Pick a car stereo for me - nothing fancy needed

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I've used alpine, Kenwood/jvc,pioneer ,Sony...your exact budget listed, we could find you a model number. Cadence qr series speakers are dirt cheap off eBay/amazon at times....ives used them and the q series in dirt cheap budget builds with success.
 
Originally Posted By: JeffKeryk
Hey - did anyone mention Crutchfield?
If it were my car, I would install a double din Andriod/Apple unit.
Kenwood is great stuff; they bought JVC a few years ago.
JVC is great and is cheaper.
When they have refurbs you can save a little more.
You will find your factory speakers sound better with one of these units.
Have fun!


I have a JVC Arsenal something or other in my Mustang which I really like. Its a much older unit now a days but performs well with good adjustability. Not the most ergonomic for advanced EQ functions, though.
 
So lots of good advice here.

I will put it in myself, and I had not seen those "posi-twist" connectors before, either. I am old-school enough I had planned on just tinning and soldering them, but hey, that might be easier!

So Crutchfield looks easy to deal with; I hadn't realized how easy it was to sort by features and should have figured it would be that way. I haven't used them in ages, but did so a few times in the 90s. I see some JVC units starting around $100 that have all I want, and I've had good satisfaction from all JVC products I've ever bought; sounds good!

I am thinking of speakers, as mentioned. The vehicle has six speakers:
a) 2x little domes in door mounts over the rear-view mirror anchors,
b) a 5 1/4" woofer in the bottom of each front door, then
c) 2 x 4" speakers in the very rear pillars by the cargo door.

I am thinking of replacing just the rear pillar ones with decent 4" 2-way speakers as I imagine that would be the most bang-for-buck approach vs. changing the tiny tweeter or the low-mounted woofers. Once I figure out if that's worth it/adequate enough, I'll order stuff from Crutchfield I believe.

Quote:
BTW, if you aren’t aware when you start driving your SLX frequently check the oil often, Troopers do not like to be run even a little low on oil.


Yep, noted. the 98-2002 3.5l have oiling issues. I have had this vehicle about 8 years I think. Through some piston soaks and lube flushes, I have reduced the consumption from "very bad" to "tolerable," and the engine is very smooth, quiet, and more powerful now. Short of pulling the engine and drilling the extra holes in the piston, you can't cure it completely. I have upgraded and refurbished it a bit each year since I've had it and it's a very pleasant vehicle.


 
Originally Posted by Trav
Originally Posted by wallyuwl
Originally Posted by Colt45ws
Originally Posted by wallyuwl
(you will want to buy wire twist connectors)

Please tell me you are joking.




Aside from your smart a** comment, these are what I am talking about. A lot easier and faster than crimping. I have done it both ways, many times crimping.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_669PP500/Posi-Products-Car-Stereo-Wiring-Harness-Connectors.html


They don't look like a bad way to go although I have never used them. You may want to see if they have a adapter to plug into your original harness so you don't have to hack into it.

Edit: Like this one, they probably have them at the store that sells the radio also.

https://www.amazon.com/1996-1999-Harness-Install-Aftermarket-Stereo/dp/B01M1KDGMX

These type adapters that hook 8nto the vehicles wiring are included from Crutchfield. But they still need to be crimped/soldered/etc to the harness coming from the head unit. This is where the posi couplers I linked to come in
 
Originally Posted by Oro_O


I am thinking of speakers, as mentioned. The vehicle has six speakers:
a) 2x little domes in door mounts over the rear-view mirror anchors,
b) a 5 1/4" woofer in the bottom of each front door, then
c) 2 x 4" speakers in the very rear pillars by the cargo door.

I am thinking of replacing just the rear pillar ones with decent 4" 2-way speakers as I imagine that would be the most bang-for-buck approach vs. changing the tiny tweeter or the low-mounted woofers. Once I figure out if that's worth it/adequate enough, I'll order stuff from Crutchfield I believe.


