new head unit advice

[Sigpros]

Helping my son get his first truck around and needing to upgrade the head unit. looking for blue tooth and apple car play and touch screen. Ability to add a back up camera would be nice. Also might as well put some new speakers in. I don't have much experience doing this stuff so not sure what is a quality unit. We were watching some youtube on Alpine's and they looked pretty good. Can't remember the model but the guy said it was around $299

 

[franklin2]

You should be good as long as you stay away from the Walmart stuff.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I’ve always been a fan of Pioneer but I’ve also heard recently that their quality isn’t what it used to be. It’s been probably 8 years since I last bought one of theirs though. Alpine is a good brand too, been around a long time. Boss seems acceptable, I have a Boss touch screen in my green Ranger, previous owner put it in, it’s not super nice, but it works. Just threw a Boss “media player” in my Choptop, it’s just radio, Bluetooth, Aux and USB, but at $65 was perfect for that beast, I have a USB in it with over 500 songs and it picks up the radio stations pretty good, the old radio (when it worked) struggled to pull in the one Ohio station, but this pulls it in clear as a bell.

I would suggest looking at Crutchfield, they can usually supply you with a plug and play harness and stuff. Very good support too. If you’re not comfortable with wiring, that’s the way to do it. Well, I’m comfortable with wiring and I still have gone that way.

Speakers I’d recommend 2-way or 3-way, Pioneer, Rockford Fosgate, Alpine…

Stay away from Sony.

 

[Curious Hound]

I like the Pioneer I put in the Fun50. Now I need to save up and shop for a system for the F250. It doesn’t even have rear speakers yet. But the wires are there.

 

[Shran]

Alpine is a good brand. I've got a Pioneer bluetooth head unit in my Explorer and a Kenwood one in my wife's '95. Sony bluetooth h/u in the stepside truck, Dual brand cheapos in the others. Very happy with the Sony & Kenwood, the Pioneer is pretty mediocre. Dual ones are total junk. One died prematurely and the other two pick up interference off stuff. I bought them all at Walmart but really they sell the same stuff everyone else does. JVC has been pretty good for me in the past too.