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  #1  
Old 04-17-2002, 02:06 PM
jbarber
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Which stereo?

Looks like I -may- have some money left in my toy budget after getting the SVX out of the shop, (wheel bearings and A/C) so now it's time to fill the hole in the dash. The previous owner removed the stereo, and left me with the stock CD. Big deal, not much good without the radio..

It -appears- to be a double-DIN sized carrier? The only double-DIN I can find easily is a Sony WX4500X. Any comments on alternatives?

Thanks,
--jim
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  #2  
Old 04-17-2002, 02:23 PM
0260N4
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You do not have to put a double din stereo in there. I put a JVC Kameleon (single) in mine and it looks great. To fill the hole left open by the other din you can buy a cover or in my a case a pocket that is designed to fill the space. Only cost about $10 and works out really well. Just find a deck you like and go from there. If I were going to put another new deck in mine I might consider an mp3 player....


0260N4
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  #3  
Old 04-17-2002, 02:30 PM
jbarber
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The pocket sounds like a good way to go. Are they commonly available?

Thanks,
--jim
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  #4  
Old 04-17-2002, 03:35 PM
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Seraph Seraph is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by jbarber
The pocket sounds like a good way to go. Are they commonly available?

Thanks,
--jim
Jim, I got my pocket from my dealer for free. I also have a Subaru blocker from the 94L so I am going to do it that way. Keep the blocker with my blau unit.
Lwin
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  #5  
Old 04-17-2002, 03:52 PM
jbarber
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Thanks, Lwin.

I'll check with the dealer tomorrow when I pick up the car, and ask them if they can find a pocket for me.

The double-DIN Sony head would be fine, but it's expensive considering it doesn't play MP3's. I'd also prefer something a little less "loud" looking, but I s'pose they all look like a Vegas light show these days.

Hey.. Come to think of it, I could use the space under a single-DIN stereo to mount a control head for a ham rig. I wonder how the SVX would react to 100 watts of RF coming from a rear-mounted antenna?? I don't s'pose the ECU and TCU are shielded all that well..

--jim
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  #6  
Old 04-17-2002, 03:59 PM
0260N4
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The dealer probably wont have the pocket since I dont think there are any Subarus that come with them stock. I got mine from a local stereo shop. I know that Huck adapted the pull out cupholders from the legacy series to fit that open hole. I think there are some pictures in his locker under the 94 L. I think thats what I want to try next...

There is a thread in the general section titled "cupholders" where Huck explains how to do this.

Last edited by 0260N4; 04-17-2002 at 04:04 PM.
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  #7  
Old 04-19-2002, 02:36 AM
jbarber
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A BIG thanks

to Randy, "SVXENO" for posting that Word doc on installing a stereo! The wiring diagram saved me a lot of time.

Instead of a hole in the dash, my SVX now has a Pioneer "Premier" DEH-P740MP CD/MP3 head. I left the factory CD (had that, not the radio) in the bottom slot, because I couldn't find a blank/pocket to cover it.

Now to go through my CD collection, and make up a couple of hundred MP3's with tags. Even encoding at 256kbps, I can probably put the best tracks of my whole collection on 2 or 3 disks.

--jim
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  #8  
Old 04-19-2002, 03:00 AM
jbarber
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Forgot to mention

that I had to remove the trim ring from the head, (easy) and do a little grinding on the caddy to get the Pioneer to fit correctly. The head has a couple of small metal ears on each side that the trim ring normally sits against, but a few minutes with a Dremel tool relieving the sides of the caddy near the top made room for them.
I could have cut the ears off the head, but I didn't want to monkey the warranty or get any metal inside.

The black backing plastic on the head behind where the trim ring normally sits matches up fairly well with the Subaru trim piece, so it looks pretty good. The door and latch work correctly, and there's enough room to tilt the head's face down to insert/remove a CD, or remove the face.

The stock speakers aren't great, but I haven't decided yet whether or not to replace them. I can see that putting 3-ways in the rear deck will probably require mounting them from underneath with a gasket, since the midrange and tweeter drivers would push into the grilles. We'll have to see how ambitious I get. I'll read the rest of Randy's docs to see how he went about it. No doubt it will save a bunch of time again. :-)

--jim
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  #9  
Old 04-19-2002, 10:45 AM
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Re: A BIG thanks

Quote:
Originally posted by jbarber
to Randy, "SVXENO" for posting that Word doc on installing a stereo! The wiring diagram saved me a lot of time.

