So my stock Headunit is eating my CDs. It will play for maybe 20 mins and then just skip and hose itself up until it just reads CD ERROR1. Then I take the CD out and it's scratched to hell...
SO my question now is I'm ready to get the aftermarket Headunit. I was looking at the Alpine CDA-9835 and love everything about it...except the price. I don't want to really pay more than $250.
I sorta like the Alpines but see the newer ones get horrible reviews. Can anyone suggest good reliable headunits that are under $250? [or are selling for around that on ebay?] Maybe other brands. My Fiance had 3 pioneers and they held up to his lowered suspension in a 240.
I'm looking for an interesting display, not plain and boring [I like the different colors], MP3 / WMA playback, good sound with bass, treble and mid control and just plain won't break 6 months after I buy it. No I don't give a rat's ass about ipod stuff either...
Alpine, Pioneer, and Clarion are all pretty solid choices as far as reliability goes. I'd take Alpine's build quality over Pioneer's any day, but Pioneer isn't bad. The 9835 is a nice unit, almost 2 years old though. Last year's models (9853, 55, etc) had some reliability issues at first, but that was supposedly fixed after a couple of months so any that you find now should be fine.
If the 9835 costs too much then you might want to look at the 9833, same exact headunit minus the nifty display. It was ~$100 cheaper when they were new so it should be a good bit cheaper now too.
Yeah I looked for the 33 and 35 on ebay and both were running around 250 -350 so I just bought the 51 from crutchfield. 37 people giving it a 4.5/5 rating is pretty good. Has the features I like and is brand new and under warranty. Free shipping and free wiring harness and mounting kit. So I got it all for 229.
Another question I have is regarding something you said like on the first few pages. Since I never got around to buying new components it's going to by a little tricky wiring it all up. You said that we would need to run all new speaker wire to bypass double amping the speakers. Couldn't an easier way be just wiring around the amp, cutting what is going in and going out and splicing them together? Are the amps for the front speakers located in the doors or on the speakers themselves?
The stock amp in the trunk is just powering the rear deck right? We tried downloading the FSM and looking up the electrical plans but they weren't very clear.
Yes you can do that, I believe both amps (sub and front stage) are in the trunk (not sure on that, I don't have the RF system). There are instructions on b15sentra.net on bypassing the stock amp, it's a little old so you'd have to do a little searching.
We didn't even need to open the door panels. All we did was bypass the stock Amp in the trunk by splicing wires and ran the RCAs to the front. We used the remote turn on wire that was already in the stock amp to turn on the aftermarket amp. Everything fit well and we ran into no problems. And man does that headunit look sweet...
That box and setup is pure garbage. Don't get me wrong, I've heard those Sonys at BestBuy and they were decent but you can get better for the money.
That box i really crappy, its made of particle board and you should never have tweeters attached to your sub box.
That looks to be a $50 special from JC Whitney that you throw in the back of your van.
As for upgrading your system, you could get the JL Clean Sweep and then put aftermarket amps and speakers in IF you can't upgrade the stock radio.
Get a custom box built from 3/4" MDF when its time to get a sub box.
That box and setup is pure garbage. Don't get me wrong, I've heard those Sonys at BestBuy and they were decent but you can get better for the money.
That box i really crappy, its made of particle board and you should never have tweeters attached to your sub box.
That looks to be a $50 special from JC Whitney that you throw in the back of your van.
As for upgrading your system, you could get the JL Clean Sweep and then put aftermarket amps and speakers in IF you can't upgrade the stock radio.
Get a custom box built from 3/4" MDF when its time to get a sub box.
I know this topic is pretty old, but just my $0.02 my brother bitched at me the other day when I wanted to get him into a 340.00 stereo you dont have to pay alot to get alot, And from the 2 seconds i spent today looking at upgrading my g/fs car.... this is a easy car to do...... havent tested my theroy yet but from playing with the fader and such, the amp in the rear gets its signal from the front speakers........ this being said, this could very well be the easist car i've ever done...... i will post wire color and functions as i get into it.....
In car audio as with other things its never how much you spend nor how big it is..... It's how you spend it, as far as big bass, it's not the sub for the most part... its the box, and the amp.... In my passat i turn heads with a type r 12 in a ported box with 200watts granted the 200 is very underated
Heres what i'm thinking for at the moment,....
Stock Headunit, Hell 95% of people wont tell between that and a good source
Reason for this is it has the well placed changer and blends well
could be wrong here but the front speakers run to the amp in the back, so line convertor here.... then i'm guessing the wires run back up to the front doors from there..... it looks like a 16-18ga. so as long as i dont get freaky with the power input it will be good....
remotes already back there
So heres what others could do for a cheap good stereo.....
good 3-4 channel amp,..... my top pick, soundsteam rubicon a4 old school and hard to find new can find used, its a 4 channal that needs a 8ga power kit
stock speakers
and find a couple decent subs, alpine type e's,,..... 2 10's.... just dont clip the amp, and they will last forever
amp shipped, 180
Power wire 30
loc shipped 15
pair alpine type e 140ish shipped
box materials 35
1 pair meter rca's. 15
that comes to about 415, thats with everything new.... if you want to control the sub's throw in a epicenter or somthing like it......
I know this is a old topic, just going to do a easy to follow write up on it in case this comes up again.... only diffarance is i'm using a 5 channel amp
Hope my next post is a easy to follow way to enhance whats there
i say you get the dash kit and a nice deck installed that would basically be your budget right there and start there any stereo shop that "knows" what they are doing will make your bass work with your new deck just to get your business and point you in the path of upgrading any kind of real bass is gonna start at least 8 or 9 hundred but then you have a problem of your stock deck crap not getting your door speakers loud enough a little guide for you cause you already have a little bass....1.deck 2.more bass 3.door speakers 4.door speakers amp 5.more bass 678910 more bass maybe a t.v. ......JL is very respected and also kicker both are nice ..but like crossfire or t.m.a. ,RF, sony,etc. are cheep crap bass but it works and can be loud i think that if you went cheep fosgate would be the way to go bla bla bla anyways thats my opinion
i would go with some mtx thunder series or maybee even the sledge hammers there a lil more expensive ut its the best stuff you can get outside of car shows an really serious audio ppl
also mtx thunders 7500 have the world record as of rite now
but there amps are a lil expensive
you should also try looking on car domain the have really good prices
I have an 2006 sentra special edition.. which comes with the rockford fosgate head unit and the small amp and 8 inch sub in the back.. i recently got 2 10 inch polk audio subs and a pretty decent amp.. Im kinda low on money so i would really like to keep the stock RF head unit... U think its possible?
yeap its called aline level convertor, get one that can handle factory amps... since they make cheap ones that take just radio power........... disconect the factory sub and remove.... connect the line level convertor to the old sub amp via tee taps, even tho the car is a pile please dont just cut the wires.... bam your done
i think that if you went cheep fosgate would be the way to go bla bla bla anyways thats my opinion
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