What To Look For When Buying A Car Stereo

So you've just got your new wheel's and the first thing you want to do is to fit a new CD player. With so many to choose from what one do you buy? What features make it better than any other headunit? Do you get what you pay for? You can get CD players as little $100 but depeneding on your preference on stereo you could end up having to buy a better one further down the line. Now If you just want to something to play CD's and has a nice screen display then you wouldn't be doing no wrong in getting a CD player in the $100 price range but if your planning on doing a liitle modifying to your car and want a sound system that packs a punch then your CD player which is the brain to sound system needs to be right from the start.

 Some basic features you want from your stereo regardlass of its usage are:

Face Off: Make sure your headunits face comes off this it to prevent theft. Alot of headuntis come with as standard these days but head units with pop out TV's do not so if you do decide to go for a TV headunit the whole headunit will be on display when you leave your car.

Internal amplifier output: This is displayed on some headunit if not it will say on its description. it will look this 45wx4 or can go up to 52wx4. This means that the internal amp is x amount of watts per channel. The higher the watts the louder the headunit will play the music.

Those are your basic featues you want to look for if you want something to play your CD's. So when buying look for one with a face off and something with a decent Wx4 internal amp.

Now lets say you want to fit a sound system later on down the line.

RCA Outputs; Cd players pretty much all come with 1 pair or RCA outputs this is enough to run 1 amp. You can buy RCA spiltters which multiply the RCA feeds but it becomes messy and the more connections you put on to a wire the more chance of interferance and total cut out. So look for  something with more than one set of RCA Outputs this will make it alot easier when running 2 or more amps.

MP3: Can you download MP3 to it. Mp3 are a given now. This will make a huge difference if it accepts mp3 files.

Bluetooth: So you can hook up a mobile phone or other device to it.

Ipod Auxillary: Theres no other way you can play your ipod off your car CD player unless it has an Ipod out put.

Tv Monitor: Now if you really want a TV Monitor in the car and can accept that the headunit face plate doesnt remove then having a TV headunit is a easier solution than installing seperate Tv Monitors. Tv Headunits usually have every possible feature ( Multiple RCA's, Good Internal Amps, Bluetooth,Remote Controls The Lot ) Watching TV on these requires a seperate Tv aerial but you can buy these as sticers that are stuck to the windscreen. They are very impressive pieces of kit and at a car meet you will stand out. So if you know you want a booming sound system you may be better going straight for one of these.