bestaftermarket car radio

[JH_Radio]

i know i've touched on this before, but i'm gonna do so again.
i'm still loooking for a better aradio than the one i hve m mounted in the box in the back of our lexis.
there's no way we're drilling an external antenna, so that means i'll need to get a different radio.
right now the radio that is used is a Sanyo FXCD-550.
pros about this radio.
Easy controls.
RCA out (a must)
Cassette and CD deck (not musts but is nice)
the cons?
the FM and AM section is horid!
the FM doesn't like to stey in stereo. I use this radio to record a airchecks while driving, so i want somethin that will remain in stereo for as long as possible. something that is simple to use (no frills) i'm used to useing a Yamaha T-85 with modded filters and the stereo muting defeated.
I know this is not gonna be possible on a car unit, but hell, the lexis stock premium pioneer is very good on FM. the best FM radio i've heard is the Infinety Premium ROZ unit with CD/Cassette and 3-band slider graphic EQ found in older Chryslor's
i have and EQ in the box, and i have a guy that wil hook it up t to the cars external antenna (a must for radio reception), but since this is the third radio, i'd like it to be a keeper.
i dont want HD, satelite, hard to use controls, and i could care less if it had a line-in jack, CD deck or anything.
all i really care about is the radio. FM is the highest priority.
it needs to have RCA outs on the unit though.
are the pioneer super tuners any good?
i'd by new or used, doesn't matter.
if this helps anyone out, i live in Bensaleme, PA and it'd be nice to have stereo of WSTW/Wilmington. if I'm in The Villages Florida , it'd be nice to have stereo reception of Orlando area FM's
This was doable in the Chryslor and on the lexis pioneer, so i'm sure an aftermarket unit of some type would be good enough to do this too.
since I'm blind, one advantage (if its new) would be for me to be able to see the radio in question at a store, if they exist in stores.
i do understand with multi-path interpherence you wont always get perfect stereo, and that WSTW is rimshot to this area, so there wil be some fading, but something has gotta be better than what i have, wwithout drilling an external antenna.
i thought i remembered a Discussion on car radios ages ago, and there was talk of the supertunerss, but the older model was better than the newer.
Thanks!

 

[Buckeyes2001]

I have the Alpine CDE-HD137BT unit and I am very impressed with its sensitivity and FM selectivity. I was within about 4 miles of WHBC 94.1s stick (45 kW @ 515 ft.) last Friday and was able to DX 93.9 and 94.3 with no splatter at all from WHBC. I had Best Buy Geek squad install it so I didn't see exactly what kind of outputs it has (RCA or otherwise) but has a CD deck. Even if you're not looking for an HD radio, the DSP chip in it makes all the difference with respect to adjacent channel selectivity. I find if you leave it in manual tuning mode, you don't have to tune through the HD subchannels so it functions more like an analog receiver in that mode.

 

[spunker88]

I own a 2012 model Pioneer car radio, pretty much every unit they sell now uses a DSP chip they call the Supertuner 3D. It has very good adjacent selectivity, and its pretty good at picking up weaker signals. But like many DSP units it will narrow the bandwidth on weaker signals to get cleaner sounding audio. There is no stereo indicator on these radios so I can't tell when the audio drops to mono but it obviously happens at some point as a signal gets weaker. The controls can be a bit of a pain on these units though, but Pioneer radios are pretty common in stores that sell car audio systems if you want to try one out.

 

[ftballfan]

I have the Alpine CDE-HD137BT unit and I am very impressed with its sensitivity and FM selectivity. I was within about 4 miles of WHBC 94.1s stick (45 kW @ 515 ft.) last Friday and was able to DX 93.9 and 94.3 with no splatter at all from WHBC. I had Best Buy Geek squad install it so I didn't see exactly what kind of outputs it has (RCA or otherwise) but has a CD deck. Even if you're not looking for an HD radio, the DSP chip in it makes all the difference with respect to adjacent channel selectivity. I find if you leave it in manual tuning mode, you don't have to tune through the HD subchannels so it functions more like an analog receiver in that mode.

That's very nice!! When I head back to school, if I had this, I could likely use more frequencies for DX instead of losing all first adjacents.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

i know i've touched on this before, but i'm gonna do so again.
i'm still loooking for a better aradio than the one i hve m mounted in the box in the back of our lexis.

Pioneer Supertuner 3D is the way to go. When they say supertuner, they darn well mean it, you just have to get the 3D supertuner, not the 3. I have an FM 150 miles away on my presets, and get dependable reception on it. HD on the station 150 miles away if there is much skip at all. Around town, HD is about 70 miles. Rim shots to about 150, as I said. Here is the model I got: http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Car/CD-Receivers/DEH-P9400BH

Your reception will probably depend on your antenna scenario.

 

[JH_Radio]

do they make analog radio's with DSP ?
bruce your radio sounds good. can you turn off the HD and use it as an analog only tuner?

 

[boiseengineer]

Maybe since automakers have re-discovered knobs for tuning, newer models will be easier to use.
Keeps your eyes on the road instead of trying to hit the tuning/track buttons on the touch screen.
"Duh".

