TiGeRC|aw

I currently have a Kenwoodaftermarket stereo in the car so far. The door speakers (aftermarket eclipes) have never worked and i've replaced the speakers under the dash and the rear. I've decided to invest in a new headunit because this one is starting to skip alot, and spending money on my car makes me happy anways. hahah.

I'm currently looking at the Panasonic CQ-C8100U:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-Cgs5Opx...8100&s=0&cc=01

If i bought that headunit and new speakers for the doors (6 or 6.5 inch speakers?) will everything work right away? Or would i need to modify the wiring to get the speakers in the doors to work?

-90 GXL

scheistermeister

depends on the condistion (or if they are still there) of the original wires. if they are there and fine then yeah everything should be fine

WonkoTheSane

iTrader: (2)

I'm not trying to down your choice of decks or anything (everyone has their own preferances), but I honestly wouldn't buy a deck that doesn't have MP3 capabilities.. It's such a pain to have only 80 minutes of music on one disc. .. Sure, I'm babied by my 12+ albums on one CD, but c'mon, isn't that sweet?

Other than that, if your speakers never worked, and you have an aftermarket deck in there now, there's a good chance your wiring is shot, look into replacing it (no big deal)....

cluosborne

Depending on where the speakers are located in the doors; if it's down near the forward corners, you can fit a 6.5" speaker. If it's in the center of the door, above the arm rests, 5.25" will fit.

As for everything working right away, if your door speakers aren't working, it depends on how the door speakers were wired in the first place. Were they connected to an external amp or did they share the leads from the dash speakers? You need to check that out. Do the speakers that are coming out of the doors work if you hook them up to something else?

As for the headunit, it's a matter of preference. Panasonic is a perfectly fine brand, so are a few others; Blaupunkt, Eclipse, Pioneer, etc. The question is what features do you want, what style, and how much are you willing to spend?

TiGeRC|aw

ya i was thinking mp3 deck too. but the more i thought about it, i only have one other friend that has a mp3 deck. i then considered that i often bring my cd's to my friend's house or even listen to it in my own home stereo which aren't mp3 readable. so it would be even more of a hassle because i would have to burn two sets of cds.

on another note, i decided to buy the deck about 5 mins ago after researching other websites. 159$ isn't too bad considering i wanted the animated display which often retails for more, i also wanted buttons and not ***** (i have no clue why i don't want *****), and also get all this needed junk for free:

wiring harness (20$ retail)
power antenna relay (20$ retail) - hopefully it works
bin or faceplate to put under the stereo ( ? on retail)
wiring diagrams so i don't have to waste time searching for them

they suckered me in with all this free **** i know i would have to make myself or go out and buy

WonkoTheSane

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for clarifying, I didn't mean anything bad about Panasonic, just the lack of mp3 capability

TiGeRC|aw

ya no offense taken at all. i'm a more tech guy and i wanted the ability to do that, but i'm even more of a social guy (still in college and love it) so not being able to play your cds on anything else would be blah.

YBNORML

I got a question. I'm an old fart and I don't get the animated display. I've been in peoples cars that have it and to me it's interesting for a couple of minutes but after that it is a distraction or it gets ignored. I am not knocking what you want in a unit, just some help to clue me in.

Foz'sRX-7

I've got a 93 RX7 with a Kenwood Excelon CD unit.

Added Boston Acoustic Pro's front and rear without changing the stock grills. On the doors, I placed the tweeters just inside the side view mirrors.

Added a 200 Watt Alpine Amp w/ 8" Vega Sub-Tube mounted under the rear strut.

Sound is phenominal!

TiGeRC|aw

its just there for kicks. i guess it would go under the topic of "rice" because it doesn't really do anything performance wise. its just eye candy for people to enjoy =] and not many people have it so its unique.

westler91

Unless you get a custom animated display :td,,,,,,,

I would replace all the wiring in the FC. The aftermarket is huge for wiring and its dirt cheap and much better quality. I got my RX7 flushed with Tv Screens and got the DVD player itself and AV hidden under my passenger seat

75 Repu

ok if your door speakers arent working try running them with wires from the headunit directly, chances are they are still wired through the stock amp and if it is burnt out they will not sound.. or some bad wiring had taken place before.. either way that would be a good way of troubleshooting it.. AND making sure you get good sound since you would run new wires..

I came in here too late since you purchased the deck.. but its a nice choice.. like mentioned before mp3 capability is nice.. and for one more reason not mentioned.. mp3 decks when reading mp3 format are much less prone to skipping.. I had a mp3 player installed in my truck which we shipped to Central America. During a trip I took out there, I drove that truck all over the place on unpaved roads, across rivers and just rough terrain in general and the old mp3 cd's never skipped.. but as soon as I loaded a regular cd it was skipping like crazy.. this may be an extreme example but I was suprised at the performance of the mp3 deck.

that said, you can always get an mp3 cd changer for your system in the future and load up all your classic favorites so you dont have to constanly change disks.. but you will have the flexibility of being able to load new cd's in the main deck as well.

Tournapart

iTrader: (4)

if skipping is a priority, which i know, my **** bounces quite a bit, alpine decks are superior skip proof decks, Mine has NEVER skipped and ive had it for a few months now. MP3 capabilities are really convenient, and just screw the BS and run new wires, thats what I did and i got to tell you, runing new, larger, better quality wires will sound sweet and last the life of the car. i have a CDA-9847, its very basic, but it gets the job done, and well at that. it has a BBE feature that enhances MP3's sound quality to CD quality and you can really tell the difference when you have a sub, i have one 12 inch ED in the trunk. any questions on installation, PM me, i have quite a bit of experiance

just IMO

EDIT: didnt read as far as you bought the deck, but, good luck, panasonics, from my experiance, wont last much longer than a year, then, its skipping constantly, especially with a bouncy car. i hope that you end up with one of the good ones, that dont.

TiGeRC|aw

i'll probably end up running new wire. thanks for the feedback. its only 159$ shipped with no tax so its not like i'm going to be out a whole lot of money if it dies plus warranty. experiences are always worth it.