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Hey folks,
This is way off topic, but that's what this forum is about!
Okay, I have a 2004 Nissan Xterra, and the Cd player quit working a few weeks ago, would no longer eject or accept CD's, they just got hung up halfway, so the motor mechanism broke down some way? It's a double-din... that's double height style vs. regular single height deck.
I'm not into super woofers, and 1000 watt kicker amps and such, just wanted a decent system to replace my OEM so that I could play my CDs again. I looked around for double-din units, but they were in the $160+ price range. I then realized that there are install kits that will provide a tray or such to take up the empty space, so that I could use a single height unit, more choices and cheaper.
But then, I found out that technology has marched onward and upward since 2004!
Instead of just AM/FM, there's now a new HD Radio format, digital broadcasts from the same stations that have regular FM, for free, it's not satellite, but it's clear DIGITAL signals!! Also, instead of having to settle for just playing audio CD's, you can get them that will play CDroms with MP3's or WMA's and such. But wait, there's more. Due to the iPod, they have units that will connect to an iPod, as well as also read SDcards or even USB Flash drives with MP3s/Wma's on them!
The prices for these SD and Flash drives have come down considerably as well, so instead of just 700MB for a CDrom, still the cheapest at only $0.10 per disc, but large, bulky, etc. you can get SD and Flash drives with 2+ Gb...the size limit on the low end player/readers, but still 3 times more capacity than the Cdrom, and a much smaller/compact!!
A fellow on the Yahoo group has suggested a unit sold by Walmart for $79.00, a VR3 by Roadmaster, but reviews of their feedback and such showed that they had quality control problems. SO...I went searching again, and found first thru Amazon/BestBuy, but later on eBay a unit by Jensen. They used to have/be a good brand, but they are now owned by AUDIOVOX
, but they have several brands under them, Advent Research, even RCA!
The unit I found was an HD5212, picture link to their website won't work, but just need to go to www.jensen.com look in Mobile, etc. to see it. This unit has built in HD tuner, CD audio and Mp3/Cdrom playback, as well as included iPod cable input, SD card reader and USB front panel access reader. The ebay store I got it from also included S&H for free, an installation kit/space taker upper for my double-din space(Free), wiring install/plug kit(Free), and all for $99.95!! The unit has 13 watts per channel RMS <1% THD, and 40 watts peak power. Most of the other decks were listing ratings of 20-21 watts/channel RMS. Here's the next part of the INFO!!!
I learned about speakers, wattages, and such some 25+ years ago when I was stationed in Japan, looking to purchase my first real decent mid/high end system, and fortunately, the industry was being made to develop standards of power ratings for proper comparison by the consumer!! In an audio system, specifically the speakers, believe it or not, you develop most of the volume in your speakers getting up to 1 watt!!! If you look at speakers and their sensitivity ratings, you'll see info like 90 db at 1 watt at 1 meter away from the speaker. That's a fair amount of sound pressure already. Then to attain an increase in 3 db, which is about the least amount of volume increase that a human ear can discern, you have to increase the wattage by a factor of 2...doubling it!!!
SO..it goes: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, etc.! SO with my unit with 90db speakers, at 8 watts, it's cranking out 99 db, at 13 watts....~100.5db, and the Walmart unit's 16 watts = 102db, the 20 watt units ~103 db, so you can see that I'm not loosing hardly any usable volume with only 13 watts vs. 20 watts. And this sytem is definitely much louder and yet cleaner/clearer than the OEM unit that was in there to begin with!
With the above info, you can see that it's rather useless and wasteful to spend extra $$ for a system that is rated at 200 watts vs. one that is providing 120 watts. You would either want to go up to 250 watts or just save your $$ and get the 120 watt unit. This info applies to home systems as well automotive. Remember, you want to be looking at the RMS values, that's the distortion free zone, not the PEAK power rating.
SO...if you are looking for a replacement sound system for your car, and you don't want to spend a bunch of $$, I hope this info will aid you in your shopping endeavor and will arm you with useful tools to fend off the crap the audio store guys are trying to fool you with!?
