Hardware Car audio replacement

[DinohScene]

Holy damn ._.
I could take a look at the local carpart dealer n check if they got Pioneers.
Prolly only costs something like 40/50 quid in total ;p
Far less then the 100 USD.

Cartuning that expensive in the states?

 

[the_randomizer]

Holy damn ._.
I could take a look at the local carpart dealer n check if they got Pioneers.
Prolly only costs something like 40/50 quid in total ;p
Far less then the 100 USD.

Cartuning that expensive in the states?

Yep. I don't have the skills to do it myself, I pay someone at Best Buy to do it (and they did an excellent job with replacing my speakers). Well that, and Pioneer's a good brand too, so that accounts for it. That's only the low-mid range stuff, high end systems are way more than that. But once more, it's not happening until I fix my car locks. I don't want people stealing it/ripping it out (happened to my sister).

Really isn't super expensive, so a transmitter will do in the mean time.

 

[DinohScene]

Eh, if they really want your headunit, they'd just smash your window in anyway.
Locked or not ;p
That's why you can take off the faceplate n hide it inside of your house silly ;p

But yeh, having your locks fixed is indeed a easy theft prevention.

Agreed, Pioneer ain't half bad.
Got 2 mid/high range speakers in the back of them and I must say that they preform extremely well.

 

[the_randomizer]

Eh, if they really want your headunit, they'd just smash your window in anyway.
Locked or not ;p
That's why you can take off the faceplate n hide it inside of your house silly ;p

But yeh, having your locks fixed is indeed a easy theft prevention.

Agreed, Pioneer ain't half bad.
Got 2 mid/high range speakers in the back of them and I must say that they preform extremely well.

Should be after paying $300 USD for the speakers and installation (but my bro split costs), I keep forgetting the face place is removable, so that's a non-issue. I'll get an FM device in the mean time just so I can break the speakers in

 

[DinohScene]

I paid ~half of that for me sub + speakers + amp + powercap.
A ~5th of that on MDF boards n cloth
And a weekends worth of working to make and fix the installation in the back ;p

Only downside of that cheapo job was 1.5 week of sore n stiff joints.
So you did beat me in lazyness ;p

Aye, I wish you luck chap!

 

[the_randomizer]

I paid ~half of that for me sub + speakers + amp + powercap.
A ~5th of that on MDF boards n cloth
And a weekends worth of working to make and fix the installation in the back ;p

Only downside of that cheapo job was 1.5 week of sore n stiff joints.
So you did beat me in lazyness ;p

Aye, I wish you luck chap!

Thanks! They do charge ridiculous prices here, but it is what it is

 

[DinohScene]

In comparison to fuel prices.
Dun get me started.
Europe's fucking expensive when it comes to that.

Summer '12, Italy, 2 quid per liter of fuel.
Iirc, Autumn of '12, Greece also reached 2/2.10 per liter
~11 dollars per gallon if I did the math correctly.
That's not all, road taxes, toll, insurance, the whole lot.
EU is just trying to make driving cars an hell.

Trying to promote PT!?
Yeh good promotion by jacking those prices up as well >_>

Eh, we got cheap car tuning, you got cheap fuel ;p

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Cartuning that expensive in the states?

No, actually. It's just Bestbuy charges a ton for their car audio stuff and for their installation. For example, it cost me $50 to replace my door speakers and it'll cost another $50 whenever my rear speakers blow (so $100 in total), whereas if I had Bestbuy do it, it would cost twice as much.

They charge $100 for their mono/2-ch Amplifier installation ($120 for 4channel+) and (AFAIK) you have to provide all the wiring yourself as well. Having them install a new headunit is like...$65. Which is why it pays to do this stuff yourself lol.

 

[DinohScene]

hmkays.
Well, ripoffs are all to common these days.

 

[the_randomizer]

No, actually. It's just Bestbuy charges a ton for their car audio stuff and for their installation. For example, it cost me $50 to replace my door speakers and it'll cost another $50 whenever my rear speakers blow (so $100 in total), whereas if I had Bestbuy do it, it would cost twice as much.