Replace the front speaker(s) if you do anything at all.. Rear speakers only serve to help provide some fill, and not much else, especially with only 4" drivers at the very rear of a large volume interior. Front speakers, where you, the driver sits, should always be the first priority to upgrade.

A 5.25" driver will only produce midbass frequencies; it's not a woofer by any means. For better sound, choose any 6.5" option that Crutchfield says will fit.

If the stock system isn't too complicated (and it doesn't sound like it is), and is sending a full-range signal to the lower door driver, you can even substitute a new coaxial speaker and just disconnect the stock sailplane tweeters. Replacing everything in the front with a component system is more work, and has higher power demands, but is also an option.

Make sure the speaker is sealed against the mounting plane of the door, and there aren't any air gaps. If you want to get a bit fancier, apply some sound deadening material to that area.

The old saying about there being no substitute for engine displacement also applies in large part to speaker sizes.
 
Originally Posted by Carmudgeon


Replace the front speaker(s) if you do anything at all.. Rear speakers only serve to help provide some fill, and not much else, especially with only 4" drivers at the very rear of a large volume interior. Front speakers, where you, the driver sits, should always be the first priority to upgrade...


Thank you for your comments. I will consider it and probably replace both front and rear speakers. There is no plug-in replacement for the door-mirror mounted tweeters, so I'll ignore them.

A 5.25" speaker is the best that will fit in the door w/o a lot of cutting and altering, and custom grilles. I'll stick with that size though I understand your point. Coming home on Tuesday, I did some experimenting. Now knowing the front doors were only mid-woofers, I played with more rear fade and the sound clarity jumped dramatically. Also, I popped one of the rear grilles just to look at the rear pillar 4" speakers. When I did so, an "extra" paper tweeter cone fell out of the left one. Apparently, it had been in there since new and was a manufacturing error. That helped sound quality a lot, too!

By "sealed against the mounting plane" do you mean have an acoustic baffle behind, like stretching some PE sheeting to cut down on feed back bouncing off the outer door? Or more of a baffle? Effectively making an enclosure? I'll do as you suggest but am unsure what this is (I'll google it to educate myself).
 
I've had luck with Pioneer, Alpine and Kenwood. My pick would be a sub-$100 deck from either as long as it has Bluetooth. I've seen the older version of this Alpine go for $125 at the local car audio shop: https://www.alpine-usa.com/product/view/cde-172bt/

Rarely anyone breaks into cars these days with aftermarket radios installed. One reason being is that aftermarket decks don't blend in well with newer cars and everything OEM is tightly integrated into the car. Back when I was growing up, Pioneer SuperTuner and Alpine decks were a hot commodity at the flea market.
 
Originally Posted by Oro_O
Thank you for your comments. I will consider it and probably replace both front and rear speakers. There is no plug-in replacement for the door-mirror mounted tweeters, so I'll ignore them.

My CR-V has factory tweeters in the dash and there aren't any aftermarket tweeters that will swap right in. Actually, since my car is the base model, there weren't any factory tweeters installed; it had the grilles in the dash with nothing behind them. Anyway, I was upgrading the speakers and I figured since I have a factory location for tweeters, I might as well use them. So I bought a set of component speakers with separate tweeters and installed them. Now like I said, these did not directly bolt in. I had to modify the mounting cup and I ended up mounting them by epoxy-gluing the mounting cups directly to the factory speaker grilles. It was kind of a pain, but man it was worth it! They sound fantastic. My point is, even if there isn't any direct bolt-in upgrade, you can probably make an aftermarket set work with a little modification and it will look factory, but sound way better.
 
Originally Posted by Oro_O

Thank you for your comments. I will consider it and probably replace both front and rear speakers. There is no plug-in replacement for the door-mirror mounted tweeters, so I'll ignore them.

