Long story short, someone decided during the night that they needed the $58 Wish.com radio that was installed in my Jeep more than I did. Fine, it was a $60 deck (albeit a 7" flip out screen radio). I never used the screen for anything, so in keeping with the "budget" theme of this truck I scoured the interwebs looking for the cheapest 1-din, media only, Bluetooth capable radio I could find.
I present the winner, which is unfortunately no longer available: CA-10PRO Car Radio
When I ordered the unit last week it was showing as the last one available. Not Prime, but still free shipping and a price of... wait for it... $19.99. Up until stumbling across this unit deep in the search results, the cheapest radio I'd come across was in the $30-$40 range. Not bad, but lacking compared to this: no dot-matrix display, no remote, no USB cable included. Add in a couple bucks for the Metra radio adaptor harness, and I was in business for under $30.
I have to say, for $20 I'm rather impressed. This unit actually sounds better than the one it replaced, it came with an IR remote, and has 2 front USB ports: one for media, and a 2.1A charging port as well. On top of that, it came with a decent quality USB charge cable that terminates in 3 plugs: Micro USB, USB-C, and Lightning. Bluetooth connects extremely fast, within 5 seconds of the engine starting, and the connection has been rock solid. It's even got an app on the Play Store that allows adjusting of all the controls and settings from your phone, should you be so inclined.
Being as my Jeep has the Infinity audio system, the power output of whatever unit I chose didn't really matter. The factory amp handles all the crossover frequencies and amplification so anything that provides a signal will work. Sure, this radio has the most basic of EQ settings but that's all that I need. Bass, treble, balance and fader. The loudness setting is well tuned, on the last radio I would constantly have to adjust the bass up and down and the loudness on and off depending on what type of music was playing. Now, I just set the bass between -1 and +1, treble at +4/5, fade one notch to the front, and it sounds incredible. I'm running all stock speakers other than the dash mounted mid-tweeters, I replaced those with slightly upgraded units when I got the truck.
Moral of the story, even if it dies after a year I'm happy as a clam. Goes to show that when looking for basic, don't be afraid to go BASIC.
I present the winner, which is unfortunately no longer available: CA-10PRO Car Radio
When I ordered the unit last week it was showing as the last one available. Not Prime, but still free shipping and a price of... wait for it... $19.99. Up until stumbling across this unit deep in the search results, the cheapest radio I'd come across was in the $30-$40 range. Not bad, but lacking compared to this: no dot-matrix display, no remote, no USB cable included. Add in a couple bucks for the Metra radio adaptor harness, and I was in business for under $30.
I have to say, for $20 I'm rather impressed. This unit actually sounds better than the one it replaced, it came with an IR remote, and has 2 front USB ports: one for media, and a 2.1A charging port as well. On top of that, it came with a decent quality USB charge cable that terminates in 3 plugs: Micro USB, USB-C, and Lightning. Bluetooth connects extremely fast, within 5 seconds of the engine starting, and the connection has been rock solid. It's even got an app on the Play Store that allows adjusting of all the controls and settings from your phone, should you be so inclined.
Being as my Jeep has the Infinity audio system, the power output of whatever unit I chose didn't really matter. The factory amp handles all the crossover frequencies and amplification so anything that provides a signal will work. Sure, this radio has the most basic of EQ settings but that's all that I need. Bass, treble, balance and fader. The loudness setting is well tuned, on the last radio I would constantly have to adjust the bass up and down and the loudness on and off depending on what type of music was playing. Now, I just set the bass between -1 and +1, treble at +4/5, fade one notch to the front, and it sounds incredible. I'm running all stock speakers other than the dash mounted mid-tweeters, I replaced those with slightly upgraded units when I got the truck.
Moral of the story, even if it dies after a year I'm happy as a clam. Goes to show that when looking for basic, don't be afraid to go BASIC.
