In car cd player recommendations

Tucker

I am upgrading my cd player and speakers and really don't know which head unit to look at buying.

I want something with 50 watt per channel with CD player and front usb. Probably upto £70 approx.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Does any particular make stand out above the rest?

thelawnet

Something like this maybe? http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product_m-pioneer-deh-6010mp_p-26512.htm

What have you got now? What are you spending on the speakers? A decent ICE upgrade is going to cost hundreds.

KillerWatt

Tucker wrote: »

I want something with 50 watt per channel with CD player and front usb. Probably upto £70 approx.

You'll find plenty of head units that offer 50W PMPO per channel, but you won't find any for that price that deliver 50W RMS (which is the true indication of output power).

Also bear in mind that your choice of speakers will have quite an impact in the final sound quality.
Checking things such as recommended enclosure size, efficiency, fundamental frequency, etc are recommended if you are serious about improvong the sound quality on such a low budget.

Tucker

Currently have the factory fitted CD player (4x10 watt). I am not going overboard, just looking for a half decent head unit and improved output from the 4 speakers.

I am replacing the front 10 watt speakers for Kenwood 40 watt ones and the smaller rear ones for some sony 30 watt output ones.

KillerWatt

Tucker wrote: »

I am replacing the front 10 watt speakers for Kenwood 40 watt ones and the smaller rear ones for some sony 30 watt output ones.

So you'll be using speakers that are way under rated for the power output of the head unit you are planning on installing, that's a good start.

Tucker

KillerWatt wrote: »

So you'll be using speakers that are way under rated for the power output of the head unit you are planning on installing, that's a good start.

I don't know. Not got a head unit yet, that's what I'm looking for.

KillerWatt

Tucker wrote: »

I don't know. Not got a head unit yet, that's what I'm looking for.

Well you won't want one that claims to put out 50W when both sets of speakers you have already decided on can't take that amount.

As a general rule of thumb, you want speakers rated at double what the manufacturer of the head unit claims.

Kilty_2

Do you work in the industry KillerWatt?

I'm thinking about upgrading the speakers in my Picanto (standard ones are god awful) but it's not something I've really considered before and don't know what's what in terms of stuff just fitting in and working with a minimal amount of fuss

The following upgrade has already been considered:

Tucker

The problem is everything on sale appears to be either 4x45watt or 4x50watt, hence that seems the norm.

I've no intention of pushing them to the limit mind.

The rear speakers are only 100mm size, with limited back room in the housing, as they are in the roof space, so the ones I have are pushing things as far as I can. The fronts are 170mm ones are straight replacements and were a gift.

KillerWatt

Kilty wrote: »

Do you work in the industry KillerWatt?

I have worked as an auto sparks many years ago, that was back in the day when I couldn't decide which path to choose out of being a domestic/commercial sparks, auto sparks, or television engineer.

My own personal hobby (or at least one of them) is audio & video editing, and my other love is Hi-Fi. To give you an idea of how serious I am about my music, I quite happily paid £2,500 about 5 years ago for a pair of subwoofers to be shipped over from the States.....I still had to buy the other 5 speakers as well as the amp on top of that.

Kilty wrote: »

I'm thinking about upgrading the speakers in my Picanto (standard ones are god awful) but it's not something I've really considered before and don't know what's what in terms of stuff just fitting in and working with a minimal amount of fuss

There are plenty of aftermarket drive units that are a "straight swap" in terms of fitting for pretty much all cars these days, so upgrading will only be as difficult as removing the door card (which is more than likely a real !!!!! on a French car).

Tucker wrote: »

The problem is everything on sale appears to be either 4x45watt or 4x50watt, hence that seems the norm.

I can pretty much guarantee you that the 4x 50W will be it's absolute maximum power output over a very short time period (typically seconds), the real power output (RMS) will more likely be around 12W per channel.

Check your chosen speakers for their power rating again, but also check whether that is their maximum power input or whether that is the RMS rating.

If it's the former, you really need to consider new speakers. If it's the latter, your laughing.

Tucker

The watts I quoted are RMS.

It quotes 200 watts (large) and 90watts (small) and all sorts of other nonesense on the peak power etc, but I have focussed on the RMS.

The front ones are 3 way and the rear 2 way - whatever that means - Built in mini tweeters in the 3 way or something??

So am I safe to assume a 45 or 50 watt x 4 cd player will be reasonably ok with those??