Stupid Kenwood Deck

[03.5msprotege]

Yeah, ours finally went out. It sucks 'cause we've only had the car since December 15 and only put on 2000 km. Well, whatever. I looked into the "fix" and it seems to be a temp measure at best.
What is the bare minimum I need for a deck? How many preouts? HPF/LPF? I don't really care about blue tooth or anything like that, but I would like to have an aux. in for the ipod. I would like to stay single din.
What have some of you used and had good success with?
thanks everyone.

 

[CHICO2003]

I'm pretty sure this is the one I have...

http://www.sirius.com/servlet/Conte...s/CachedPage&c=ProductAsset&cid=1080597647839

It's a million times better than the POS kenwood the car came with. Like you, I got it because I was sick of having to bring it back to the dealership to get it replaced. (This was when it was still under warranty mind you.) Sound quality is at least the same if not a little better... and it has all the features (preouts, sirius, mp3/wma, etc) the kenwood has. What really sold me is the fact that you can program it so that it matches the backlighting of the dash perfectly.

Since this model is already a couple years old, you can probably find a good deal on it. Good luck.

 

[MrDiggler]

I replaced my factory Kenwood with a Sony CDX-F7700. I love it. I recently put a Sony CDXGT705DX in my wife's car, and I like it even better. They have a great tuner, play MP3/WMA, don't skip, and the flexibility offered by the Sony units is unmatched. The come with very adjustable EQ's and crossovers. The 705DX even allows you to tweak the EQ for every channel, which I did in her car. Some naysayers on here will bash them, but I used to sell car audio and am still somewhat into it, and for me there's nothing else. The 7700 kicked the s*** out of the Kenwood in power and sound quality, at least to my ears. Everyone who's ridden in my car agrees as well. My 2 cents, anyway.

 

[fr0st]

i bought a sony cdxgt for my msp, i love it and it's got controls for the sub too... oh and a feature i thought i would never use.. a USB port!

i plug in a memory stick and listen to mp3s from it.. real sweet

 

[03.5msprotege]

awesome... thanks for the reviews. I'm def. gonna have to get one with an aux. port for the ipod. Whether it's a usb or aux I'm not sure yetand don't really care. I'm kinda debating on a sony unit... http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/se...1&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&productId=1003039
Blue tooth? I don't have any thing that is blue tooth but just about all cell phones now have that so it might be worth it to have that feature.
Plus, a buddy has a sponsorship with sony so it comes to my door pretty cheaply.
Or maybe the one without the blue tooth... 805dx?
http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/se...&productId=1002498&navigationPath=32150n32153
what do you think?

 

[MrDiggler]

Yeah, you should be happy with that one. It has the 13 band EQ and all the tweaking controls, and a set of inputs. FWIW, I just burn 60-70 high bit rate mp3's to a cd and run off of that for a month at a stretch. I've never hooked my portable mp3 player to mine.

Oh, and if you get one of the Sonys, you'll probably find that the DSO makes things sound worse, not better. I don't use the BBE or the DSO, just some minor tweaks to the crossovers and EQ.

 

[18sOnAiR]

Yeah, ours finally went out. It sucks 'cause we've only had the car since December 15 and only put on 2000 km. Well, whatever. I looked into the "fix" and it seems to be a temp measure at best.
What is the bare minimum I need for a deck? How many preouts? HPF/LPF? I don't really care about blue tooth or anything like that, but I would like to have an aux. in for the ipod. I would like to stay single din.
What have some of you used and had good success with?
thanks everyone.

I'll take your stock kendwood of your hands.

 

[iLisa]

I put the MSP stock Kenwood 919 in my p5.. only had it act up 2 times.. (and by act up, it just turned inself off.. I just restarted the car and poof, it worked again) *knock on wood*

 

[reg_2004]

does anyone know if you could get mazda to put in a different deck if it is under warrentee? i just got mine replaced and now every time i go to change the settings (bass, tre, sub level) it shuts off and i have had this deck for like two weeks! it took mazda almost a month and a half to get the one i have and it s**** out in two weeks wtf??? i need to do somthing quick cuz my msp has 49,200 mi on it

 

[CHICO2003]

It's funny how many people on this thread recommended Sony. I'm admitedly no expert but, from what I've heard (form experts mind you) Sony is one of the worst brands around. It's kind of like buying Nike running sneakers... it's all in the name. Best thing to do is hear it side by side. It's amazing how much of a difference a receiver can make.

