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What Radio to Buy?


jage
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I bought a cheap'o jensen several years ago and took it to silverlake, it lasted all of two hours... got it replaced for free and it's lasted until now. It doesn't deal with shock or dirt real well, and just (mostly) on road driving has killed it.

 

So, I have no idea what to buy. I'd like something with an MP3 player plug that plays CDRs, and I don't give a crap about how it looks, I just want it to live through dust, dirt and constant vibration.

 

Any opinions?

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I can only speak for the deck I have, which I've been running for a 2 years in 2 different trucks. It's part of the Pioneer DEH line, 3rd to the bottom. Has decent features, MP3 playback, a 12 band EQ, and an okay amount of sub controls. Apparently I'm hard on my trucks :dunno: but it's still doing great. The only reason I will be upgrading is for navigation.

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I've had really good luck with JVC.

Seem solid and all have lasted for some time.

I had a cheapo JVC cd player in an escort, lasted 6 years, and still worked when I got rid of the car.

Wife has had a midrange JVC in her car for 3 years, not a glitch.

I've got a higher end one in the truck, been there a year, and it didn't even skip the CD when I was crawling rocks at flatnasty.

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I can only speak for the deck I have, which I've been running for a 2 years in 2 different trucks. It's part of the Pioneer DEH line, 3rd to the bottom. Has decent features, MP3 playback, a 12 band EQ, and an okay amount of sub controls. Apparently I'm hard on my trucks :dunno: but it's still doing great. The only reason I will be upgrading is for navigation.

 

Ditto, I have these in both my Comanches.

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oh sweet an audio question jamminz.gif

 

I would say good brands(no order):

 

Eclipse (high quality)

JVC

Panasonic

Pioneer

Sony (very simple controls)

 

brands I wouldn't touch:

 

Jensen and phase linear (believe it or not phase linear is bottom of the line jensen in other words the crap of the crap)

dual

anything that you can pick up at walmart or like stores

 

I'm iffy on Alpine, their old stuff is awesome i have an alpine screen in my car and love it, their new stuff is poop, they lowered their standards a lot this time around

 

I personally have an eclipse head unit that is chillin in my room waiting for my Manche to be all fixed up

 

as for a CD player that will Handel dust, dirt and vibration, well the field is narrowed down, none. those will kill even the best of CD players.

 

looking for one that plays CD-R and mp3 disks, pretty much every CD player now a day will do that, i would say your best bet (i know that some don't like it) would be an Ipod or similar device, not really susceptible to dust and bumps (especially if you get a flash based player, no moving parts to skip) and most head units will be able to control Ipods with an adaptor giving you basic control and information right on the head unit

 

hope this will help out, I like audio questions :popcorn:

 

Jonathan

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the cheapest radio i could find. if its in my off road truck that sees action often, i would never put a radio in it over 100 bucks.

 

in my dd/trail truck i have a 400 dollar alpine that i love to death and will never get rid of.

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I also like the ALPINE head units.

 

I have three of them, all different models, but the one in my MJ is about a year old and it cost about 130$ from best buys. Sounds great, has two sets of preamp out puts, one for a sub, plays WMA files as well as MP3's.

 

 

CW

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I too love JVC, I would buy the Pioneer DVD/NAVI unit in a heart beat though.

 

You mean the $1,799 Pioneer AVIC-N3...? your heart must beat liquid gold brother!

 

Thats the one indeed. I am buying a caddy cts (dd) and I showed my wife that radio and told her thats whats going in it. You should have seen her face, lol! She freaked out and pointed to the 350 dollar garmin and just asked why.... So I told her by selling the TJ I could save that much easy a year in repairs alone. And I don't think I will have much more to spend on the caddy as they come pretty well equiped.

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I too love JVC, I would buy the Pioneer DVD/NAVI unit in a heart beat though.

 

You mean the $1,799 Pioneer AVIC-N3...? your heart must beat liquid gold brother!

 

Thats the one indeed. I am buying a caddy cts (dd) and I showed my wife that radio and told her thats whats going in it. You should have seen her face, lol! She freaked out and pointed to the 350 dollar garmin and just asked why.... So I told her by selling the TJ I could save that much easy a year in repairs alone. And I don't think I will have much more to spend on the caddy as they come pretty well equiped.

 

Yes, well I'm putting this in my TJ and I don't think my permanent bikini top and $79.00 bulldog alarm are really up to the challenge of keeping this in the dash for long.

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you can use anything that fits in your budget. In our family we have run the gamet of radios pioneers, aiwa, dual, sony etc. the only ones that did not give up is the sony and my dad's pioneer from 1979 all of the others have had some kind of issue with their cd players especially cdr's. I remember when our zj's factory radio gave it was two years old my dad bitched all the way to the zone office until they replaced it because the car was only out of warranty for 2300 miles and it sucked listening to only AM in that car.

 

Just keep them simple and cheap for offroad use. I'm thinking about just getting an interface panel just for my ipod as I just don't use my cd player or tuner much any more so I question why I had to have a flip down screen to load the cd.

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I have a DEH model pioneer and have had it for 4 years and no issues. It was the second up from bottom and was only $115 and its the best cd player ive ever owned and they sell them at Wal-Mart. :D

 

Cole

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I have had alot of decks and the best ones I have had experience with is JVC and pioneer. The low end pioneer are good also they can handle the vibration well and the bumps with out breakin your wallet. Find a decent new or used one a on ebay for cheap. I got a pioneer deck that plays mp3 disks and has way to much stuff on it and I don't know half of it, I have no idea what model it is I think a 8400 somewhere around there I got it for $200 and it works great. I havent had a luck with sony I think all there stuff is crap. I have the old sony out of my car and put it in the manche it barely get stations and skips when I hit a good bump.

later

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