 

[ddsparxx]

I had been sticking with the Pioneer Supertuner IIID, then stopped when the OEM unit in my 2008 Honda Civic showed adjacent selectivity just as good as well as great AM sensitivity. But it sounds like an HD-radio-equipped Alpine just as good or even better. I am curious if the 2013 Civic's radio has the DSP chip or not.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

do they make analog radio's with DSP ?
bruce your radio sounds good. can you turn off the HD and use it as an analog only tuner?

I've never tried, so I don't know if the option exists. Given the lock time for HD, it is not a huge annoyance on HD-1 / analog. Transition is pretty seamless. I think the AM is entirely DSP, and it is really sensitive on the new model. Back to the way it used to be, almost classic Delco sensitivity. This makes sense, because it takes a lot of sensitivity to pull HD AM, which works on a weak station 80 miles away, from weak static to perfect digital - but - power lines anywhere around cause HD AM to drop, so most of the time the AM will be in analog.

As far as FM, I am astonished that an FM hobbled by HD manages to make it 140 to 150 miles.

 

[JH_Radio]

ok, if i wanted to stick with an anolog only tuner (no HD at all) is there anything this good?
corse, i'm sittin here thinkin i'll never use anything but the radio.
wont use bluetooth audio , USB, CD< line-in or anything else.
then again, i'm thinkin that a lot of people have car radios with all of these options that they dont use.
its just how it goes.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

ok, if i wanted to stick with an anolog only tuner (no HD at all) is there anything this good?
corse, i'm sittin here thinkin i'll never use anything but the radio.
wont use bluetooth audio , USB, CD< line-in or anything else.
then again, i'm thinkin that a lot of people have car radios with all of these options that they dont use.
its just how it goes.

Surprisingly - HD is transparent. It is like a blu-ray player - it still plays DVDs. So if you buy a receiver with HD, it makes no compromises with analog. It might be possible to find a pre-HD Pioneer on ebay, but remember they souped up the AM on the HD models so it would be more sensitive. So HD actually is a moot point, something you have, but don't have to worry about.

I discovered bluetooth when I bought the Pioneer. Really a super hands-free / great way to get audio into my radio from my phone, now that I have converted 400 albums and 300 45's into MP3's for playing through my phone.

I think they are throwing the most features they can into the units. Great for people that want everything, or those that just want one or two. Most of what I use it for is good old analog AM and FM - as long as the extra stuff doesn't add to the cost, or compromise the performance of analog - I'm OK with it being there. I never use the CD player or USB. I bypass the satellite ready stuff for an external satellite radio I carry from car to car so I don't have to pay multiple subscriptions.

 

[spunker88]

ok, if i wanted to stick with an anolog only tuner (no HD at all) is there anything this good?
corse, i'm sittin here thinkin i'll never use anything but the radio.
wont use bluetooth audio , USB, CD< line-in or anything else.
then again, i'm thinkin that a lot of people have car radios with all of these options that they dont use.
its just how it goes.

From the Pioneer Supertuner 3D stereos owner's manuals which are all downloadable on Pioneer's website there HD units offer no advantage over the analog only units for analog reception. So if you never plan to use the HD on a Pioneer there is no need to buy a unit with it as I imagine they all use the same DSP chip for analog reception. The Pioneer model I own doesn't do HD. But if you do get a unit with HD it can be disabled in the menus. The specs they list which are common for all 2013 radios they sell are as follows.

FM
9dBf Sensitivity
72dB SNR

AM
25uV Sensitivity
62dB SNR

Pioneer's base model for 2013 is the DEH-150MP which goes for around $60 on Amazon. They've removed bluetooth and USB on this model, line in is still there because thats dirt cheap to add. It does have a set of RCA preouts.

I'm not a huge fan of the controls on their radios, pushing the volume knob brings up the menu instead of turning it off. You have to hold in the SRC button to turn it off. Also the preset buttons are kind of small. But the performance of the tuner is what sold me on it and it has a remote that is easy to use.

 

[TheDingo]

I'm using a Pioneer DEH-P6100BT car stereo as my home DX tuner, works great and picks up things my grundig G3 and CCRadio SW can't get at all, while connected to the same antenna

 

[satech]

I have a JVC car radio/CD player (I forget the model number, circa 2005 or so) that has nice wideband AM sound, and it lets even weak FM signals be heard in stereo, but it must also use a very wideband front end. On AM it is very sensitive to electromagnetic interference -- driving under high-tension power lines causes it to get all phasey and distorted sounding, and on FM, it suffers from very bad "desense" -- if you drive close by an FM transmitter tower, its sensitivity gets knocked way down, and even strong local stations become hard to pick up.

 

[DanielBoone]

Pioneer Supertuner IIID is the best! I am not sure if the newer ones sensitivity and selectivity are as good as the ones a few years ago (2007 or 2008). Look in the manual under "FM tuner specifications" page under "Additional Information" page, FM sensitivity and selectivity.

I noticed selectivity has not been listed in newer models, so I cannot say what the rating is. 80 dB is best under selectivity, and 8dBf for sensitivity is best.

AM sensitivity on the older models are 18uV. Now they are 25uV.

I cannot understand why Pioneer doesn't list FM selectivity.