Radio suggestions? Been a long time since I fooled with radios....

[Barry Donovan]

I don't consider my self an audiophile, but I hate MP3 format (leaves 70% of the music on the shelf) I must have spent too much time hanging out with my music major friends in college, apparently some of it rubbed off.

Call me borderline audiophile, I teeter on the fence.

Our Walmart had some in stock, but I kinda outgrew the $30 Kraco stuff back in the 80's The good stuff was not stocked.

So what I'm hearing from you guys is that even the cheap stuff now is pretty darn good?

this thread is interesting, I agree with the silver buicks take on the new stuff, and left off with stiney in 1997.

my brother and I were manhandling a silverline boat , putting on a motor, wiring up the crude fuse panel etc...

the 10 dollar jvc in the dash, out in the open.. comes on, with the two waterproof speakers like crystal glass in symphonic stereo.

the boat sat outside for decades.

what the?!

things have changed. I left off hunting down old delcos for the double din, big parts inside, good on hard carbon chassis welded to kingdom come.
may give a new modern one a chance. I need GPS for speed.

one of those ebay china somethings.

[cstmwgn]

I like Kenwood's stuff. I think the unit in my wagon was $169 or something like that. I am not big on having to read the screen on the headunit so graphics wasn't one of my needs. I also like its support for amps which doesn't seem to be one of your needs - so who knows. Have you looked at Crutchfield's (www.crutchfield.com) yet?

[TheSilverBuick]

This is the one in my Skylark. $105 with Amazon Prime.

http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-DEHX6600BT-Receiver-Bluetooth-Pandora/dp/B00EEO4WD4/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1408473121&sr=1-1&keywords=Pioneer+DEHX6600BT

[STINEY]

This is neat. http://www.crutchfield.com/p_110VX70...en-VX7020.html

Why not add a backup camera (to make hitching up easier) and built in GPS (instead of the external cheapy I have now) and a dvd player (so I can tell the boys "No" and "Look out the window")

[STINEY]

This is the one in my Skylark. $105 with Amazon Prime.

http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-DEHX66...eer+DEHX6600BT

With MixTrax no less.....cool stuff. That would be perfect for a single DIN space.

I'm torn with my double DIN space. I'd like the extra storage slot changing to single would give me, but I'm also not using that space currently so....

[TheSilverBuick]

Oh yeah, my touch screen has a back up camera too, but I never hooked it up because it didn't look right on either the Skylark or the Firebird. I had contemplated installing it under the hood and a toggle switch to get an "engine" view, or maybe stick the camera on a magnet for various types of views.

[38P]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n960535[/ATTACH]

for your transistor radio

Too retro.

Here's what the young whippersnappers wear . . .



(or in one case . . . used to wear . . . )

Backup camera . . . GPS . . . Nav . . . touch screen . . . the temptations for a 21st century audio unit are growing stronger. Must . . . . Resist . . . .

[38P]

I had contemplated installing it under the hood and a toggle switch to get an "engine" view, or maybe stick the camera on a magnet for various types of views.

But the stuff that blows up on your car isn't typically under-the-hood, is it? #axlecam, #clutchcam

[TheSilverBuick]

For the touchscreen ones, check for written reviews of the ones you are looking at. I found on mine (again mostly a cheap POS) that it is limited in it's multi-tasking abilities. I.E., it cannot run the navigation GPS program at the same time as the auxiliary input (aka my satellite radio), so if I am running the navigation I have to run the satellite through an FM broadcaster, which usually introduces static. And perhaps look into what it does about road updates or if you are locked into a dataset, and how much or difficult it is to update the maps.

[STINEY]

I had contemplated installing it under the hood and a toggle switch to get an "engine" view, or maybe stick the camera on a magnet for various types of views.

Now that would be cool. Live Gopro for the win!

[Scott Liggett]

LIke Randal said, the Pioneer radios work great. I just bought my third for the truck. I don't have the bluetooth or usb ports on mine and they were $69 each. They have the CD player which will also play MP3 files on a CD. They will hold over 100 songs each that way. They have the jack for using ipod or music off your cell phone.

Like many have said, you can get these radio at Walmart.

I like Pioneer speakers as well. Sound good and they are efficient. You don't have to have amps pushing them to sound good. Prices are right for them as well.

[Eliteman76]

If you were closer I'd come over and help install.
From my stand point, any half decent radio will do the job for you, running through the factory system.
You can order a double din unit to replace the factory head unit.

If you have doubts, the easiest way for a non-audio person, go to best buy or a local car audio shop, if any are still around you.
I am on the opposite end...I've been actively hunting for a very specific, last generation Sony Mobile ES, japan made head unit. I've had them in 3/4 vehicles but as these things are getting long in the tooth, the tuners have died. Me being me, I still own *gasp* Sony Mobile ES cassette head units. My daily driver just got a swap after the old ES CD head unit tuner died.
I like having the same face and head unit in all my stuff. But I like having adjustment for frequency, cross overs, and graphic EQ in my head unit.
The old days of my 1987 Alpine with a booster EQ, are thankfully long gone. *good memories jamming to AC/DC and pissing off drive thru staff as a 17 year old kid with a mullet in biker jackets and combat boots...*

I digress.

Your van...
I don't know if this link works, but here goes, punch in your van info, and what you are looking for. You will get the adapter, harness, etc.


Me, I'm still trying to go deaf...

[STINEY]

Thanks! Good info...........I'm still deciding which way to go with this. Definitely doing something soon though.