Is it worth changing the head unit?

[tommybrown 10+ year member]

I have a 2009 camry and I'm going to be chaning out the speakers for sure and getting 2 JL Audio amps, and 1 JL Audio 12" subwoofer. The factory head unit is decent and plays mp3's. The guy at the shop told me that I don't have to replace it but if I did it would be a hassle and cost more money since they have to use a new wiring harness and wire it so I can still use the steering wheel controls. Is it worth it to change the head unit and if so, would it make any difference in how the system would sound?

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[fasfocus00 5,000+ posts]

i kept my factory head unit b/c I didn't want to find a unit that would retain the steering wheel controls. if you decide to go that route you'll spend about the same money if you want to do it correctly.

 

[bumpincivic757 10+ year member]

well in a aftermarket head unit you have more tuning options than a factory unit.....IMO id get a aftermarket one because new speakers and subs are pointless if you cant tune them to sound great.....because most chances you only have maybe 4 or 5 options you can turn up or down(treble,fade,ballance,bass).....in a aftermarket unit you have more options to use and tune(hi's,lows,sub,fade,ballance,AUX(if you have one hooked up to radio,etc) and they alos have pre-set equalizers you can use as well...but decision is up to you but a new head unit is my opinion

 

[tommybrown 10+ year member]

Yeah that's true. It's a tough decision because the factory unit actually lights up and looks real nice but it doesn't have those tuning options and one other thing that bugs me is it doesn't have the option to pause a song. It would cost me about $500 extra to change the unit and there's always a chance something could go wrong when dealing with all that wiring. I was thinking of getting one of those knobs that control the bass but I wouldn't need that if I got a head unit with a subwoofer control. The aftermarket head units also have that USB port so you just plug in a flash drive and you don't even need CD's anymore.

 

[bumpincivic757 10+ year member]

yea alot of them have aux ports as well witch are great but hooking up a aftermarket head unit is easy to hook up...you can buy an adapter that connects to the factory harness and then plugs into your radio(just make sure you get the right one for your radio) but if thats not avaliable then all you got to do is find out witch wire does what(if the factory wire are different than the radios) and connect it to the radio...and on all aftermarket radios red is power...yellow is switch power(turns your radio on and off with the car) and black is ground...then the rest are speaker wires except the blue ones witch are remote wires for your amp.....it sounds/looks hard but its not at all i watched a guy do it one time and now its like second nature its that easy

 

[Jh8909 10+ year member]

you can keep your stock HU and get an aftermarket eq that will have the same if not more tuning abilities then an aftermarket HU. Alot of the new ones now have speaker level inputs anyway so you don't need a LOC to create rca in's.

 

[bumpincivic757 10+ year member]

true true ^^^^^^^but i still say why go threw the trouble of all that when you can just put a new/used aftermarket head unit in and have all that within the unit and all that shit but like i said its your call bro

 

[Skits89 10+ year member]

i kept my factory head unit b/c I didn't want to find a unit that would retain the steering wheel controls. if you decide to go that route you'll spend about the same money if you want to do it correctly.

Got a point....

 

[tommybrown 10+ year member]

Its a tough call cuz I really don't know how it would sound until it's all hooked up...to replace the head unit I would need an in-dash reciever kit ($20), a factory ingegration adapter ($75), and a steering wheel control adapter ($75). That's where it gets a little pricy but I say leaving the factory unit is kinda doing things half-assed but it might still be ok...What it comes down to is whether or not that USB port and the eq and subwoofer controls are worth it.

 

[Jh8909 10+ year member]

Its a tough call cuz I really don't know how it would sound until it's all hooked up...to replace the head unit I would need an in-dash reciever kit ($20), a factory ingegration adapter ($75), and a steering wheel control adapter ($75). That's where it gets a little pricy but I say leaving the factory unit is kinda doing things half-assed but it might still be ok...What it comes down to is whether or not that USB port and the eq and subwoofer controls are worth it.

keep the factory HU, usb port really isn't needed. eq you can get externally and subwoofer controls should be on the amp. and why would you need to change your sub controls all the time? like that infomercial, "set it and forget it." lol

 

[nineball 10+ year member]

...and on all aftermarket radios red is power...yellow is switch power(turns your radio on and off with the car) and black is ground...

wrong. yellow is constant. red is switched.

 

[Jh8909 10+ year member]

lulz

 

[Wasatch 10+ year member]

A 4 volt HU will smoke the factory unit.

 

[kingsxman 10+ year member]

Curious what you ended up doing....

 

[groundpound4200 5,000+ posts]

Alpine PXE-H660... yup research that shit