Stereo Upgrades?

[CTBenz]

I just bought a 1994 C280 with 70,000 miles on it, but I do not get to pick it up for a couple of days. Can anyone suggest some modifications for the stereo, such as a new deck with cd/mp3/sirius, or some speakers that would not require extra mods to make them fit. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks

[davis449]

Do a search.

[neema12]

The radio or Head Unit is a 1 din unit, which is the most common. Start by looking at units at local stores and find features you like, then post what you are looking for and we can help you choose a nice deck in your range. The front door speakers are 5.25" and can fit 6.5" with some tweaking, the rear doors are 4" and can fit up to 5.25". The rear deck and hold many diffrent sizes. I suggest posting what you are looking for in a system and we can start building your car a nice system;)

[unHookt]

do you have to make mods to get replacements in the doors? I have the bose and there's a plastic basket in there...

[neema12]

I am not sure about the bose, so I cannot comment on them. As far as swaping to a larger speaker, you will need to make a bracket out of wood yourself. It will take some time and tools, but the larger is better.

[CTBenz]

Originally posted by neema12
The radio or Head Unit is a 1 din unit, which is the most common. . The front door speakers are 5.25" and can fit 6.5" with some tweaking, the rear doors are 4" and can fit up to 5.25". The rear deck and hold many diffrent sizes. I suggest posting what you are looking for in a system and we can start building your car a nice system;)

Thanks neema, i basically would like to change the deck to something with sirius and with mp3 compatability. Im not really looking to put an amp in my car or a sub, i would like to just upgrade the speakers. But if a new amp is necessary, i would be willing. Let me know what you can think of for a deck and speakers, i am thinking about spending around 600, should I up the price, or is this enough? Thanks for the help

[neema12]

Almost all HUs come with mp3, make sure it has tag support which most do, it allows the title of the song to display on the screen of the HU so you know what you are listening to, not just song 1, song 2, ect.

Also, most Hus have Sirus or XM or both built in. These are basic features that low end HUs carry. If you only want a HU to produce sound and play mp3s and radio, and allow you to have some upgradability in the future, then you will be happy with a $135-$180 HU, from a top brand such as alpine, panasonic, pioneer, ect.

I would suggest getting a better HU than these if you want to have serious sound, but it seems you just want better than stock, and dont let people fool you, any aftermarket HU and speakers will be a huge upgrade from stock.

I am currently running a Eclipse 8445 which has a msrp if $600. It has features that you will most likly never use but are ones I wanted in a HU, such as 8v preamps. Eclipse is like porsche, you will understand later.

So, for a deck for you. Lets check out Options (http://www.crutchfield.com/S-M7eEjZbfSH2/cgi-bin/prodgroup.asp?g=300&avf=Y&nvpair=AG%5FGeneral%5FFeatures|YCSatellite%5FRadio %5FReady&nvpair=AG%5FDisc%5FPlayback%7CYCMP3%5FPlayback#see _all) at Crutchfield. I suggest buying from them if you have alot of money and like to pay more for the same item. They have wonderful tech support but it cost a pretty penny. Whatever you see here will most likly be on ebay for 2/3 the cost, sometimes less.

For you, I put in mp3 playback and Satellite Radio controls, which gave us 80 choices. Now remember, these are all new HUs so their are thousands of choices, HUs a few months old they will not carry but will have the same technology as these, its just not the hip thing on the market. Think the Razr cell phone in a few months.

Withen 10 seconds I found the perfect HU, but this is what I think. Its a Alpine CDA-9851. I will list the features below after I explain the price. Check it out-


PriceGrabber Price (http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=5776221/)

Ebay Price (http://search.ebay.com/Alpine-CDA-9851_W0QQsojsZ1QQfromZR40QQsatitleZAlpineQ20CDA-9851)

The ebay price is $100 less than the in store price on a $279 HU, so its $170 plus say shipping will bring it to your front door for $200. Now listen to the features of this HU, I will explain why its nice.

-First its alpine, I think one of better HU makers, you wont find better in your price.

-Its built in amp is 18wrms at 4channels. I will shrug at this but it is CEA-2006 compliant which means it was tested by a 3rd company and proven to put this wattage out, not like the fake birthsheets you see on kicker and RF amps, they are tested in house and given stable higher voltages, which is not true in a car setup.

-Face is motorized, detachable, and fold-down face. Most HUs in this price are detachable and fold down, but not motorized, which means you just touch a button and it will do all the moving. I like it alot more, I hate the feeling of spending all this money on a flashy deck and when someone gets in my car they watch me push the HU face up, its silly.

-plays audio CDs, CD-Rs and CD-RWs including discs burned with MP3 and WMA files. This is a given.

-Bass Engine. Dont be too worried about this or the other freq changers, they will do nothing for you.

-satellite radio controls, XM or Sirus. Here you go, both in this deck.

-optional auxiliary input. This is the reason I dident like Alpine, I dident want to pay $25 more for a cable adapter for aux in. I used it for my mp3 player so it gives me more choices for music, 20gigs will last a long time. Seems you dont need it so dont worry.

-front, rear and subwoofer preamp outputs. Very Very important for future upgrades. Allows 3 amps strait into the deck. Althought this is a low preamp unit, it will serve your purpose. You are looking at 1v real world, 99% of the people on this board will disagree but its the truth.

-wireless remote. Its like a glove in my hand, I use it alot and its nice.

-Ipod. If you have a ipod it will connect to the deck and charge the ipod. It will not disply the song on the HU, the controls will be via ipod I belive.

These are the majors, check out the other specs and review the info. I am not saying BUY this deck, but for $200 its nice. I know a clairon thats $150 and has every single feature this deck has plus the aux-in but its not alpine, and as a first timer you will enjoy alpine.

