birthday present

Hello everyone.

For my husband's birthday I'm replacing our stock radio in our 2003 Subaru WRX wagon and I'm having a hard time deciding or finding something I really like. I am looking to spend $150-300 for deck, but would really like to spend under $200 for deck. I really have 3 criteria:

1. I'd like easy to use ipod controls from deck, and aux somewhere for other media. USB port would be cool but not neccessary. Don't care if there is CD or not.
2. I'd like to have HD radio controls that are also easy.
3. I'd like to have color of radio something that goes well with green and orange light scheme already in my car.

So, I am looking at JVC and Pioneer. Most JVC's I don't like the deisgn (red and blue buttons) and Pioneer seems to be all blue. Aren't there some decks where you can change the background color.

Also I was looking at Alpine, but they seemed to have problems with ipod integration - draining all power from nano, etc - not turning off. The Pioneer have a nice design, but are all blue - maybe I can deal with that. But they don't seem to have a good design with HD. Maybe I'm wrong. I guess I also need to look at Eclipse. Maybe BOSS or Kenwood or Blaupunk or Polk? These are names I remember for the past. Anyways...

For my criteria Sony and JVC seemed to have good features. But I don't know if I feel so good buying Sony even with positive customer reviews. Right now I'm thinking this JVC unit http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/oid/204451/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do. But I would love to something in green or orange that would match my interior, especially since my husband LOVES this car and have upgrades to interior of car already.

Also it's a surprise. Hopefully he won't hate it. But if I'm happy usually he is.

Thanks in advance for any advice or direction. Cheers!

 

Thanks guys. I am thinking of going with 1 of 2 Pioneer models because of your advice and other people's reviews too. I like Alpine but their HD tuner is $250 list price and about $150 cheapest on net. Also none of their units seem to have bluetooth built in, except for maybe the most expensive one. And that bluetooth tuner is about $150 too... So I'm going with Pioneer because I end up getting more features for the price, though I'm sure the Alpines are amazing.

So I'm looking at one double din and a http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/CarAudioVideo/Source/CD-Players/Premier/DEH-P700BT. Double din is cool, but I am worried about car theft. This is a valid concern right? With double din, there's no faceplate to remove. What would you do?

Also I want to go with the Premier Pioneer cause it has a 2 yr warranty and isn't that much more. Is there really any noticeable difference between the Premier and regular Pioneer models that you can tell?

 

So I chose the double din. I think it will be easier to use. And I don't think it's all that flashy for a double din - no LCD monitor, so I'm not that worried about it getting stolen. Plus most of the time the car is parked in a garage, so I think I'll be ok.

WOOO! So excited to get this installed! My current radio is a very sad cassette deck and I play my IPod through a radio transmitter that works inadequately 50% of the time.

Thanks for you help and advice!
:lol::lol::lol:

 

You can get it Amazon for about $100 off. But you have to pay for shipping and wait... UGH. But you still are supposed to get the two year warranty.