Hello,

I made the assumption that Double Din was greater than Single Din receivers. My premise is that Single Din provide better sound and performance than Double Din receivers. Here is why.

Single Din saves $250+ dollars on the bezel.
Single Din allows use of this Pioneer head unit.
https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/P...vers/DEH-80PRS
Only Single Din receivers like this have time alignment, three Burr-Brown digital to analog converter, three way crossovers, and flexibility
No double Din receivers have them both.
I am entertaining the idea of active crossovers and time alignment in a three way front stage plus the subs.
Single Din receivers are used the world over by SQ and SPL competitors the world over.

Got Single Din?

 

For pure sound, and non-visual features. I'd always recommend single din.

Double din is purely there for Navigation and an impressive visual interface. I installed a single din unit in my Ex-GFs car, she didn't care about the visual stuff. Just wanted Bluetooth, USB connectivity, and better sound.

 

If you're going to do 3-way plus sub using active crossovers and time alignment, the 80PRS is still short two sets of pre-outs. With the exception of only a handful of head units I know of, you're going to need an external processor for that many channels.

 

Def go with a DSP. I'm trying 3-ways up front passive first. Fronts, rears and sub through a Mosconi DSP.

 

Will this work with the stock 12 CD changer in the trunk?

And, what did you use for a bracket considering it is a single din? Looking for one that would have a cubby either above or below to take up the extra space (placeholder for phone).

 

Uh oh, last I saw Prosecutor went with a pretty nice double din install.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/audio-electronics/4039253-1999-corvette-frc-install.html#post1595585994

 

Yeah, I was converted from the Pioneer single din, to the Alpine Double Din, due to the desire to go with a dsp, eventually. I don't run any music CDs, so I didn't look into a 12 disc changer. I have a 64GB flash drive with all my music, .flac format.

 

$250 bezel doesn't have anything to do with sound quality unless you are implying that you can spend that much more on a head unit. Your ears, especially trained ears will tell you what sounds the best and that may very well be a single din but there are a few good sounding doubles out there. I am a little leary of specs, esp. Pioneer's. Their Double dins spec out great and sound like crap. I have not heard the single din though. (Would like to!)

 

We're still bouncing around on this. I've even looked into a single din that has a pop up, motorized display.

We realize that no matter the bezel is coming off...but as stated earlier it does look like the single dins have more sound options.

I'm not interested in hooking this up to my phone at all.....trying to get away from wireless as much as a I can. In fact, would want to be able to turn off the BT... I can't believe how much the new radios are all about the smart phones :-(. Smart phones are ruling the world.....

I would want a USB and Aux in the front. I could then use a flash drive easy enough. And for sure we want Sirius...we're used to that in our daily driver.

I did find a single din bracket with a pocket - Metra makes this as well. Thought the pocket would be a good add considering there is very little storage...I do miss cubbies.

But I hated to not ever use the CD changer that is already in the car just from a reminiscence perspective.

I also found an OEM that has been refurbished with a front AUX meaning the OEM could accommodate Sirius. It's pricey at $385. But I feel the OEM radio is pretty weak. And if we have to go through taking off the bezel may as well get the best to replace the OEM.

 

We ordered the radio and it was a nice single din radio - got a good deal from Amazon. We then ordered the wiring harness and pocket bracket from Metra through Amazon as well.

Pocket bracket was nice...

Very disappointed with the wiring harness which came with no instructions at all other than what the wires meant. But the wires didn't come as stated. There was supposed to be one red and there were two hot pink. They also said there would be an orange and white and there was an orange.

We returned it all. Studied some more and found that it would not be a big deal to keep the standard radio and just add an XM radio using XM's Powerconnect which connects the two radios via an FM station.

We did this - took very little time. Installed it to the right of the cigarette lighter. Took out the ashtray and cover and the Onyx Plus fits there on the outside really well - can still open the cup holder (if you want to call it that). Velcroed it in place - it's just the right height. Ran the power wires along the driver's side of the bezel up into the console and used that power outlet. Ran the antenna wire along the right side and under the glove box and around to the far right of the windshield. We get 3 bars no problem. It did cut out for a sec when we took it for a test drive and we were on a narrow road that had dense, tall trees on both sides.

Doing this reveals the hole above the cigarette lighter so we took a foam piece and painted it flat black and covered up that area leaving the cigarette lighter available for charging the phone.

Works REALLY good and sounds great. Again we had no interest in hooking up the radio to our phone. We now have plenty of music options between the CD changer and the satellite radio and we don't typically drive and use the phone as well. Didn't want bluetooth - trying to get away from wireless whenever possible (phone only on when needed). If we need NAV, the phone has a great NAV system and we have tablets as well for a larger display. We have NAV in our 2015 Silverado High Country and the phone works better for NAV (and you don't have to upgrade it).

XM radio display is nice and in color but hard to see when the top is down. And the buttons are little on the radio but useable. But we did get the remote so we won't need to touch the radio.

I found a good deal on Amazon for the Onyx Plus including the vehicle kit. All the parts were sealed. Cost $47. Remote was $15 bringing the total to $62. What a deal. XM had a deal on a new subscription. Even though we already have a subscription on another vehicle they gave us the deal of $30 for six months and later it will be $10 a month. Worked for us because we'll be wintering the car soon.

It gets better because I then did a similar setup in our Chevy diesel 3/4 ton truck we just use for towing that didn't have satellite. Added the vehicle kit to it and now all we have to do is take the radio out of the vette dock and put it in the truck dock...again works great.

 

Not on my corvette but in my 1994 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 I went with a single din because, well let's face it, back in the mid-90's double din radios sucked and were just plain ugly. But I didn't want this extra space so I decided to also install a single din EQ with spectrum analyzer.

It was a Kenwood single din head unit on top and below it was something like this. In fact, I think this might have been the actual item I use to have.


I loved this setup and got tons of complements. I made a custom bezel that would go around both units. It was actually a sweet little setup.

I wish I had pictures of it still. This is the closest look I could find.


Today I have a double din with CarPlay.

 

if you want a good budget deck the 9904s is on sale today via newegg for 399, also posted on slickdeals.net

 

holy **** I think I had this EQ back then too! thanks for the memories!