'97 Civic DX

[Joehoo]

hey, i'm new here on AF, but I just got a '97 civic 2 door dx... its got a radio, and thats about it...

i'm hopin to get a good sound system for it, cd. etc - basically something thats nice but not too expensive

was hoping for any suggestions, or recommendations you guys have, considering this is my first car =)

thanks for any help in advance

[eastcoastdriver]

unless your goin for an extreme sound system any aftermarket radio will do. the norm is a head unit with an output of 4x50 and that will power your 6x9s in the back and your front doors. i have heard of problems with pioneer and sony and have had no problems with my kenwood dvd player or my alpine cd player and the sound quality on my rockford fosgate speakers/sub/amp are great.

[GScivic7]

mind telling what the problems with pioneer are? Everyone knows sony is just a rectangular piece of crap, but pioneer makes great headunits for the money. I've only used pioneer headunits for the last 5.5 years and have went bought 3 of them with no problems and all my friends with pioneer decks love them. If you get a pioneer deck dish out the extra cash for a Premier model.

only brand name cd player that i think is better than the premier units for the money is Alpine.

[eastcoastdriver]

i talked to my friend with the pioneer and he had one of the basic units and had trouble with ejecting cds so nothing to bad and as u said go for the premier units

[millaj92]

It doesn't matter what brand of deck you speak of, some of them will have problems. Anything electronic will have problems. Anything built by machine or on assembly lines will have problems.

Pioneer makes some great stuff. I'd definitely say going with them for a deck is a good way to go. Kenwood isn't as good as they used to be, and Alpine is good too. I think the Pioneers are a bit easier to use than the Alpines, but the new Pioneers look like shit to me. As far as which one you get, well that all depends on what features you want, how much money you want to spend, and what you want to add later. I'm not real familiar with Alpine yet because we haven't sold their product in years and we just started to again, so I'll talk about Pioneer. Most all of them are XM Ready, which basically means it's got the capability to directly connect a CD changer and/or XM tuner, which would be controlled through the deck. Most of them except for the real bottom of the line ones will play MP3 discs. They will all play CD-Rs. No one used CD-RWs. Starting at the 7000 series (DEH-P7600MP last year's model, DEH-P7700MP this year's, you've got a third set of pre-outs dedicated for a sub amp, which is a necessity if you ever want bass. Motorized face is cool but more shit to break. Some of the Premier decks have a few more audio control features, but most of them are the exact same as their Pioneer siblings, except for the aesthetics and the Premier name. And oh yeah, the retarded price increase. The one cool thing Alpine does have this year is the IPod adapter that lets you make a digital connection between an IPod and the Alpine decks, which is controlled through the deck at that point, but it ain't cheap. Don't buy online, do buy an extended warranty. Hope that helps.

[GScivic7]

Originally Posted by millaj92

Some of the Premier decks have a few more audio control features, but most of them are the exact same as their Pioneer siblings, except for the aesthetics and the Premier name. And oh yeah, the retarded price increase.

Advantages of getting a Premier deck. Higher voltage RCA outputs, longer warranty and only a $30-40 increase.

And do buy online you won't get better prices anywhere else. My favorite place to shop, www.ikesound.com

[millaj92]

I know the differences. The guy wants "not too expensive" so I seriously doubt he cares about 4 volt pre-outs. So you get a manufacturer's warranty when you buy online, but if the shit breaks you get to mail it in to Pioneer. It's much easier to take it in to your local dealer and let them handle the hassle. Also, that two year warranty is reduced to one year unless it's professionally installed by an authorized Pioneer dealer. As for price...which would you rather have? Shit that works or save some money?