A 5.25" speaker is the best that will fit in the door w/o a lot of cutting and altering, and custom grilles. I'll stick with that size though I understand your point. Coming home on Tuesday, I did some experimenting. Now knowing the front doors were only mid-woofers, I played with more rear fade and the sound clarity jumped dramatically. Also, I popped one of the rear grilles just to look at the rear pillar 4" speakers. When I did so, an "extra" paper tweeter cone fell out of the left one. Apparently, it had been in there since new and was a manufacturing error. That helped sound quality a lot, too!

Component tweeters almost always require some handiwork to fit into stock locations.

If Crutchfield says some 6.5" speakers will work, I'm inclined to believe them, and urge you to try. They wouldn't make such recommendations if it required a lot of work, esp. considering their target market can be considered largely neophytes. And if they don't fit, then they'll either help you, or take them back, which is what their higher pricing helps support.

Quote
By "sealed against the mounting plane" do you mean have an acoustic baffle behind, like stretching some PE sheeting to cut down on feed back bouncing off the outer door? Or more of a baffle? Effectively making an enclosure? I'll do as you suggest but am unsure what this is (I'll google it to educate myself).

When you mount the drivers, you want to make sure there aren't any gaps around the perimeter between the speaker frame and the surface it's mounted to, allowing air to pass. Some manufacturers even include a little bit of sealing tape with their products. If not, some weatherstripping can be used instead.

Those foam cup baffles, both stock and aftermarket, also provide that function, but they're mostly to protect the speaker from the elements. But by sharply reducing the volume of space behind that speaker, they can actually hurt sound quality by not allowing the fuller volume of the door cavity to be used. Some people either cut openings in them or remove them altogether.
 
Originally Posted by Carmudgeon
Originally Posted by Oro_O

Thank you for your comments. I will consider it and probably replace both front and rear speakers. There is no plug-in replacement for the door-mirror mounted tweeters, so I'll ignore them.

A 5.25" speaker is the best that will fit in the door w/o a lot of cutting and altering, and custom grilles. I'll stick with that size though I understand your point. Coming home on Tuesday, I did some experimenting. Now knowing the front doors were only mid-woofers, I played with more rear fade and the sound clarity jumped dramatically. Also, I popped one of the rear grilles just to look at the rear pillar 4" speakers. When I did so, an "extra" paper tweeter cone fell out of the left one. Apparently, it had been in there since new and was a manufacturing error. That helped sound quality a lot, too!

Component tweeters almost always require some handiwork to fit into stock locations.

If Crutchfield says some 6.5" speakers will work, I'm inclined to believe them, and urge you to try. They wouldn't make such recommendations if it required a lot of work, esp. considering their target market can be considered largely neophytes. And if they don't fit, then they'll either help you, or take them back, which is what their higher pricing helps support.



Agreed.

Admittedly has been some time since I did components, but they typically include multiple mounting options and may take some figuring for best results. Even back in the day high end coaxial were coming close to low end component performance. There were even coaxial that had amiable tweeters.

If Crutchfield says a 6.5 will fit, it will fit. If it does not for some reason they will make it right. I'm sure if you call them ahead of time they will give you details on what is required. It is common IME for Honda to mount a 5.25 in a 6.5 hole using a plastic adapter ring (I have no idea why)
 
OK, more good information.

a) OK, I see Crutch. does say a 6/6.5" will fit with the factory grille. I will pop a grille off and check if that looks to be the case. If so, I'll go that way and not mind cutting and re-drilling some holes.

b) I see now what you meant re: air gap and will get some foam tape for that purpose if I can't find any in the garage.

Trav, that's about the same unit I was intending to get and have in my cart; the 990, which is a few dollars cheaper but spec'd absolutely identical. I have poured over the JVC specs on their website and for the life of me can't figure out the differences between the top several models; all the product information and features are identical. Very odd.
 
Originally Posted by Oro_O
,,,
Trav, that's about the same unit I was intending to get and have in my cart; the 990, which is a few dollars cheaper but spec'd absolutely identical. I have poured over the JVC specs on their website and for the life of me can't figure out the differences between the top several models; all the product information and features are identical. Very odd.


https://www.crutchfield.com/Product/CompareTo.aspx?g=300&compareItems=01|105KDR895B&compareItems=01|105KDR990B

It is the number of preouts and the preout voltage between those two.
 
