Need Ideas for Aftermarket Stereo

[CrewCabDiesel]

I deceided to replace my OEM infinity system with a new stereo and need suggestions.

1st

I want a 1. 5 din size stereo head without a CD player. I am going to install a 10 disk CD changer instead. This is the main reason for the upgrade. I spend lots of time on the road and I don't want to total the truck changing CDs.

2nd

I still want to use the OEM tweeter and steering wheel controls. I have talked with several stereo dealers and they now sell adapters for many stereos to use the steering wheel controls.

So what brands of speakers and stereos do you all recommend ? I do not want a bass bouncing POS , I am looking for a good quality system that I can enjoy my tunes on. The range of music I listen to is from Ozzy to Yanni.

Thanks

Kyle

 

[Chipstien]

Here you go... ... .....





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Seriously though, you will be hard pressed to find a 1. 5 din size without a CD player. And if you do it won't be a high quality unit. This is a 1. 5 din reciever that fit in a single din space. It's a Alpine 7998 and is a top of the line unit with superb features.



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However if this is out of your price range then this would be one of your only options. This pioneer has CD Changer controls so you can add the changer on but you will not have a cassette player.



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Good luck choosing.

 

[bmoeller]

www.crutchfield.com has alot to choose from. They're not necessarily the cheapest, but you can browse through alot of equipment. They also have info for what fits in different vehicles.



Also, if you got a CD changer (I think you can get up to a 10 disc changer ), you wouldn't have to keep swapping them out while driving, just push a button and it's done.

 

[jzaremski]

I want a 1. 5 din size stereo head without a CD player.

Good luck with that.

 

[strick]

I have that pioneer in both my 98 & 99. I don't really have any issues with the radios other than wishing it had a mute button. They sound fine with the factory speakers and also have an output for a sub if that tickes your pickle. No complaints. I got mine off the internet. I think they also have a later version of this radio, but I didn't like the way you had to access the CD player. You had to push a button and the entire face would lower in order to cram a CD in. I thought that was just cheap to me and more parts to break. Good luck. Jason

 

[KLockliear]

Hey Chipstien - does that box fit under the seat? Do you still put the back seat in?



How many ft3 per sub in that one?

 

[Chipstien]

Hey Kieth, you better believe that the seat goes back in. My wife would have killed me if my 2 kids had to ride in the bed of the truck. The seat is in no way modified and sits in the factory location. I have numerous pictures in my gallery of various stages along the way when building the box. I have been told numerous times by many stereo shops that you cannot get four 10's under the seat and still have the seat functional. I love the look on there face when I show them my install. And to boot the speakers I used are deeper then most. there is 1. 35 ft3 per side and there are two speakers per side so they have about . 65 ft3 each. The speakers used in this application work great down to . 50 ft3.



There was a valuable lesson learned when building this box. "Check under the truck to make sure what is under there. "



Basically, after the sides are built and assembled you screw it down to the floor and then you fiberglass the sides to the floor and the floor itself to seal the lower inclosure. Anyways, I finished it up with no major incidents. Took my truck to work and parked on a down- hill incline but when work was over and I got back to my truck it was gone. #@$%! #@$%! #@$%! #@$%! Of course the first thing that came to my mind was my truck was stolen. After cussing and basicaly spitting out every swear word I knew I called my wife. Well she tells me that she recieved numerous messages that my truck was leaking fuel and that if I didn't move it they would tow it. Well I never showed so they towed. Aparently the fire department spent over 30 minutes trying to stop the leak but after 15 gallons spilled out and made a river down the street for two blocks they had to get it out of there. I had to walk over 8 miles to the yard and it ended up costing my around 180 dollars to get my truck out of impound. When I got home I found out that when I screwed the box down the screw went into the tank. Seems when I pushed the floor down to accomodate the longer speaker it placed the floor about 1/2 inch away from the tank so there was no room for the screw OR the goo that the FD tried using to seal the leak with. Oh well, life goes on. Sorry about the long post... . thought some of you might get a kick out of it.



BTW, Here is a picture with the rear seat installed.





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[ToolManTimTaylor]

I find my Alpine CDA-D857 Is perfect

However they are hard to find. Ebay has a few Here



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[Chipstien]

The Alpine is the best one you can get. But unfortunately they quit making them last year or the year before. Now there are only three different 1. 5 din made that I know of, two of which are made by Pioneer.

 

[Hillbilly Hotrodder]

Why not just add a changer to your existing system?



I did this on mine with a Pioneer 10 disc changer. Very nice setup with no complaints. All integrated nicely with no cheesy side effects.

 

[CrewCabDiesel]

I thought about adding a CD changer with an FM modulator interface but I am having the usual flaky right door speaker problems that haunt some of the trucks. I also do not like the FM modulator setup because of interference problems from CBs, both mine and truckers with high power amps. If I am going to do this, I want to do it right with quality stuff so I don't have to screw with it again.

 

[Zer0hmZ]

Chipstein,

Does the back of the seat hit your amps? I wanted to put my amps back there but my shop down here said they wouldn't fit unless they moved the seats forward.

 

[Chipstien]

Originally posted by Hramirez

Chipstein,

Does the back of the seat hit your amps? I wanted to put my amps back there but my shop down here said they wouldn't fit unless they moved the seats forward.

The seat has about 2 inches of clearance between the amps in the down position. However, I cannot put the seat up because as the lower part of the seat comes up the back moves rearwards. I can only get the seat up far enough to get the seat bolts in and out. But this works great since there is no storage under the seat so I have no reason to lift it. Plus, you cannot get the speakers out without taking the seat out. All in all, it is a great theft deturrent. I can only imagine how long it would take to rip this stereo off..... assuming you brought the right size socket.



