thanks for the suggestion. guess I'll buy a speaker or an amp and call it a day....

 

^^^ Well played, sir.

New HU a good place to start. The sound is only as good as the source.

 

yeah, i recommend an old alpine unit if you can get your hands on one. i have one if you are interested. i'm asking 300 ish for it

 

Thanks for the suggestions & offer so far I'm very picky so I don't think I could buy a used one, but I'm sure you will find another buyer!

Something to keep in mind- I want to keep steering wheel controls and be able to use my ipod (already have the upgraded pioneer/ipod factory HU)

This is where things get sticky, I can't seem to find a reliable answer when shopping around for a nice HU, crisp sound, hits a bit, and looks nice (cnet reviews, amazon, etc, though crutchfield makes it a bit easier)

Trust me, if I had the money I'd drop it on a nav screen to fill that space up! But realistically I'll drop anything under $300

With that said, any suggestions?

Thanks everyone

 

well to keep the steering wheel controls you'll need a pac control unit. specifically the PAC SWI-X

for a headunit i would get the best alpine headunit you can afford. that is by far my favorite sounding headunit on the market. i would suggest the 9886 but its 350 but you can probably find it for <300

 

Hate to say this but stay away from MB QUART unless you can find 07 or older.
N0 M0RE GERMAN QUART. My whole product mix was based off quart as my anchor.
Now I need to find new line.

You can also try Morel/Focal/DLS/Rainbow/ZAPCO/ Heck Even the Atomic 3 way set is very nice but youy will need to EQ it.

 

Wow, just checked out the features and I think I like that 9886.. I like that it has the low and high-pass filters. I was checking out Pioneer HU's last night at BB, but I think I like this one better. Thanks for the recommendation

So to get steering wheel controls with this guy, I just buy a PAC, and the ipod connection seems to be included with the 9886.. so should that work with my tc while allowing me to keep steering wheel controls and use my ipod (if I also get the PAC)

Also, how is the ipod searching? I hate searching through music in the tc, it takes forever on the pioneer factory (ipod) HU

 

alpine units are much faster than factory ipod interfaces

 

I don't fully understand the Imprint feature, which apparently you need to buy extra. I don't want to shell out more on this unit if I don't have to- will I get enough control of my speakers (highs/mids) and subs (lows)? If not, I'd probably lean towards one of the Pioneer HU's I saw at best buy last night for around $250. What do you think?

 

To be honest? I just switched it from tC mode to xA mode and it made a world of difference... for some reason whoever programmed the tC EQ was on some kind of medication because you'd have to be high to appreciate the crap it puts out.

If you don't know how to do this, there's a few threads floating around about it, but basically:

press and hold the ssp button for five seconds. the radio will beep and the screen will show one of three options: tC, xa, xb

tC = by far the worst
xA = nice overall sound
xB = a little more bassy but its better than the tC

Edit: doh didn't see Skeletor's post up there but, basically same deal.