Originally Posted by Oro_O
OK, more good information.

a) OK, I see Crutch. does say a 6/6.5" will fit with the factory grille. I will pop a grille off and check if that looks to be the case. If so, I'll go that way and not mind cutting and re-drilling some holes.

b) I see now what you meant re: air gap and will get some foam tape for that purpose if I can't find any in the garage.

Trav, that's about the same unit I was intending to get and have in my cart; the 990, which is a few dollars cheaper but spec'd absolutely identical. I have poured over the JVC specs on their website and for the life of me can't figure out the differences between the top several models; all the product information and features are identical. Very odd.


Tell me about it, I went through the same thing but in the end I decided this one does what I need and has a better 2 year warranty. I have halfway decent speakers in the car already and it sounds good to me so this should only make life better with the hands free calling and MP3 from USB and Iphone.

I get speakers here, being an outlet stock can change often.

http://www.bostonacoustics.com/US/Product/Pages/OutletProducts.aspx?CatId=OutletStore(BostonAcoustics_US)

I got the SR55 for the rear and SC55 for the front and modified the OE mounting to fit, they came out real nice with no significant air gap between the door panel and speaker.
IIRC I paid $200 for the whole business.
 
Originally Posted by DuckRyder

It is the number of preouts and the preout voltage between those two.


Ah, got it. I was comparing it on the JVC website, and it was not showing it. I didn't try the Crutchfield comparison feature.

In fact, I know realize the JVC website was broken all last week when I was doing it, and only know is working as I just double checked, and it is showing completely different information than last week:

http://www.us.jvc.com/compare/?reg=K,K,K&model=KD-R990BTS,KD-RD99BTS,KD-R895BTS&lang=en,en,en&url=%2Fcar%2Findashreceivers%2Fkd_r990bts%2F,%2Fcar%2Findashreceivers%2Fkd_rd99bts%2F,%2Fcar%2Findashreceivers%2Fkd_r895bts%2F

Trav, I will check out those speaker options; thanks.
 
Originally Posted by DuckRyder
Originally Posted by Oro_O
,,,
Trav, that's about the same unit I was intending to get and have in my cart; the 990, which is a few dollars cheaper but spec'd absolutely identical. I have poured over the JVC specs on their website and for the life of me can't figure out the differences between the top several models; all the product information and features are identical. Very odd.


https://www.crutchfield.com/Product/CompareTo.aspx?g=300&compareItems=01|105KDR895B&compareItems=01|105KDR990B

It is the number of preouts and the preout voltage between those two.


Looks like Crutchfield made a mistake and gave the 895 a variable display color when both are white only.

Otherwise, it's just the pre-outs, which would make no difference if the OP isn't going to run an external amp.

Also curious how it says the warranty is 2-years when that was reserved for the Arsenal and Excelon lines.
 
Originally Posted by Carmudgeon


Also curious how it says the warranty is 2-years when that was reserved for the Arsenal and Excelon lines.


Actually, I was just coming back to edit my post to mention that. I noticed the inconsistency in the warranty information versus other dealers. Everywhere else it says the warranty on all these is one year. I even emailed JVC customer service the other day and asked, and they emailed back and said it was one year. Crutchfield is either personally offering an extended warranty, or have a big typo. I was going to clarify that with them when I ordered. Alternatively, trav, If that selling point was important to you, print out that website page at Crutchfield that shows they sold it to you on those terms in case it ever comes up.
 
Thanks, that was not a primary decision maker over the others but I thought it was a good thing. the person I talked to at Crutchfield even quoted the 2 year warranty when I asked.
Not a deal breaker but I printed it to pdf anyway.

I like this and they do have a firmware update for it, so it seems they are addressing issues as they arise not just orphaning the product.

http://www.jvc.net/car/app/jvc_remote/
 
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