Advice on stereo deck

[318iEnthusiast]

Wow enthusiast, that's really stock looking :rolleyes:

haha he said close to stock or flush...

[D. Clay]

Wow enthusiast, that's really stock looking :rolleyes:

and shiny too! I bought a sony because the CD changer in the trunk was wired to work with the buttons for the stations. It was shiny too! You can use SEM flat black trim paint for a lot of other stuff.

[318iEnthusiast]

...i didn't have a cd changer... :-(

[jfdublyu]

here's a pic of my alpine. i love it. it has changeable color schemes. i can change from blue/green, green/blue, amber/red, and red/amber. I use the amber/red scheme and looks awesomely stock. I love how it blends at night. i'll try and get a night shot sometime.

[jfdublyu]

*note* that plastic holder above the head unit is a bracket i custom built to hold my PSP. i have a charger cable hard-wired to a 12-volt for charging while in the holder and i have a headphone plug wired to my alpine unit w/ a special cable that puts the audio in all of the car speakers. UMD Movies = TIGHT!

[318iEnthusiast]

hahah nice... dude i almost bought that deck... but decided not to... i don't reamember why though.... idk, I like my deck, sure it doesn't match, but it's cool...

[Zoso]

*note* that plastic holder above the head unit is a bracket i custom built to hold my PSP. i have a charger cable hard-wired to a 12-volt for charging while in the holder and i have a headphone plug wired to my alpine unit w/ a special cable that puts the audio in all of the car speakers. UMD Movies = TIGHT!

PSP Nav system!

[sheepdog]

I gave up on my search for a new stereo.

Why the hell are all new head units blue. What the fuck does that match? I do not give a damn if it is "cool", I want something that matches. Also, "Ipod Ready" does NOT mean an Aux input on the front (SONY!). Nor should "ready" mean you need a $120 adapter.


In the end, I settled on a decent Alpine. You guys may say the new oens are crap, but honestly, it does not look that bad. It may have a lot of facets but the color is relatively close to the dash, sounds good,  and the Ipod adapter was $29 instead of $120!

Not keen on the blue look, but it fit my other requirements which was decent price, good sound, cd, and ipod ready.

The unit was just under $200, though the non-bluetooth, no changer was $20 less. Ipod cable was another $30 plus I paid $30 for a 4 year no hassle warranty. I also picked up 2 sets of Pioneer speakers, though I only installed one set as I found that while the fronts were shit BMW stockers, the rear were Cerwins. The reason they sounded like crap was that the P.O had installed the premium stereo but not the amp that it requires.

The system sounds 100 times better than before, and my Ipod is now hidden away where you cannot see it.

[mikesjo]

what model alpine did you get.

[sheepdog]

CDA-9856

I like it, the Ipod controls could be better, but I think a lot of that is due to it just being a slightly different intereface.

It actually does not clash that bad with the e30, at least not in daylight.

[shellback]

Crutchfield is always very expensive.  You can get the 645MP on ebay for $125.
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&catref=C6&satitle=clarion+DXZ645MP

Mike,
I'm going with the DXZ645MP.

1) Does it fit the E30 without any hack jobs, alterations, or installation kits?

Thanks,
Chris

[Zoso]

Mike,
I'm going with the DXZ645MP.

1) Does it fit the E30 without any hack jobs, alterations, or installation kits?

Thanks,
Chris

Nice choice!  

When I bought my car, the previous owner had already hacked up the audio system in the car.  Whatever wiring harness was there had been cut and there were just a mess of wires coming out of the empty socket where the stereo should have been.  There were also several strands of RCA cables already run to the trunk.

So I can't speak definitively about installation kits.  I just figured out what loose wire in my car was what and soldered it to the correct wire from the stereo.  

You'll probably need a wiring harness to connect to the stock harness in the car so you don't have to cut any wires.  Beyond that, everything is pretty basic - no gotchas or hacks.

One warning about the 645 - due to the viewing angle, the red text can be hard to see when it is really bright out.  Adjusting the contrast helps but I still find it bad in the direct sunlight and I end up changing the color to green sometimes just so I can read it easily if I need the display.  Changing colors is easy - doesn't require you going into any menus.

[haledj]

I was presented with this same problem in my m10 e30, I decided mount the new headunit in the glovebox right beneath the ECU.  I took all the internals out of the stock unit (it didnt work) This does a few things.
1. Maintains stock look of dash
2. makes less attractive to theives ( leave it unlocked alot in a fairly high crime area and no problems thus far)
3. Gives you a sweet spot to hide stuff (inside the old stock unit)
4. All my passengers think its awesome
its not that bad to reach across to it and it was a real easy install.  At the same time i ran new wires to all the speakers, and that that really improves the sound.  The stock e30 wiring really sucks.
I will try to get some pictures up later.

[tim_s]

anyone considered a nakamichi? dunno what a CD400 runs to over there, might cost more than you're looking at but nakamichi stuff used to be well cheap in the states when i looked! they look pretty stock (black, basic looking with amber illumination etc) and are fantastic head units. you could always go for an e36 h/u + changer combination too, they look great in the e30 but not as good a unit as the nakamichi. i have the CD400 in mine, can take pics if you like. as for wiring, you can still get the e30 stereo harness from the dealer if yours is mangled, you can buy a DIN convertor for this cable too. can be done really neatly.