Crew Cab, FWIW I have to turn off the stereo before I can even consider understanding a thing on the CB otherwise I will be listening to the stereo through the CB though it is mostly static. But I would assume that is a side effect of having that much wattage in the same space as the CB. It is fine once I turn off the stereo, (which turns off the amps).

 

[KLockliear]

Chipstien - sounds good, although I want one that can be removeable. I imagine a good shop could use wax paper or something under the glass, so it makes a mold without sticking to the floor.



1. 35cu ft sounds like what i need per sub. What was the mounting depth? I need 7 1/4".

 

[CrewCabDiesel]

On trips I run with the CB on but the squelch turned up so I only get broadcasts close by. I also question the quality of the sound coming from a CD player viva a FM channel, seems to me it would only be as good as your FM receiver. Which brings up another point, what brand of speakers work the best AND fit in OEM locations and will I need a crossover to power the pilar tweeters ? Chipstien's system looks cool but I need every square inch of space I can squeeze out of my truck for storage in the cab. With 4 kids I am still considering sending the truck down to Bayer Automotive for a little stretch and couple of doors if funds ever allow.

 

[ToolManTimTaylor]

Originally posted by Chipstien

I can only imagine how long it would take to rip this stereo off..... assuming you brought the right size socket.

My last stereo install broke my back and heart.



It was a 2 door tahoe sport with:

MB Quart 6. 5 pros

MB Quart Plate tech series in the rear (Modded the 4X10 Mounts)

3 JL SW12's

Precision Power custom art series PPI1200 5 channel Amp

Dennon Head Unit wrapped it all together





All in the course of one late night the truck was gutted. I made sure that the amp was stealproof. I incorporated the rear seat bracketry into the amp's mounting points. Plus I used tamper PROOF mounting hardware too. It had to be one of my best EVER installs around.

 

[Chipstien]

Keith, If the sytem were removable then you cannot get the clearance needed for that dept of speaker. The box I had before this setup used four 8's and sounded great. WHen I built that box I used plastic on the floor so the glass would not stick to the carpet. Worked great but like I said, deep speaker wouldn't work ing this style. Now if your willing to get rid of the carpet that gives you about another 1. 5 inches. I had to get rid of the carpet and press the floor down another 1. 5 inches to get the clearance needed for my subs. Normal subs could get by without pressing down the floor. Here some pics of my old removeable box that sat on the carpet... ...



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CCD, I agree that the FM modulated style are not as good as a quality cd head unit. But some people who just want to add a cd changer to the stock setup they work great. Since you must have the Infinity system You might find it hard to find speakers for the front that will not need rewiring. Check crutchfield.com and enter in your truck..... the site will tell you what will fit.

 

[Chipstien]

Originally posted by ToolManTimTaylor

My last stereo install broke my back and heart.



It was a 2 door tahoe sport with:

MB Quart 6. 5 pros

MB Quart Plate tech series in the rear (Modded the 4X10 Mounts)

3 JL SW12's

Precision Power custom art series PPI1200 5 channel Amp

Dennon Head Unit wrapped it all together





All in the course of one late night the truck was gutted. I made sure that the amp was stealproof. I incorporated the rear seat bracketry into the amp's mounting points. Plus I used tamper PROOF mounting hardware too. It had to be one of my best EVER installs around.

Didn't say that it would be unstealable, only that it would take a long time. He would be nowhere near done before he realised he had a 30-06 pointed at him. My buddy car broke down on the freeway one night so he walked home. He had amps mounted under the seat..... both seats. When he got back to his car he found it gutted with the seats sitting on the side of the road for all to see. Pretty pathetic that some people are such cowards that when they see a car on the side of the road with a alarm going off, lights flashing, and seat pulled out that you would not at least call the police and report it. Ever since that time I don't leave my truck anywhere but my driveway. When I become stranded on the freeway I will either call someone to come to me or call a tow truck. I will not under any circumstances leave my vehicle where I don't feel it is safe. At my house my bedroom is directly above the driveway which is of course where I park my truck.

 

[ToolManTimTaylor]

Oh I am not saying unstealable as nothing is.

Oh yeah I hear ya. It sickens me that theese sticky fingered lil pukes can't keep their grubby mitts off of my stuff. Believe me when I say if they want it it can be had. My buddy had a Sims Harly (72,000 dollar custom) stolen out of his garage. he had it locked to a lolly coloumn and his 86 chev dually behind it which was on jackstands, and his house alarm set.



He came home to a new door cut into the back of the garage lolly cut and the SIMS, and his toolbox were gone. He came home disarmed the alarm and took a shower , made dinner and went out thru the garage to fire up the grill and that's when he saw the SIMS was missing. So he then turns the corner to see the section of wall cut out and juuust about passed out from dissbelief.

 

[CrewCabDiesel]

Well I came up with a solution to upgrade my stereo.

1st, I swapped out the OEM AM/FM/CD/Cassette for another OEM Stereo Cassette with CD changer and steering wheel controls.



2nd Installed a Alpine 6 disk CD changer with adapter the plugs right into the OEM Stereo. the changer is mounted under the back of the rear seat with enough of it accessible to swap CDs.



3rd As for speakers have installed a set of Pioneer 2 way 6X9s and remounted the Infinity amps on them.



Results are that it sounds great, everything looks OEM so hopefully no one will ever want to break into the truck to steal a OEM cassette stereo.

Costs

OEM cd changer stereo $44. on Ebay

Alpine changer with adapter $254. 00 Locally purchased

Pioneer speakers $35 on Ebay

Total $333. 00

Selling old stereo on ebay, Current price $160

Total cost for upgrade $173

If anyones is interested I will post part numbers and photos later.