Well i decided my truck needs a head unit... followed by some loud @$$ speakers of course but for now lets see some of the aftermarket head units your guys are running!!! I personally think i might go with one that has some kind of screen... either a little one or a flip up... but it also HAS to be ipod compatible....

so lets see em!!!!

 

I don't have a 3rd gen but I run a Alpine. IMO Alpine, Eclipse, a JVC Aresonal are the way to go for headunits. I no longer use the internal amp in my Alpine though as I have a 4 channel Alpine amp to power the speakers too. IMO thats the way to go if you get serious about your sound system.

 

It looks better than the picture makes it out to be. Everything I would want except for GPS.

http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Produ...p;i=110V9312HD

 

i had the same one as jeffylee and i loved it touch screen ipod controls auxilary all that, the only reason i sold it was so i could save up to get an indash

 

Double Din*

 

Well TD theres a lot more info needed about your uses of this head unit to make a good recommendation. Ipod control is something that is almost standard on many head units.

Are you still planning on adding subwoofers and an amplifier and then possibly running a four channel as well to run ur door speakers?

You can get a very basic sony head unit or that basic jensen screen deal if all you need is ipod control and the slightly better tuning options that those products will offer.

If you plan on running subs and amps then it will be worthwhile to move towards a higher end unit that will have Three RCA preouts that are run at 4 volts or higher. you will need the three preouts front rear and nonfader/sub to run a monoblock amp as well as a four channel stereo amp for mids and highs. The higher voltage allows the signal being sent to the amps to be much stronger and cleaner. this equals much better sound. to be honest it's not worth it to get a head unit without high voltage preouts if you want to run amps.

Also look towardssomething with more advanced equalizers. the jensen screens and most basic sony head units come with either a basic three band eq or a slightly adjustable 3 band peq where you can adjust the center frequency but not the width of the curve. Higher end head units have full 3 band or higher parametric equalizers (some eclipse stuff has 11 band ) or they have a graphic equalizer of 7 bands or more. graphic and parametric allow for a lot of adjustability. parametric allows you to adjust the center frequency as well as width of the curve and gainwhile graphic gives you many center frequencys where you adjust the gain and not the width. but the way you set up the graphic allows you to adjust the width of curves in a semi sorta way. whichever ur head unit has it will work just fine.

My recommendations for single din head units would be anything from eclipse. they have some great stuff and their lowest head unit now has bluetooth technology built in. as well as USB high voltage preouts and all sorts of other goodies. plus a nice OEL display. The usb allows you to control ur ipod through the USB connection. Pioneer is another good brand i would recommend their 6000 model from the premier line. I liek premier because it's only about 10 bucks more than the regular line and it gives you a few extra features and has a longer more comprehensive warranty. It has a 7 band graphic EQ 3 preouts at 4V and a USB connection as well.

I would also recommend almost anything from alpine that meets the specs i stated earlier. they make great products as well

One big suggestion for the ipod control tho. Make sure to get something with an OEL display if you want ipod control. reading song names from a alarm clock LED style screen is a PITA. reading it from a beautiful OEL display allows for a much more enjoyable experience using an IPOD plus more info gets displayed on screen.

These head units run in the 250-350 range. which is right at what you would be looking at to get the features you want and then be able to build a nice system around it. remember that everything depends on the head unit. this is one area not to cheap out on.

Now to move to the double din/ flip outside of things.
To get a good double din to just do ipod and get you a screen ur looking in the 3-6 hundred dollar range. big problem with that is you won't get high voltage preouts, sometimes you don't get three preouts and the equalizers are rudimentary at best. and the SQ to be honest isn't that great.

Now this doesn't mean that you can't get a double din with good sound quality and have all the features of a regular single din. ie good eq's and high voltage preouts. it just means you are going to have to pay for it. expect anywhere in the range from 900-2000 bux. depending on whether you want navigation will come into play with that.

I personally like the eclipse double din and flip outs myself. the AVN6620, 5495, and 7000 (flipout single din). are all great units. each one offers built in navigation. the 5495 and 7000 have the maps stored on their own hard drive that can also be used to store music. the 6620 has dual DVD drives so you can have the map dvd in one driveanda music CD in the other. they are at teh upper range of 1800 bucks the 6620 is about 1200. all of the eclipse models offer high voltage preouts and great equalizer set ups as well as many other features such as USB bluetooth.

Pioneer does make a great non navigation based double din that is pretty nice as well. has two high voltage preouts. front and rear/sub. this is a bit of a dissapointment that it doesn't have three RCA preouts. but that doesn't mean you can't use a 4 channel amp. most good 4 channels are capable of being set up to have only an input on the front channel and can mirror that signal to the front and rear. thus making a two channel input four channel. although you do lose the ability to fade from front to rear or vise versa. it has a very nice parametric equalizer built in that works great. We have installed this in a few cars so far including this ride.
http://www.mtxrides.com/Ride.aspx?ID...7-533e0508e348 this is one of my coworkers vehicles that has the pioneer double din i am speaking of.

for navigation pioneer makes two the d3 and z2, downside to both is no highvoltage preouts. both have good equalization andwork great. but the 2v preouts is a big turnoff when building a system that you want to use amps in. the d3 nav is dvd based and z2 is HD based.

I dunno what alpine makes for double din and flip out honestly. my guess is they have something along the lines of what eclipse makes as well. JVC also makes some great screens, their standard head units are ok but I have had great experiences with their screens.

Good luck in ur search and i'm sure you'll be happy with w/e you end up with. o and remember pics

 

I didn't read that whole post but saw Sony a few times. Sony car audio is junk unless you happen to get something made before the Xplod line of stuff came out. It's one of the brands I'd stay away from.

 

that's pretty much what i said. although i will say if all you want is a damn Cdplayer and dont' give a hoot about reliability and sound then hey buy a sony for the same price as a pioneer lol.

 

wow ben... thanks for the help!!! i think i am leaning towards that 6000 series pioneer.... maybe in a month or so i will order up!

 

yea it's a great head unit top one that we sell. best thing about the USB is all u need is ur computer cable for the ipod. You can get that or the premier version of it which i think is a bit more expenisve like 20 bux or so but it does come with basically an extra year of factory parts and labor warranty. and i've heard rumors about the premiers having a bit better components but I've never owned a premier and we don't carry them we only have the pioneers. throw up some pics when you install it. I dunno which interior you have but if you have the "Aztec temple" as i call it which is like what my dad's 06 and my 08 have doing a radio is a pita. because of the "aztec temple" design you have to start at the very bottom by the cupholders and remove all the panels until you get to the top by the radio then the bezel comes off. nvm u lucky ***** lol u don't have the aztec temple design.

The parts you will need for that truck I would get online for dirt cheap. metra electronics makes the best dodge kits some of their others aer meh which then we use american international or US international cant remember what it is at this point.
Met40cr10 antenna adapter to get ur fm am reception
Met996505 dash kit might not be the best option i gotta look around a bit theres a few other kits listed that might be easier but dunno if they fit the truck.
met706502 is the harness

and the big question is do you have infinity sound or not then? and u should be done to get a radio