A while ago I posted this:

Ive got an Pioneer cd player inn my car that is like 7 or 8 years old looks and worked fine until like a week ago. I put in the cd and it will go in half way and stop. Then the cd player will bend the cd upward while it is still sticking half way out. Now if I pull the cd out and try to put it back in it is blocked from going in at all untill I press eject. I can push the cd most of the way in but I wont pull the rest of the way in. Now after driving for 15-20 minutes the cd player will work fine until I put another cd in and the cycle starts again. Is my cd player on its way out? can I hopefully fix it somehow?

A few of you said I might be better off buying a new cd player than getting this one fixed. I dont know crap about them so can someone reommend a new one to me that is like below $250 if possible? I dont really care about the features on it except that I like the removable face.

Also I have a pioneer equalizer that hasnt worked in the four years I have owned the car The guy that worked on my system last said he could send it out for like $40 but I dont know if that is flat fee to fix it or if there are additional charges. Are these things any good? Worth fixing?



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1987 Iroc 350
GTS headlight/tail light covers
Camaro SS Wheels w/Sumitomo HTR ZII 275 rear, 255's in front
K&N filters
Adjustable Borla cat back
Large tube runners
ported plenum
Holley afpr
SLP 1 3/4" headders (not installed yet)
FUTURE GOAL:
To go really F'in fast!!!

Some pics of it at
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/Album...949&Auth=false

 

Unfortunately, with many of today's electronic toys, you either cannot get it fixed at all because the parts are no longer made or the cost of the repair exceeds the cost of a replacement unit.

By all means, remove the unit and try contacting the manufacturer to see if they have an authorized repair center and possibly some sort of an exchange program. Failing that, take it to a reputable repair shop. Costs nothing to check it out and maybe you'll get lucky. Either way, the old unit has to come out.

 

$250 gets you quite a deck these days. You can get an Alpine with dual pre-outs and a **** (I like *****) or you can go with a Sony/Kenwood/JVC/Panasonic/etc type unit and possibly sacrifice a bit of quality vs. the alpine for the sake of a boatload of features. Appearance-wise, Kenwood is the only deck out there that I like, but in terms of quality I like Alpine. For the average Joe I think Sony can't be beat for features per dollar.

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The IROC Homepage
<A HREF="http://www.rit.edu/~jli4307/camaro" TARGET=_blank>
View the restoration of an 85 IROC</A>
"I didn't know a bored out Ford could go so slow" -Shenandoah

 

I second Jim on the Alpine vote...its the only deck I've NEVER heard of anyone having a problem with. I had one I paid $350 for 3 years ago and had it a year and a half, and I loved it.

Although, another option for $250 many don't think of is Eclipse. Normally Eclipse doesn't deal with mid-priced units, but they have a new baseline model for $250, and it has many of the features of their upper models. For only $250, IMO this is a hard deck to beat.

PLUS, if it is dealer installed Eclipse gives you a FREE 3 year warranty! Find that anywhere else! And their customer service is awesome!! Eclipse is the only company I have ever dealt with where you actually get an answer when you leave a message the same day!! (No, I didn't have a failure...just a question about the warranty.)

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Jason E
'89 Camaro RS 2.8
Hypertech chip/K&N filters/Accel 8.8 wires/RapidFires
Eclipse CD and 100x4 amp/Boston plates and 6x9s
Alpine Alarm w/ Keyless entry
IROC tailights/tinted windows

 

when looking for a new cd player what do I look for in
pre amp out puts
RMS power,
peak power,
pre amp output voltage
FM sensitivity
cd frequency
cdsignal to noise ratio??????

Right now I have a pionner with 5-20000 Hz frequecy response, 96dbf, 45 peak power,RMS and preamp outputs dont know them.
and for the rest of my car I have 4 tweetwers, two 5 1/4, two 6 3/4's, two 6x9's and 2 12's, and Iv'e got 3 amps and a crossover, and also an equalizer that doesn't work.

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1987 Iroc 350
GTS headlight/tail light covers
Camaro SS Wheels w/Sumitomo HTR ZII 275 rear, 255's in front
K&N filters
Adjustable Borla cat back
Large tube runners
ported plenum
Holley afpr
SLP 1 3/4" headders (not installed yet)
FUTURE GOAL:
To go really F'in fast!!!

Some pics of it at
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/Album...949&Auth=false

 

rms is: rear median square,kind of like the average power in an AC signal(sound from an amp) peak power doesn't mean $h!t, I've got 4v pre outs on mine,brings a cleaner signal to the amps.

