Business good, Tax Season over - New toy on way.

[coffee]

So, Business is really good right now and the tax season is over. I just had my birthday (53) and decided to buy a birthday present for myself. My buicks radio is screwing up and decided finally to replace it. The cd's dont eject consistantly and I have lost all but the two deck speakers. I checked on the specs of this sound system in the buick and its a Harmon Kardon. Geez. Low end I guess? So I went and bought one of these:

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_113DDX471H/Kenwood-DDX471HD.html?tp=20217

Im pretty excited. Had to buy a rig to interface with my steering wheel controls and such to go with it and still came in below 500 bucks. Now Im waiting for it to arrive. Oh Boy, It will interface with my T-Mobile phone (android) and I will be able to take calls and alerts over my sound system in the car! This is going to be one fun toy!

coffee

 

[katz]

Very cool sound system!

It will interface with my T-Mobile phone (android) and I will be able to take calls and alerts over my sound system in the car! This is going to be one fun toy!

Interested to hear how that works for you...I hate when I'm talking to people on their car phone system because they sound like they are in a cave & tons of road noise. YMMV...

 

[coffee]

Very cool sound system!



Interested to hear how that works for you...I hate when I'm talking to people on their car phone system because they sound like they are in a cave & tons of road noise. YMMV...

Yes, My car does get alot of road noise. I think its the tires that are on it when I bought it. The radio is due for delivery on friday. Pretty darn excited. Ill update and let you know about the phone sound quality.

coffee

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Nice radio. I'm looking to do an upgrade for my car also. Notas exciting as yours though. I've got a 2000 Taurus with the factory tape deck. Trading my old ps3 in for cash at gamestop(I'm only 33), and found a boss audio deck with just media receiver, Bluetooth etc, 56 bucks on eBay which does not seem bad. A bit cheap, but the install kit is 45 on eBay on crutchfield for around 70. Give it a shot. Car has nearly 180,000 miles. Anyone recommend some 5x7s?

 

[coffee]

Nice radio. I'm looking to do an upgrade for my car also. Notas exciting as yours though. I've got a 2000 Taurus with the factory tape deck. Trading my old ps3 in for cash at gamestop(I'm only 33), and found a boss audio deck with just media receiver, Bluetooth etc, 56 bucks on eBay which does not seem bad. A bit cheap, but the install kit is 45 on eBay on crutchfield for around 70. Give it a shot. Car has nearly 180,000 miles. Anyone recommend some 5x7s?

Last year my girlfriend said her radio in her 2003 chevy malibu (with tape deck!) didnt play cds anymore and was having issues. What I did was install a similar unit to mine, New speakers, Subwoofer in trunk, 100watt amp.

The speakers I bought for the back and doors where the "kickers" from crutchfield. They are a great speaker. But what really makes the difference is the 100 watt amp. I spent about 1000 bucks on her (been together 26 years).

Here is everything I put in it:

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_2064CS464/Kicker-40CS464.html?tp=100

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_2064CS6934/Kicker-40CS6934.html?tp=91

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_236TD754/MTX-TD75-4.html?tp=115

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_236RT8PT/MTX-RT8PT.html?tp=114

also a JVC touch panel header.

Its kinda funny as she pulls up to a stop light and some kid has his music playing loud and she kicks hers up and totally destroys him

My car Im not looking to do all that. Just want to get a decent radio in it.

coffee

 

[Moltuae]

Looks neat

I've been waiting for 'carputers' to get cheaper and more common. I've even considered making one myself a few times.

When you consider that, with the addition of an amp, GPS receiver and the right software, a tablet computer could perform most of the functions required of a car entertainment system, I find it amazing that that carputers are still relatively rare.

If you consider the amount space available inside a double DIN head unit, that's more than enough room to house a fairly powerful modern computer system. And considering how inexpensive some netbooks and tablets are, that are more than capable of playing high quality video and audio, it seems to make no sense to design proprietary units that are expensive to develop and limited in function.

 

[coffee]

Looks neat

I've been waiting for 'carputers' to get cheaper and more common. I've even considered making one myself a few times.

When you consider that, with the addition of an amp, GPS receiver and the right software, a tablet computer could perform most of the functions required of a car entertainment system, I find it amazing that that carputers are still relatively rare.

If you consider the amount space available inside a double DIN head unit, that's more than enough room to house a fairly powerful modern computer system. And considering how inexpensive some netbooks and tablets are, that are more than capable of playing high quality video and audio, it seems to make no sense to design proprietary units that are expensive to develop and limited in function.

I had the same thought about in car computers for years. The one thing that stopped me was temperture extremes could really kill a display or hard drive. But now with SSD its getting more realistic.

Gee, I could play warzone 2100 while waiting for a train

I do have to say, My girlfriend/wife likes rap music (yuck) and I can hear her coming down the street now (lol). She really does enjoy it.

