I want to replace the factory AM/FM cassette in my SLT with a AM/FM CD Player with satellite radio. One item of the current radio's performance that drives me insane is the damned volume ****. I'll turn and turn and turn and the volume *decreases* rather than *increases*. Then, *WHAM* it jumps about 30 decibels.

Anyway, I've been to Crutchfield's website looking at aftermarket radios. I don't want a CD changer unit, just a single disc player is fine; however, I would prefer a unit that has the built-in satellite reciever rather than my having the string an external antenna and control pad. Does anyone out there have experience with a particular brand, be it a Dodge truck or other vehicle?

I opted for Crutchfield rather than going to Best Buy, Circuit City, et al because A) Crutchfield doesn't charge extra for the harness adapter, and B) I'll be damned if I let one of those "technicians" work on my truck.

 

I bought CD players from Crutchfield for my dakota and ram and would buy from them again because the units come with the mounting plate and the wiring harness. No cutting or drilling just plug and play. Put your year, make and model into the website and it will tell you which units will work with your truck.

 

i'd recommend getting a cd player that also plays MP3 files from a cd data disk. almost all $100 units will now play mp3, so it pretty much a standard feature. with this you can rip your cd's to mp3 files (or download then from the internet), organize them into folders, write 100's and 100's of songs on a each data disk this eliminates the need for a cd changer. i have1000's and 1000's on songs on about a dozen disks. this allows you to buy any brand name standard 1 DIN player, a dashkit and wiring harness, and you are ready to install. its only a 1-2 hour job you can do yourself, so you don't have to pay anyone to do it. as far as source of equipment, you can buy brand new in box name brand stuff on ebay for 1/2 - 3/4 the price you will pay at crutchfield and best buy. so go look at it at best buy and pick out what you want, then buy it on ebay. just watch out for whether you are getting new or used. sorry - i don't have any experience in satellite. i'm too cheap to pay the subscription.

 

Are you currently using factory speakers? There are a few things to consider. Will you be amping anything? Is it an Infinity sytem, etc?

There's a dude in the audio/visual section. It's Habeba86, I think.

He and the section he moderates is another good place for resources.

Personally, I take the total amount I'm willing to spend, and then go from there..lol.

Anyway, good luck with your ride.

 

here is the reciver i have its sat ready http://mobile.jvc.com/product.jsp?mo...=54&page=1

 

alot of the new decks, are satilte radio ready. I have a clarion in mine and they have an adapter you can but that has no external controll pad, but it does have the antenna with the wire but its easy to run the wire in our trucks. You just run it under the dash and up the outside of the a piller underneath the rubber trim and put the magnet antenna on the top of the truck

 

Factory speakers and I'm am not planning to add an amp or anuthing like that. I have the stock Infinity system. Thank you for the tip on the Audio/Visual. I'm on it.

Thank you for the heads up. In reference to other questions, most every player out there plays CD, MP3, WMA, CDR, FBI, CIA, DoD, ad nauseum. My limit is about $300 for a unit. What gets me is how many come with a remote control That's just stupid.

 

LOL i guess its not just me

I found if you give it some slight pull effort while turning that it works "normally"

idk if you have the amps in the speakers, but this is what i was told when i priced headunits. since the amps are on each individuial speaker, id have to replace the speakers with ones that are standard, and then buy a stand alone amp, and then a head unit.

 

No you don't have to replace the speakers. I have the factory speakers with a factory amp with an aftermarket H/U and it works fine.

As for Crutchfield I have bought several things from them. Most and all but 1 or two things of my car stereo stuff has come from them and a lot of my home theater stuff along with my camera and GPS. Some other stuff I'm sure I've bought from them also and always had nothing but great experiences. I'd definately reccomend ordering from them.


For headunits I've had good luck with Alpines and would reccomend them. I also have a JVC Aresonal in my older Honda that I loved. It had a 2 year warrenty and worked great for that time. It sounded slightly better than the Alpine's I've used to me using the internal amps and it seemed to rarely skip. I mean the Alpine very rarely skips but if you took it on a rough gravel road to get to some property we have everyonce in a while it would and the JVC usually wouldn't. I really like the JVC plus it had lots of nice features at a nice price. I think it was onsale for around $230 when I got it but that was probably 3 years ago. It worked great for the first 2 years when it had a warrenty but after that it started having problems. One I think was my fault. I carried a saw in the car and saw dust got everywhere and you can see where it looks like it got in the cd player slot and after that it skips some but not too badly. It will also skip some when the bass hit's hard. This is with 2 12"s though and I mean hard. I can turn them up pretty loud and be fine but if I turn the bass and sub volume on the H/U all the way up and am listening to something with lots of bass sometimes it will skip. Not sure if this is normal or not. The other problem is the forward button sometimes will go forward but sometimes will go back. This isn't a huge deal for me but it is something weird. Other than that I've loved this H/U. I haven't heard good things about the regular JVC line though only about the Aresonal line.


I have a Alpine in my Ram and had one in my old Ram. Both have been good. The sound quality is pretty good and they are nice h/u's. The only problem I see is that they are hard to adjust as in you adjust the bass and stuff by frequency not like normally. This is a pain as you have to know what you are doing but other than that I really like them. I'd look for a H/U that has 3 sets of pre outs justs incase you want to amp the speakers later if you haven't already.

Another good brand to check out is Eclipse. I haven't used one much personally but I do like them and have heard good things about them. I bought one and a friend wanted it so bought it from me the same day so I never used it in my vehicles. I have used it in his though and it seems really nice and he really seems to like it too.

I've heard some people reccomend Pioneer but I've never been impressed with them. A guy I used to work with swore by them and even liked the low end ones. To me the low end ones sounded washed out and horrible but the higher ends ones were better just not up to par with some of the other H/U's I've used. They are decent and I normally like Pioneer stuff but I'd go with an Alpine over them.


Here are a few I'd consider If I was looking for one now and on a $300 budget. I'd probably spend around $200 on one personally though. I don't see the need for a $300 one I think you'd be better off getting a $200 one and some nice speakers and a seperate amp for them. I have a Alpine that was $350 in my Ram but I got it slightly used for half price and I do like it a lot I will say.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-Vqm7rTW...p;I=500CDA9883

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-Vqm7rTW...mp;I=099CD4000

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-Vqm7rTW...p;I=500CDA9820

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-Vqm7rTW...p;I=500CDA9885

 

Im gonna be biased in this post cause well yea i work at best buy lol. If your gonna buy a head unit ide suggest sticking with pioneer. I dont know how much everyone knows about "Satalite radio ready' but all that means is it has the ability to be used as a satalite tuner, but in order to get that signal you need to dump about another hundred bucks for the tuner, basically a small metal box that goes behind the radio that will recieve the signal and put it to your head unit. Another thing to possibly consider instead of sattelite is HD radio. JVC is the only brand so far that has built in HD. HD radio is fantastic lol, free if available in ur area, FM sounds like cd quality and AM sounds like current FM. Other great thing is the particular radio station can choose to broadcast up to 3 signals at once. Aka if you dont wanna listen to a stupid talk show in the morning and that station does it you can switch to the other signal from them and hear music, all freeeee.another nice thing about hd is ifyouron a road trip and you leaveyour current radio stations range,your HD radio will pick up another station in your range thats playing the same music.The JVC unit is the same price as the rest of the units. as far as the installers ill admit not all of them are great. Ask who is going to be doing it and how long theyve been installing radios, we hire alot of new young punks who suck. Some guys are great so just ask befor you do it.