hey guys i need some help
i'm thinking of getting a cd player soon and i've been looking at a El Kameleon from JVC does anyone have an experiences from these?
or
a Alpine unit like my friend just got its pretty sweet.
i was thinking of a sub for the back too i saw a Dual 12" infinity at circuit city that was pretty cheap.
will i need a amp fo rthe subs??
i hopefully want to have it all done in a few months (headunit, subs, and all new speakers)

what size are the inside speakers and any suggestions?

 

Yes get an amp for the subs. I would choose Alpine over JVC. As for speaker size it depends on if you have BOSE or not

 

i have the kameleon lx100 in my car with 2 kenwood tornado 12"s and an amp. I also have 2 4-way 6x9 speakers at the back and i think 2 3-way 5.25 or so in front. whatn state are you in? if in tx i can hook u up and help u with installation on a couple of the stuff.


lophix

 

yea i have the bose system in.....is that easier or more difficult than the other stock system?

 

how does the kameleon fit? any problems with it so far? well unfortunately i live in prov, ri but i know some people who i think are willing to help me do some mods to my car....(looks at Patrick94SE and gives him the Thumbs Up)

 

First of all do not get JVC get Alpine. Yes get an amp for the subs the Infinity subs are pretty good so i would go with those.

 

I have had 2 friends with the el kameleon unit lose cds. There also difficult to use. I would recomend an entry level kenwood or, i hate to say it even a sony headunit.

 

Im currently building an all Alpine System in my car and i can tell you that the Alpine CDA-7892 and CDA-7893 head units work great and look great in the car. But i can also tell you your gonna have to pay $50 for an adapter for it because of your bose system. And replacing the speakers in the car means you have to rewire all the speaker wire in the doors, etc... because bose uses a special type of wiring not useable by aftermarket speakers. If you wanna replace the inside speakers with aftermarket stuff is to buy a 4 channel amp and run speaker cable from the head unit to the amp, then more cable from the amp to each of the speakers. Its alot of work but my system sounds great. Goodluck and email me if you have any more questions.

 

Well if you replace the HU and speakers at the same time and don't plan on amping the speakers you can use the stock wiring

 

Lose cd's huh? yeah. I have had my khameleon for over a year and it still acts like new. Hasn't had a single problem with it at all. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a neat stereo with stealth with going bankrupt.

.02


lophix

 

Patrick is wrong, even if you replace both the speakers and HU at the same time, you still cant use the stock wiring. The wiring uses a ground loop that will blow any aftermarket speakers you try to use with them. So says the gods at Crutchfield.

 

i was thinking that the kameleon wouldn't be too hard to use because of the remote control.....
but i'm going to take a look at the alpine units too
i might just buy the sub today and just hold onto it until everything else comes into play.
would i be able to use the sub with the bose system in the mean time, i'd prolly have to get a amp though....
ok we solved the HU delimna what about regular side and back speakers? any advice on what brand i should look into? and amp. which would you guys recommend?

 

1. you absolutely do not need to rewire your whole system. that is not true. you just need a wiring harness that you can get from walmart that will splice onto the hu's wires and plug directly into the factory wiring harness. when you put in the new speakers you take the two small wires that are in the amp and cut those from the amp, those are you normal everday speaker wires that run directly to the hu.
2. the jvc kameleon thingy really really sucks, imo. my friend had one and it broke within a month and was way to hard to figure out. get the alpine. alpine has some of the best sounding hu's made. i have the 7875 and it is the best thing i've ever had. it pushes 60 watts to each speaker so i have no need of getting an amp for the in-car speakers. get the alpine and if not that, get a kenwood. sony has some sweet technology like the new mini lcd screen but they are overpriced for what you get and they don't sound that good.

 

 

i wonder why everyone that had beef against the khameleon was a newbie. The only person i feel made sense was patrick (props, d!) In any case I feel for a clean job, run fresh wires for after market speakers. It is definitely possible to run the bose speakers off the jvc and that's from experience. Running new speakers off the existing wiring is also possible but like i said, you'd probably be better off running new wires without removing the old wires which is what i did.

Let's know what u decide to go with and so o. Decided what subs to get?

lophix

 

but why waste the time of putting new wires in there when the ones in are completely fine. unless you're planning on putting the bose back in there or something i see no point.

lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! gods at crutchfield.... sure. they are so wrong on half of the crap they say. they can hardly even get a speaker size correct. everytime i've looked at those stupid magazines for sizes for any of my vehicles, they are always wrong. and those guys are extremely overpriced as well. i say screw crutchfield. they're no good.

 

i was looking at crutchfiled and i saw a sub and amp package i think it was a mtx thunder.....something
was like 449 for dual 12" and teh amp to power it....but i'm gonna look around to see if i can find anything cheaper around

 

it was probably road thunder or blue thunder, something like that. they aren't that good at all. i would just check out wholesale and ebay. those are your two best bets. on ebay i got to of the line polk 6x9'a for 40 dollars.

 

I paid $150 for a new 12W3 in a sealed box. And a little less for a RF punch amp to power it. I would be willing to say it might be a little beter then the MTX....Hit me up on AIM and I might be able to show you some time soon (If I still have the Car....DON'T ASK) I would check out some of the local shops like Sound FX, Hyperformance, Putnam Audio, and Boomer Mcloud *cough*THEY SUCK*cough* And I am not sure if they are still open but Performance Audio in North Kingstown has great stuff at great prices.

