Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for aftermarket CD/Radio for 5th gen cars. I have 4 new Kenwood 150W Tri Ax I'm going to install soon and looking for a player that will fit in the stock opening and utilize the factory harness. I dont need a Amp or Subs, Just Good sound without butchering the dash or stock harness. I have seen some models that are direct fit but im not sure how good they are. If anyone has upgraded and like what you got Id be open to some suggestions. Thanks

 

i was just thinking of changing my head unit out myself in my 05 monte

go to google images and tell me which one you think looks better

Jvc avx77 or Kenwood dpx503

right now i currently have a kenwood kdc-138, bass is hittin so hard that its making my cd player skip from vibration, so i need a better deck that has a better anti skip

as for you i would go anything kenwood or jvc, stay away from clarion and pioneer, and i'm iffy on alpine

 

Gs-Z it's an easy thing to do. Pick the deck you want, buy a mounting kit (bout $20), and a wire harness (also bout $20). All you gotta do is color match the wire harness to the wires on the deck and it will plug right in to yer factory radio harness. As for the mounting kit, remove the dash piece that goes around the radio and gauges, then it's just a few screws. It's super super easy, anyone with common sense can do it.

 

Thanks Guys, I didnt know there was mounting kit to fill the huge space where the stock unit goes. Its been years since I swaped out a deck. My talent is under the hood, so from what your saying I guess Audio upgrades got alot easier over the years. And I was partial to the Kenwood myself. Alot of people i know sware by Kenwoods. Thanks for your replies. G

 

They actual swap should be a piece of cake. You will need to remove the instrument trim panel from around the gauges and radio. It just pops off, but be careful the clips want to fall off the panel. Once the panel is off, you just need to unscrew the screws that hold the radio in. When you get the new radio and the mounting kit, you will also need to get the wiring adaptor to install the radio. It plugs into the car's radio harness and you have to wire the adaptor to the plug that comes with the radio. Its not hard, just match the wires by using the radio's instruction manual and the adapter's manual. The hard part would be getting the steering wheel controls to work. You can either just not use the controls or you will have to get the kit to make the controls work with your new stereo. Im not sure what its called but Im sure if you ask someone at the store you get the radio and adaptor from, they can direct you to what you need to get. Hope this helps.

 

Exactly, my instructions were kinda bass ackwards. I decided against the steering wheels controls for two reasons... 1 being I didn't wanna pay for the special harness cuz I think it's kinda spendy, 2 I wanted to do something else with the space where the steering wheel controls are.

 

my 95 ls didnt have steering wheel controls =p

 

you might have to do a little bit of modification to area inside where the cd player is. my alpine is longer than the factory cd player, so i had to do a little hacking to the plastic in the back so i could cram the wires in there. also, spend the extra time and effort and solder and shrink wrap the wires. it prevent shorting out and helps with sound quality too. plus it looks professional

 

I would order everything from www.crutchfield.com they know their stuff, and on most if not all head units include mounting hardware/space filler. I have a Sony CDX-GT630UI and love it! it can take a usp cord, or axuillary cord to plug in your ipod or other MP3 players, also I found you can load up a flashdrive with music and plug it right in! I have a bunch of flash drives filled with music I can controll right there on the stereo, it also makes my stock speakers sound new and fresh, also great bass control if you ever get subs.

 

I have the audio controls on the steering wheel as well. I didnt think I could adapt them to work with the aftermarket deck. I was also thinking maby using a trunk mounted multi disk changer with remote and and Amp and still utilize the factory deck with the wheel controls. I have a Auto electric buddy who says this can be done as well. The sound quality would be good but not as good as an aftermarket deck. So i ordered a Crutchfield catalog and im exploring my options. Thanks for all the input!