very user friendly at all. if you can get alpine or pioneer.

bascially, when you pull your old one out, youll have a harness that plugged into the back of it. plug your new wiring harness into that. there are free wires going away from that. plug the adapter you have into your new headunit (it will come with it) that also has free wires. you solder the wires from your wiring harness to the wires from your headunit harness. mostly they are color coded, but you want to make sure theyre the same, especially remote, ground, power(12v), and ignition. the others should be same color.

its not a bose factory system is it?

 

[Mr. Switch]

I don't know what my stock system is, but I went to a local place here in portland, Car stereo city, and found a pioneer stereo that's very similar to the one linked above, and I went into a car toys and found that kenwood one. The Kenwood one was like russian, not user friendly at all, really sucked, and the pioneer one handles fine.

It was on sale for $100, install cost $40, $140 total, and got it isomounted for free, pretty sweet. It looks great, sound even better, the difference between the pioneer and the stock system is night and day, and I hooked up my toshiba s30 to it, and it sounds killer for stock speakers.

So, $180 TOTAL for new deck, install, 30GB mp3 player, cords, mounting, $180 total i feel is a freaking steal for what I got. Considering that a 30GB IPOD costs $400 new by itself, I'm STOKED.

 

[taintedplay]

haha youll get to a point to where youll want more. im way past that point. im at 3k worth of equipment (i install everyting myself so thats strait equipment cost) like i have 400 bucks just in wiring. haha its an expensive hobby

 

[lancec2c30]

Aftermarket head units are nice. My clarion has 6 volt pre amps. audio is crystal clear.

 

[ricanflow]

Running a stock headunit is like running onboard video.....