OP, if you think the 03 Blose system sounds good, you may consider having your hearing checked

Seriously though, it may be better than a lot of cars, but it's still complete crap next to almost any half-way decent aftermarket setup.

Best thing for you to do right now is probably to educate yourself on the subject as much as possible. Here's a good starting point: https://g35driver.com/forums/audio-v...urce-list.html

 

The metra kit does not work with the OEM (JDM or otherwise) A/C buttons. They made up their own button sizes and placements so only theirs will fit.

I did the button swap on a JDM A/C kit myself (my first time using a soldering iron actually) and it works flawlessly.

I also have an X920BT. Bluetooth Nav iPod etc. Love it. Kept my bose stock amp and think it sounds great. HOWEVER, after I had it installed i took it back about a month later. I don't know if this is specific to the X920, but I found that I had lost of lot of power after the conversion. On a softer song, I was hitting the volume cap. My installer recommended adding some in-line converters made by Cache. They improved my volume output by about 25-30% and only cost $40 a pop (you need two). I would definitely recommend it if you go for the switch.

And in reference to your question about supplying the HU from crutchfield, remember that some places will cut you a better deal if you buy from them. My installer charged me about $50 more than crutchfield would have for the parts, but he didn't charge me a dime to install it.

 

this also happened to me, i left my dash open for a bout a week until i figured out that it was just a wiring problem. And when u say button swap do you mean for the dual a/c control?

 

Yes, I stole the dual A/C button from the old board for the new JDM A/C unit I bought, per the instructions I found here on the forums.

 

That's a pretty good post to use as a resource. I already new most of the logisticis and parts required, but I was having a hard time figuring out if I could make the stock speakers sound better with a head unit (had heard mixed reviews). It seems from all the help I've gotten on this forum that most people have agreed you WILL get better sound if you get the harness that plugs into the existing BOSE amp. Otherwise, your mileage may vary.

As an update for everyone, I decided to go with the Pioneer FH-P8000BT double din stereo (original BOSE "premium" amp, stock speakers, steering wheel controls integrated). I'm having them installed early next week, all parts and labor included for $850. Not a cheap install considering the deck is ~$330, but when you include all the harnesses and dash kit it adds up quickly. I'm looking forward to having USB and bluetooth music/calling available for my car.

Thanks for everyone who responded to this post to help me out! I'll provide an update as to how it sounds next week when it's installed.

 

SQ will get better with a replacement DD radio.

 

yeah that's what the guy at the shop said. I'm super curious to see how stuff sounds when I use the bluetooth audio on my phone with Pandora. I can't imagine it will be "CD quality", but with the better deck it might just sound alright. Besides pandora, I'm planning on just having a portable hard drive plugged into the USB at all times (which I've read gives the best possible audio quality).

 

The bluetooth audio in mine is basically useless. Don't mean to burst your bubble, just being honest. The sound quality is terrible, it occasionally drops out if its in my left pocket, and only successfully connects about 60% of the time. I have the 920 and was using it with an iPhone 4, perhaps your pioneer unit will be newer and not have some of these issues. Pandora works great, but I go for the physical connection when I want to use it.

I ended up buying an iPod classic to leave in the car as a hard drive, as my unit has a 2,500 song limit on hard drives. The reviews I've read say that the newer units have increased the song limit significantly, so it likely won't be as much of an issue for you. I've heard that there's basically a 60 gig limit, so it depends on the size of your music collection. Just a heads up.

 

Looks like my limitation for USB is 250GB (just checked the manual).

As far as bluetooth goes... seems to be a crapshoot. I've read good and bad things. It seems to be completely dependent on the phone and unit. I guess a good test will be loading a song onto the USB drive, playing it, and then comparing to the same song file played via bluetooth. We'll see how it goes. The good news is I have my HTC EVO hacked with the Cyanagen ROM, which overrides the phones default low bitrate bluetooth audio transfer and replaces it with the highest quality bitrate bluetooth offers. Again, we'll just have to see how it goes...

I like the iPod idea though, I could probably pick one up for cheap on ebay. Do you need to manually turn the iPod on/off, or can you just leave it plugged in and not worry about it? Also, can you play playlists off of your iPod or just individual tracks? The option to play playlists would make it a worthwhile investment.

 

Pandora compression isn't exactly great as it is, then when you stack the bluetooth compression on top of that, it will probably end up pretty crappy.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

 

Stop raining on my parade! Haha just kidding. I figured the sound quality would leave me wanting more. We'll see if my amateur ears can tell a difference. There's also other streaming options available with better quality, I'll just have to see how it goes.

 

iPod will play playlists, by artist, by album, or shuffle all. I got a used iPod classic on eBay real cheap. No need to replug or repower when u restart the card. I've had mine installed into the nav cubby and haven't touched the actual iPod in months.

Hard drives are limited not as much by size as by pioneers directory limits. I'm on my phone now, but I'll get back to you with specifics for your model. If you end up going with the iPod this doesnt matter, just want to let you know.

 

Haha!
My only point is, when you stack two different types of compression, the audio quality normally drops exponentially.

If you plug the phone's headphone jack into the stereo's input jack, and turn the phone's volume down around halfway, you'll probably be a lot better off in terms of sound quality.

But still, your best bet is a hard drive or iPod with a big library of high-bitrate music.

 

Looks like on your model the song limitation is 15,000 (wow, they must have had a lot of complaints about the limits on my model). The limitation that would be the size killer though, is a 500 directory limit. So if you organize your music into folders by artist, album, etc on your USB hard drive, you are limited to 500 folders and then it will stop reading your music. Using no folders and just putting in tracks would get around this, but isn't as clean either.

Whatever you decide, enjoy your new toy.

 

Yeah the usb is good as long as your files aren't compressed, normally they will be more than big enough. Take it from me that with the aftermarket radio it will sound better(louder and cleaner).