They charge $100 for their mono/2-ch Amplifier installation ($120 for 4channel+) and (AFAIK) you have to provide all the wiring yourself as well. Having them install a new headunit is like...$65. Which is why it pays to do this stuff yourself lol.

Assuming that people have the expertise to do it themselves, which I don't and I don't plan on doing so anytime soon. Knowing me, I'll mess something up and damage, costing me more money than the new hardware by itself. I'd rather have a professional do it because I don't know a damn thing about cars or wiring, soldering, etc. Yes, it costs more, I'm well aware of the extra costs or what have you, but if I did it myself, something is going to get ruined, that's not being mean to myself, that's being truthful about my lack of skills If I was going to have to do it, I'd have to watch someone do it and for there to be the person who did it there to guide me. For me to simply watch a YT howto a million times doesn't help me at all unless I had a person to walk me through, but that's just me.

I refuse to do this crap on my own, gonna be a cold day in hell before I have the balls to do it myself. Without the proper tools, or the skills or the confidence, no way in hell it's gonna happen. Just saying. I know it costs more, but I feel better trusting a professional, someone who has had years of experience.

hmkays.

Well, ripoffs are all to common these days.

They are, but since I had the money to get it done, I feel better that they did a good job, which they did, whereas if I did it, I'd ruin something, and that's a 100% for sure thing.

 

[Sicklyboy]

I'm not going to even try to convince you that you can do it yourself, but you never know how to do something until you try to do it. I had no idea how to do car audio two years ago, and I'm pretty confident in my ability to do it now, at least in my car. Other cars I'm a little more hesitant because it's a whole new platform to learn.

A few months ago I diagnosed that the alternator in my car went bad. Ordered a new one and replaced it. I had no idea how to do it, it took me about 6 hours, but I did it. A few months later a sensor in my transmission went bad. Same deal, except I put in an old one that still worked. In both cases I didn't have much more knowledge other than what the part looked like, and that I needed to find it and get to it, then reverse the process.

Yesterday I troubleshooted why the blower in our furnace wasn't kicking on. Today I'm replacing the mainboard in it. I know fuck-all about HVAC but here I am bringing heat back to our house.

If you're careful and smart, you're not likely to mess something up outside of maybe a few dollars for a new fuse or something. I wouldn't know 80% of what I know now if it weren't for trial and error and just taking a chance.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Assuming that people have the expertise to do it themselves, which I don't and I don't plan on doing so anytime soon. Knowing me, I'll mess something up and damage, costing me more money than the new hardware by itself. I'd rather have a professional do it because I don't know a damn thing about cars or wiring, soldering, etc. Yes, it costs more, I'm well aware of the extra costs or what have you, but if I did it myself, something is going to get ruined, that's not being mean to myself, that's being truthful about my lack of skills If I was going to have to do it, I'd have to watch someone do it and for there to be the person who did it there to guide me. For me to simply watch a YT howto a million times doesn't help me at all unless I had a person to walk me through, but that's just me.

I refuse to do this crap on my own, gonna be a cold day in hell before I have the balls to do it myself. Without the proper tools, or the skills or the confidence, no way in hell it's gonna happen. Just saying. I know it costs more, but I feel better trusting a professional, someone who has had years of experience.

You don't need any expertise. I didn't have any tutorials or anything when I installed my entire audio setup. I did ask Dinoh a couple things, but otherwise I had 0 knowledge or help at all, besides whatever manual came with my amp/headunit/subs/cap It really is as easy as taking the headunit out, buying an adapter to connect your now headunit to the old plug, connecting color coded wiring together either with soldering or just twist wire connectors, and then putting it back in.

You won't know until you try it

EDIT: Fucking Sickly taking my life lesson with a better story/analogy

 

[the_randomizer]

I'm not going to even try to convince you that you can do it yourself, but you never know how to do something until you try to do it. I had no idea how to do car audio two years ago, and I'm pretty confident in my ability to do it now, at least in my car. Other cars I'm a little more hesitant because it's a whole new platform to learn.

