head unit recomendation?

[Jean]

Yep, thinking the same thing, especially with two amps.

[bangn]

it wil be a poor earth for the amp. promise.

[aaron325ix]

^ I'm going to try that when i get home.

I'll have to take a look at how everything is wired up. My RCA's (front and rear) go down the left side of the car. The sub RCA is the only one that goes down the right side. Battery is in trunk of course. the HU is grounded to a ground point under the steering column.

[xtos]

...Or just start the car up and do the following...
Get a good piece of wire cable ,you dont need a 4 AGU but something good, assuming the head unit is a little bit pulled out of the dash, touch one end of the cable to a good ground (under the steering column perhaps) and the other side on the head unit chassis. Noise gone ? Head unit ground .....
Not gone ? do the same on the amp side. Noise gone? Amp ground...
Noise not gone....
RCA next...

[xtos]

Few suggestions....
RCA cables must not run along side high current power cables.
Amp ground must be as short as possible and ofc on a clean unpainted chassis.
Amp ground and power must be the same cable gauge.
Same goes for the head unit. A good ground is a must.

Most alt noise is coming throught the rca cables 80% of the time. If they are good and solid and not bended and abused skip them and look at the grounds first. GL.

[Jean]

Aaron , describe how the amps in the trunk are wired in detail. You have two amps iirc.

[aaron325ix]

finally got the KD-R80BT installed, looks great, pics coming soon. Problem is I have a horrible alt whine. I had it with the old HU intermittently only, but with the new one its constant. can anyone give some advice on this? ground loop, RCA's? don't know what to do to fix it

[Rambo]

I'm currently running Alpine CDE-HD137BT for the past 3months, it will be replace with Alpine CDE-147BT with amber Illumination...NICE!
Unfortunately Alpine CDE-147BT is on back-order

[xtos]

That looks good. Can you take a pic at night ? Would really like to see it - thanx!

[aaron325ix]

well i decided to go with this one, http://www.crutchfield.com/p_105KDR8...-KD-R80BT.html Its twice as much as i wanted to spend, but has everything i want. Lights that i can match to the e30 interior, 3 preouts, bluetooth, and it looks pretty nice, doesnt have that ricey fast and furious look. Playing CD's as not mandatory for me, but for $10 more than the exact one which did not play CD's, what the hell, why not.
I'll post results next week.

[campbellj25]

You can get splitter RCA cables, split the front channel and then tune the front/rear from the amp. Then use the rear channel on the alpine so you have seperate sub control.

Or you can split the rear channel so you can fade between front/rear from the head unit, but doing that way you will lose your sub control. I also looked around for the same options in a head unit as you did before I bought the alpine. I wanted 3 preouts also, but for a hundred bucks its hard to find. So I figured I would use splitters on the front channel just to have all the other features that the alpine has, plus one that i liked the looks of in the car

[aaron325ix]

well, i just got the alpine. But now im reconsidering it as it doesnt have a sub preout. I dont really want to live without my rear speakers, and i definitely wont go without my luke box. guess im back to square one..

And yes Luke, all head units suck in one way or another!

[xtos]

Nice !I like the bezel....looks quite flat. Take a pic at night, let's see it !

[CB-M3]

I just put in a Pioneer unit. Has Ipod, usb, aux. Just doesn't have bluetooth. I bought it for $67 shipped new in box. Colors match up pretty good at night.

[R3Z3N]

I won't disagree...like I said, all head units suck in one way or another IMO.

I love my KDC-X996 except for the fact bluetooth takes forever to download my contact list (understandable due to throughput), and "DOWNLOADING" is displayed till it is done, rendering the unit unusable, and it pushes me back to the menu if I was navigating for a setting/music.

Who designs the user interface? Monkeys I swear.