Best car stereo out there?
 

I just bought a car and it needs a new radio, I need at least MP3 playback. What should I get?

If I had the money...

http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S...0&I=020VRX925+

This thing does it all.

Kenwood KDC-X959

The display on it is awesome.

shit, just found one with a 10GB hard drive too.

http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S...0&I=130DEHP90H

Nice stuff.

I personally really like the Clarion Joyride . I have never heard how it is as far as sound quality is, but clarion is usually good.

Also Eclipse is very high end . Very powerful preouts 8v@55ohm. anyway the top one, the AV8132 is a very nice peice if u get it with all the options, same as the clarion. Eclipse has a voice activation option for their radios.

What kind of car?

I'll post a pic tomorrow.

I saw a Sony at BestBuy that had a color TFT. Mike69 has a 7" DVD player in his Viper. I don't want to watch movies, but still need a nice deck in there.

I would strongly advise against buying any kind of mobile audio/video equipment from bestbuy or any of those types of places.

Why is that?
Get the extended warranty and you can blow up 23 amps, speakers and decks and get them all replaced free?

On the other hand if you are talking about instalation then I might agreee.

This is what I have my car Lens and I can tell ya it's 100% kick ass. Top of the line in non super comp head units. Will play like 200 cd's worth of MP3's, handle tv's, dvd, satellite radio, a very long list. Price is $2,100 but well worth it. It can handle each speaker setup, the amps ect. Its killer.

I run it on 2 12' duel JL's, 1 10' duel JL, 2 Phoenix Gold amps one is the Titanium 1200 the other 500 which pushes MB Quart Q series mid and highs. I don't have any of the DVD stuff right now but do run the satellite radio and it's pure amazing.

Radio:
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Pi...,21417,00.html

Top mid and high speakers for the price in the world
http://www.mbquart.com

Top base speakers for size and price
http://www.jlaudio.com

I'd have to go with PlayaPlaya on the Eclipse. As for amps go with Phoenix Gold. JL Audio has some great speakers, plus.... If they blowout, you can replce em for like 20 gucks. :thumbsup

I haven't been keeping up with the latest car stereo technology, but i'm assuming you can somehow download mp3's into the car stereo's hard drive, thus not needing the cd. Is that possible yet? Or when it says the stereo will "play mp3's," it just means that the stereo will play a cd that has mp3's burned onto it.

I need to do some research. Been meaning to get a top of the line stereo system for my car. Would love to dump a shitload of mp3's into the car stereo and leave the cd's at home. I would think this is already possible...

none of you guys know your sound systems :)

lensman, for car go all infinity...infinity makes the best speakers period.

quite expensive though, the infinitys that you want are about $500 - $600 each, but if you like your music it's worth it.

go with a kenwood or jvc mp3 deck, should be around $500 - $800

just get a shop to do a custom job, so you'll get some nice 12 inch subs built into your ride, the bass makes a HUGE difference, you wouldn't believe :)

cd players that play mp3's just have the proper codec installed so it can read the mp3 data

basically, you can put about 150 mp3 songs per cd, and just burn it as data to a blank cdr, then throw it in your cd deck, press play, and your good :)

get the new ones that play mp3 & wma

Why bother getting a nice system to play MP3's on. They sound like shit.

I have been working with car systems for about 10 years I have shown 2 award winning show cars. MB Quart is damn near the top mid range speaker in the world. They are super comp speakers that range from $800-$5000 per speaker. They have won more awards for one single speaker than any other company. What is nice about MB Quart is they have a wide range from a few 100 bucks to extreme expensive.

JL Audio is the most amazing sub ever made. Place a JL in way under air space and it works, move it to the correct size and it sounds amazing. Now their are many companies that produce much higher end sub's but for the sound and price JL kills all competition hands down. The W7 is flat amazing. 1 12" replaces most super comps with around the same thing of 4 18's.

Head units are a different story. Sony produces some very nice high end head units. If you "REALLY" want to spend the cash go with super comp head units from Sony or Pioneer but be ready to spend $20,000. After you do this your favorite CD's will now sound like shit as it will produce the clearest sounds you have ever heard and you will hear ever error they made making the CD.

This becomes those home systems that cost 100k+

MQ Quart is hands down the top mid and high range speakers. Now if you don't want to spend super amounts of cash lots of other companies make fine speakers.

Bose is another area to look at for the sound of base without the feel and the space they take up. MQ Quart also comes out with a flat base speaker that works like bose but I think bose sounds better for that type of speaker.

Head unit .. Go with Sony or Pioneer. Nothing is even comming close to them for non super comp head units right now.