A few months ago I diagnosed that the alternator in my car went bad. Ordered a new one and replaced it. I had no idea how to do it, it took me about 6 hours, but I did it. A few months later a sensor in my transmission went bad. Same deal, except I put in an old one that still worked. In both cases I didn't have much more knowledge other than what the part looked like, and that I needed to find it and get to it, then reverse the process.

Yesterday I troubleshooted why the blower in our furnace wasn't kicking on. Today I'm replacing the mainboard in it. I know fuck-all about HVAC but here I am bringing heat back to our house.

If you're careful and smart, you're not likely to mess something up outside of maybe a few dollars for a new fuse or something. I wouldn't know 80% of what I know now if it weren't for trial and error and just taking a chance.

Dammit, now I feel like an idiot for making such asinine assumptions Ugh. No idea why I said that.

You don't need any expertise. I didn't have any tutorials or anything when I installed my entire audio setup. I did ask Dinoh a couple things, but otherwise I had 0 knowledge or help at all, besides whatever manual came with my amp/headunit/subs/cap It really is as easy as taking the headunit out, buying an adapter to connect your now headunit to the old plug, connecting color coded wiring together either with soldering or just twist wire connectors, and then putting it back in.

You won't know until you try it


EDIT: Fucking Sickly taking my life lesson with a better story/analogy

I don't even have the right tools to work on my car anyways. If I had trouble, I'd ask my dad since he's an expert on how they work, how they're set up, etc, but he's super busy working at the post office or what have you. No, I won't know until I try it, that's true, hell, I don't even know how to solder wiring (sad, I know), I'd feel better experimenting on an old broken down car that doesn't run before testing anything on my Civic. But damn I feel silly for being so cowardly about this.

 

[trumpet-205]

Working on car is not as hard as you think. My 2010 Civic DX-VP does not come with a center arm rest. That's right, no center arm rest (thanks Honda, I didn't know center arm rest is a feature that warrants a trim difference). I went ahead and bought OEM parts and install it on my own. Not difficult as I think it was, even though I had to remove all center columns out of the car.

 

[the_randomizer]

Working on car is not as hard as you think. My 2010 Civic DX-VP does not come with a center arm rest. That's right, no center arm rest (thanks Honda, I didn't know center arm rest is a feature that warrants a trim difference). I went ahead and bought OEM parts and install it on my own. Not difficult as I think it was, even though I had to remove all center columns out of the car.

Anyways, the stereo is installed, ship shape, working like a charm. difficulty isn't so much of an issue as is confidence (or lack thereof), but knowing me, I have a track record for screwing things up. Yes, it's more money to have someone else do it, but I personally feel helluva lot better than if I did it myself, but that's only me. Others may or may not agree with that stance or may think less of me for paying for such a service. Hell, it may even seem cowardly or foolish to rely on others for car repair. If that's how people see it, c'est la vie.

Again, I'm not trying to shoot down opinions or suggestions, I take my route, I have my reasons as you guys have yours

 

[the_randomizer]

Now, given the fact that I'll need to eventually get the head unit on the stereo replaced, and one with an aux input, but with so many choices, it's a little overwhelming as to what route to take. Now, I'd prefer to match it with the speakers (Pioneer is what I'll be posting links to) for the sake of making it easier on myself, so perhaps I can list some and then you guys can give your feedback

$59.99 http://tinyurl.com/mfep8g8

$99.99 http://tinyurl.com/lb95rkf

$109.99 http://tinyurl.com/l9xxmrt

$129.99 http://tinyurl.com/mydm684

$179.99 http://tinyurl.com/qg74d55

 

[Sicklyboy]

Any manufacturer head unit will work, fwiw. As long as you keep it single-DIN, assuming that's what your car takes, you won't have an issue. That said...

