OK, here is the situation:

Bought a 94 FD Touring with a double DIN Kenwood headunit and a Schosche adapter. Center speaker was removed for a Fly Tripod by a PO, so the only speakers were the door speakers and the Wave sub.

Shortly after getting the car, the right door speaker went out. Decided to scrap the Bose system. I had two new door speakers installed as well as a sub amp installed in the passenger bin that was connected to the two 6" inch subs in the Bose Wave.

This actually works pretty well. The door speakers were a pair of decent Diamonds. The sub arrangement actually works well unless the bass gets boosted up too much then the clamshell 6"s start to clap.

My problem is that the Kenwood headunit (don't recall the model number right now) is way more than I need plus it takes up two DIN slots that I could use for guages etc... The head unit is GPS capable (don't have it), is a surround system, (only got two speakers and a sub), is a DVD player (like to keep my eyes on the road when driving), has a remote (in a FD?), and has better audio quality than I'm going to notice when driving down the road in a loud, 15 year old sports car.

I'd like to find another head unit that can control the two speakers and sub amp that I have. I'd like good FM sensitivity, CD player, and a aux line in for an mp3 player, and single DIN. I also then want to take out the Bose Wave, and make or buy a sub for the FD. My tastes in music make a big sub not important. I'm guessing an 8" would be fine and maybe even a 6". After all, the FD is small and I don't need to rattle the suspension.

I most likely will pay to have the install done since I have too little patience with wiring and at 6'2", spending time in, under, and around the dash is more than this old body can take.

I'm looking for suggestions from you folks on what might be a decent, relatively inexpensive HU that would meet my modest demands.

 

There are lots of choices that will fit for you. I personally like Alpine units. The biggest thing I'd try to stay away from is anything that has a motorized face. When that motor goes out and it's not under warranty you might as well just buy a new unit, depending on the cost of repair obviously (it's happened to a buddy of mine twice with his old Pioneer unit). What kind of mp3 player do you have? Alpine's cheapest unit is 150.00 (CDE-9870) and you can plug an ipod directly to it. They also have one for 180.00 (CDE-9874) that has a small jack aux in on the front and has 2 preouts. It should work good for you for the price, unless you don't like the front aux in. It's not as nice looking as a rear aux but is definitely more convenient than having to take the dash apart to unplug it. That's my suggestion. Like I said though, there's plenty of other options out there for other brands too.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I like a front aux in just for the convenience. I have an ipod and that is a lot more convenient than CD's. My Kenwood has a motorized face, and I've wondered what would happen if that died.

 

I kinda second RedFD's option also. A good radio at a good price are the Alpines, they offer good sound clarity, simplicity of use. What kind of MP3 player are you hooking up? If it's an ipod. You can step up to the CDA-9884. They come with an ipod control.

I am an EXTREME fan of the alpines, however if your looking for extremely good FM Tuner in your radio. You might have to look at a pioneer. The pioneer's have the Super Tuner 5 now, last time I remembered them they were on super tuner 3d. But I would really choose an alpine over the pioneers these days, due to the goofy control **** and how "cheap" it feels, and the menu's are sometimes hard to scroll through to access via the big rotary ****. Just not a spectacular design in user interface.