Instead of a hole in the dash, my SVX now has a Pioneer "Premier" DEH-P740MP CD/MP3 head. I left the factory CD (had that, not the radio) in the bottom slot, because I couldn't find a blank/pocket to cover it.
I just installed a CD/MP3 head unit also. I couldn't find an antenna extension cable though, so right now the antenna doesn't work (goes up and down but isn't transmitting any signals to the unit). I had trouble mounting the holder again too, so this weekend I'm going to have to pull the whole thing out, hook up the antenna, and try to mount it properly.
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  #10  
Old 04-19-2002, 11:10 AM
EverclearAtMSU
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Re: Which stereo?

Quote:
Originally posted by jbarber

It -appears- to be a double-DIN sized carrier? The only double-DIN I can find easily is a Sony WX4500X. Any comments on alternatives?

Thanks,
--jim
there are several alternatives, pretty much every company makes a 2X din sized radio. I had the 2x din size Pioneer in my last car, and I loved it, worked great. Plus it gives you a tape deck (yeah i have some old tapes i like!) plus you can use it as an input forwhatever. I currently have a JVC Digifine w/ a little pocket, works well. One thing is if you get a single din that has angle adjustments for the face, you may want to put it in the lower din.

As for the pocket, that's a pain. Inorder to get it to fit I had to shave the bevel off on the sides since I use the factory trim. Unless you can find one that will just fit.

Have fun wiring it in
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  #11  
Old 04-20-2002, 12:17 AM
punisher
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mpyuck

Ok...first off...MP3s may sound good on little computer speakers, but they sound terrible on normal sized/car speakers. If you're after sound quality, and why in earth would you not be, stay away from mp3 stereos. If you want a new stereo, I'd go for an XM ready stereo. Satellite radio is great. Nearly one hundred channels....30 of which have no commercials. There's even a couple ALL COMEDY channels, which always have something fun on. Satellite radio is the wave of the future.
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  #12  
Old 04-20-2002, 12:53 AM
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Quote:
Originally posted by jbarber

Hey.. Come to think of it, I could use the space under a single-DIN stereo to mount a control head for a ham rig. I wonder how the SVX would react to 100 watts of RF coming from a rear-mounted antenna?? I don't s'pose the ECU and TCU are shielded all that well..

--jim
I think I'd be more concerned about the airbag driver...
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  #13  
Old 04-20-2002, 09:13 AM
jbarber
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Good point, Beav..
It would be the pits to get a faceful of hot plastic when you weren't expecting it.
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  #14  
Old 04-20-2002, 09:56 AM
jbarber
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Punisher,

So from the sounds of it, you like XM's compression codec better than MP3. FWIW, the Pioneer head I installed is "XM-ready", meaning I can add an XM tuner and antenna if I choose.

My ears aren't as good as they were when I was a kid, (20 years in the audio DSP business leaves you with at least some high frequency loss) but a 256kbps MP3 encoded with the Fraunhofer codec doesn't sound too bad to me. What I don't know yet is the relative quality of the MP3 decoder in the Pioneer.

One of the projects my company is working on is deconvolving the responses of various "rooms", including car interiors. We haven't modeled the SVX yet, but I'll probably get around to it in the near future.

(link to our consumer audio technology site)
http://www.sonicfocus.com

--jim
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  #15  
Old 04-20-2002, 10:45 AM
punisher
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loss

First off, please be aware that I haven't read the entire thread here, so maybe this has nothing to do with the conversation?? I dunno...but if the owner of the MP3 playing radio is willing to encode all of the songs himself at 256, then the loss isn't going to be as substantial (but the music will still sound somewhat hallow). I was actually assuming whoever would have the mp3 radio would be downloading mp3s. The mp3s readily available online are hardly encoded at 128 it seems. I was recommending the satellite radio because, in my area, there is really only one radio station that plays music I like, and half the time it plays commercials. Satellite radio has a few stations of music I like, with many many fewer *commercials. The sound quality is a bit higher than a standard FM broadcast. So, from my perspective, if I were to couple a standard CD player with a Satellite radio stereo (one capable of receiving satellite radio as well as standard fm/am) then there would always 24/7 be something good on with very high quality. If I had an mp3 player in my car, I would have take the time to put together discs of mp3 songs...and even then, playing them would require constant use of the shuttle function, and when you're shuttling through hundreds of songs on one disc, chances of finding that ONE song are gonna be pretty slim. If I (and i'm assuming others are like myself) got an mp3 player in my car stereo, I would probably end up hearing the same mp3s (or mp3s that I put on the disc but arent too crazy about) over and over again. It just doesnt seem like it's all it's cracked up to be.

Last edited by punisher; 04-20-2002 at 04:47 PM.
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