As for speakers, thats another story. Let me know what you think about the deck and do some research and tell me if you have any changes. ;)

Here are pictures-
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a45/NeemaAudio/x500CDA9851-f.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a45/NeemaAudio/x500CDA9851-r.jpg

[unHookt]

Neema - nice writeup. I would agree with a lot of what you say. The Alpine unit definitely offers a great bang/buck ratio and the sound quality is pretty sweet.

Question about your Eclipse - do you have the NAV unit? How does it work...I've always wondered but there's little information out there. Is it a true GPS nav system, like the Harmon Kardon/Becker trafficpro?

Also, if I got this HU (or the 8455) would I have to lose the Bose system?

[CTBenz]

thanks again neema, this seems like a great deck at a reasonable price. I also looked at the ipod itergration kit for $100 i can completly control my ipod on the alpine receiver. I think im gonna buy it over ebay just because its so much less expensive. Do you think as a first timer that i could install it myself?
Im now gonna try and do some research on speakers for the car. Keep the advice coming. Thanks, Taylor

i have heard good thing about JL and infinity, i found these JL's for not that much. http://cgi.ebay.com/JL-AUDIO-XR525-CXI-5-25-inch-Speakers-Coaxial-NEW-05_W0QQitemZ5794905591QQcategoryZ14941QQrdZ1QQcmdZ ViewItem

[neema12]

Question about your Eclipse - do you have the NAV unit? How does it work...I've always wondered but there's little information out there. Is it a true GPS nav system, like the Harmon Kardon/Becker trafficpro?

Well, I dident get the Eclipse unit for gps. I was running a carputer for a year and had everything I wanted but SQ in a deck. I decided that the most important item for me was SQ more than having 200gigs of mp3s and dvds and all that other show stuff. I just wanted a nice sleeper high preamp deck with solid EQ settings and an advance board. I got the 8445 from a dealer in the east coast who is a friend of a friend, I paid nothing close to $600.

It has its gps feature outlined online, but its nothing like a real gps unit. As far as I know, you need to save the address you want onto a memory card then insert it into the deck then play with the feature, plus you need an antenna. Its not worth it. If I wanted gps I will move up to a monitor unit or buy a seperate unit, which I wont do for awhile. I am going to be selling my car soon so the eclipse HU will be going. I am currently bench testing the unit and its not in the car. Here is the site. http://www.eclipse-web.com/





Also, if I got this HU (or the 8455) would I have to lose the Bose system?
Not sure, everyone keeps asking about the Bose system, I have no idea:rolleyes: Sorry



Do you think as a first timer that i could install it myself?
Well, I dont know you so its hard to tell. Their are a few write-ups here on this site. Its as simple as tapping into a few wires, but since you are installing speakers you will need some more time. You are using the stock wiring to the doors so most of the work is done for you, I rewired mine so I needed to take apart alot of stuff. You will simply take the door speaker covers off, take the speakers out, put new ones in, then go to the HU, pop it out, tap about 12 wires from the old harness into the new harness, then your done. If I get a chance I will write it up better, but this is just a rundown.

For speakers, look into components for the front doors, and coaxials for the rear. Ill add more later. Jl is ok

[CTBenz]

So i went and did some reseach last night at two car audio stores, and I decided im going to get the Alpine CDA-9851 head unit. But I now need to decided on speakers.

The first place said the speakers would take 1 hour each to install at $95 per hour! And it sounds pretty rediculous to spend almost $400 to intall a pair of alpine 6 1/2 and a pair of alpine 5 1/4 when all four costs only $145.

The next place did not sell alpine but they only charge $100 to install all four speakers. I sell pioneer, polk and infinity. Which ones do people recomend, im going to get 6 1/2 in the front and 5 1/4 in the back both coaxial because i dont want to do any custom installation yet, i dont have enough money.
They also said that for sirius radio in you stereo, you need to buy some kit for $100 that makes it work. But, is there a difference between sirius compatible and sirius ready? I thought there was, and I thought that the alpine hu CDA-9851 did not require anything else to hook up the sirius radio.

I am also considering doing the job myself, but i have had no experience. Does something think that I could put in the deck to save money on labor, or should I just let them install everything at the same time? Thanks for the help, Taylor

[neema12]

You got alot of reading and searching to do CTBenz.

First, the alpine was just an example I found in less then 10 seconds, their are thousands of other decks out their.

As far as speaker installs, I would not pay someone else to do it, even if it were $20 an hour, its a waste of money for something that is so easy. If you want to keep it simple, get 5.25" for the front and 4" for the rears, its a direct fit and will require much much less work than 6.5" in fronts and 5.25" in rear. When you feel you are ready in the future, move up to a larger size and save the money on the install for a better speaker. I suggest comps for the front doors, its sound is so much better. It really does not mean getting custom, some people mount them in the A pillar, some speakers have the tweeter mounted on the speaker with a adapter so its all flush. Many will suggest mounting the tweeter withen 6" of the midrange, but mine is in the A pillar, more than a foot away.

Sirus. No reciver I know has sirus built in. First of all, it cost money, something like $10 a month. Also, all these decks are XM and sirus ready, meaning you need a reciver to add to make it able to listen to sirus and you need to pay a monthly fee. :rolleyes:

I would try out the deck first and see how you like the mp3 and radio, if you want more, their are many options to get into from adding a mp3 player like ipod or creative zen from the aux input, a hard drive based unit like the omnifi or getting sat. radio.

You wont save much money doing the deck yourself and having them do the speakers. I suggest waiting, reading articals, looking at pictures, doing searching, asking questions, ect. until you feel like you are ready to do the install yourself. Then spend the extra money on better parts, mabye get a small amp for the speakers so they sound much better, you can get an amp for less than $200 for all 4 speakers. OR save the money, I would save it.

Let us know.