Pioneer is the only manufacturer that I know of that makes a DIN and a half receiver (of any value) that fits the Chevy opening like a glove. Why Chevrolet has insisted for years on the big stereos is beyond me, and any normal DIN sized unit looks *wrong* in its place...
Here's the Pioneer DEH-P47DH CD Receiver with changer control
And here's the DEH-P77DH, same difference...
Both are 22W RMS x 4, Front Image Enhancer, etc.
Now, if I thought either of these would sound good connected to the stock speakers (and you should *always* leave the stock speakers in place until you're *sure* you need to replace them... sometimes they can sound incredible with quality amplification... learned this working in a stereo shop in college, but of course those were the "macaroni & cheese" days...) I'd buy one. $249 for the first (through Crutchfield, there are better deals to be had, but that does come with an installation harness and whatever else is required to put it in the dash) and $299 for the other.
But I (like a lot of you) have my entire collection of music on mp3. I converted all my CDs (several hundred) and pretty much gave them away to friends and family, and while I can burn anything I want, I like to leave them in .mp3 format, and I had a Kenwood KDC-MP8017 mp3 player in the Supra (and still have the head unit) which I was considering putting in the Z. The problem with that, obviously, is that it'll look bad stuck there in the rounded dash. It is, however, a lot more low-key than the Pioneer units shown above...
What to do, what to do... Crutchfield says the door speakers are 3.5"... WHAT??? And the mid-rear speakers fit 6 3/4", so no wonder all the sound comes from the back. Not sure what to do about that situation. I don't want to cut the doors, and in fact, I'd rather disassemble as little as possible in the car, if at all possible. Saves on the wear and tear and potential breakage of clips, introduction of rattles, and so on...
So right now I'm at a loss. I can use the stock CD player without spending a dime, and some people say that the partition really helps the imaging of the Bose system, but I've never met a Bose system that I liked, and I'm sure the Corvette's is no exception. Any ideas are more than welcome...