You've been working with car systems for ten years but you can't spell BASS and you don't know that Bose only sells OEM product?

I think i might know a thing or two about sound systems :thumbsup take a look Infiniti speakers are pretty good, i have those components all around. As far as radio's, i'll stand by eclipse. at the moment i have a mostly panasonic setup though (which i'm not very impressed with the sound quality) i have a panasonic cd/dvd player with a panasonic flipout directly on top of that. for mids and highs i have infiniti kappas all around which are powered by jlaudio amp 75x4 i believe. and for bass i have 3 jlaudio 10w3's powered by eclipse D class amp. Also have a audio control epicenter but i think i'm going to disconnect it and replace it with a normal eq.

Lens listens to more Britney than Vivaldi...

An Epicenter is not an EQ...and it shows in your pics that you have an Orion amp for bass.

i never said an epicenter was an eq, i said i was going to disconnect it and replace it with an eq. and yes in the pics that is an orion amp, unfortunately i'm starting a collection of blown orion amps in my house =(. after that 1 blew i had to get the eclipse class D subamp . its the top 1 there, I will update the pics in a few days.

do they still make the clarion auto pc?

nakimichi is the bomb

Ah well you stand corrected.

Orion amps used to be the shit back in the day.

Zapco makes some tought as hell amps these days.

But the fact is car audio is a philosophical thing. If you want booming bass, etc or a simple ass system.

Notice my man Lens said he wants a 'radio' not a stereo, or a system or a boomin' bass palace. When you're selling car gear and a guy comes in saying he wants a radio to play MP3's you're looking at selling maybe a head and some nice co-axes...

Bass and base are the same thing: commonly written bass. Both spellings are correct. So yes 10 years and running.

Bose does normally only deal on OEM. Working within different types of cars. Not knowing what type of car lens has Bose can install a system that he may want for the base sound without the space.

yes, but they changed the name to clarion joyride

Dude you're full of shit. Bass and base are not the same thing.

No how are they.

Bose does not sell product other than as a factory installed option. Period.

Jimmy are you brain dead?


From the dictionary. Notice See BASE.....
1) Bass \Bass\, n. [F. basse, fr. bas low. See Base, a.] 1. A bass, or deep, sound or tone.

Meaning of base.
2) Deep or grave in sound; as, the base tone of a violin. [In this sense, commonly written bass.]

This means...Base and Bass are the same fucking thing.


And "YES" Bose WILL do custom jobs for cars they can install in.
Everyone does it's all about the money and the promotion.

Dude you don't know how to read a dictionary, base meaning bottom is not the same thing as a bass note. You are a fucking tard.

Fuck! I can't believe I'm arguing something this stupid!

Arrrrrgh!!! I give up. I need a hobby.

The higher end Alpine head units are absolutely kick ass. As far as speakers, amps and subs I couldn't recommend much, but for a reasonable priced and HIGH quality(high end unit is over 2k, average about 400) headunit go with the Alpine.

Top of the range Alpine is the way to go for the head unit and probably for a good AMP.

Get top notch 12" SUB + speakers to complete the set (not sure what you have there in the US)

enjoy!

Nurgle

(Nurgle? As in the Chaos god...?)

Nice posts here guys. I listened to a bunch of speakers before I picked some up myself. I thought infinity would rock because of the price, but a pair of the Kenwood Excelon 6x9's were ten times as good, at least for the music i play.

As for woofers, any of you hear the aluminum eclipses? I kicked it to an audio store, and heard two JL W6's run off of a rockford 1K amp, sounded great (Jl is awesome stuff)

Well, the same amp running the two Eclipse 12's sounded about 10 times as loud, 10 times as accruate, and get this, I haven't ever seen a woofer do this before, but it played perfect tight, and responsive bass, and at the same time, also was able to produce the best rumbling bass I have ever heard. (think it's 500 RMS @ 6 ohms) Haven't ever seen a woofer be able to handle both types of bass before, normally they excel in one or the other. Didn't sound tinny or anything, it was nice and clean. Plus they requite a small sealed box, .75 cf? The perfect woofer. Go find a dealer and listen to a demo, most stores carry JL too, so you can hear what i'm talking about. Bring a cd.

http://www.eclipseb2b.com/website/pr...tegoryno=11210

Only heard the aluminum woofer, not their inexpensive ones, or the new titanium woofers. At a bit under 400 bucks a pop, i couldn't afford them. I sure plan on it though. First woofer I have ever seen/heard in person which blows JL audio woofers away in every respect.