Car audio: it's a changin'....................

[Drover]

As long as this thread has been revived...

Not sure if it's mentioned in this thread yet but the usual reason for needing an aftermarket head unit is to bring the unit up to current media technology. Nowadays auto companies are much better about staying current with and even driving new media input and playback technologies, and most now include RCA jacks and USB ports to provide at least some accomodation for future unknown devices.

If you want to improve the overall sound quality, the head unit isn't nearly as much a limiting factor as the amp and speakers, which are not notably more difficult to swap out than before.

[Valker]

Originally Posted by Drover

As long as this thread has been revived...

Not sure if it's mentioned in this thread yet but the usual reason for needing an aftermarket head unit is to bring the unit up to current media technology. Nowadays auto companies are much better about staying current with and even driving new media input and playback technologies, and most now include RCA jacks and USB ports to provide at least some accomodation for future unknown devices.

If you want to improve the overall sound quality, the head unit isn't nearly as much a limiting factor as the amp and speakers, which are not notably more difficult to swap out than before.

Most of them do not include RCA jacks, and many do not have USB ports. Even so, they sure took a while before putting in USB ports.

If you add an amplifier to a stock head unit (high level inputs) then you will have a noise floor and a powerful amp amplifies the noise.

[NoJiveMan]

1. Best Buy has been known to F people's S up,

Yes. They fixed mine up just great.
During the installation, he bumped the defrost duct off. Only found out when removing a cd, it was so hot, I couldn't handle it, actually surprising it didn't melt.
Going down the hiway, my cd's would skip when I went over bumps and potholes, the installer used a thin piece of plastic to mount it in the dash, and nothing to support the back of the am/fm cd player at all, it bounced when hitting bumps and potholes.
Installer taped the wires with black electrical tape which made a sticky mess when the heater defroster was turned on, plus my windshield didn't defrost on the driver side any more.

I'll never go back to BB.

[Praxis]

AM radio is mostly what I listen to on short trips, so I don't need anything fancy. Stock unit works just fine for this purpose.