New to forum and need your suggestions please...

[refueler01]

Hi to all. Name is Jack and am new to this forum. I'm looking for anyone's suggestions on car stereos for my truck. I have read a lot of topics on car stereos and I am overwhelmed with the information. The music I will be listening to is smooth Jazz (primarily), old school heavy metal, hard rock and new age stuff. I do not listen to much else than that. I have a 2002 Chevy 1500HD crew cab that currently has no radio in it. The OEM radio crapped out years ago and have not replaced it and the two front speakers went out long ago also.

I wont be listening to music at superman levels so do not need huge subs or 5000 watt amps. That is for you young people! Just need a durable stereo that will allow me to connect a USB stick and my Galaxy Note 2 phone. I love the idea of music stored on data files rather than listening to radio stations. Im not much for talk radio and the stations we have here ****! Not looking for audiophile sound but would like the sound quality to fill the cab with music I can hear; not muffled vocals or crap like that. Oh I also would like one of those mechless units. I have reviewed several units and I found the pioneer sph-da100 rather interesting for my needs. I really like the touch screen controls over knobs but the reviews are very disappointing as too using your android phone with it. After looking at several other stereos it appears that they are all engineered to work with IPODs. So does this mean I will need to get a used ipod classic to use as music storage? So what I would like is your thoughts on what components I need for a stereo, two front door speakers (6.5s), two rear door speakers (6x9s) and a small amp and maybe a small sub (10" or less) or do I need one? Also any other little gadgets that I would need like cables or phone holder. Also where do you store your ipod? Glovebox? Thanks for reading, I know you guys are asked this a lot.

Jack

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[basswiigee]

ok, ipod ready just means that it plays ipod through the radio, not just classic but all of them, I got a single din which puts the slot pocket in the dash, I just throw my ipod in there, if the usb is in the back run wire to the glove box.... or if you get a hu with a sd card you can use that to or just a regular usb stick.... I got a single jl audio 10w6 v2 d4 in a sealed box custom built to spec for 180 plus the ride.... and your phone can play on the usb or bluetooth... I love my pioneer..... and i'm rocking a el cheapo 3400ub but it plays all I want.....

 

[mylows10 5,000+ posts]

Go with a double din deck if you like android then a kenwood or one of the upper pioneer decks I'll be found the same truck for my daughters boyfriend starting this weekend possibly. Looking at 2 vfl 8s behind the rear seat ported at 35 herts off of a 1500 rms amp. Cdt 6.5 components and maybe new 6x9s in the rear haven't decided there yet. Then a vfl 150.4 and vfl 2680 amps. 0 gauge wiring and the big 3 kit pioneer avhp 4100 or avhp 4300. Not sure yet here

 

[refueler01]

ok, ipod ready just means that it plays ipod through the radio, not just classic but all of them, I got a single din which puts the slot pocket in the dash, I just throw my ipod in there, if the usb is in the back run wire to the glove box.... or if you get a hu with a sd card you can use that to or just a regular usb stick.... I got a single jl audio 10w6 v2 d4 in a sealed box custom built to spec for 180 plus the ride.... and your phone can play on the usb or bluetooth... I love my pioneer..... and i'm rocking a el cheapo 3400ub but it plays all I want.....

I only brought up the ipod classic cause it hold up to 160 gig which would be about 75% of my current music files. I would like the USB port in front don't know if I would need an SD slot if it already has a USB slot. I cant make since of the file system the stereos use when reading a USB stick. Most reviews have been all over the from crap file management to you have to use certain programs to creat files on your usb and so on. Seems like a pain. I also read that streaming music like XM or over Bluetooth is poor quality versa using connected files like from the ipod or usb....? Im not to savy when it comes to stereos, a bit out of my genre here.