# 92 Sentra XE - radio and speakers



## KurtCocain (Jul 6, 2004)

Hi guys,

I know nothing about cars, but I want to upgrade my audio. My sentra can die anytime, but it is still holding up and wanted to change the radio as it barely works and the speakers 2 of which only work.

I am not trying to spend too much money as the car is old and not worth it. I have a long commute tho so I need audio.

Could you tell me for my car what:

- Pioneer radio/CD player with Aux IN (maybe Pioneer CD Player with auxilary input and bonus Speakers, DEHSP071 - Wal-Mart)

- front speakers (sizes)
- rear speakers (sizes)

you suggest I should get and would fit? Once I buy them (maybe Walmart or something) I can go to my friend's place and we can try to change them.


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## Tavel (Aug 21, 2004)

that's pretty good for what you're trying to do, go for it. 

The receiver will be a simple plug and play install. You'll need to solder a wiring harness onto the receiver (the receiver will just come with a tangle of loose wires), but the unit just drops into the dash, E-Z. 

You can probably get the wiring harness from walmart, or go into a circuit city/best buy and ask for a wiring harness (they don't have it on the shelf, you have to ask someone). or of course, you can have THEM install it...lol. 

the speakers are a little trickier, 6 1/2"s will fit in the front doors but it's a tight fit. You can get an adapter plate from crutchfield, or make one from MDF and bondoglass. 

For easy install, go with the bracket (thought I'm not sure that it actually fits, i haven't tried it myself). For superior sound quality and perfect fit, go with the MDF. 

I don't know what fits in the back because I've never put back speakers in, I recommend against using back speakers.


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## KurtCocain (Jul 6, 2004)

Hi Tavel,
Thanks so much for your reply!!!

Well, im just checking out the specials on the retail stores and CircuitCity's got this deal -- if you buy $99 or above in-dash player installation is free. 

This ones seems pretty good:
Buy the Pioneer In-Dash Player (DEH-1900MP) and other Car In-Dash Players & Changers at circuitcity.com

I spoke to a representative and he said they will charge me for 3 parts/kits which will be about 60 bucks. Then I asked him how much to install 2 front speakers, he said 40 bucks. Thats not bad!! I think im gonna go for it.

Now, when you said you are against using back speakers, what did you mean? IF only with front ones would do the job, then that's even better, I don't have to buy rear ones and pay for laybour for them..

How about only rear speakers, no fronts ?


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## Tavel (Aug 21, 2004)

MP3/wma playback is going to be a great feature on that unit. You won't need to get a cd changer to keep sane on long trips.

It's a good unit, nothing fancy and will get the job done. 

Let circuit city install, that's a pretty reasonable price for dumping all the liability on them. you're covered for the "You wired my headlights into my wipers!" kind of things. lol

I recommend against rear speakers because you can't hear if a sound is coming from behind or in front of you. so you won't notice a difference that way. But the rear speakers hit your ears out of phase and pretty distorted by the trip through the cabin, not to mention your ears face the wrong way.

If you were so inclined to get ONLY rear speakers, then phasing wouldn't be an issue. BUT they would still sound muffled. Front speakers are going to sound much crisper. 

This is kind of a kept secret of the audiophiles who go for superior quality (not the bass drop kids driving around the highschool)...but it works out great for people like you too. You'll get *better* sound quality for *less* money, i don't see any way to beat that. 

And don't let the salesmen at circuit city talk you into getting rear speakers because 
A. those guys are all idiots, and everyone knows it. 
B. they're trying to sell you more crap, regardless of benefit or detriment to you. 

I hope i answered everything...


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## i r teh noobz (Apr 26, 2007)

No rear speakers? I hate the way my stereo sounds with the rears turned down/off. The sound just feels fuller with all four working.

Anyway, the rear speakers are some weird size in some funky bracket, but a 6.5" will drop right in the hole - no adapter plate needed. For the front, the speakers are 4x6s in a 6.5" hole with weird screw hole placement. I ended up cutting up the stock speakers to make a bracket for my Sony 4x6s. 

If Circuit City will install your head unit and speakers for 40 bucks, I'd go for it.


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## Tavel (Aug 21, 2004)

i r teh noobz said:


> No rear speakers? I hate the way my stereo sounds with the rears turned down/off. The sound just feels fuller with all four working.
> 
> Anyway, the rear speakers are some weird size in some funky bracket, but a 6.5" will drop right in the hole - no adapter plate needed. For the front, the speakers are 4x6s in a 6.5" hole with weird screw hole placement. I ended up cutting up the stock speakers to make a bracket for my Sony 4x6s.
> 
> If Circuit City will install your head unit and speakers for 40 bucks, I'd go for it.


it takes some time to get used to the change. Leave it like that for a couple days to get used to it, then adjust the bass/treble levels to fill in the missing parts (probably missing bass, the front speakers are smaller. maybe boost bass up 2-3 points, i usually like to boost treble up a little too to give it a little more contrast).

