lasercowboy;58791 wroteDoes anyone have any good recommendations for stereos that don't look awful? When was it decided that all aftermarket car audio is legally required to look like it was designed by a 10 year old with fluorescent markers?
LOL. Know exactly what you mean. ;-p
I'm considering hiding a little 12V MP3 player + radio somewhere in the back of the dash with a USB extension lead to an accessible place and just wiring it into the existing harness for the speakers...
I'm currently using a ~$5 (shipped!) Chinese thing that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket. It transmits on FM to the car stereo. I knew the exact same one was $15 at Jaycar (marked down!). So I figured ~$5 was worth it for a test, to see what I really wanted.
Well, it has no display apart from the number of the file that is playing. So I quickly learned I need a display. Some that are just a few $ more have a small screen like those photo keyrings several years ago. It means you can download and put a *.jpg of the album cover in the same directory as the mp3 files - and it will display when playing files from that directory.
The FM can be interferred with. It only happens in one location where I drive. But maybe it could happen more in city areas.
Have a look anyway:
http://snipurl.com/2a7fxup
Before I hit 'sort by price', I think I saw some plain vanilla single DIN mp3 car stereos for $30!
If you haven't bought anything there before, first sort by price, then pick the seller with some stars and a decent amount of feedback/sales of that item. It's a Chinese junk site, but, I've found it suprisingly good.
e.g. I bought 3x 'pens' that are meant to clean camera lenses. At one end is a brush - the other a sponge. The sponges had been saturated with glue so were useless. Cost about $1 each. The site holds onto your money and doesn't release it to the seller until you agree the item is received and fit for use. If not, you have a certain number of days to argue with the seller via email. Who may try it on once or twice, but give in after that - because if they don't and you ask the site to escalate the claim for you - they know they can lose out, because the site is biased towards buyers - they can get kicked off, or even if not, they know low scores = no sales. I guess they can just sign up again. But a new low feedback score means a lot less sales for them. (If I see an item is 20 cents more from someone with a few stars and 10,000 customers, that's cheap insurance.) It might take them a year or more to build a reputuation again.
I've had much more trouble from ebay. Bought a gift card once. Seller on ebay ripped several people off at the same time with indentical auctions. Had to make a statement at the police station, apply with paypal who repaid only part, then wait another 8 months to get the difference once a judge ordered her to pay us all back.