I might do the same thing but it would take a while - perhaps adding new speakers, subwoofer, amp next year. I dont know. Depends on money flow. However, I mostly listen to talk radio when in the car and some select music classic rock.

coffee

 

[Paul Rodgers]

I have a 7in JVC with Nav, BT, and Sirius. $1,700 installed.

I installed a Pioneer flip-up with BT and Nav in my Wrangler and then transferred it to my Explorer after I sold the Jeep. I decided that while I'm perfectly capable of doing installs, I wanted to pay someone for their knowledge on the products.

 

[coffee]

I have a 7in JVC with Nav, BT, and Sirius. $1,700 installed.

I installed a Pioneer flip-up with BT and Nav in my Wrangler and then transferred it to my Explorer after I sold the Jeep. I decided that while I'm perfectly capable of doing installs, I wanted to pay someone for their knowledge on the products.

Sounds pretty nice. Friday my radio arrives and Saturday my buick goes under the knife. Im going to rip that OEM radio out of there and probably toss it down the street! What a bunch of junk it was.

cant wait

coffee

 

[coffee]

Sat on the couch today with a wiring harness or two from the radio and a patch kit so my steering wheel controls and all work.

"Connect the green wire with white stripe to the left rear channel ......"

Got the harnesses all connected and everything is ready to go. I go out and its starting to get dark but disco'd the car battery and pulled the old radio out. They dont give you much slack in the wire harnesses from the GM plant. I think I had like 2 inches! But they came out. Now tomorrow morning I will hook up the new radio!! COOL!

I know this is a computer related forum but no one to share this with really . I will post some picks tomorrow.

coffee

 

[Kaizen]

I got this one about a year ago. I love it
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-LAIZ5teyZw1/p_020CX501/Clarion-CX501.html

My main criteria was able to stream media from my Android phone via bluetooth. I use it mainly for Pandora, Google music, audible, and podcasts. I could not imagine not having it.

You will enjoy your new toy.

 

[acscva]

Very nice!

I live 25 minutes from both of the Crutchfield retail stores.

Absolutely love going there but have to leave my wallet in the car.

 

[coffee]

Finally got my new unit in.

Sound is good for a radio without a subwoofer and amp. It does perform better than the OEM. Here are some more pics. Sorry they are from my cell phone.

What is really cool is that when I paired up my cellphone (Galaxy SIII) it automatically connected and uploaded my contact list. So cool! I did a test call but my girlfriend said it sounded like I was in a cave. Have some adjusting to do.

Install was not that bad and all the parts fit perfectly. The aftermarket harness to keep your chimes and such was a bit of a bare but I did all that the other night sitting on the couch. So, All I had to do this morning was install the whole mess in the car.

coffee

 

[TenYardFight]

It looks nice! Please tell us when you get the audio for phone calls figured out. That would be a deal breaker for me!

 

[coffee]

It looks nice! Please tell us when you get the audio for phone calls figured out. That would be a deal breaker for me!

Ok.

Now, The radio comes with a microphone attachment(for your phone) that you plug in to the back of the radio. I went in to the settings while talking to my girlfriend and adjusted the settings. I also positioned the mic on my steering column and got the sound improved quite a bit. So now the phone quality is pretty good.

Would I recommend this radio? YES. Its a great radio and the bluetooth feature for the phone works pretty darn good. The sound quality of the Kenwood DDX471HD is pretty darn nice. Im still using the factory speakers with it, No amp and no subwoofer.

With the Kenwood I also bought the GMOS-LAN-012 by Axxess. This enables all the chimes and such for your car. What I failed to get is the Axxess ASWC-1 which is the steering controls interface for the ability to use your volume, skip, mute ect.. buttons on the steering wheel.

After installing everything I had bought I did have questions on what the other connectors on the GMOS where. Well, One of them is for the ASWC module. So, I will be getting one of those soon and pull the radio and plug it in. Then I will have my steering wheel buttons working!

For the phone, Just go in and adjust the settings. Im still playing with it a bit but it really is a nice feature.

I have always wanted a good sound system in a car. Never had the chance to do this. So, I decided today that I will do this and move forward on some more things to round it out:

1. Subwoofer in the trunk.
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_204BTA850F/Bazooka-BTA850FH.html?tp=114

(I got the 100 watt model for my girlfriends car and it really kicks!)

2. New speakers in doors, back deck. - I really dont think the factory speakers are going to last.

Not sure about getting an amp. If I do its not going to be a real sounder. Im thinking only 50 or 100 watts. To my reading you have to be careful as you can kill your alternator/ battery if your not careful about how much amps you pull from them. Besides at my age I dont need anything louder.

One tip that will help when installing an amp: amps go in the trunk. Route your power lines down one side of the car by the underneath the kickboard. Speaker wires down the other side of the car. To make things really easy to install the amp - at the radio end connect the door speaker wires to those leading to the back speakers. Then take the back speaker wires where they are hooked up to the back speakers and connect them to the amp. Now the door speakers are done! All you have to do is wire the deck speakers.

coffee