Car aftermarket audio?

[SchoolGirlHeart]

I've had it with my factory radio. The CD player is dying again.... And my transmitter for my iPod broke, but the quality on it was crap anyway, so I've decided to replace the whole thing. I'm not replacing my speakers, at least not now. No additions, subwoofers, or anything fancy. I want to replace the thing with these criteria:

Front auxiliary input
Preferably a built in iPod input (but for the right price, quality, I could live with plugging the iPod into the aux input)
Ability to add satellite radio at some point
Middle of the road on price; neither the econo version nor the cadillac

Never had an aftermarket unit before so have no idea which are better or worse.... (There are sooo many choices...)

Opinions? Recommendations?

Thank you!

[Staredge]

I need to buy car radios, I buy Blaupunkt. Back in the day, 20 years ago, I had a soft spot for Rockford Fosgate and Boston Acoustics. Although you need to change your head unit, the best money you can spend is upgrading your speakers. The factory radio (except yours. Isn't a Kia, by any chance??) is usually good enough to get by with. The speakers are what s***. If you (or someone you know) is fairly handy with tools, get a Crutchfield catalog & do the install yourself.

[SchoolGirlHeart]

I need to buy car radios, I buy Blaupunkt. Back in the day, 20 years ago, I had a soft spot for Rockford Fosgate and Boston Acoustics. Although you need to change your head unit, the best money you can spend is upgrading your speakers. The factory radio (except yours. Isn't a Kia, by any chance??) is usually good enough to get by with. The speakers are what s***. If you (or someone you know) is fairly handy with tools, get a Crutchfield catalog & do the install yourself.

It's a 2002 Dodge Durango. The CD players are crap; I've replaced the factory unit with another (from a junk yard) already. The biggest issue I have at the moment, though, is that there's no front aux input. Adding an adaptor is over $100, so might as well replace the whole thing... I'd like to replace the speakers and probably eventually will. And yes, I'm looking at the online Crutchfield catalog.

[springparrot]

Larry had an Alpine put in the Cruiser....no idea what he paid, but it does have Sirius

[V-town Fin Truck]

I have had incredible luck over the years with JVC head units. They just plain work. My first one didn't even skip when I got hit by a mini van doing 60. Pick one with the features you want, and don't get any less then 40 watts per channel- so you will have power to upgrade speakers later if you want, but I have always been pleasantly surprised with the ability of factory speakers- but they are all different. If you happen to go to a Circuit City, they sell all the mounting hardware and wire harness adapters- the wires cost a little extra, but they have them custom made, so there is no splicing- you just plug it in and it works. I would be careful about any shop that wants to install it for you- better to find a friend you trust if you aren't comfortable doing it yourself. As mentioned above, Crutchfield is an excelent source as well, I just prefer a local place to take it back to if there is a problem. Good luck.

[V-town Fin Truck]

I need to buy car radios, I buy Blaupunkt. Back in the day, 20 years ago, I had a soft spot for Rockford Fosgate and Boston Acoustics. Although you need to change your head unit, the best money you can spend is upgrading your speakers. The factory radio (except yours. Isn't a Kia, by any chance??) is usually good enough to get by with. The speakers are what s***. If you (or someone you know) is fairly handy with tools, get a Crutchfield catalog & do the install yourself.

It's a 2002 Dodge Durango. The CD players are crap; I've replaced the factory unit with another (from a junk yard) already. The biggest issue I have at the moment, though, is that there's no front aux input. Adding an adaptor is over $100, so might as well replace the whole thing... I'd like to replace the speakers and probably eventually will. And yes, I'm looking at the online Crutchfield catalog.

When looking for your aux input- Some of them say they have aux inputs on the back- which is okay you just have to run a wire out somewhere to plug in your ipod- but they sometimes need an extra adapter like your factory unit did. Especially on the JVC's that I recomend. I just make sure it has one on the front like you want anyway.

[C-Dawg]

I've got a Pioneer Head unit, and it's built in sirius radio ready. For $30 you can buy the Ipod adapter that allows you to input your Ipod music but operate it thru the head unit. It was in my Wrangler when I bought it, but I have to say, I love it! Believe it's a Pioneer DEH-770, but may be wrong

[wheatsailor]

I just bought a Sony unit 5 months ago. I love it. It was about $130. Bluetooth ready and I had no complaints about the phone quality while driving. It also has a front aux input. And I believe it is I-pod ready with an adapter. I'll find the model and other info tommorrow for you. I got it at Best Buy.

[Staredge]

I run my iPod through a Sony cassette adaptor. Sounds pretty good, through the crappy Kia radio.

[SchoolGirlHeart]

I run my iPod through a Sony cassette adaptor. Sounds pretty good, through the crappy Kia radio.

