Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Audio what to do for $250?

ok, 31st birthday coming up on the 28th and the wifey is lettin me get an Audio Upgrade for anything $250 (or under)

what would be the best addition? I'm currently '98 SVT Stock (read: Premium) stereo with CD player

Thx,
T

Definitely ditch that stock head unit and bypass the amp. There's lots of good choices out there in that price range.

OK who has a CD receiver for < $250 and can "proudly" mention it?

also, any MP3/CD receivers in this range?

IMO, if my tour was stock and I had 250 to spend I'd go for nice speakers. Then save for a nice headunit. You can get a head unit for 250 or less but It won't be that good. Not what I would call good anyway. You also need to consider the effect of tax, if you take tax off of 250 you're looking at 230 or 235 for the ACTUAL price of the unit. At that point you're on the bottom half of the 'ladder of quality'. Again, this is all my opinion. HTH and Happy Birthday!

whoa! just researched your HU - $1400!!!

dang! that's 6 (of my) car payments!!

looks good

anyone else on a budget?

The Pioneer DEH-5200 just dropped in price from 249 to 180, I presume due to the new models that are coming out. Until I heard all the praise about the Nakamichi (which I am STILL saving up for), this is what I had planned on getting. Might be worth a listen.

Who me??? Alpine CDA-7949??? Don't make those anymore, Retailed 800 new got mine for 600 online!!!

i don't know what everyone else is talking about: you can get an excellent head unit for around 250. it just depends on how much you will be expanding your system later on. if you don't need three preouts (an extra one for sub control) then i highly suggest getting the kenwood eXcelon x615 head unit from crutchfield. it is last years model and when combined w/a 25 dollar coupon it can be had for 225. or if you are planning on getting a sub later and want a third preout get the kenwood eXcelon X617 (this years model). it is 275 w/copoun at crutchfield. this model is basically the same as last years but adds a third preout and looks a tad cooler. i must say im a bit biased (see my sig ), but i have nothing but praise for my kenwood hu so far. Id have to say that the only downside with the unit is that it lacks a rotary volume knob, but kenwood compensates for this with an attenuator button (basically its a big name for "mute").
if you don't like kenwood, the nakamichi cd45z is a very good unit. also the alpine series is nice. however i got my kenwood b/c it reads cdr's like nobodys business!!

im in the bay area so email me at vtite@hotmail.com if you need further assistance.

on your weblink it states that you have the following
(5/6/2001)Well, the system is finally done I installed the Kicker zr360, the a/d/s/ 312, and the Alpine pxa-h600. Everything is working and sounds great. Unfortunately when I went take pictures my camera jammed and I can't seem to fix it. So, no pics for a while until I can afford a digital camera.


doesn't matter, still kicks stock butt

oh about mp3 recievers...they are still pretty new.
the most reliable one would be the kenwood eXcelon but it costs about double of what your lookin for. there is an aiwa one for about 250-300 but ive heard good and bad things about it. kenwood has a new model for 325 at crutchfield w/coupon thats a 2nd generation, but it is still 75 bucks over your what your lookin for.

another option for mobile mp3's is what im thinking of doing:
getting a rio volt mp3/cd portable player. it is a portable cd player that plays mp3's and wma's. it can hold 10 hours of mp3's and 20 hours of wma's on one cd. it is really nice and has a backlit lcd display and supports id3 tags and directories to navigate through your 100-200 songs. i was gonna try to hook it up to my kenwood this summer, that way i could carry around 2-5 cdr's and have my entire music collection. oh yeah, you can get it for around 150 too.