Well, my truck's stock radio is finally saying its last goodbyes. I'm looking to replace it before I go off to college next fall, and I would be much obligued for a little help getting a good one. I have it narrowed down to:

Alpine
Kenwood
Panasonic
Pioneer

I know some of yall have expericence in the electrical field, please steer me in a reputable way

Thanks

I got a tip... DONT BUY ANYTHING SONY.

Kenwood is a very good car audio company. They have really good amps and head units.

I have a set of pioneer 6x9s under my back seat on a 400 watt amp. I can turn the volume all they way up and them things have never distorded. They play some amazingly high notes.

after having all of the above in my vehicles at one point or another, i prefer JVC over them. a lot of folks call me nuts for it , but i dont have an ear destroying system and i dont go to competitions so i dont need anything that will do that for me. i listen to my music, and i need something that will be loud enough to hear over 35" MT tires and 10 year old weatherstripping. I just like the user interface of the JVCs. the backgrounds arentall cluttered up with strobing ythis and movie that. they keep it pretty simple. thats my 2 cents. if you're looking for soemthing flashy, JVC probably isnt for you.

I've worked with 3 different Pioneer decks recently, and they have all been good. Yes, they have a lot of flashy animations, and the menu's aren't always the easiest to work with at first, but you get used to them. Beneath all that crap is a pretty powerful tool for tuning your music. The equilizer options on the Pioneer you are looking at are very good. Plus, the pioneer's do pretty well in terms of skip resistance. So i'd go with the pioneer.

Just DON't buy it from crutchfield. Yes, crutch provides technical instalation support, but nothing guys here can't help you with or that you could find elsewhere on teh net. Just buy a harness to intgrate into your stock wiring from somewhere, it cleans up the installation a ton.

You can save a TON buying it new off of ebay or from someone like etronics. Here it is for $80 less at etronics.com

Thats where i bought mine.

Anyways, hope i didn't ramble too much in this post! Good luck!

I had a Sony deck 2 years ago that worked real well, minus some skipping on extremely bumply roads, a used Eclipse head unit that was probably 5 years old that still worked fine, just skipped a TON, and now have a Pioneer DEH-P6400. This is a great quality unit, lots of screen savers, superb equalizer, my only complaints are that the remote eats batteries like you wouldn't believe and the tuner doesn't pull in stations real well. If the radio is your main concern, get a JVC

I have had both Alpine and Pioneer head units and have been pleased with both. There's no doubt Pioneer is on top of things with their new units. If I had to pick one I would say for the money go with Pioneer. If your thinking of beefing up the sound a little more look into "alphasonik". I just set two 800 series alphasonik 15" subs in my Tahoe and have been blown away. Ive tried them all and there is no comparison. They don't sell online though. Go to www.alphasonik.com and find a local dealer. Good luck

MSF, if your Pioneer isn't pulling in stations, something is wrong. Check out your antenna connections/wiring, and consider adding a powered hideaway antenna (i got one in our boat for $25 and its AWESOME). I've only had good experiences with the pioneer tuners.....

I've currently got a sony, and really like it. Sony's electronic stuff is great, just don't buy their speakers. Yes, it skips a little bit, but the controls are really simple, it has 3 preouts with a good sub volume control, and does pretty well in my system.

I just don't really like the way the newer sony decks function. THats why i reccomended Pioneer.

the Kenwood you haven thre is pretty good. The tahoe just got that unit and it works great.

I have no idea where you plan on going to college, but if it is in a small town you might want to consider something that is XM satelite radio compatible.

I moved away to a college town that only had a pop, country, and crappy classic rock stations. I got the XM when my sh1t got ripped off and I love it. Well worth the $10/month. They have everything you could possibly want to listen to.

The deck I got is a Pioneer. This is my second Pioneer. I have also owned an Eclipse and a Kenwood. All were good, but the Eclipse drew power from my battery and would drain the battery down to nothing if the truck sat for more than four days.

I am liking my new Pioneer just fine. The only problem that I have with Pioneers is that it is damn near impossible to change the time on the clock. I always get pissed when I have to adjust the clock on a Pioneer deck.

thanks for all the replys guys, and shorts. I was leaning towards the pioneer and I believe thats the way I'm going to go now. I am going to attend college at the University of Texas at Austin in the fall, so its a pretty big city. Yall are always helpful.