Hi,

I am thinking of pulling out the original TL cd/radio and installing something else.

Does anyone know what head unit would suit best?

If anyone has any recommendation or advise please fire away :)

Cheers

Mate you can put pretty much anything in. Sony, Clarion, Pioneer... DVD, GPS, TV, CD, MP3, it's all out there.

What do you mostly use the current headunit for?

What do you want in a new one?

whats your budget?
maybe look into the alpine, eclipse or JVC range?

Go The ALPINE!
cant go wrong with it.

but, what unit suits best, is like the old question - how long is a piece of string?!

stay away from Sony (IMO) as they are a rippoff and dont give you a lot of the higher end / standard features that you can get with a generic / half the price cheapie.
(thats my my experience and opinion though of course)

Hi,

Thanks, I know the brands I was hoping for the suggestion of a model
as I want something that matches the car.

I know my son put an Alpine into his laser and it has a great sound
but it looks stupid as it doesn't suit the interior.

Yeah sony sux, I bought a Sony for my other car 12 months ago and I am having this problem where the CD will stop working every few weeks and because the fault is so intermittent it's hard for the sony service agent to find the fault.
I will take it back in the new year.

Cheers

well if you know the brands, then just go shopping and look... would be far easier than us searching the web for pictures when you can do that anyway.

You know your budget, your brands... go for a drive. Try JB HIFI and some car audio places (not strathfield or autobarn)

It really depends on how much you want to spend on it, and what features you want?
Aux in?
Bluetooth?
USB Slot?
Memory Card Slot?
Ipod compatable?
DVD Player?
LCD Screen?
Single DIN?
Double DIN?

whats your budget?
maybe look into the alpine, eclipse or JVC range?
I was thinking to spend up to $500
cheers

It really depends on how much you want to spend on it, and what features you want?
Aux in?
Bluetooth?
USB Slot?
Memory Card Slot?
Ipod compatable?
DVD Player?
LCD Screen?
Single DIN?
Double DIN?

Money is not a problem but thats way too many options,
just CD player with MP3 playback and remote will do
I was hoping that someone would say, I bought this model and it looks great
here are some pictures :)

Cheers

Money is not a problem but thats way too many options,
just CD player with MP3 playback and remote will do
I was hoping that someone would say, I bought this model and it looks great
here are some pictures :)

Cheers

you have to understand that if you just say you want a deck and give us no budget or what your going to use it for (sound comps etc)
they we have no idea what type of deck to suggest to you
but now you've given us some of the info we need
are you going to add amps later on? monoblock for subs and a 4ch for speakers?
if so something with 3 4volt pre-outs would be good, eclipse decks are 5volt to 8 volt
you've got a $500 budget there are a few decent decks you can buy for that
go to your local audio shop and see what they have to offer
but like i said in my previous post alpine or eclipse would be a start
i've got a alpine CDA-9831 and its a great deck even tho its a few years old

here is a pic of my Pioneer unit, the dark grey matches the dash surround pretty well, and the red backlight matches the dash lights. It would fit a lot better with a pocket instead of the UHF under it, but that just shows my priorities. But, I always buy Pioneer, and wouldn't have anything else in my cars, so I got lucky when the deck matched the dash so well. most brands will have something in your price bracket, and allow a few bucks for a good install if you can't do it.

Hi all,

ok many thanks, I will go to an audio shop and see if they will agree to let me try a couple in the car to see how they fit.

Vrex thanks for going to the trouble to take a picture.
The Pioneer looks nice, the original TL radio has a silver faceplate so I am thinking if I stick to something silver it will look ok.

I normally wouldn't have asked for advice but last time I went to an audio shop
I went unprepared so I ended up buying a Sony and it's caused me some headaches...
It won't happen again :)

Thanks again

How exactly are you going to test them in the car?
Each deck will need to be wired up separately, and as soon as its hooked up its pretty much 2nd hand

']How exactly are you going to test them in the car?
Each deck will need to be wired up separately, and as soon as its hooked up its pretty much 2nd hand
As I said in the beginning I just want to see that it matches the interior
I am not worried about listening to the sound.
They usually have demo models wired up in the shop.
Cheers

