Buying a Car Stereo

[scfr]

Thanks again for all of the suggestions!

Here's what I'm thinking so far.

Do-It-Yourself Installation: I'm rethinking this, thanks to your many suggestions. Also, our "car friend" who said not to do it has a ~$40K+ car and will probably trade it in when it's still worth quite a bit, so that is obviously a situation where you wouldn't want a less-than-perfect job lowering the car's value. We, on the other hand, have a 2002 Subaru Outback that we bought for $3K because it had a salvage title, and we will drive it in to the ground (or pretty close to that), so who cares if the install doesn't look absolutely pretty as long as the thing plays music?

The whole MP3 / iPod thing: I've decided not to go there. I've lived through LPs, 8-tracks, cassettes, and CDs, and I decided to jump off the technology wagon at CDs. If I were 20-something (I'm not), it would be another story.

Features I want: I'm still thinking HD radio receiver would be nice, as would be a CD changer. I don't need DVD player or any fancy LCD stuff, but it would be nice to have an LCD display where I can just see which track is playing. A detachable face might be nice, as I believe car prowls are more common in Austin (where we are moving). I read somewhere on-line to look for a deck with pre-amp built in and with at least 50 w/channel and 3-band equalizer; not that I understand what that means ... I also read that "front tweeters" might be good, but again I don't know what that means. Sub-woofers definitely NOT needed (we listen to classical, jazz, and country, and I read that sub-woofers are for rock & hip-hop).

Brands: Panasonic & Pioneer sound like the best budget choices, but there are lots of other brands to look in to (Alpine, JVC, Kenwood, Sanyo, Aiwa, Sony, etc.).

Question for smokey0066: Is dismantling the dash the biggest challenge for installing yourself? If so, could I ask my local mechanic to do that?

[smokey0066]

SCFR:

I would say that what you've read online is incorrect to some degree. To reproduce the full range of the music you are listening to it is ideal to have all the speakers available and then optimized with the equalizer settings for your vehicle and music. You can emphasize the bass for hip-hop and the treble for rock with the equalizer settings but you can also balance it all out as well, to do this properly you need the proper tools (speakers) so having a sub is not just for hip-hop.

Also there are very few head units which do not have internal amps. You will probably not even come across any. Usually the ultra high end gear is what does not have an internal amplifier. Why? Because most people run high power, high quality external amps to all their aftermarket speakers. Even if you replace your door speakers and tweeters you will have enough power from an internal amp to drive those speakers.

Anyways to answer you question, I think figuring out how to gain access to switch the stereos is the trickiest. You will most likely not have have to disassemble the whole dash although some cars require it. There is usually just the bezel that comes off and that reveals the screws that hold the stereo in place. I wouldn’t take it to your mechanic, I would either do some research online or hit the library where there are repair manuals available.

I did a quick search and came up with the link below. I'm not sure how much difference there is between 2001 and 2002.
Subaru Outback stereo

My top of the line pioneer has been playing cds for 8yrs now, through 3 cars without a hitch.
Again feel free to ask if you need more help.

[scfr]

Thanks again for all the help. My new car audio was installed yesterday at "Car Toys."

I wimped out on doing the installation myself.

I did get a HD radio (yea!) but I accepted that the CD changer wasn't going to happen unless I spent much more than I wanted to.

DH insisted that we get new speakers in the front because the factory ones we had were crackling ... And he was right.

We are now the happy owners of a new JVC deck (HD radio and player for 1 CD included) and 2 new & much better speakers in the front. With install and tax, it cost us a grand total of $390.

Whew! That's a lot of money, and it's definitely a "want/luxury/splurge" and not the kind of thing we buy very often. We don't exchange gifts, so we told each other "Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, Happy Valentine's Day, and Merry Christmas!"

We are really happy with our purchase, and expect to get around 8 years of listening pleasure from it --- It sounds fantastic!

And I have to say that shopping at Car Toys was a really positive experience. This was the first time we have ever upgraded a car radio (and we are in our 40's) so we tried to get as much information as we could before even stepping foot in the store. There was no pressure at all to buy features that didn't want or wouldn't use. The sales person let me spend oodles of time listening to all of the speakers in the booth until I was comfortable that I was making the right decision. [I did get a kick out of the way the booths were set up. One booth had really fancy looking decks with price tags of over $1,000, but after a brief explanation of what I wanted the sales guy steered me straight to the low-cost booth, what they probably refer to as the "little-old-lady, all I want is NPR on the radio and some nice jazz CDs" booth!]