I've been totally spoiled by my MFT in my SHO, and I've been looking for an upgrade for my 2006 Mustang GT...basically I'm looking for a new head unit that supports SiriusXM and can read a USB stick with Music on it. BT to allow hands free usage with a Cell phone would be a bonus...but I don't think it would work great due to mic placement...then again I haven't looked into it.

Any suggestions?

 

Do some research on Crutchfield, find something you want, and then check Amazon for a better price.

 

I was doing that yesterday and found a radio, Amazon was cheaper, but after all the kits I needed to hook it up, it costed more then Crutchfield! LOL

 

Check out Parrot Asteroid Smart, I have it on mine and love it!

 

Ive been hearing great things about this HU from a some stereo shop friends and just people who have bought it.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_130X550....html?tp=20220

 

This is what I have now, it has pretty much everything you asked about, and it has free real time traffic which I use all the time.

 

05yellowgt,
What was the level of effort to do the install? Did you have to make modifications or is this a plug n play? There does not seem to be any info
on the amazon site with regard to the install.

 

That one looks really nice. Matches the interior better than most units out there. How is the navigation on it?

 

I just finished up (ok, MOSTLY finished up!) installing a Kenwood DNX890HD in my 05. As far as difficulty, it is fairly straight forward IF you get the dash kit and the Metra wiring harness kit. Some notes:

1. Sit down at a comfortable table and wire up the new radio harness (aka: pigtail) to the Metra wiring harness.
2. Trim the wires down on both pigtails before you connect them! You get something like 10" on each harness. That gives you a 20" harness in the space that used to be taken up by a 0" harness (plugged into back of stock radio!). Mine ended up being about 4 inches between connectors. You could add an inch or two and be fine as well.
3. You have a Shaker 500, so you need to harness kit that includes the second smaller pigtail with four wires on it. Two RCAs and two blue/white (turn on leads, one for each sub amp).
4. Be SURE to install either a 5V regulator between the turn on lead output of the new radio (which will be 12V) and the two turn on leads on that little sub harness. Otherwise they pop. Badly. This is a signal, so a little TO92 type 3 leg regulator works fine. I used a MC78L05BP regulator I had on hand in my voltage regulator draw (yes, I do have a draw labeled "VReg" in my hobby room with over a 100 regulators in it). It works perfectly. Wiring is trivial: Pin 3 (right most pin with pins down and looking at the flat face) connects to the amp turn on lead on the new radios harness (along with the wire that you are going to use to carry the "normal" 12V turn on signal to your amps in the trunk!). Pin 2 (center no matter HOW you look at it!) goes to the black ground wire in the harness. Finally, pin 1 is the 5V out and it should be connected to the two blue/white wires in the small sub harness.
5. Either solder the wires together CORRECTLY, or use an UNINSULATED barrel crimp terminal with a GOOD set of crimp pliers (if they do not ratchet, they are not actually crimp plies, I don't care what is written on them!) using the correct dies in the pliers and the right spot in the dies. I've had very good luck with my CrimpMaster set with the uninsulated barrel dies set. About $50 at Homedepot/Lowes. They make better. And they cost a lot more. But these WILL do a good job if used correctly.
6. Don't forget to put a 1" piece of GOOD shrink tubing over one of the wires before you connect each wire pair. And by "good", I mean the type with adhesive in them so when you shrink them, they also seal the connection from oxidation and moisture. If you want, go all out and get some very good 3:1 ratio shrink tubing. But you probably don't need it for this job, all though that voltage regulator COULD use it on it's tiny *** legs...
7. When the harness is all soldered up, secure your amp turn on lead (which is now permanently attached to this harness) to the harness with some good electrical tap (if it's made in China, it is NOT good electrical tap.... Etc. Etc.) and make sure you secure and strain relief that voltage regulator also.
8. Moving on to the dash kit: The Metra 95-5812 works pretty good. For the Mustang, they tell you to remove the back tabs. These are the two mounting tabs that are at the back (away from the face of the radio) of the mount. I used a band saw, but an number of other saws and cutting instruments would work fine. You just need the four mounting points that they have you install the four spacers in for your Mustang.
9. As for the spacers, I found that it fit better without them. Otherwise, the spacers had the radio sticking out about 1/8" from the rest of the dash kit trim. It just barely sticks out without the spacers. Test fit to see what works best in your car.
10. The rest is pretty much plug and play.
11. Oh, if you get a system with a reverse camera and are looking for a signal, you can either go to one of the reverse lights, or tap into one of the connectors BEHIND the SJB in the passenger side foot well. The signals are at pins 13 and 26 (left/right) of the 52 pin connector. But you have to pull the SJB to get access to these connectors. There is a 52 pin connector on the FRONT of the SJB that does NOT have the correct signals. Ask me how I know....

Good luck with your install! I've had all my speakers replaced for quite some time (Polk Momo 6500 up front, MB Quart CX218 in the rear, JL Audio 8W3V2's for the door subs). After replacing the head unit with my DNX890HD, I was STUNNED how much better those very good speakers sounded! Especially the subs! The factory radios have SO much equalization and band pass filters (clips the lows AND the highs) to make the ****ty craptastic factory speaks sound OK (and not rattle to death trying to hit lows they have NO chance in hell of reaching), that GOOD speaks just can't do there job.