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Single din head unit that wont piss me off

mjlogan88

mjlogan88

Red Skull Member
Joined
May 20, 2020
Member Number
500
Messages
325
Loc
GA
Stock radio died in the '96 chevy truck. Best stereo interface ever put in a vehicle in my opinion. Big ol buttons, volume knob in perfect proximity to the column shifter.

I'd like to put in something that will connect to my phone and all I want is a volume and a skip button. Every single din aftermarket pos i've had has a skip button that is so small it requires sniper like accuracy to hit.

I have always been wanting to put one of these retrosound units in which is exactly what I want, but I kept bitching out on the $300 price tag. Now they are discontinued. Is there anything else out there in say the $150ish range similar?

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mjlogan88 said:
Stock radio died in the '96 chevy truck. Best stereo interface ever put in a vehicle in my opinion. Big ol buttons, volume knob in perfect proximity to the column shifter.
Click to expand...

Does it hurt to be that stupid? :flipoff2:

Knobs have no place on any good head unit.

Here's what you get in a 90s Ford. All buttons so you can accurately set the volume while wearing work gloves and getting airborne. Presets have little bars your can feel. The up buttons are dented out and the down buttons are dented in so you can feel what button you're on right away without having to feel around.

s-l1600.jpg
 
Will be watching this with interest.

While we are bitching about radios, the previous owner of my TJ put in some aftermarket unit and the volume knob also enters a menu when you push it so when you hit a bump trying to adjust the volume you enter the menu and have to press the back button to get back to volume. It's a jeep and California has shitty roads so that is every time I touch the knob. I also have to spend a few minutes in the menu finding the one not god-awful button and background color every time I unhook the battery.
 
:laughing: I answered the phone while driving the other day, and of course shut off the Talking People.

Well, I tried to. Instead, I got a blast of static when my frantic clit-massage just changed stations. You have to push the tiny joystick in- if you move it sideways in the slightest, it does something else.
 
Ummduh said:
Do not buy that Kenwood! You can't see the display during the day. It's ridiculous! I have it in my truck right now. You have to pretty much guess at whay you're doing in daylight.
Click to expand...

I have it's predecessor and experienced none of that.

are you sure it's not always dimmed because it thinks the dash lights are on?
 
It's not the brand new model (2016?2017?) but here you go. It sure doesn't look like they changed/fixed it from what I've got. In anything approaching bright light it's completely unreadable. Dimmer is turned off. Brightness is as high as it'll go.

Also, the Bluetooth implementation sucks ass.
​​

photo17988.jpg


photo17989.jpg
 
"2-Line VA LCD Display Equipped with VA (Vertical Alignment) LCD panels that offer a broader angle of view and better visibility. The 2-line display provides more information with animation effects."

Eh, maybe they did actually fix it. I'm hesitant to buy another one from them after this one.
 
arse_sidewards said:
Knobs have no place on any good head unit.

Here's what you get in a 90s Ford. All buttons so you can accurately set the volume while wearing work gloves and getting airborne. Presets have little bars your can feel. The up buttons are dented out and the down buttons are dented in so you can feel what button you're on right away without having to feel around.
ull","data-attachmentid":93912}[/ATTACH]
Click to expand...
False
this is peak ford-radio
clicky power notch in volume knob means it'll sit for decades without draining your battery, where that soft power button nonsense means you need to do unreasonable things like charge your batteries once a year

cassette adapter gets you MP3 capability and clock tells you time (though the backlight always seems to be dead on the display)

s-l640.jpg
 
[486 said:
;n97168]
False
this is peak ford-radio
clicky power notch in volume knob means it'll sit for decades without draining your battery, where that soft power button nonsense means you need to do unreasonable things like charge your batteries once a year

cassette adapter gets you MP3 capability and clock tells you time (though the backlight always seems to be dead on the display)
Click to expand...

That radio is something I wish I had pulled from my old Ford. Everything in the right place, buttons that did what was expected of them with a simple push. #74 mini wedge based lamp to repair the backlight.
 
I have nothing to add but the best thing to come off a Chrysler engineer's desk in the last ??? years:

Screenshot_20200810-202058~2.png
 
D Nelly said:
I have nothing to add but the best thing to come off a Chrysler engineer's desk in the last ??? years:
Screenshot_20200810-202058~2.png","data-attachmentid":98507}[/ATTACH]
Click to expand...

those are a close second, only issue is I always fat-finger the balance when adjusting the volume, and iirc the power is pushing the knob in as a soft button, leading to aforementioned battery issues
 
Broncokyle88 said:
filedata/fetch?id=97201&d=1596986564 kenwood kdc-x303. Sitting in the bright ass sun right now, I can see the green just fine. The blue you can’t see worth shit. Maybe try changing your display color?
Click to expand...

The main display is already green. You can't tell that because it's unfuckingreadable, lol. The setting menu comes up as blue because I never bothered to change that, and it gets reset after the dozens of times I've had to reset this head unit to get the Bluetooth working again, lol.

If you leave this thing on the Bluetooth source and shut the vehicle off, when you start back up the Bluetooth errors out and won't connect again untill you reset the whole thing. Error 68. If you make sure you switch back to tuner before you shut it off, everything works fine. Usually. And then there's about a dozen fuckin sources you need to cycle through that you can't disable.. Stupid app-based sources that I don't use.

Long story short, I fuckin hate this thing.

Edit: my favorite deck has been the mid 2000's pioneer premier with the fancy ass oled display. Sounded great, worked great, great menu system, direct access buttons for audio settings. It's been all downhill from there! I'd still be using it if it wasn't for Bluetooth. I still have it in the garage. I don't get why pioneerwwent so backwards from then.
 
Last edited:
[486 said:
;n97168]
False
this is peak ford-radio
clicky power notch in volume knob means it'll sit for decades without draining your battery, where that soft power button nonsense means you need to do unreasonable things like charge your batteries once a year

cassette adapter gets you MP3 capability and clock tells you time (though the backlight always seems to be dead on the display)
Click to expand...
had a ford with that radio from 1995.
always worked

D Nelly said:
I have nothing to add but the best thing to come off a Chrysler engineer's desk in the last ??? years:

Click to expand...
had a plymouth with this radio, power button quit working.
one day someone turned it off and I was like WTF, it took me weeks to get it turned on.

never turned on again.
then got stolen.

yes, some hood rat broke into my ten year old sundance to steal a broken factory radio. fucker cut the harness even.
no chill.
 
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