camry stock head units

[bowlofturtle]

i just was wondering how many people changed there headunits if the orginal unit has a cd player already installed. Well whats the big diffrence. When i look at all the camry's on cardomain. I see that a good portion of the camrys have aftermarket headunits. Are the stock headunits that bad? Are there other benefits that i'm not understanding here?

The only possible think i can think of is removing the stock headunit and replacing with a aftermarket is if it was like a 3 disc changer in there. And to gain storage space on the bottom half.

please enlighten me with your answers, I think i'm just missing something here thats all.

[spydrvnm]

stock units tend to have very few extra features. Some might not have RCA outputs to hook up an amp and subs.
aftermarket units mostly have higher wattages also, but i read yesterday that wattage doesn't matter...that was news to me.

[Hajoca]

I got a cheap pioneer head unit.... all for the CD player!!

[terrynham]

my camry didnt even come with a CD player, thus i got an aftermarket one

as 'sydrvnm' said, the stock units have very few features. and the aftermarket ones obviously have more fancy features, higher wattage, and look nicer
I personally found that the sound quality was better with my new aftermarket one , i dont have any physical proof of it, but it is just my personal impression

[Stealth]

Originally posted by spydrvnm
stock units tend to have very few extra features. Some might not have RCA outputs to hook up an amp and subs.
aftermarket units mostly have higher wattages also, but i read yesterday that wattage doesn't matter...that was news to me.

Most stock headunits don't have RCA outputs, in fact I only know of a few that do. This makes adding amps to your system difficult.

Almost all aftermarket headunits have more power than factory and it does surely matter. The more power available to speakers means that they can play louder, but more importantly, clearer.

A lot of new CD players have MP3 support, which is pretty much just as good as having a CD changer except the extra feature costs a lot less. Also, most new headunits are Satalite Radio ready, which is a nice feature for those who like a certain genre of music but aren't too picky past that point.

All aftermarket headunits have equalizers built in. The complexity and usefulness varies from each unit but in most you can customize sound better than you can with a stock deck.

[spydrvnm]

Originally posted by Stealth
Most stock headunits don't have RCA outputs, in fact I only know of a few that do. This makes adding amps to your system difficult.

Almost all aftermarket headunits have more power than factory and it does surely matter. The more power available to speakers means that they can play louder, but more importantly, clearer.

i just said that about the RCA outputs because i really had no knowledge of it, i just really assumed that they didn't have them but didn't wanna be a total jackass


thats what i figured about wattage, i just read it in someones post yesterday and usually people are smarter than me, especially when it comes to electronics

[kenratboy]

I am a home theater/home audio FREAK, and wattage is one of 'those' issues.

If you were looking at 2 decks, and one put out 20 watts RMS and the other 25 watts RMS, that would make it an irrelivant factor for choosing.

Remember, you need to DOUBLE your power to gain 3 dB. - so if your speakers made 100 dB. with 10 watts, you would need 20 watts to get 103 dB.!

It seems most decent head units have *about* the same power output. If you want more output, buy more sensitive speakers or a seperate amp.

[2wickedtoyz]

i wanted to get an oe head unit from the dealer u know the am/fm/cd/tape player but they wanted 1400usd for it i was not going to spend that much for an oe radio when i could get a better aftermarket one instead

[Stealth]

Originally posted by kenratboy
I am a home theater/home audio FREAK, and wattage is one of 'those' issues.

If you were looking at 2 decks, and one put out 20 watts RMS and the other 25 watts RMS, that would make it an irrelivant factor for choosing.

Remember, you need to DOUBLE your power to gain 3 dB. - so if your speakers made 100 dB. with 10 watts, you would need 20 watts to get 103 dB.!

It seems most decent head units have *about* the same power output. If you want more output, buy more sensitive speakers or a seperate amp.

While this is true for headunits, it's not true so much for amps, since their wattage can vary greatly. Also other important factors are the ratings of the speakers they are powering. One other important thing to consider is that while more power does increase volume, it can also improve clarity.

[KoboChan]

if you want power, you can just add amplifier to your stock system.. i think the stock system have a sucky amp.. giving poor audio clarity.. for example.. ever tried putting a cellphone near your deck? u will hear interference from from the deck's amp.. compared to pioneer, only little interference

[bowlofturtle]

yes i tired that cell phone thing near my deck but the only affects it when i'm playing a CD.