Surprised there's no car audio general on this board.
I'm in the market for a new head unit. I have a 99 Explorer with the Mach audio system.
Every head unit I see on amazon is ugly as fuck. I want something that doesnt look like it's trying to grab your attention on the wall of best buy.
I don't need a cd or dvd player. I just want usb, 3.5, blue tooth.
Who makes a quality minimalistic head unit that doesnt have a bunch of ugly lights? I like this pioneer unit but the top comment is a dude saying he wishes he could turn the background to black instead of blue/red/green.
Buy a "heavy duty" head unit for like a truck These threads never go anywhere
Nathan Lee
Im looking for a single din for my mr2 with bluetooth but cant find any that look good
Ian Wilson
Wish we had more of these. My setup: >DNX890HD >Memphis 12" Sub >2 Infinity Red 6x8's front, kicker in back >200W? Some amp for sub
My only issue is I can only connect music through Bluetooth with this head. It has an aux and USB but it refuses to work for my phone 6 and this is killing me. I need to figure this out. Broadcasting over Bluetooth blows.
Dominic Johnson
>apple >connecting with non apple products
Nathaniel Bennett
>2 Infinity Red 6x8's front, kicker in back
This is probably a pleb question, but is it common/acceptable to mix and match front and rear speakers? 6x8 is what fits my explorer and I was looking at getting infinty KAPPAs for the front and rear.
No, you shouldn't. Back speakers don't contribute much to the sound to most people so it doesn't matter too much...the plan is to replace the back speakers in kind.
Jose Morgan
Here you go
Brayden Hernandez
Good tip. I would have never thought to look for these. I like what I'm coming across.
Julian Hernandez
Should I just replace the fronts and leave the stock rears? The stock audio system on my Explorer is actually decent. The reason I'm upgrading is for digital music functionality and because the stock subwoofer is blown.
William Lewis
clarion FZ102 kienzle MCR1016BT becker indy pro vdo CD9303UB–CV sony rsx gs9
John Cooper
Just use a tape to aux adapter. Aftermarket head units are shit or rice.
Aaron Butler
Get a stock one.
Nathan Lewis
Thats what I've been using for years. It sounds like shit compared to the radio or a CD.
Cooper Clark
>Dat sony deck
Hnnnnnnggggggg
Owen Cruz
>sony rsx gs9 >google >$1,499.00
get out of here. thats not even including the deductible to replace your broken window that a thief broke to steal the damn radio
Luis Allen
Then turn down the volume on the device or the head unit I have no quality issues in my ranger.
Nathaniel Wright
Just the same I'd prefer something less niggery.
Rate this setup lads
Mason Morales
You need an amp for sub ? And some people have said an amp for the infinity ref's really brings them out
Carter Gonzalez
My Explorer came with a sub and dedicated amp. I'm gonna upgrade the sub and keep the original amp. I don't want to fuck with adding another amp to boost the speakers.
Lincoln Williams
It's not niggery. An aftermarket head unit is niggery. The average Joe can't wire up a radio for shit and then you have parasitic draw down the road or some other problems.
Nathan Ross
>It's not niggery. It is niggery. I want to be able to track forward from my steering wheel instead of tapping my phone.
>The average Joe can't wire up a radio for shit It's easy as fuck, bro. That's what wiring harnesses are for.
Blake Miller
Aftermarket steering wheel controls are definitely niggery. Just put your phone in a mount and use that.
Austin Sanchez
I just finished installing my stereo and shallow 10" in my truck today. No matter much i do it, installing this shit is infuriating. 2 different wire harnesses only to find out i have to run a seperate wire to the ignition fuse and onto the radio harness. Confused the shit out of me since the harness i bought has a red wire on it but didnt work when i spliced them. Took me like 3 days to figure that shit out. Then as the moron i am i order a stereo bracket thinking it was double din compatible, it wasnt. Then i spend the time taking the rca cables and amp wiring from my old truck only to find out that half the wires arent long enough for the new truck. $35 for an amp kit and i really only needed the battery wiring, at this point i was too anxious and pissed to buy the wire online and wait 2 more days.
All my shit is finally in now, and aside from having to tuck a couple of wires away, its all njce and tight. Fits perfect under the backseat and the capacitor gives off a nice blue glow.
But yeah, fuck stereos.
Cooper Green
Yeah I feel you on all that. I'm probably gonna take all my stuff to a pro and let them install everything. The last time I pooped my door panel off to fix a doorlock, I didnt put everything together right and now the truck doesnt tell when the door is open or closed.
Noah Perez
...
Grayson Williams
Just make sure you don't get a 24v one.
Aren't the oval speakers worse than round ones with an adapter plate?
Built-in amp might be shit, and it might not give enough power for your sub. Better read up on it.
Using the stock steering wheel controls is not niggery you fucking double nigger.
Julian Sanders
I got that exact radio for my crown vic. Found it in a ford minivan at a pick and pull. pretty awesome having a tape deck. jam out to my tapes, CDs, and play an aux cassette anytime. rollin like a king. just wish my crown vic had better speakers.
Henry Bailey
a pic of the under-the-back-seat setup in the dark. im drunk as a monkeys uncle.
Sebastian Reed
>Enclosed speakers because using your god damned door for the speaker enclosure is really dumb Mid ranges @ 60w each (but I don't buy that)
>a subwoofer that is factory matched to its enclosure
>a sub amp that isn't a total piece of shit, but at the same time would make an audiophile cringe, despite the fact that a Class-D amp into a speaker with a response time of a milisecond means that it will be as good as any other amp
BECAUSE YOU CAN'T HEAR HIGH FREQUENCY OUT OF A WOOFER YOU STUPID CLASS-A PURISTS
>Juicy directional nippon tweeters @35w each (legit!) - these are the best tweeters you'll ever hear. Clean, crisp, responsive up to 45,000 hz which you can't even hear but they go there. Install a 555 timer on them set to 30khz or so and a little preamp and you can make a dog hit the ground. Not running, just hit the ground.
