Hello,

I need some help picking out a CD deck. The factory deck in my '98 GMC Sierra is just about shot so it needs to be replaced. The only requirements for the deck are:

1. Price around $400 installed if possible.
2. Detachable face plate if such a thing is still made (the last car stereo I bought was 10 years ago [img]graemlins/freak.gif[/img] )

I'll keep the factory speakers for now but may upgrade them next year. I have no intention of adding an amp any time in the future so the deck will have to power the speakers.

I'm just looking for a reasonably priced and decent quality CD deck with decent/clean power in case I do decide to upgrade the speakers.

Thanks.

go down to your local car audio stores and look at as many different decks as possible

shouldn't be too hard to find one in that price range .......most deck installs run about 60 bucks so you're looking for a deck in the 300 dollar + taxes range

any decent name brand such as sony, alpine, kenwood, pioneer, panisonic, clarion, jvc ect will do, they all make decent products and they all put out about 20 watts rms per channel no matter what the box says ;)

pick one that you find easy to use ...you have to interface with the deck every day, don't get one that annoys you


if you wanna save a couple bucks on the install
download this pdf file it gives detailed onstructions on doing it yourself.........it's not all that difficult, the shop you buy the deck from will also sell the dash kit and wire harness (hint: walmart sell cheap priced kits for common trucks such as yours)


you may also want to look into a deck that plays mp3's if you have a computer as it allows you to load about 7 hours of decent quality music onto 1 cd


two I would recomend in your price range are

Kenwood KDC-MP522 MP3 CD Car Deck


and

Pioneer DEH-P4500MP MP3 CD Deck

[ November 28, 2003, 02:34 PM: Message edited by: dodgeram ]

The Pioneer DEH-P7500MP is $399 installed right now at my local Futureshop. Definitely a great option ...

my dad has the same truck as was mentioned I installed a kenwood mp3 player for the sole fact that he doesn't own many cd's .., please if you wanna be happy with you purches DON'T buy a SONY or a JVC they are crappy units , Stay with a Alpine , eclipse, kenwood ,Panasonic that is my opinion..,

Make sure you get a gm antenna adaptor also if you listen to the radio at all