If I had a cassette player that's exactly what I'd be doing!

[FunkHouse9]

As you see so far, everybody has a different opinion as to what brand is best. I'll throw in that I'm partial to Kenwood. I used to install car stereos and for the most part, two brand name radios with the same features are going to be essentially the same. Unless you're trying to spend a lot of money, which you don't need to, you're going to get about equal quality from any of the major brands.

Front auxiliary input
Preferably a built in iPod input (but for the right price, quality, I could live with plugging the iPod into the aux input)
Ability to add satellite radio at some point
Middle of the road on price; neither the econo version nor the cadillac

Although it's been a couple of years since I was truly up to date on what's out there, I don't think any radio is going to come with a built in iPod input simply because it requires an external cable for the connection. I'm pretty sure this cable is always sold separately. You will want to consider the expense for that before you select a brand.

Do you want to be able to control your iPod through the radio or just play the music and use the iPod for song control (I prefer the latter). If you just want audio, some companies make a cable that just plugs right into the iPod and the radio treats it like an external input source. If you want to control the iPod with the radio buttons, it could bring your price up by as much as a couple hundred bucks.

I have a car charger with a built in output which I run to the input jack so I can just plug in the dock connector and I'm set. I love it.

Your biggest limiting factor is going to be a front input jack as not all companies make them in the front. You can get them with a rear input, then run a wire to your glove compartment or our from your dash which will work as well.

[sonofabeach]

There are lots of good and inexpensive ones now.
I paid $150 for my JVC KD6420 a couple of years back but have seen all kinds cheaper now.
It has a flip down face, front input jack (which works great btw) and satellite capability.
But my favorite feature is WMA/MP3 capatibility which means you can cram hundreds of song on one cd, thus allowing me to roll with only a couple of cds with me. I have a Buffett cd with over 300 songs on it.

[pbans]

I run my iPod through a Sony cassette adaptor. Sounds pretty good, through the crappy Kia radio.

If I had a cassette player that's exactly what I'd be doing!

I use an FM modulator for my sirius and my ipod......works pretty well for me.

[RinglingRingling]

I run my iPod through a Sony cassette adaptor. Sounds pretty good, through the crappy Kia radio.

If I had a cassette player that's exactly what I'd be doing!

I use an FM modulator for my sirius and my ipod......works pretty well for me.

hae one of these for the iPod, a Belkin with full spectrum coverage.. sounds like crap in the car. Probably because the transmission distance is too short. have used the front aux-in jack on a couple rental cars, and it works great. thinking my computer bag carries as much cabling for music/pda/smart phone stuff as the computer now.

[AlbatrossFlyer]

the bimmers are all ipoded.

[ph4ever]

I used to be a die hard Kenwood or Pioneer user - and in our car I think we've got a Kenwood. It's just got too many damn buttons and other options for me to figure out. I once erased all my preset channels and to this day have no freaking idea how I did that. I still don't understand why I need a remote in my car either and our unit came with one.

The van has a JVC. My son also has a JVC in his truck. They are relatively easy to use and have a good sound for such a reasonably priced unit. My son had new speakers installed but I just stayed with the factory speakers. Of course his sounds better, but mine isn't bad.

I'd go with the JVC. Don picked out the one in the car, had I been with him when he bought it I would have asked him to consider JVC.

[Brown Eyed Girl]

I used to be a die hard Kenwood or Pioneer user - and in our car I think we've got a Kenwood. It's just got too many damn buttons and other options for me to figure out. I once erased all my preset channels and to this day have no freaking idea how I did that. I still don't understand why I need a remote in my car either and our unit came with one.

The van has a JVC. My son also has a JVC in his truck. They are relatively easy to use and have a good sound for such a reasonably priced unit. My son had new speakers installed but I just stayed with the factory speakers. Of course his sounds better, but mine isn't bad.

I'd go with the JVC. Don picked out the one in the car, had I been with him when he bought it I would have asked him to consider JVC.

I have a remote too, I believe it's so a person in the back seat can operate the stereo controls. I've never used it, I found the remote in my glove compartment when I was looking for something a couple weeks ago and had one of those "what the hell?" moments until I remembered what it was for.

Oh and Charlie? BITE ME!

[SchoolGirlHeart]

the bimmers are all ipoded.

hmmmm.... the perfect solution.... a new bimmer with ipod and satellite....

damn, the dodge is paid for......

[Frank4]

I run my Ipod through the hole formerly with known as the cigarette lighter...works pretty well

[wheatsailor]

As promised the unit I have is a Sony BT2600. As I posted earlier
Bluetooth ready out of the box, Satellite and HD Radio ready, plays cd's and mp3/wpa discs from both recordable and rewriteable, and has an aux input in front. It's a versatile unit.
Good luck in your pursuit.