starting my first system.

[billy101]

okay, rather than starting a new thread i'll just revive this one.

Still haven't been able to purchase anything until now. Just as I was about to buy the headunit the tranny went on my car, so that's $1200 gone. My parents feel bad that I had to put that much money into the car, and they knew I wanted to start something with my car, so they told me for christmas they would buy me a headunit (love my parents!!). After looking at that Alpine CDA-105 for over a month and a half, I feel as if it's missing something. Don't get me wrong it's a beautiful headunit, I just really wish it had the AUX & Ipod connections on the front. I may move away from that headunit. it's pretty pricey, and I know I can get a lot more features for less. I really like having a pretty big screen so I don't have to squint at the display while driving (safety first!)haha. I like a headunit that's physically appealing too, I don't want it to have purple lights with a blue backlit screen and green leds and crap. I like something fairly simple but useful. I was looking at the Sony CDX-GT740UI which is nice because you can change the colors of the display and buttons independently, has a big screen, cd player and has ipod and aux hook up. I know some of you guys say that sony is shit, but I don't think they're all that bad. (we still have a rear projection sony from 1993 that works perfectly.) Our 60" LCD is Sony Bravia, Sony Receiver, Sony Blu-ray player, everything we have sony has been good to us. I also know about Kenwood & Pioneer that they are pretty good, but the ones that I seen that have big screens dont have the ports on the front, which isnt a must but I would prefer that.

I know I just wrote a lot. I'm sorry I'm so picky about this. I'm not going to be changing my headunits often, so I would like to get one that will not be shit after 2 months, and also last my needs for awhile.

Thanks!

sony isnt a bad brand, but their car audio stuff isnt that good, every sony product ive played with just felt cheap, for instance their amps, i have an alpine mrp-450 wired at 4ohms on my sub, my buddy let me borrow a sony amp that should have murdered it based on its rms ratings, but the only way i could get it up to the level of my alpine was to clip the ever livin shit out of it lol. their headunits are the same thing they typically look and feel cheap. if i were you id spend the money with a better brand, alpine, kenwood, pioneer, clarion etc

Do you have any recommendations? I wish the Alpine had a few more customization features on it; along with the front USB/AUX. The one thing I really didn't like about the Alpine was the fact that I can't control the iPod using the iPod when it's plugged in. With the Sony I could put it in "passenger mode" and control it from my ipod, a lot safer than trying to find a song while driving looking at the screen. The Sony has a nice way to browse the ipod.

Any suggestions?

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_22378_Pioneer+DEH-P6200BT.html

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_22379_Pioneer+DEH-P7200HD.html

Hm. You don't think the lack of physical buttons for the second one will get annoying? Plus it looks hard to use, and pretty darn ugly...:/

The screen on the first one is SO small!!!!