Any car audio guys here?

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  • lovemachine

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    A couple of the speakers in my Wrangler have been acting up for awhile. I ended up replacing them, but the problem remains.

    Crutchfield has recommended that I replace the factory head unit.

    I have it narrowed down to a couple. Sony and Alpine. Do brands matter anymore?
     

    Tanfodude

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    Pioneer is what I recommend for the head unit if you like sound quality and lots of audio options to tweak. Check the watts it if it matches your car speakers, you dont want it underpowered. As for speakers, I've had good experience with Pioneer, JBL, Focal. Adding an amp is another story.

    And yes, Brands still matters. Sony has always been mediocre in audio. Alpine is decent.
     

    Tanfodude

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    What makes Sony mediocre?

    Hard to explain. For the head unit, audio features are less, their speakers doesn't sound as good as others. You have to be keen on audio to be able to see the difference. I gave them a shot since they make good TV but not the same department I guess.

    Same thing with Bose and Beats by Dre where both are plain marketing rather than audio quality.

    I should have asked first, are you a radio/mp3/satellite/podcast/audio book listener? Or a .wav/CD music type? If the former, it shouldn't matter in which headunit you buy, if latter, then getting the right headunit and speakers combo to get the most out of the audio source.
     

    snapping turtle

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    Use a impedance bridge and test for shorts or opens while driving or shutting doors etc. a good install shop should have one. Normally the speakers in the roll bar are the ones that have issues. the wiring could very well be at fault much cheaper than a headend. Use the meter whenever they would normally have the issues. Chruchfield makes more of sales.

    For or headends there are some real good ones and even the worst are much better than long ago. If it has the features you are looking for and that it fits in the space you have available. Sherwood kenwood alpine sony
     

    snapping turtle

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    Audio is like scopes on e you reach a certain dollar amount it is a large amount of cash for little true improvement in sound most ears can hear. Like a 43 inch 4K TV. Do. Or get me started on 4K tv's please
     

    lovemachine

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    Hard to explain. For the head unit, audio features are less, their speakers doesn't sound as good as others. You have to be keen on audio to be able to see the difference. I gave them a shot since they make good TV but not the same department I guess.

    Same thing with Bose and Beats by Dre where both are plain marketing rather than audio quality.

    I should have asked first, are you a radio/mp3/satellite/podcast/audio book listener? Or a .wav/CD music type? If the former, it shouldn't matter in which headunit you buy, if latter, then getting the right headunit and speakers combo to get the most out of the audio source.

    I just like to listen to music on my IPhone and sometimes listen to the local radio stations.

    I've already replaced the speakers with Polk audio. Cheap and popular for wranglers.

    I was looking at these:
    https://www.crutchfield.com/p_500CDE143B/Alpine-CDE-143BT.html

    https://www.crutchfield.com/p_158N5100BT/Sony-MEX-N5100BT.html
     

    Tanfodude

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    Last edited:

    boogieman

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    under your bed!!!
    I have almost the same Alpine in my truck and love it, the only difference is mine has a satellite radio receiver built in. Easy to use and sounds good. My son had a Sony in his car and I felt like I needed to be a rocket scientist to figure out how to use the stupid thing. Way to many unnecessary settings and hard to find the ones I wanted.
     

    K_W

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    Whatever head unit you get, if you intend to use Bluetooth to stream your music make sure it supports the aptX codec.

    Most Kenwoods above $99 do. I have had several Kenwood head units that have had no problems with them.
     
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