Nice fitting mp3/cd with cassette

While we liked the fact that our ford built-in radio had mp3 support for their changer, the mp3 support is somewhat unreliable, and mp3 cds would occasionally "studder." Without the mp3 problem we would have considered a 3rd party aux system like the PIE, but it was annoying enough that it was time to just replace the receiver. My wife has a bunch of old cassettes as well, ranging from kids music to books and speakers on tape that are very hard to find in digital format, and is unwilling to spend days recording things onto mp3s.

Car stereos with cassette decks are becoming increasingly hard to find these days, and so this was a real plus to have the cassette and the cd. Combine this with the fact that the cd deck plays mp3s, and we have a real winner in this JVC. Having done some car stereo replacements in the past, the worst thing is having something that sticks out too far, or doesn't fill the hole left by the factory stereo, so the double-din format also worked well for us. With the crutchfield installation kit, installation was a breeze, and they even helped me get the factory sub working as well. I really think that the unit sounds better than the one built into the car, even though ford calls this stereo the "audiophile" version. The buttons are easily identiable, although it is not obvious without the manual how to set the clock. (hold down sel button, then scroll though the menu...). Cassette cd and am/fm are easy to use, although some of the buttons on the bottom of the unit are tiny enough to be found on a blaupunct system. The only real complaint I have over the factory head unit is that it doesn't support RDS. To be honest, almost all factory installed systems have RDS, but apparently this is something that isn't standard in 3rd party systems. In addition, the nice 1/8" stereo input in the front is so essential for plugging in all those portable devices everyone has with them, because noise of interference to radio transmitters are a real neusense.

In conclusion, I highly recommend this system to anyone who wants a clean installation, audio input, and a full functional mp3 cd player to replace their factory system.