 

[MrDiggler]

It's funny how many people on this thread recommended Sony. I'm admitedly no expert but, from what I've heard (form experts mind you) Sony is one of the worst brands around. It's kind of like buying Nike running sneakers... it's all in the name. Best thing to do is hear it side by side. It's amazing how much of a difference a receiver can make.

Funny too how people can thrash on a certain brand without looking at the big picture, and take the advice of "forum experts" (now there's an oxymoron... none of us are truly experts at any of this. The best we can offer is experience.)

When I put in my first newer Sony head unit, I was able to ditch my separate EQ and Xover for good. Admittedly, my ears are 36 years old and haven't heard every single head unit available, but my Sony (when properly set up) is pure joy. With all the tweaking in the world I couldn't get my factory Kenwood to sound like that. Not to mention that the first Sony HU I owned would pick up 99.7 out of Atlanta, Ga... 120-140 mi. away over Appalachian terrain. 8 dbf is hard to beat.

I'm also into home theater, and as a rep for Denon recently told me, "if you can honestly hear the difference between these HT receivers, then your ears are just simply better than mine." Maybe you guys can hear the difference. I sure as hell can't. All I know is I used to be a big Kenwood fan when I sold car audio in the mid-90's, but these two newer sonys just kicked the s*** out of it.

 

[haveahotcarl]

Alpine CDA-9855. It is a couple years old but one of the best decks i have ever owned. Very nice "biolite" display, can even read in direct sun. Sub control is one touch on the volume nob. Great if you have an upgraded sub and just want a little bump...

 

[03.5msprotege]

I'm tired of waiting on the sony deal so... I'm headed off to a local box chain to get a pioneer installed.
I think I've decided on a pioneer unithttp://www.crutchfield.com/S-XelY2TLtIFN/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=300&I=130DEHP590&search=Pioneer+VENDORID130&SearchDisplay=Pioneer
I'll let you all know how it works out.

 

[03.5msprotege]

so, went to the local bigbox store and they had a sale on the sony units. most were 50 bux off and they were promoting free install.
We went with the cdx-gt710. The price was right and it will be installed on thursday.
thanks for all your suggestions.

 

[Swerny]

It's funny how many people on this thread recommended Sony. I'm admitedly no expert but, from what I've heard (form experts mind you) Sony is one of the worst brands around. It's kind of like buying Nike running sneakers... it's all in the name. Best thing to do is hear it side by side. It's amazing how much of a difference a receiver can make.

I agree.
I used to work in a stereo shop and would have to bring 10 x more Sony stuff in for reapir compared to Pioneer and we sold more Pioneer. (drunk)

I just bought a Pioneer 6800 to replace my stock Kenwood (the 5th stocker I have had although this one has lasted the longest, over a year).

 

[03.5msprotege]

Well, here's hoping that we don't have too many problems with the sony deck we bought. This car is our second and in the 4 months we've had it, we've only put on apx. 2500 km. ~1500 miles for you americans...

 

[EMsp]

Not to thread jack but along the same lines...I went and looked a msp for sale...the battery had recently died and after chargeing the sotck deck display stopped working, the sound still comes out but with no display.? any thoughts, I would mostly likely upgrade anyways..

 

[micahlarson]

Yeah, ours finally went out. It sucks 'cause we've only had the car since December 15 and only put on 2000 km. Well, whatever. I looked into the "fix" and it seems to be a temp measure at best.
What is the bare minimum I need for a deck? How many preouts? HPF/LPF? I don't really care about blue tooth or anything like that, but I would like to have an aux. in for the ipod. I would like to stay single din.
What have some of you used and had good success with?
thanks everyone.

You should be able to find a decent deck for 200$ brand new