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It's time for help a noob!

1411 Views 13 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  ManiacChart, 
M
Yes it's this time of year again, where a complete noob comes in here looking for advice. Today, that's me. So here's my situation. I have this 2001 Honda Civic, which I was using to move around on weekends and not much else. But now I'll be using it to commute, and my AM/FM radio won't cut it anymore. Let's face it. The radio sucks. SO. I need to upgrade the sound system in there. Now here's what I was thinking. I'm not going to keep the car forever, it's already showing some age, so I don't want to spend a fortune here. On the other hand, if I'm going to be using this to commute every day for 2+ years, I might as well change the ****** speakers I already have. They really sound horrible.


So what I did so far was go at the local Best Buy and check out prices ranges to see what I was looking at. But then I realised I don't know a thing about quality, or even what I need to buy, I decided to stop here. I could have asked the guy at BB, but these people have always been as dumb as posts when it came to advice. At least in my experience.


So a couple questions :

1) I have an iPod (nano). I know there are systems that integrate the iPod out there. But am I looking at 500$+ for this? Because I do have CDs...

2) The speakers. Since I don't want to spend too much, is it viable to change speakers too, or should I just be content with buying something that will at least read CDs?

3) Any brands I should look out for? Both in the good and the bad variety?


Thanks for reading this.
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don't go to BB, CC, or any retail store

shop for a headunit online or eBay


1) not sure


2) spend yoru $$$ on speaks, if you're on a very limited budget the Pioneer Revs will do ~ $100, or go for the Crystal SSCs, or higher up look into Rainbow, CDT, Diamond, et al. and a separate amp to pwoer your speaks. you can leave the factory 6x9 as rear fills


3) headunit...stick to Alpine, Pio, Eclipse, JVC...again buy online or eBay
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A good resource for what can fit your car is Crutchfield.com


As for iPod connectivity, I'd recommend an Alpine unit with 'Fullspeed' Definitely can be had for under $300, but if you have the $$, I'd recommend the 9857, which has a great display, and can show the ID3 tags and allow you to control your iPod directly while it's stored in your glove box...


Also, the head unit can play MP3 and WMA CDs, and I'm pretty sure you can stick in an XM/Sirius Tuner if desired.


Speakers, frankly anything for fronts in the $100/pair price range will be a dramatic step up.
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1) you can buy any unit with line level (RCA) inputs and just a phono to RCA adapter for your ipod. it wont display all the song info on the head unit like a true ipod cable, but you will save tons of money.


2) buy a head unit and see how the speakers sound after that. most head units will produce a cleaner and fuller sound on stock speakers, just do to more power. if they still sound crappy, i picked up some pioneers for my beater at walmart. 50 bucks for 2-way 6.5" and 60 for the 6x9"s. they did a really good job considering the price.


3) like Clepto said, go to crutchfield and do some research. then go to froogle.com to find the unit that fits your needs. i have been running clarion units in all my cars and never have a problem.. good luck
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Thanks for all the reply guys! Looks like I have some reading and comparing to do. There's a lot of stuff on Crutchfield's site. Too bad they don't ship to canada. At least I can figure out what I want there. I do have a couple more questions though.


1) Center mentionned not going to BB, CC, or any retail store. Alright, I'll take that advice, but can I know why? Is it because they have generally bad products?

2) About ordering online. I know that some retail stores do the installation for you. But if you guys are ordering online, do you put it all together yourselves? I figure there's savings to be made there. How hard would that be though?
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If you're comfortable doing it yourself, then you can save some $$...


Otherwise, you might be able to take advantage of some free install deals... I've had various stuff installed at CC, Magnolia, Tweeter... No complaints, but again if you can do it yourself (and have the time) it's cheaper...


Personally, it was easier for me to have someone else do it.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ManiacChart
1) Center mentionned not going to BB, CC, or any retail store. Alright, I'll take that advice, but can I know why? Is it because they have generally bad products?

2) About ordering online. I know that some retail stores do the installation for you. But if you guys are ordering online, do you put it all together yourselves? I figure there's savings to be made there. How hard would that be though?


1) Its not because they are bad products, its because they are overpriced. it doesnt hurt to see what they have, to play around with stuff, but it is definitely cheaper online.


2) If you order online, you can either install yourself or go to a local shop. the going rate for a head unit should be around 30bucks, maybe more if CDN. I prefer to do things myself, and honda's are extremely easy to work on.


you have to be careful though because some model year civics require the old head unit to be wire in conjunction with the new unit because of the alarm system. i am sure you can find out exactly what models/years require this on a honda forum or just stopping by your local BB or CC..
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rice hit the nail on the head....


it basically comes down to getting more bang for your buck getting your HU, speaks & amp(s) online


as far as install, go to a trustworthy shop if you don't install them yourself. oh, and some deadening on the doors will help...
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Oh that makes a lot of sense.


And I can't say I know what I'd be doing if I did it myself, but I build my own computers, and had electrical engineering classes, so wires are not a foreign concept to me, I'll just have to read up about the way cars are set up. Plus I like learning about this stuff in the first place.


And deadening? What's that?


Thanks for all the advice guys!
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Sound deadening material a la Dynamat, or the home depot equivalent
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with your ipod question, i got a deck that integrates almost all mp3 players via a simple plugin that came with it, it costed no more than $250
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Clepto
Sound deadening material a la Dynamat, or the home depot equivalent
carpet foam! it's not as thin as dynamat, etc but it works really well. installing car stereo stuff is typically really simple. if you don't want to manually splice your wires, you can get harnesses that just plug into the factory harness that color match your new harness. some solder and heatshrink and you will be ready to go. wire colors are typically industry standard ie: black is ground, red is hot, yellow is ignition, etc. good luck with the install!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shalafi13
with your ipod question, i got a deck that integrates almost all mp3 players via a simple plugin that came with it, it costed no more than $250


Well, you can always use mini-plug -> RCA adapters on the vast majority of head units out there, but the benefit of the iPod connectivity is that you can 1) see the tags for Artist/song/album/etc. 2) Directly control the iPod via the HU (so you can stick the iPod in your glove box, etc). and 3) Access playlists... most mp3/wma cds will only poaly in the order burned on the disc, which tends to be alphabetical, and random doesn't work very well.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Clepto
Well, you can always use mini-plug -> RCA adapters on the vast majority of head units out there, but the benefit of the iPod connectivity is that you can 1) see the tags for Artist/song/album/etc. 2) Directly control the iPod via the HU (so you can stick the iPod in your glove box, etc). and 3) Access playlists... most mp3/wma cds will only poaly in the order burned on the disc, which tends to be alphabetical, and random doesn't work very well.
Those are the kinds of features I was going for yes. I'd like to avoid playing around with my iPod while driving, because I just don't think that's very safe.


And thanks for hints rice! I'm going to try and do it myself. I also took a good look at crutchfield and I'm going to hold out on the purchase because they say they'll put up a canadian site sometime in october.
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