I'd personally go with the $129 one out of those. They all have auxiliary input, so no problem there. Most of those have Apple-ready USB input - this means, opposed to non-Apple-ready ones that will only play from like a flash drive or USB hard drive, the Apple-ready ones will let you hook an iPhone iPod or iPad to it and control it from the radio itself while displaying track info and music listings on the screen. The $129 one has Bluetooth, which I honestly couldn't live without at this point on my car stereo. I am constantly streaming music from either Pandora or Google Play Music to my radio via Bluetooth. HD radio isn't important to be honest, not when you're playing music off of your phone or iPod.

 

[the_randomizer]

Any manufacturer head unit will work, fwiw. As long as you keep it single-DIN, assuming that's what your car takes, you won't have an issue. That said...

I'd personally go with the $129 one out of those. They all have auxiliary input, so no problem there. Most of those have Apple-ready USB input - this means, opposed to non-Apple-ready ones that will only play from like a flash drive or USB hard drive, the Apple-ready ones will let you hook an iPhone iPod or iPad to it and control it from the radio itself while displaying track info and music listings on the screen. The $129 one has Bluetooth, which I honestly couldn't live without at this point on my car stereo. I am constantly streaming music from either Pandora or Google Play Music to my radio via Bluetooth. HD radio isn't important to be honest, not when you're playing music off of your phone or iPod.

I don't have an iPod or an smartphone (just a flip phone, I'm too cheap lol ) and my MP3 player is the Sandisk Sansa Clip Zip, which doesn't have Bluetooth. All I basically need is one with aux input, the cables themselves are dirt cheap from the looks of it (a 3.5 mm to stereo aux cable is like $5-$10 if that). I don't have any Apple products so not sure why I posted so many links, I only confuse myself by doing that Now, when you mention single-DIN, I don't know what that entails or what that means, but my car is 2003 Civic two-door coupe if that helps. Even the 59 or 99-dollar one would suffice, I think.

 

[Sicklyboy]

DIN is the size of the radio. There's 3 sizes that I know of - single-DIN, DIN-and-a-half, double-DIN.

The radio's you listed are all single-DIN. DIN-and-a-half units are the vertical thickness of one and a half of them. Double-DIN units are twice as thick, typically having full touch screens and the likes. Your car is a single-DIN car.

I still say the Bluetooth one because of future-thinking. If you ever get an iPod Touch or a smart phone that you want to stream music from (either locally or over the internet) Bluetooth is going to be great for that. A good amount of headunits that have USB are Apple-ready nowadays.

Anyways, you could hook your Sansa to the USB port and control that from the headunit as well, it ought to show up as a USB mass storage device where you can browse files and folders for your music, or through auxiliary if you have playlists set up that you want to use. USB is going to be the way to go though (if not Bluetooth)

 

[the_randomizer]

DIN is the size of the radio. There's 3 sizes that I know of - single-DIN, DIN-and-a-half, double-DIN.

The radio's you listed are all single-DIN. DIN-and-a-half units are the vertical thickness of one and a half of them. Double-DIN units are twice as thick, typically having full touch screens and the likes. Your car is a single-DIN car.

I still say the Bluetooth one because of future-thinking. If you ever get an iPod Touch or a smart phone that you want to stream music from (either locally or over the internet) Bluetooth is going to be great for that. A good amount of headunits that have USB are Apple-ready nowadays.

Anyways, you could hook your Sansa to the USB port and control that from the headunit as well, it ought to show up as a USB mass storage device where you can browse files and folders for your music, or through auxiliary if you have playlists set up that you want to use. USB is going to be the way to go though (if not Bluetooth)

Okay, USB/Aux is the way to go, and Bluetooth, I won't go overboard as I don't need the super high-end model, but I will need to see what DIN my car is. I have playlists on there via Rockbox, the USB cable it came with is downright pathetic (6 inches, I kid you not ROFL, micro USB to USB cables are also dirt cheap), so aux would also work.

Edit: It looks like single-DIN, but I might call the dealership to verify that info.