Double din suggestions

Blind

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I had a Pioneer Avic F700BT double din for the past 3 years or so...

IMG_1103.jpg


I just sold it because I want to change things up, the UI was a bit clunky and slow for my tastes (even with custom 3.1 firmware with several hacks), the bluetooth wasn't reliable with my iphone 3gs, often I would have to manually turn the bluetooth off/on the deck to get it to connect.

I don't need nav, as I have the tomtom app on my iphone which is killer and the iphone sits perfectly right in the gauge cluster above the steering wheel and doesn't slide around with my otterbox case.

but I do want green lighting to match the stock dash, bluetooth, bluetooth streaming, usb ipod control, aux input, I don't need a cd player as I never used it on the pioneer...
I'd prefer the USB and aux inputs to be on the rear so I can cleanly route the wires to my glovebox, but another set on the face would be nice too.

I've been browsing cruthfield/amazon/sonicelectronix for several days off and on, and I keep going back to this JVC deck -
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

Kenwood makes this which looks pretty good too -
http://www.amazon.com/Kenwood-DPX503-Dual-DIN-Receiver-External/dp/B001IBD9US/ref=pd_cp_e_3
but it costs another $140 for the stupid bluetooth kit.

anybody have any other alternative suggestions? I want to spend $250 at the most, as I sold my old deck for $280.

internal amp doesn't matter, but I would prefer clean preamp signals, 2.5v minimum (but I'd like 4v) with assignable HPF and LPF on the outputs like my pioneer had. I have a kenwood 75x2 RMS amp powering my set of JL 6.5" components up front, and an MTX 300watt? single channel class D amp powering a 10" Boston sub in the trunk. I removed the rear mach460 amp rack/speakers.
 

CanaryGT

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I dont know of a deck that you could buy that would have 4v pre outs and only cost your 250 bucks. Ive used that JVC before but not the Kenwood. I dunno How I like the Kenwood.....
 
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Blind

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CanaryGT

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Well then it doesnt meet your criteria. IMO its hard to find a deck with everything you want without paying for it.
 

duh09

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I'm not going to lie, I hate the looks of basically every single double-din non-DVD/Nav screen unit out there.

If I was in your situation, I'd probably be trying to find someone to swap their single-din center piece and put a single din in there and gain that cubby hole back instead of having limited choices with ugly DDs.
 
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Blind

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thinking about it more, I'm leaning more and more to ditch the stereo all together, get a clarion audiophile EQ -
http://www.amazon.com/Clarion-EQS74...V3T8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297473207&sr=8-1

a bluetooth receiver/mic -
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F4U037...UTF8&coliid=I3HETGT6PH99G7&colid=711A0SHS87NS

and a iphone dock that I'll bolt inside the double din hole on a extension arm, that allows the phone to swivel from landscape to portrait mode.


and do everything through the phone's interface, with the audio streamed out via bluetooth to the line input of the EQ for volume control.

My speakers are amped, so I really don't need a headunit, this is basically a carputer based on the cell phone.

welcome to 2011, haha.

I'd love to have a double din multi-touch screen that would control the iphone, but the technology isn't there yet...
 
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Blind

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Here's my new setup -

IMG_0001.jpg

steering wheel controls
IMG_0002.jpg

clarion EQ with 2 inputs/switch on front, 7 channel adjustment + sub level and master volume, 7 volt pre-out
IMG_0006.jpg

turn by turn nav with pandora still playing in the background, my iphone is mounted in a kensington dock that swivles and charges the phone, plus has the line-out adapter straight into the EQ and the steering wheel controls for music control.
This is navigon, it has live traffic, I also have the garmin and tom-tom nav apps to try out, so far I like the navigon best.
IMG_0009.jpg

found an old single din pocket to help fill the hole temporarily.


I'm currently working on a face plate for the hole now, but otherwise the system works -awesome-

sounds way better than my old setup, bluetooth works great (the big button looking thing on the dash is the bluetooth mic / control button).

no more stereo in this car for me, I would love to have a screen in the dash opening linked to the phone, but touch screens that control the iphone/ipod aren't easily available yet.
 

duh09

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It would clean if you filled up the hole with maybe some gauges or something. Neat idea, cool to see it in action.
 
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Blind

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nope, here's finished v1.0

IMG_0032.jpg


there's some dust and such on the edges of the filler plate, I didn't clean anything up before taking that pic.

this is how it will look 99% of the time. All I have to do is get in the car, start it, push the button on the bluetooth mic and music starts playing even with the phone still in my pocket.

on longer drives I'll use the dock so it charges.

sounds 1000x better than my old double din, plays back anything I want. I have local am/fm radio through the tunein app, podcasts, mp3's, pandora, bing top 100 by year, etc etc.

and the nav with navigon is waaaay better than the igo crap pioneer puts on their headunits, free real time traffic with re-routing around it.
 
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Blind

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Wtf, of course it isn't cardboard.

IMG_0029.jpg


Theres a pic I took during the process.

I also setup the 'trac off' button as my pushbutton engine start while I was rewiring back there.


Sent using Tapatalk while pooping.
 

Briannup

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@Blind are you happy with your Kenwood? Would you recommend it?
Sorry for being off topic.

I'm in the process of upgrading my stock stereo and looking for a good one.

From my research Kenwood is a good option. But can't make up my mind. All the reviews I've read so far are hype garbage. Actually I've tracked down a site that tells it how it is. I was eyeing the Kenwood DDX9704S system thanks to the review.

Can you tell me how bad the is the screen glare? What about the price is there enough value to justify it?

I'm open for suggestions
 

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