>3 el cheapo amps - one for front, one for rear, one for tweet. Full independent balance control for cheap claims 500w - probably 300w peak maybe - maybe 40, 50 w rms, probably just about perfect for my speakers.
>Headunit selection with this kinda setup doesn't matter so I went with the cheapest one that could bluetooth into my phone
>and this, my friends >This is what 300 dollars will get you >not the best >not the prettiest >but this will be pretty clear and pretty crisp up to close to maxed out volume, and that's really what counts the most.
Eli Brown
It'll get you something that sounds terrible but loud because your source has a shitty DAC?
Easton Carter
Why is it so fucking hard to find a head unit that looks like this and doesn't cost hundreds of fucking dollars god damn it.
Robert Bailey
How hard would it be to modify something like pic-related to add an SD/USB slot?
Non-autistic looking headunits that don't actually look ridiculous in older cars cost arm and leg.
Easton Hill
Capacitors are a meme and that blue shit looks tacky.
Julian Carter
Why use that ugly headunit as a bluetooth to RCA instead of this?
Not impossible but you would have to crack it open and understand what you are looking at.
The route I went which took a lot of research and fiddling is cheap and not too difficult, I didn't have to open up the head unit. If you find an old Alpine, Blaupunkt, etc. that worked with a CD changer but before CAN communication (I don't know when they introduced that in specific head units but I would imagine mid 90s) you can use the audio in pins for an RCA adapter, then all you have to do is simulate a signal to let the head unit think a CD changer is plugged in. In my case a single 1000 ohm resistor bridged between 2 pins did the trick, later stereos you may did to use a 12v to 5v voltage regulator to send a switched 5v signal to a certain pin. The first CD changer stereos used a 12v signal so you just do a pin bridge with a wire. Find an old head unit on ebay with a CD changer and see if you can find a pinout diagram for it, if you can chances are either someone has already figured it out or you can ask in a thread like this how to do it.
Tyler Bell
The other route I was thinking about going and requires less thought is just using an older EQ/booster as a head unit. Assuming you don't care about AM/FM or CDs it will just act as an RCA in and a small amp, really easy to set up, especially these Alpine units that have remote faces so you can put whatever other amp/crossover/etc. all in one place and have a single data wire running to your dash.
Eli Gray
The older ones are single DIN and look pretty appropriate all the way back to early 80s cars, they are also mostly RCA in/out in a time where most head units used all sorts of crazy standards like ISO and the circular DIN which leads to way more work wiring them in
Carter Williams
My uncle has an after market stereo for his 1964 Porsche 356c that has usb and 3.5.
It wasnt expensive, like maybe $120. I'm trying to remember the name of the company. Theyre here in so cal.
Any loudspeaker with a QTS higher than .7 will be absolutely fine using the door space as an enclosure.
Nathaniel Edwards
pfff
go on and tell yourself that CD quality audio is noticeably different than FLACC through gold plated everything you twit.
>it isn't.
Dylan Scott
I'm saying that there's a difference between a decent head unit and the cheapest one possible.
Wyatt Thomas
This sounds like a great idea. Were are you going to get info on these older units? Is there a website with a database of this shit?
Kayden Ortiz
yeah maybe in the amps, but on the RCA side it is all the same, and since that is what i'm using i won't notice the diff. I havent found one with the look I want now so I'm keeping that crapass one.
Matthew Harris
For my Blaupunkt I found good info on a German forum called hifi-forum.de, but I would just recommend finding a pinout diagram before you buy a stereo if it's not a standard plug just to make sure you'll be able to decipher what's what. Took hours to find what I needed for mine but it's an oddball stereo with a standard they only used on 2 models for 1 year. It's probably easier to find info on Alpine stuff since it's the most sought after for these kind of projects. If it's new enough to have RCA inputs then it's easy and you don't really need much info to make it work.
Jason Mitchell
some tripfag on here uses one of these with an aux lead. i've read up on them and they seem to be highly rated for sound quality. 1/2 din size btw
Bentley Anderson
>tape to aux
For the love of Christ, NO. Those things are abhorrent.
Just do a simple Aux In hack. Find the back of the tape head, solder in a 3.5mm jack. It's so damned easy.
Then, when you want to switch to aux in, insert an empty cassette shell.
Cooper Sanchez
>supertweeters
What the fuck is wrong with you? You're either trolling or fucking deaf.
Thomas Thompson
FLAC is fine. But Bluetooth isn't. Bluetooth is utter and complete shit. If you can't hear a difference between a real CD and Bluetooth, your stereo has the same audio quality as a fucking clock radio.
Parker Fisher
you are a fucking retard >where's the crossover >where are you going to mount that tweeter :) >can that midrange even go low enough to meet the subwoofers?
shit, just go buy a $20 bt speaker since that will be good enough for you
Benjamin Gutierrez
please do this and post results
Parker Richardson
My setup is a complete fucking mess, but it sounds ok, is non-descript, and I've spent like 150 bucks on it
Car came with a pioneer head unit, old school linear power 4 ch amp and ~4inch hertz door speakers
Bought a 3000w hertz hp 3001 amp at a thrift store for 40$
Bought a low profile pioneer premier 12" for 50$
made a custom box out of scrap wood I had laying around.
Replaced the shitty 200w linear amp with a 400w/4ch Rockford fosgate punch amp, 40$
Are tweeters worth it? All 4 door speakers are 2 way, do I really need them?
Anthony Watson
Brand and model? The orange lighting would look good in my FC.
