If anyone is interested, here is a picture of a Sony CDX-F7700 installed in the CrossFire.

 

Looks good, now clean up the black glue marks from the radio wire wrap.

Sorry.. I pay fine attention to detail. Just use a little bit of rubbing alchol on a rag and it will clean right off.

I like the way the radio looks. Flush too. Nice choice.

 

Looks good, but how much better is it than the stock stereo?

 

It plays MPs's the stock radio does not.

 

AMEN.. and thats a damn good reason why to upgrade. I hated not having MP3 option in the crossfire before...... its like life with out air!

 

It also has an Auxiliary input for iPods and such. If anyone is interested I bought it from sounddomain.com using their 105% price match. They also threw in the wiring harness for free.

 

Took mhorn's advice and got the CDX-F7705XM model. Unit looks great in the dash. MP3's are great! Sound is much better than OEM radio. I will XM the head unit next month.

 

How did the radio come out and did it just plug right in with the new harness?

 

Everything worked out well. The sound is good. I have my aux port for my iPod and I don't have the annoying lag from the original radio. As far as installation ease, it's just a matter of matching up the wires on the wire harness and then it's pretty much plug and play.

 

Does the lighting match the green color of the car? How does it look?

I'm desperately seeking a unit so I can go back to my iPod.

 

The lighting for the buttons is red which matches pretty well with the big flasher button. The main display is blue which doesn't really match with any of the other buttons, but it's not too out of place. I'll try to take a night shot and post it.

 

It's not the best picture, but you can get a feel for what it looks like at night.

 

Did you paint de plate that goes around the unit?

I saw a couple of pictures and it comes black, doesn't it?

 

You can get the plate either in black or silver like you see in my pics. If you order from sounddomain.com they have the silver bezel.

 

Thanks to our good friend MHRON I did pretty much the same thing he did today, I bought the same head unit so I could use my iPod, I was going crazy changing CD's all the time.

I took a different route when it came to mounting the iPod, you see, I didn't want it out there in plain sight so I hid it in the armrest.

I routed a belkin cable to the back of the lighter so I could have power and audio, but I had to control it somehow without having to open the armrest and contort myself every time.

This is were it gets tricky, I had a NaviPod wireless remote control for the iPod and I thought I could mount the infrared sensor to the tip of a black cigarette lighter and lengthen the cable, I did that and it looked pretty nice, but guess what the cable was so long that the signal didn't reach the circuit board on the NaviPod.

That led me to PLAN B, I took the wired remote controller that came with the iPod and lenghtened tha cable, this time it worked, all I had to do now was find a reasonable location for it, after a while I decided to mount it on the ashtray.

I was planning on doing a flush mount kind of thing but after checking the price for a new ashtray (a whopping $250.00 USD) I chickened out and just mounted it in top.

This way I have full control of my iPod and I don't have it ruining an otherwise pretty uncluttered dashboard.

Now if I can only find a way to post some pictures on my album!!!!!

I have uploaded the pictures but I can't see them, nor see any of your pictures, why?

You know what, I posted the pics in a Mexican Forum, here's the link so you can see them: http://www.sportcarsforum.com/forum/...pic.php?t=1983

 

Interesting idea! Do you find the ashtray popping out when you try to use the remote's buttons? Or maybe you disabled somehow so it doesn't pop out?

 

The ashtray still works fine, the coinholder was disabled.

 

Looks good. I have an iPod but can't connect it to the stock radio. Does that Belkin thing also supply power to the iPod to charge it?

 

I wasn't asking about does it work fine. I was curious if when you push the buttons on the remote, I'd think the ashtray would pop. Unless that remote accepts a very light touch on the buttons to activate, seems each time you hit a button the ashtray would pop out and that (for me at least) would be very annoying.

 

I misundestood your question, the ashtray needs a little more than a gentle push to open, this controller requires very little pressure, so no, it doesn't pop out every time you hit a button.

And, I never thanked you for posting the pictures.

The Belkin Auto kit also supplies power to the iPod, there are two models, one with an audio output and one without.

I always use the one with an audio output, I could have used the controller output, but then the iPod would have controlled the volume and that's something I didn't want, when you take the audio signal from the dock connnector the volume function of the iPod is disabled.

Now that I have a better head unit I find the stock speakers a bit lacking, I'm considering upgrading them.

One thing I really don't like is the frequencies the speakers play, for instance if I move the EQ at 62Hz I still hear the difference in the door speakers (why on earth are they playing such low frequencies) and I move the EQ at 157Hz I can hear the "subs" playing that frequency (why are they playing such high frequencies is beyond me).

So, I'm looking at a new set of door speakers, a 4 channel amp and a sub.

Questions:

What size are the door speakers (mid)?
Has anyone tried to fit a sub in the "box" behind the seats?