double din advice sought

[evhudsons]

My wife must love me, she just picked up a steal on a used 2007 Porsche 911 997!

The system inside is an "upgraded premium Bose" system. I took it to miami beach and a valet with some sort of solvent on his finger ruined what he thought was a touch screen. I had planned on upgrading the sound system eventually but this expedited it. My wife thought there was some conspiracy but it was a coincidence. I have read advice threads on the Porsche forums but the advice there seems to be "screw the radio, listen to the engine".

whoopdidoo crappy answer for an audio lover like me. I already have a great sounding system with four speakers and a sub in a homemade box in my rattly and rusty mustang convertible 5.0, so I know I can have great sound in a bad environment, and it already blows the "b(l)ose away.

I've been looking at Pioneer, Kenwood, Alpine etc, but does anyone have advice for other options?

My plan is to fully remove the "MOST" fiberoptic bose system including the stock amp, and to remove the subwoofer in the back to be replaced by one I make. The speakers in the doors I am not sure about, but I plan to try the initially or replace them if you guys know already if they are crap. The stock amp is about 25 watts on a 5 channel amp. The stock sub is two 5inch subs in a bandpass ported box which frankly sucks for all around bass, it's very narrow, constricted and thumpy and the whole system now is just muddy, utter garbage.

I figured I might get some good insight here rather than a car forum where the standard answer is to keep everything stock and listen to the engine. The Porsche 911 flat6 is awesome, but it is much quieter in the coupe that I have than in my 1990 stang convertible. My mustang is loud as hell, engine, road noise, everything. The porsche is a listening room compared to the older car.

basically I am looking for a double din unit with gps navigation, at least 4volt preouts, and of course some sort of connection to a smart phone whether it's a 3.5plug or bluetooth.

Most of what I see is around $1000 to $1500 on average for the 2012 models which is fine for me. I doubt there is much improvement on 2013 models to warrant another $500, but I am all ears on advice.

after deciding on the head unit I will have to find a 5 or 6 channel amp for the door speakers. The stock bose speakers are 1 to 2 ohm speakers so I may have to replace them anyway. The subwoofer I have in my old car I will reuse, it is two JBL 8inch subs, with a rockford fosgate amp running them. I will have to remake a new box for them and carpet them to match, but it is something I can handle.

I am also thinking about adding a rear camera while it's apart and not that much more money.

thanks for any advice!

[MacLeod]

Hard to say which one is best. I prefer Alpine or Pioneer generally so I'd just browse Crutchfield and see which one jumps out at ya. At this price point, any from a name brand will be great.

For 5 channel amps the JL Audio 900/5 is the best as its 100x4 + 500x1 which is about perfect. I would've gone with one of those but the damn things are $1000! If you can afford that, that would be my choice. The Alpine 5 channel is $700 but I read a lot of people complaining about noise. Alpine has a shoddy rep with their Class D amps and noise. The Rockford Fosgate that I have would be my 2nd choice. $525 shipped right now and while it doesn't have quite as much power as the JL's 100, its not too far off at 75 and still has the beefy 500 watt sub output.

For some better insight on installing in a Porsche, head over to the DIY Mobile Audio forum as they have a LOT of top level professional installers that could help you out plenty.

[evhudsons]

wow, thanks for the link and advice! That is a great website.

It's a project for sure, but a fun one!

[htrdln]

i have the kenwood dnx7190hd in my 07 freestyle and love the thing the bluetooth could be a bit quicker to activate but other than that it uses the garmin software for gps and have never had an issue..

[evhudsons]

I've got everything in place to start my stereo build but I still haven't settled on the headunit. I am now choosing between the flagship units from kenwood and alpine. Any others have opinions? There are some good units coming out for 2013 but I am not sure the cost is worth it yet.

[MacLeod]

Hate to repeat myself but its hard to say. Theyre both great head units with plenty of features. Id say get the one you think looks best and you can get the best deal on. If I had to choose it would be the Alpine cause Ive used so many of them and always had great performance from them.

[evhudsons]

I took your advice and did a list, quite a long one. What happened to just a car stereo?

I settled on a Kenwood DNX890HD which just came out. I almost went for the Alpine, but my list led me to the Kenwood.

Now I'm trying to figure out which subwoofer I want to put in.