Vrex,
When you did the install did you also replace any of the speakers?
Cheers

The Pioneer on the top right hand side looks good.
http://www.strathfield.com.au/images/Catalogues/20071210/JPG/p7.JPG

What do you guys thing of Kenwood?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=220184349305&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=012

This one they say has a RRP of $399
http://www.strathfield.com.au/images/Catalogues/20071210/JPG/p6.JPG

dude you have a good budget
i would steer clear of those brands
heres a few to look at
http://www.alpine.com.au/products/product.asp?modelID=289
http://www.eclipse-web.com.au/Site/Product/Product.aspx?ProductID=EAA883C5-D63B-4043-8C3A-D146591D934E&CategoryID=6BF2B5B5-6898-44CB-820D-7B93CAC9C0BB
http://www.alpine.com.au/products/product.asp?modelID=290
or just go down to your local jb hifi and look at there alpine and jvc range

Hey Bill, didn't do the speakers when I did the H/unit, but they are well overdue now. Was very surprised with the stocko speakers performance with more power up them, but they are still a $10 speaker if you know what i mean

do all the 8/10 speakers work in your vr-x with the pioneer headunit? i'm thinking of getting tv/dvd unit, and seeing as decks have a 4X50 output would they run the tweets/mids/drivers and rear speakers??

im a car audio noob btw

do all the 8/10 speakers work in your vr-x with the pioneer headunit? i'm thinking of getting tv/dvd unit, and seeing as decks have a 4X50 output would they run the tweets/mids/drivers and rear speakers??

im a car audio noob btw

yes any new h/u will run your speakers fine
you will notice that they will sound different, slightly better quality
will sound alot better with new speakers running off a 4ch amp :D

As I said in the beginning I just want to see that it matches the interior
I am not worried about listening to the sound.
They usually have demo models wired up in the shop.
Cheers
dude the only way you'll be able to match it up is if you take in a photo, i doubt any shop is going to take a head unit out to your car so you can see how it looks, way too much effort involved

I knew there was a reason for removable faceplates!!!

Thanks Guys,
I am off to the shops now :)
Cheers

I think I will go for this JVC

http://www.jvccaraudio.co.nz/?p=p_166

JB HIFI sells it for $480 installed

I bought it and have booked the install for the 3rd of January.
I have to say it's a nice match to the console.

Actually, I couldn't wait till January so I did the install myself.
The installation wasn't as straight forward as I initially thought and the setup of the Bluetooth was very time consuming.

The JVC is a nice HU but now that I saw it installed I think the Pioneer would have been a nicer fit.
I looked at several HU's with bluetooth because I wanted to use the radio as a car kit for my mobile.
I found that the pioneer DEH-P65BT and the JVC KD-BT1 were the most suitable models.

The price was the same for both but I decided to go for the JVC because this model
has a clear and bright display and some nice and unique features.
The JVC can support multiple registered bluetooth users so the radio can act as a car kit for several different mobiles.
Also, it can save names and phone numbers in memory so it makes it easy to make calls through the radio.

The annoying thing though is that it needs power to retain the saved configuration
so if the car battery goes dead I will probably have to reprogram the radio again.
Other than that the sound is great and I haven't changed any of the speakers.

Here is the finished product.

looks sweet, just got a Nokia ck15w car kit, so looking forward to having that installed soon to cover the handsfree but thought about a Bt headunit.

just got a Nokia ck15w car kit, so looking forward to having that installed soon to cover the handsfree but thought about a Bt headunit.

Vrex,

It's still early days but it seems to me that a normal car kit is far easier to use.

The guy in the store convinced me that bluetooth was something I had to have
but as I found out later it's not exactly easy to setup or use.

When I first tried it, the callers would hear their voice coming back as an acho
and it took me some time to work out how to stop it from happening.
I think it will take me a couple of days to learn how to use it.

The only benefit that I see so far is that bluetooth works with several different brand mobiles.
(the kids have 2 different model Nokia's and me and wife have Ericssons).

Cheers

A word of warning to anyone who is thinking of buying a HU with bluetooth.

It's clearly written in the users manual that some mobiles won't work with this HU
and I have a problem with my Nokia 6120 connecting and disconnecting all the time.

The Nokia 6288 is working well though and this makes me scratch my head because the 6288 is an older model.

Cheers