T.C.
This is way off topic, but that's what this forum is about!
Okay, I have a 2004 Nissan Xterra, and the Cd player quit working a few weeks ago, would no longer eject or accept CD's, they just got hung up halfway, so the motor mechanism broke down some way? It's a double-din... that's double height style vs. regular single height deck.
I'm not into super woofers, and 1000 watt kicker amps and such, just wanted a decent system to replace my OEM so that I could play my CDs again. I looked around for double-din units, but they were in the $160+ price range. I then realized that there are install kits that will provide a tray or such to take up the empty space, so that I could use a single height unit, more choices and cheaper.
But then, I found out that technology has marched onward and upward since 2004!
Instead of just AM/FM, there's now a new HD Radio format, digital broadcasts from the same stations that have regular FM, for free, it's not satellite, but it's clear DIGITAL signals!! Also, instead of having to settle for just playing audio CD's, you can get them that will play CDroms with MP3's or WMA's and such. But wait, there's more. Due to the iPod, they have units that will connect to an iPod, as well as also read SDcards or even USB Flash drives with MP3s/Wma's on them! The prices for these SD and Flash drives have come down considerably as well, so instead of just 700MB for a CDrom, still the cheapest at only $0.10 per disc, but large, bulky, etc. you can get SD and Flash drives with 2+ Gb...the size limit on the low end player/readers, but still 3 times more capacity than the Cdrom, and a much smaller/compact!!
A fellow on the Yahoo group has suggested a unit sold by Walmart for $79.00, a VR3 by Roadmaster, but reviews of their feedback and such showed that they had quality control problems. SO...I went searching again, and found first thru Amazon/BestBuy, but later on eBay a unit by Jensen. They used to have/be a good brand, but they are now owned by AUDIOVOX
, but they have several brands under them, Advent Research, even RCA! The unit I found was an HD5212, picture link to their website won't work, but just need to go to www.jensen.com look in Mobile, etc. to see it. This unit has built in HD tuner, CD audio and Mp3/Cdrom playback, as well as included iPod cable input, SD card reader and USB front panel access reader. The ebay store I got it from also included S&H for free, an installation kit/space taker upper for my double-din space(Free), wiring install/plug kit(Free), and all for $99.95!! The unit has 13 watts per channel RMS <1% THD, and 40 watts peak power. Most of the other decks were listing ratings of 20-21 watts/channel RMS. Here's the next part of the INFO!!!
I learned about speakers, wattages, and such some 25+ years ago when I was stationed in Japan, looking to purchase my first real decent mid/high end system, and fortunately, the industry was being made to develop standards of power ratings for proper comparison by the consumer!! In an audio system, specifically the speakers, believe it or not, you develop most of the volume in your speakers getting up to 1 watt!!! If you look at speakers and their sensitivity ratings, you'll see info like 90 db at 1 watt at 1 meter away from the speaker. That's a fair amount of sound pressure already. Then to attain an increase in 3 db, which is about the least amount of volume increase that a human ear can discern, you have to increase the wattage by a factor of 2...doubling it!!!
SO..it goes: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, etc.! SO with my unit with 90db speakers, at 8 watts, it's cranking out 99 db, at 13 watts....~100.5db, and the Walmart unit's 16 watts = 102db, the 20 watt units ~103 db, so you can see that I'm not loosing hardly any usable volume with only 13 watts vs. 20 watts. And this sytem is definitely much louder and yet cleaner/clearer than the OEM unit that was in there to begin with!
With the above info, you can see that it's rather useless and wasteful to spend extra $$ for a system that is rated at 200 watts vs. one that is providing 120 watts. You would either want to go up to 250 watts or just save your $$ and get the 120 watt unit. This info applies to home systems as well automotive. Remember, you want to be looking at the RMS values, that's the distortion free zone, not the PEAK power rating.
SO...if you are looking for a replacement sound system for your car, and you don't want to spend a bunch of $$, I hope this info will aid you in your shopping endeavor and will arm you with useful tools to fend off the crap the audio store guys are trying to fool you with!?
T.C.