Looking to spend 300-500 on a new head unit for my 1994 E34 540i. The sound is stock, nothing has been done. I want a cd player, thus a new headunit is what I want instead of the factory bmw cd changer. I was thinking of the Pioneer DEH-P8500MP
or DEH-P8700MP, or Alpine which I hear is nice.

When I replace the head unit, do I need to do anything special?(ie connectors, etc.)

Any help appreciated

If you do it yourself you will need a Antenna Conversion kit and general Head deck conversion.

also special mounting things. sorry I cant help farther.

you would need an antenna adapter, a wiring harness, and possibly a car kit so it will fit nice and snug

alpine is good stuff. they are coming out with new decks very soon that will match the BMW's light color (amber) i would wait for those

for around $500 you can get pioneer, kenwood eclipse and alpine top of the line consumer head units ( not competition like the alpine F1 status or the pioneer P1) Pioneer has more features and looks (like 13band Eq or), eclipse and alpine have SLIGHTLY better sound, and kenwood somehow balances everything out:)
hope that helps

Originally posted by capone28
alpine is good stuff.

Thanks guys! I think I'll wait for the new Alpine HU's to be released.

well if u want something that will match your interior and have better sq than any of those head units, (atleast imo) since ive worked with every single brand listed up there, get a Nakamichi, i would probably go with the cd-400, after nakamichi i would choose either eclipse, or any higher end alpine head unit, both very good HU, another great HU with really good SQ is Clarion, and pioneer, kenwood, panasonic, all the brands other than alpine that u could go to best buy or circuit city and pick up are mostly show and "cool features" but they sound like butt, and stay the hell away from sony unless u want audiophiles or for that matter any true car audio enthusiest thinking u have no clue in what your doing, ive never seen a sony hu (except for maybe like a cdx c910 and i would buy an alpine f1 any day over that thing) that i would ever put in my car, another exception - the pioneer p1, but thats way out of your price range, another HU u may seriously want to consider because it is extremely bad ass and its at a really good price is this http://www.sounddomain.com/sku/ROCRFX8250
it says rockford fosgate but actually its made by denon and it is a really bad ass hu, but probably wont match your interior, any ways look at the Nakamichi, the RF RFX8250 aka (denon a1n) btw this thing goes for like $1200 bucks in japan, and its built in japan, eclipse, alpine, clarion, well anyways good luck

oh yeah, i forgot to mention, make sure to check for things like, whether or not the hu has an internal amp, becuase if it dosent like the Rockford Fosgate x8250, then your going to have to buy an external amplifier to run your speakers, and thats more money

Ya I looked at the Nakamichi CD-400 before...a bit too 'bland' for my tastes...I think I'll stick to Alpine.

Thanks for the info!

I was actually looking at the Panasonic CQ-HX2083U or CQ-HX1083U

Looks very nice with the ghost effect. Anyone else have this? How is the sound quality?

Thanks

http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelDetail?displayTab=F&storeId=11251&catalogId=11005&itemId=62908&catGroupId=11085&modelNo=CQ-HX2083U&surfModel=CQ-HX2083U


http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelDetail?displayTab=F&storeId=11251&catalogId=11005&itemId=63217&catGroupId=11085&modelNo=CQ-HX1083U&surfModel=CQ-HX1083U

boo on panasonic....

would never use one.

OK I've made up my mind...I want an alpine

I was thinking of the Alpine CDA-7897 or the CDA-7998

since it has that phantomface thing which is a nice feature.

What do you guys think of this?