Three cheers for JVC, Infinity, Modifry and the iPhone

[dts2000]

Even though it took way longer than I had thought (LED headlamps for the win) I'm quite happy with the results. I looked long and hard for the "optimal" stereo upgrade. Spent lots of time up at Crutchfield testing out various head units. Came down to Alpine vs. JVC. I went with the latter because it lets you have "iPhone control" as well as "head unit control." The Alpine only does the latter. Also, the JVC's iPhone control still lets the head unit do basic things like forward, revers, next, previous and pause. So it was a win + win. JVC KD-A615 head unit Infinity Reference 6030cs two way component set A few months back I bought a set of AP2 door panels so I was also really excited to go from the crappy AP1 speakers to a component set. Swapped out my Kenwood Z828 this weekend for the above. Rigged up a velcro + adhesive solution for the Infinity crossover box. I stuck it in that little inside door panel that you can only get to when the panel is off. Had to drill some holes through it and run some extra wires (hence the late night work in the dark w/ the LED headlamp) but it ended up going together pretty well. The velcro kept the box in place overnight while the adhesive cured. Infinity also gives you plenty of brackets so that you can mount their tweeters using the OEM Honda tweeter brackets. Same for the 6.5s. Good thing too as I needed those adapters to get the 6.5s to mount properly to the Honda OEM brackets. They also give you just enough extra space as the Infinity speakers are a bit deeper than the Hondas. Sound is vastly improved. I still wish I had more volume and bass at 70+ miles per hour but for just a head unit + speaker upgrade I have to say this combo works really well. If I have it cranked above 40 (volume setting not MPH) with any serious EQ things get a bit distorted. Works fine w/ flat EQ pretty much up to max volume (50) though. Can clearly hear vocals and instruments now at any speed. This definitely wasn't true before. I spent less than $300 for both directly from the Crutchfield shop. That was less than the Alpine head unit I was looking at. They gave me wires and printout instructions to boot. I ended up not using their harness of course since I went the DCI route. I also had my own spare wire to run from the OEM speaker clips to the crossover and out to the 6's and tweeters. DCI works flawlessly. Ironically, this JVC unit doesn't have the quirks listed on the Modifry site. It works just like the Alpine's it seems (ie., channel + vol goes up and down the FM presets). I also love that this JVC puts all your presets in one seamless group (1-1 instead of the ridiculous FM1, FM2, and FM3 groups. Just connected the SCV wire so haven't had a chance to test that. Dimmer doesn't seem to work right either, but the JVC harness didn't seem to have a wire for that. Anyhow, woohoo! D PS. The color display control (can use separate colors for buttons and display) on the JVC is amazing. At first I thought this was a bit gimmicky. But after tweaking it to my tastes can't imagine getting an aftermarket unit without interface color control.