Hey guys. I'm brand new to this forum and brand new to my Z! Have an '05 w/o the bose system and am looking to upgrade my head unit. After a bit of searching it looks like the ideal / practical setup is a 4 channel running a pair of front comps + sub. Am planning on getting a pair of polk momo's or kappa perfect components / 10" solo baric / and maybe an alpine amp with enough juice to run everything. My real question is what type of head unit to get.....I don't need Nav / ipod / DVD / CD Changer capabilities.
Must haves:

• mp3
• XM
• Non double-din
• Clean sound (how important is this since I'm adding an amp?)
• Attractive finish / display (Subjective, but still want your opinion)

Do you guys have any recommendations? Am looking to stay under $300. Overall, the most important factor for me is not so much about volume, but more about sound quality at all levels. My last car had 2 pairs of polk dx comps and I loved those! Any advice on other component sets under $250? Sorry if other people have asked the same questions....Thanks for your help!!

 

I think www.woofersetc.com has the Eclipse CD5000 on sale for $300, nice clean deck with 8 volt preouts. Comps in that price range would be the Kappas, Polk Momo's, eD 6500's or maybe some low end rainbows.

 

The XM is probably going to cost you another $100 for the outboard tuner / antenna. I don't know of any units that have it built in. Figure another $25 (incl tax) for a Metra dash kit.

 

+1 on the Eclipse cd5000, that's the deck I have and it's one of the cleanest decks out there. It's on sale right now because the cd5100 is out now and they are trying to unload the cd5000's. This deck's msrp was around $550 just last year. It supports Sirius though, NOT XM, so if you NEED XM, then this isn't the deck for you.

 

Thanks for the advice guys A question though....can you clarify "Clean deck"? Is this in terms of audio quality or interface...or just overall as a deck? Thanks.

 

This should fit your needs: Alpine IDA-X001. A little higher than 300 but they can be had for 350 online.


http://www.crutchfield.com/S-yRs7Xze...Display=Alpine

 

When I say clean, I am talking in terms of audio quality. It was one of the top-end decks for SQ installs the past couple years. The interface might take a minute to 'get', but once you learn the couple nuances, it's pretty intuitive. It does have a classy look to it, but visuals are all in the eye of the individual, so I would never tell you it looks good, because you might think it looks like a$$.