I agree the sound isn't as full, but it is more accurate. The acoustics of the rear deck are horrible, all muffled and boomy. blah. but you get used to it and it feels empty when the muffled boom is taken away. 

Since you've given yourself months to acclimate to the rear deck, it only makes sense you should give at least a few days to adjust to the front speakers too before judging which sounds better. ya know?


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## sfsentra (Aug 12, 2005)

This is one of those topics where there is no 'right' answer--to each his own, different strokes for different folks, etc.

In that spirit, I can only say that I replaced the head unit, front and rear speakers; and I prefer the rears to the fronts--although I use a blend between them when I drive, with the emphasis on the rears. My wife prefers the fronts. Go figure.

I think I'd qualify as an 'audiophile', given my lifelong interest and the home stereo/theater equipment I've acquired over the years. But sound quality is a very personal thing--so if it sounds good to you, then you should feel satisfied you got the right stuff.

I would point out though, that the front speakers are set fairly low down in the doors, so a good deal of their sound is absorbed by your legs, the carpet, the middle console, etc. One of the reasons why I think rear speakers sound better (IF they're decent quality to begin with) is that they 'fire' against the rear glass, and those sound waves are reflected back in the general direction of your and your passenger's heads. It's far from ideal, but still preferable to having my calves get better sound than my ears! To me, that results in a clearer, more robust sound--but that's only my personal opinion.

One thing I am a stickler about? MP3's. If you play MP3's you're playing a degraded sound quality from the get-go. It's compressed--inferior to CD's. There's an old saying in the computer field: 'garbage in, garbage out'. 

Some say that in a car environment, the loss doesn't make any difference. To me, it's just the opposite. Why choose a poorer-quality sound source when you already have road and engine noise, and a less-than-ideal listening environment to cope with? But again, for some people the ablity to have a large music library to select from, which the MP3 format does give you, is more important than sheer sound quality. And that's fine. But some people don't know that MP3 is a lower-quality source.

Good luck with whatever you do end up choosing--one thing we can (probably!) almost all agree on is that any decent-quality aftermarket items are likely to be better than the OEM audio equipment in our cars!


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## KurtCocain (Jul 6, 2004)

sfsentra said:


> This is one of those topics where there is no 'right' answer--to each his own, different strokes for different folks, etc.
> 
> In that spirit, I can only say that I replaced the head unit, front and rear speakers; and I prefer the rears to the fronts--although I use a blend between them when I drive, with the emphasis on the rears. My wife prefers the fronts. Go figure.
> 
> ...



im an audiophile myself. At home I have 5.1 setting , etc.

As far as mp3 -- nooooo I convert my CDs to MPC which is much superior compression. Loaded onto my Iriver with RockBox and using the optical out from the player, Monster cable into the aux of the pioneer )

Today I put in the player, sounds nice! works great. Stock speakers still work !! and they are OK. Will wait till next paycheck to buy speakers. But listeting to my stock ones -- all the bass and powerfull sound comes from my rears. The front ones are kind for trebly music or techno...

I am considering buying Sony xploids 4x6 for front and 6 1/2 for rear ...


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## Tavel (Aug 21, 2004)

MP3 doesn't have to be poor quality, but a lot of people don't know enough about it to use it correctly. They see "ohh I can fit more songs on if I use 48kb/s compression!", 

but don't necessarily notice that it turns their stereo into an underwater jukebox. I even pointed that out to a guy running a very expensive after market stereo with 48-64kb/s mp3's and he said "I don't care, they still thump". oookay?

Personally, I think MP3's are great to the end listener. (they kinda suck if you're editing the audio). A low compression ratio is just about CD quality, but the files are still much smaller than WAV's. I like at least 192kb/s, some people claim nothing less than 300kb/s, whatever. There is even a new lossless compression out with Windows Vista (I know they existed before, but the one with windows will become standard because it's windows.)

It's similar to JPEG vs. Bitmap in digital images. Some JPEG compressions are horrible, while low compression ratios have about the same quality as bitmap while being MUCH smaller. Always use photoshop to convert bitmaps to JPEG, never MSpaint, lol. (again, jpegs suck if you're editing). 

there's a "good enough" judgment somewhere in there. Where do you stop receiving benefit from increasing quality? Some people claim it's never good enough, and I laugh at them for paying $120/ft for "premium" speaker wire. :loser:


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