I'm over the stock radio. Kind of want a clock, good tuner,... mp3 port, card player would be nice. I like knobs but they can be knuckle biters with the stick shift, and except high-end stuff, they all feel cheap. Been looking at some double din, touch screen stuff, there's room for gps...OR a tablet install would give me all that plus some apps & wifi where available. Real cheap from China. Just not sure if they can take the abuse. Anyone tried this or care to debate it?

I bought a JVC Bluetooth receiver of eBay for about $80 that I'm going to try. Next will be to try to find some nice speakers that will fit without too much trouble. 

 

John

Edited January 11, 201412 yr by suprjohn

search out common ground on this site.  the speakers in your car share  ground between them all, and you have to rewire some things to get your newer deck to work correctly, whichever one you choose.

search out common ground on this site.  the speakers in your car share  ground between them all, and you have to rewire some things to get your newer deck to work correctly, whichever one you choose.

 

to be clear each side shares a ground.

 

Easiest is to just run new wires to the front door speakers connectors in the kick panels, and leave the stock wiring for the rears.

A tablet in a car? Sorry... A cheap, Chinese tablet in a car? No, I doubt seriously it will take the abuse for long. A good tablet most likely will. Great idea though. Research tablets for longevity and sturdiness. I've had several and still like my HP Touchpad though it was discontinued right after release. The OS wasn't all that great and they stopped support, so I wiped it and loaded an Android system. Look for one that has Bluetooth, though most, if not all, do now. If you go the tablet route, you'll need to install an amp and rewire all the speakers since the table is not capable of powering anything bigger than headphones. There are a few head units available that don't have CD players that will install easily in the given space. The have USB ports, 3.5mm input jacks, RCA input jacks and Bluetooth depending on the model.

the chinese stuff is hard to get used to especialy if your used to one format or another and then theres the language that for some reason reverts to chineese every now and again but seem to hold up well i wired my phone to work as my sterio on my scout worked great used 2 amps one small for small speakers one big for the sub and harder to steal and fits in your pocket and holders are cheap

I was really referring to the 'pre-branded' stuff, which is really the same as samsung, sanyo...etc. Got one last year online w/win8, android, 8G, for ~$70. The wifi is a little weak, the power supply cheapo, but mostly a good unit. I like the idea of mp3's in the car, and the gps &  performance apps. Right now I'm running my little mp3 player (that has a radio) into the cassette adapter -which is awesome! 

I retro fit an ipod touch into the hole where the clock goes on one of my older projects.

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/128425-ea82-dash-clock-ipod-upgrade-now-with-pics/

Very Cool!!

As skishop69 said, I would say get a Digital Media Receiver with USB/3.5/Bluetooth and just sync a phone/tablet or USB drive.  Cheap Android tablets are pretty aweful.  I wouldn't install anything less then say a Nexus 7 or the like.  Possibly buy a mount or build someting that would be easy to pull.  Also have to consider power/wiring and if the weather would affect it (which it will).

 

Something like this would work great.  My current Stereo has a USB and its all i use.  Same thing with my truck, that or sync phone.  I do not use CDs anymore.

 

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_105KDX250B/JVC-KD-X250BT.html?tp=5684