...I've been using a Kenwood head-unit circa 1997. It has been in my past THREE cars. In fact, it was my first head unit when I started driving at age 16!

Anyway, the unit eventually started crapping out, the display would go 1/2 dim and it got very distorted on the audio. I actually fixed the unit by buying a non-working unit from ebay for $15, swapping the working parts from both units to make one good unit and continued to use that for another year. The player was very prone to skipping and in the hard suspensioned C5 it would skip real easy and it got really old.

I first wanted to do a full video display with 5.1 surround sound, but after getting over the itch I realized Im not gonna be watching movies in the car. Also thought about HD radio, but the antenna system in the plastic no-ground plane C5 sux.
Sooo, after doing some research and hands on use I narrowed it down to two units. The Alpine DVA-9861 or the Clarion DXZ865MP. I settled for the Clarion unit. I particularly liked this one because it has great skip protection. The salesman at Tweeter hit the in store display very hard with his fist and it did not skip. This unit also has the touch screen display, which took some getting used to at first, but now I love it. Its got alot of video display modes which I really don't care for as it does nothing for the way it sounds or performs. I can rest my hand on the shifter and not have to take it off to adjust the volume, and track or radio station, and keep within reach of the HVAC control. Hopefully the unit will not take a crap like I've read some reviews on.

I even think the stereo sounds better.



For this project it was WAYYYYYYYY over due. 100% improvement