 

RMS = Root Mean Square, its kinda like a DC voltage equivilant.

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-Justin-
T-Top '86 5.0L LG4 700R4 WS6 Now Bilstein equipped!
T-Top '92 5.0L TBI 700R4
My '86 Firebird Homepage
The F-body Model Kit Pictoral Archive (updated 9/18/00)

There can be only one!!

 

so what kind of numbers should I look for?

 

I consider head unit specifications to be fairly useless. Here's a breakdown:
pre amp out puts This is a very important feature that all but the very cheapest decks have.
RMS powerVery few decks provide this stat because the reality of it is, it is usually 12.5 watts per channel regardless of what they say.
peak powerThis is totally useless.
pre amp output voltageThis is useless in 90% of the cases. Very cheap decks have such low voltage that it becomes an issue, but any brand name deck will have sufficient voltage. 4 volts and higher is only an advantage in competitions when the judges try to establish a noise floor with a 0-bit cd track. In other cases the noise floor will be virtually silent even with 2 volts.
FM sensitivityThis is a fairly useful feature but does not necessarily equate to better reception. Generally, the higher the sensitivity, the lower the narrow band rejection is. Sensitivity is more important in rural areas, but narrow band rejection is more important in urban areas where the airwaves are crowded.
cd frequencyThey all play beyond what your speakers can reproduce anyway. 20-20,000 is all you need. Anything else is just for show.
cdsignal to noise ratio??????This is another spec that is somewhat important to a hard core competitor and nobody else. All cd decks will provide a signal to noise ratio at or above 80dB.

The sad truth is, there really isn't a whole lot of difference from deck to deck when it comes to performance. Some decks specifically aimed at the competitor will have better internal components, but every company offers such a deck. You will also see many competitors scoring very high with all kinds of decks. My point is, there may be other considerations besides specifications that should be considered. Appearance is definately one consideration, as is button lay out. If one deck has specific features that are important to you, that is also a consideration. I've had a lot of different decks including blaupunkt, Sony, Kenood, Alpine and JVC. I've had likes and dislikes about all of them, but all of them have been basically good units. The only one in which I could notice a definate difference in sound quality was the JVC. The sound quality was noticably below that of my other decks.

------------------
The IROC Homepage
<A HREF="http://www.rit.edu/~jli4307/camaro" TARGET=_blank>
View the restoration of an 85 IROC</A>
"I didn't know a bored out Ford could go so slow" -Shenandoah

 

So Jim your saying that all that crap that Crutch Field tells you to look for is crap like I thought? So just pay more attention to featuers that I like and i will be all right? I want the best clearest sound possible within the $250 range. I saw a blaupunkt that I liked. That brand any good?

Another question Jim, I have seen in some of your posts that you say that two speakers up front is all you need? I ask because I have 8 up front. I bought the car like this and it really doesnt sound to good. I have a 5 1/4 and 6 3/4 in each door and two tweeters on each side of the dash. I would like to get rid of the door speakers. Would that hurt sound or help it? Can you recommend an arrangement of the speakers that will sound crisp and clear?
How mcu do you sell your sub boxes for?

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1987 Iroc 350
GTS headlight/tail light covers
Camaro SS Wheels w/Sumitomo HTR ZII 275 rear, 255's in front
K&N filters
Adjustable Borla cat back
Large tube runners
ported plenum
Holley afpr
SLP 1 3/4" headders (not installed yet)
FUTURE GOAL:
To go really F'in fast!!!

Some pics of it at
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/Album...949&Auth=false

[This message has been edited by john5.7 87Iroc (edited November 13, 2000).]

 

John, I agree with everything Jim just said.

Also, from the system you're describing in your car, I'll bet all your speakers are powered by those three separate amplifiers. In this case, the power output (RMS or peak) of your deck becomes meaningless, since the internal amplifiers are not used.

Also, I'll bet you need at least two, and maybe three pre-amp outputs. These are outputs that send the music from the radio to the amplifier(s). By having multiple preouts, you can independently control the volume of your front and rear speakers, and sometimes the subwoofer too, right from the dash. You could buy some adapters and make the whole system work with only one pre-out, but you'd have to manually adjust each pair of speakers at the amplifiers.

Just pick any brand-name unit with a detachable face, a nice appearance, buttons that you can operate without taking your eyes from the road, and as many pre-amp outputs as possible. If your future plans include a CD changer, get a deck with changer controls. You might also like a hand-held remote control. Or maybe something that plays MP3s. Other than that, just buy what you like.