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Got a question for you car audio gurus. What is a good cd player to get? I havent touched car stereo since i got married, which btw will be 5 yrs Friday so I'm kinda outta touch with the scene. I had my eyes on this alpine model Its going in my dakota PU. I want something with a spectrum analyzer. I've looked at sony and kenwood also. I want to keep it under $500 too. So what about it guys?

Don't really know too much about car audio at all, just wanted to say congrats on the 5 years man! Also the link you provided is broken

i would definately go with a alpine .... the new ones are really nice and work good ... real good

I second that on the Alpine. I've had several cd decks in off road vehicles and the Alpine was the only one that virtually never skipped, unless you really tried. Also about the best sounding unit I've heard. Their service totally sucks though, so I'd buy from a known retailer and maybe even get the optional warrantee so you don't ever have to deal directly with Alpine. Link appears to be down so I can't look at that specific model. I'm shopping for an MP3 decoding deck myself. From what I've read the Sony, Aiwa, Kenwoods, and JVC models all have skipping problems. Alpine is releasing one soon but it is going to run like $800 and has one of those stupid motorized faces (hate those flimsy things!)Dealtime.com is a decent place to find the lowest online prices for car audio stuff. Just some optional info.

Blade, i just purchased an F-150 back in January and looked at that exact model for my truck. I ended up getting a different Alpine (Single Din), but Alpine is the best when it comes to head units. That's a great head unit...I liked it very much.

In Sony's favor I did notice that they now have an in dash model that is MP3 compatible. The model # is CDXMP450X and can be found <a href="http://www.mp3shopping.com/english/sony_car_cd.htm" target="_blank">here.</a>

I have the CDA-D852 in my Ram, and I love it. I didn't spring the extra $$$ for the D855 but I don't need a lot of features.

The D855 is last years model, the only real difference from the D857 is that the D857 has 5 watts more per channel (hardly worth holding out for) and is a darker gray. I'd stick with the 1.5-DIN for any Chrysler just because I hate having a big empty space around the radio.

If you go with this one you'll save about $50 and I doubt you'll miss any of the features.

i may just do that. thanks for the heads up. what does the spectrum look like in action? pretty cool? any colors or just one color?

I would pay props to the higher end alpine, the BBE is sweet, just did anm install for sexy pid, and he loves it, for 500$ us you have alot open to you, try looking to panasaonics last year 800u, beautiful unit, and perhaps clarion, please dont be suckered into any of the sony xplod stuff, the quality just isint there!

Reg, PICS!
Or take some pics with a regular camera and I'll scan em for ya

There are a lot of HU's out there that have good quality. You don't have to get 1.5DIN either, there are adapters so you can fit a single DIN. My personal preverences are Alpine, Panasonic (800u), Premier, Kenwood Excellon, Clarion. There are more, but I know these ones got the quality too. Last years Clarion look SWEET and they can be found for cheap on ebay n stuff. I ended up getting last years premier and I love it. Had I the money, <A HREF="http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Pione ... 85,00.html" TARGET="_NEW">THIS</A> is what I would get.

But you can't go wrong with alpine, very good quality HU's.

I like the way the sony black panel units look.



pretty cool.

yeah i saw that one at CC. it was hella cool to look at.

But you can't go wrong with alpine, very good quality HU's.

Glad to hear it

blade, this is pretty much how the D852/3/5/7 look, the spectrum analyzer has (I think) seven different view modes, and you can choose one or have it cycle through continuously. FWIW I have mine running a pair of 2-ohm speakers at full power and I haven't killed it yet

I prefer the 1.5 DIN just because I HATE the open space around a DIN size chassis in my dash. Personal preference, of course...