New member but experienced in car audio

[BreynnMike]

Good evening guys and gals. I'm Mike. I've always loved music. I play guitar and drums. I typically go to 20+ concerts per year. I've been looking around the web the last week doing research for a head unit I'm planning to purchase for my Escalade and I figured I'd just register here. I have a 2006 Escalade ESV with the Premium Bose Stereo and a six disc changer. Last year I put two 12" JBL subs and a JBL amp in. But unfortunately I'm still using the stock head unit. To be honest it doesn't bother me all that much listening to cds. The quality is awesome. I just burn the album I want to a blank disc and jam out. Lately though the CDs have been skipping so I figure it's time to go with a new double DIN head unit. To top that off I've been paying for the Spotify family plan and figure I'd like to take advantage of that. The Bose stereo and the two 12"s in the Escalade do sound pretty good I should say. Though the truck is so huge that 2 12s don't sound quite as good as they would in a smaller vehicle. So now I'm in the process of determining exactly which double din head unit I want. I also have a 2015 Camaro with a stock stereo. I've always said that the car is a sports car and I don't care about the stereo. I enjoy hearing the rumble of the exhaust. But last year I bought a 500 watt Alpine amp and wiring. I've been waiting for the right sale on a subwoofer. No hurry.. I typically research a lot and wait until I see a price I like. My wife has a 2017 Chevy Trax Premier with the Bose stereo. Last year I installed a 300 watt Kicker amp and a Polk 12" sub. Her car slams hard. It's such a tiny SUV that one sub is plenty for her. We just got a 2007 Charger for my 17 year old daughter. I might do a cheaper head unit so she can make hands free calls but really she is just lucky to have been given a car. This forum seems pretty cool and I'm sure I'll find a lot of the answers I'm looking for here. I do all my installs myself but I do like hearing people's opinions on the components of a car stereo.

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[blazian87 10+ year member]

From my experience with CD's skipping, it has mostly been because of burning it too fast like 16x or 24x. I prefer to burn it at 4x, which takes like 20 mins. 1x would be ideal but it takes like 40 mins or so. The slower the burn, the less likely the CD will ever skip. Compared to store bought CD's, they rarely ever skip even when they're lightly scratched. Unless they've been grinding on the concrete floor with horrible scratches, I usually never have problems. Aside from that, I haven't used CD's in yearrrrsss.. mainly for convenience. You may think there's not much different from stock headunit to aftermarket but I assure you it's one of the best things you can do in car audio system. Just from the signal alone, you will hear a difference. Don't just get the cheapest headunit you can find either, get at least a 24bit dac in it and preferably a name brand like pioneer, alpine, sony, kenwood. Let us know what products you're thinking about purchasing and we can chime in as a forum to let you know what's the best choice for your money. Good luck

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

Damn you live out in the stix. Must be midwest. Anyways I'll take the Camaro.