Im not as hip on the latest technology as I was a few years ago so Im asking for some help. Im looking to put in a new head unit and was wondering whats out right now thats nicley priced an gives a good bang for buck. I have tried crutchfiled and their site is not working for me so Im curious as to what you guys have in your trucks and what ya paid for it. Im entertaining the idea of putting a cd player in there that has a flip screen on it or I have seen some that have like a 3.5 viewing screen on them and thought they were pretty nice as well, I guess what Im saying is I need to some help picking out a new aftermarket H/U. What do I need to look for, specs and things like that. I will say that later on down the road I am going to upgrade the factory speakers and throw in a sub or 2... Thanks for any suggestions, oh and I have just a plain jane factory radio, not the infinity

 

Buying a new H/U can be frustrating.There are alot of choices.Heres my thoughts.If you want sound quality dont buy an indash DVD.Obviously they are more for the video side.Now dont get me wrong,alot of the high end units have great sound quality,but they dont come cheap.Im in the same boat as you.Ive been looking at the Jensen 9312 indash DVD unit.I had a 9311 for a little while and I wasnt really happy with the sound quality,so I exchanged it for a higher end Pioneer CD reciever.Im really glad I did.The sound was a night and day difference.Then again I was running 2 12's with over 1500 watts and a high power 4 channel for my speakers.Right now Im looking at the Pioneer 7900.It has a ton of features plus it has built in Blue Tooth.Circuit City has them for 349.00.All I can recommend is research,research,and even more research.Buy from a store with a return policy so if you dont like it you can try something else.Also dont skimp here,this is a cornerstone of your system.Spend as much or maybe a little more than your budget allows.Good luck!!

 

Heres a link for you.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Pione...oductDetail.do

 

The best way i have found to order car audio is research what you want, then get the model number and find it on ebay. I only buy those brand new but still get them cheaper on ebay than i can anywhere else. For headunits, i just put a panasonic in my truck. I've never been a big fan of panasonic but i will admit i have beyond satisfied with this headunit. The sound with the headunit and my infinity reference speakers is amazing!

 

I think that going with a dvd player in the dash isn't a bad idea. Many reputable companies that have delt with making great sound for decades build DVD systems. The nice thing is you can fit something like 999 MP3's on a single DVD. If you don't want the screen that pops out the dash, they make units without the screen, you would just put headrest units in or a seperate screen upfront if you want to watch video. Whatever you go with, make sure your system can expand. Get a headunit with 3 RCA preouts, L&R for the Front, Rear and Subs. This way your head unit has greater control of the sound as your system grows. Then you can go for a mono or 2 channel amp to power your subs... depending on how much space you are willing to loose to enclosures and what not. There is plenty of room under the front seats to mount your amps (as I did). I have a single 10" JL audio W1 in a custom enclosure under the rear passanger seat... it hits nicely. I am not going to win any bass compititions with it, but I really don't care about that. Next, get yourself a good 4 channel amp. This will help clear out your mids and highs coming from the doors (use a crossover, which is usually built into the amps, to have only mids and highs going to your doors,you want all of your basscoming from the subs, otherwise this will lead to distrotion). After that, upgrade your door speakers to components, so your mids are played by the doors and the highs are played by the tweeters... this will make ahuge differance. It raises the"soundstage", makesthe music sound like it is coming from a level closer to your head vs closer to the floor. It also cleans it up a lot. After, or during this process, some kind of sound deadening material like dynamat will boost the performance of your sound system