Purchased a 2000 GC Laredo. Came with the stock AM/FM cassette. I would like to replace it with a CD/radio. How does the stock CD/radio sound? How about a 3rd party solution that would fit nicely with a minimum of fuss?
In '97, I bought my Jeep with no sounds. They wanted $500 just for an AM/FM with no sound bar. I bought a CD player, a mounting kit and a connector to fit the existing power plug. I've since gone to an MP3 CD player, 50 watts per channel. I put some cheap Polks in the front and a cheap truck box in the back. You can buy the mounting kits and the connector to fit your harness at any stereo shop. Anything you buy (except maybe Jenson or Sparkomatic), will be better then the factory model and have more features. Once the kit is in, any DIN style radio should fit. There is also a larger DIN size that will fit the bigger holes in today's vehicles.
Monroe did pass the time by typing:
The stock CD radio would probably be fine, but for the cost you probably could get a nice aftermarket head unit and changer. Look for the ones that play DVD/MP3. A DVD stuffed with MP3s is a lot of music.
Local BestBuy/Circuit City etc are a starting place but before you decide, check out local audio specialty shops and browse through the "brag book". It's another hobby wher you can spend as much as you want to. Just like Jeepin. :D
I can fit 5.5 hours of 320K MP3 on one CD. You can fit more if your ears can stand more loss.
44.1 stereo wave = 1411KB/sec 320K CBR MP3 = 22% of that information 256K CBR MP3 = 18% of that informationRemember, once you've tossed that information away to make an MP3, re-expanding it to wave does not recreate that information. It's gone!
Try
Turner
My 95 XJ has the stock radio in it too. The FM keeps cutting out, but the tape player works well (It plays my TEN + year old tapes just fine!). Nice player too. Has that "find next song" feature, and unspools the tape when you turn off the ignition.
From what I've seen, JVC makes the only car stereo that plays MP3s off a DVD (Heck, most HOME DVD players don't do it!). But I've never looked into the car VIDEO player units...they might do it too.
But as someone else pointed out, a CD can hold hundreds of mp3s. (I made one once with almost 500 songs on it. YES, the bit rate was low but the sound quality was OK.)
Crutchfields is a good place to compare stuff, but most of the single DIN units will fit so it's just a matter of finding the features you want at the price you want to pay ;-)
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