[05escapeny]

Getting a new head unit for my 05 escape. Everything in it is stock as of now, it has the mach 300 system in it. Wondering if anyone has any good experiences with a particular brand, i was looking into an Alpine one because it has a usb port on the front of it, which would be good because i can listen to music via flash drive.

 

[BORN FREE]

All the top brand names are good; such as Alpine, Kenwood, and Sony. I had all three head unit in different cars before I got the Ford Escape and they all sound excellent, I never had any issue with it. My current Head Unit is the Kenwood DNX 5140, it has everything that I need, except for the bluetooth. The reason I went with Kenwood is because it has the RDS feature for the FM station, I think it is pretty cool that it shows the song title that is playing. Sony and Alpine does not have this feature.

 

[05escapeny]

IS there anything extra with installing a head unit like that, meaning I know has dvd features and such, is the install the same as a basic head unit or are there extra steps when installing? thanks

 

[UK PONY]

Installing a DVD HU is much the same as any other with one exception;

As it's illegal to watch a DVD on a dash mounted display all manufacturers integrate a safety feature that means the parking brake must be on in order to watch a movie.

Of course there are ways around this feature as the safety wire is essentially an extra ground wire.

On Kenwood's you simply ground the safety wire back to the main ground wire & all is good.

On Pioneer units they need to sense the ground connection being off & then on so you need to put a switch of some type in the safety cable before it goes back to the main ground wire.

I'm not sure what the process is for Alpine's but everything I hear about them makes me think that Alpine's quality has gone downhill in recent years.

I have a Kenwood DDX6019, with navigation & Sirius add on's in my '05 Mustang - with the right wiring harness adapter it was pretty much plug & play. The exception being that my factory amp (I have the Shaker 500 system in that car) requires a 5v input & the Kenwood puts out 12v - this results in a small "pop" whenever the stereo is turned on....I fixed that by placing a 5v resistor in line.

I just removed a Pioneer AVHP4100DVD HU from my '07 Mustang (I'm selling that vehicle) & again it was plug & play (no popping sound either, the Pioneer has a 4v (IIRC) amp output but the '07 doesn't have the Shaker amp setup either) with the exception of the ground wire switch (it needs to be an actual on/off switch - I tried an interupt switch (i.e. it simply breaks the connection temporarily) but that didn't work).

Hope that helps.

 

[UK PONY]

Forgot to add that the Pioneer HU will find it's way into the Escape when the weather warms up or the '07 Mustang sells & I can pull into the garage - either way I just hate being cold...lol.