Anyone ever try a single-din radio down near the ashtray? Not sure what years are laid out like my '06, but it seems like I could near perfectly mount a headunit down there, behind the access door. Otherwise, it's going in the clock spot with the Subaru gauge mount kit. That seems like it would look a little tacky with it hanging out up there however. I haven't even double-checked behind that panel yet, as to how much room there is... anyone seen this done before?
My interior is a bit different, but I was able to fit a cb radio in my ashtray location. One thing that might be a problem is that there is the airbag computer back there (I think that's what it is anyway). Also on my interior the angle of the radio meant that it couldn't slide back very far, it wasn't parallel to the transmission tunnel...
well, I ordered the gauge mount already, so I'll definitely see how that looks. But, my friend who has been involved in a ton of nice custom stuff is going to give my ashtray location a shot at some time in the near future. It would really be great if I got it to hide behind that flip-out ashtray door. No more taking the face off all the time. Also, isn't it a bit out of the way up top? I would think it would be quite a reach up there, but I suppose it all depends on where you're seated.
A few reasons... I want the option to still be able to listen to media, quickly and easily, if there's a problem with the carputer. I'm building my own custom WindowsXP Embedded install, and booting it from a USB key, so I'm sure I'll be tweaking the OS and breaking it all the time. Also, I don't want to put in a 4ch amp that I would need with no head unit. Both to keep costs and cabling down, and because my Alpine 9813 has a very formidable internal amp with great EQ and Xover settings that you can't get in any of Alpine's newer decks. It will be much nicer to have a hard volume wheel, and do FM/disc playback on the deck rather than installing the necessary extra PC hardware to do that stuff.
yes having a seperate headunit with a carputer is very nice, like he said it removes having to have a seperate amp for you speakers, and embedding/installing a fm radio in your carputer.
Oh, I'm definitely gonna go too far ... My Windows XPe is booting at under 15 seconds on this tiny footprint, fanless HP thin client. The OS takes up less than 110 MB on the hard disk and has all components necessary to run RoadRunner. I'm going for a completely hard disk-less install, all solid state media so cold/vibration isn't an issue. GPS, internet via EDGE on my phone, and finally the Tactrix cable for real time OBDII data logging and virtual gauges.
Dang that is much more involved than I figured you were going. I guess I would be happy with a double din in dash lcd with dvd player and just a 60 gig ipod attached to it.
