Gotten grips of useful info here thus far thanks to Subwoofer@jsp, kinda game planned for what I'd get, then the vehicle/financial situation changed, so it looks like ill have to do my stereo in pieces.

The immediate need st the moment just so I don't get AIDS from the factory stereo is a deck/speakers. Then in a couple weeks an amp, then subs, etc.
Anyways, theyll most likely be going into an explorer.

What brands are the best/easiest to navigate on decks? NEEDS usb front. Had a sony deck in my last vehicle with a usb front but it was a giant pain to navigate it, I'd literally unplug my ipod each time to change the artist.

Also need four speakers. I listen usually to bassy music.

Heard very nice things from people about memphis stuff in general, it any good? Also online links to the product at a good price would be awesome, thanks!

most head units have ipod controls these days so you can do everything through the head unit easily. as far as general settings pioneer is easiest to understand than kenwood. both are good brands.

memphis is good but overpriced imo.

what was the year model of the explorer again? and are you wanting just basic coaxials for easy install or do you want to do components?

[QUOTE=Subwoofer,Mar 7 2012 08:41pm]most head units have ipod controls these days so you can do everything through the head unit easily. as far as general settings pioneer is easiest to understand than kenwood. both are good brands.

memphis is good but overpriced imo.

what was the year model of the explorer again? and are you wanting just basic coaxials for easy install or do you want to do

98 explorer
No idea the dif between co ax and comp

My friends ipod ready alpine was a pain in the ass to nav as well lol.
Never done an install before, but would either have a friend do it or pay for an install if it came down to it.

Edit. Never done any car audio stuff but I've wired tvs and such, I'm guessing you mean the writing type? Whats required to do component? Component sounds better yeah?

This post was edited by Vanquish on Mar 7 2012 10:53pm

components basically split your tweeter and midrange apart so you can put the tweeter where you want and the midrange gets more surface area to use.

components sound better but you will need to find a place to mount your tweeters.

you can use aux if you want to just use the ipod itself to control songs. usb sounds better but its up to you. companies vary in user interfaces so you might just go to best buy or something and check out newer kenwood or pioneer.

My explorer had a factory amp and was easiest with a decent wiring harness and double din deck.
If your gonna spend the money on filling a hole may as well do it with a deck, rather than a dash kit.
I use 4gb usb drives and have them color coded to each genre of music.
Scrolling through more than 8 gb on any deck or device is bothersome.
The load times are relative to drive size so keep that in mind.

Hmm... never even occurred to me you could use flash drive music through a USB head unit lol. Interesting. I take a pretty good number of unplanned walks tho. One of my fav things about my old USB deck was always havin' my ipod charged for the walks. Although I do like the full by genre flash idea ~.~;

Don't really want a TV screen or any other unneeded shit in the space though, granted it'd prob look better, I just don't want the distraction, or people constantly fucking with it while I'm driving, I got tons of lil ticks that annoy me with that being one of 'em lol.



Na, USB is NEEDED. Could you link me some good deals online? Not necessarily just something cheap, just imagine prices are better online than bestbuy or any specialty shop etc...

New memphis is pretty overly expensive a good easy to use headunit would be the Pioneer DEH4200UB for around $150-160. Also if you can get a hold of them Crescendo's are probably the best route to go @ 100$ for 2 sets if you can get a hold of them. Again memphis isn't bad but most of their good stuff was in the older models, for the price better can be had.

Just make sure you don't put too many stickers on your vehicle because you'll lose a ton of bass and SQ, also make sure you don't accidently have change anywhere in the car like most people do, it degrades from it. ;D

This post was edited by Hellish Orc on Mar 10 2012 11:12am

XD

Thx dude

if you take paneling off to do door installs or running wire always make sure you buy new panel clips and deaden what you can while you have that panel removed. Buy some foam insulation tubing (like the kind you coer water pipes in) they make all different sizes, its useful in covering support beams wirs bars ect, and get some rubberized spray(undercoating) the more times you pull those panels off the more they rattle.

Also what is your budget and are you willing to build a custom box or have somone build it if I draw up a cut sheet for you? I can recommend a complete system or just subwoofers and a box I'll do it free of charge too since I'm such an asshole ;D