 

I have an Alpine CDA-7892 and it works great. Made my factory Bose speakers sound so much better. Blue max is right the Bose system is difficult to work around due to their wiring.

I have a quick question. How much better are aftermarket speakers then the bose. Is it worth the money. I just dont want to replace good quality Bose speakers unless it is absolutely worth it.

 

well, you actually are supposed to put new speakers in unless you are running a pre-amp to the bose. the bose run on 1 ohm, i believe, so you can't run them off of a normal head unit or you'll mess something up. just messsing around once i hooked my bose with the amp up to an alpine 7875 and they sounded awesome, i only had to turn in up to 4, lol. but there would have been no way i could have ran my subwoofer on that volume and something would have screwed up in no time. i would say your best bet is to just replace the speakers and bypass the bose amp wiring where all you do is splice a short length wire to the sound wires on the amp wiring harness and run the wires straight to the speaker. no rewiring necessary.

 

yea i checked at a few of the local shops (stopped at hyperformance, saw the headrest tvs....i like) and i forget what the name is....but its on smithfield ave across from burger king... they suck, had one HU and it was a cassette player.... i was like WTF???
but yea i'd really like to see how you have your car set up, so let me know when we can meet up? and when are you guys haveing a meet?

 

HA HA HA I get to keep the car but anyways... The place across from Burger King is BOOMER McLoud.....It is my life mission to makethem look bad (thank you for the contribution.)AnyWay I am running Pioneer DEH P7200, RF Punch amps,Memphis speaks,JL sub. Madmax has my Quarts, Simular HU PPI and JBL amps and JL sub. Nothing spectacular but better than 8 y/o bose

 

heh, i heard your story some time ago... pretty cool u get to keep the max

 

WRONG...I have an aftermarket deck and aftermarket speakers, running successfully on stock bose wiring. No additional amp. If youre adding an additional amp then you will most likely have to rewire.

 

hey do you drive around the providence area? near mr. lemon?
i see this black max that is hooked up with tint rims etc, but i have no clue who he is. The other day he was following a white max i think both had their music blasting... i was just about to pull outta the driveway to follow em lol.
but yea boomer sucks big time i don't appove of them
i'd let you have my car but no one can love my max like i do.....

 

max 190, when i said you cant run after market speakers with the bose wiring, i didnt mean it wouldnt literally work. i meant it as you dont wanna do it because the bose wiring uses a ground loop that will blow aftermarket speakers really fast. Yes it will work but having it work for a month and then having your new speakers blow isnt worth it.

 

that is still not true. the wires go directly fromthe head unit to the bose amp so the amps get a signal, then the amp amplifies that signal and shoots it to the speaker. all you do is disconnect the wires before the amp and wire them directly to an aftermarket speaker and that's it. there are no special wires running to the stock speakers. the only extra wires running to it are power wires for the amps.

 

anybody with Alpine unit.... can you post pic??

i'm also thinking about replacing my factory bose system.

Thanks

 

here's mine http://images.cardomain.com/installs...457_7_full.jpg

 

i saw someone here who installed a 4th gen max bose head unit.
Is it more easy to install then other aftermarket unit?

 

you wouldn't have to replace the speakers if you did that.

 

COOL [B]

 

After much consideration and deliberation... i have come to the conclusion that my best bet at the moment would be to get a cd changer that works through an FM station
reason for that is because at the moment i cant afford to overhaul my sound system to the way i want it.... (alpine unit with rockford speakers subs and amp) but i still wish to listen to cds, so i think that a changer which would cost less than 200 would suit me. also when i finally do hook up my system i can still use the cd change if i feel like it.
my stock speakers are really not that bad other than a high pitched whine with the driver side speaker (which i just found out may be a bad ground **any info on how to fix or diagnose would be appreciated**) so this is the temp solution i have come up with. anyone care to give me a best brand in cd changers?

 

If you know the high pitched whine is coming from a particular speaker, just disconnect that speaker! It'll be a lot better to have a clean sound from 3 speakers than hearing that high-pitched whine!

 

Yep Your talking about the Mr lemon on Hawkins near Admiral right? I don't have rims so it probably was not me though.

 

yea i live on that street about a block or two from mr lemon as if your heading to branch. i'm on the other side of the street.
yea i see this dood with a hooked up car and wanted to know if he was a org member.
hey if ya see me outside washing my car one day dun forget to beep :-)

 

Can someone, anyone supply me with the intructions on how to bypass the factory Bose amp when a aftermarket head unit is installed,,,this would be greatly appreciated.

thanx

 

If you plan to use the stock speakers which carry their own amplifiers, all you would have to do is get a converter so your head unit can handle the low impedance of the speakers. if you plan to replace them, you will need a 4" speaker for the front and a pair of 6x9s for the rear. Non Bose 3rd Gens have 4x6s up front and 6" in the rear.

As far as what head unit to get, I would check out the following:

Eclipse (They do have some lower priced units, but they still sound as nice as the higher end pieces and they blend in nicely with the 3rd Gen's dash.)

Alpine
Kenwood
Denon
Nakamichi

As others have stated, JVC is not known for quality in car stereos.

 

I Have an alpine system and the CDA-7893 is the best head unit if your looking for loud clear sound. The JVC can't compete with the alpine v-drive which kicks out a viscous 60w X 4.