richcoto

Hi guys, i have a rx8 '04 and some days ago i have troubles with the radio, so it stopped working, it began with the dash small center speaker, and then all speakers stopped.

I've read about it, by the way reading threads are so useful, the problems i had i always found them here, and 90% of the times, what reading i get to fix the trouble.

So i've bought my car, and the owner before looks like if he changed original bose speakers and replaced them with a boston ones, so what do you think are better, when i talked with the tech guy yesterday he told me these are a good speakers, every speaker at front doors have a crossover (that actually i don't know what they do).

So as the threads said, the amplifier was broken, so he said the boston speakers haven't being used to it's maximum power cuz the bose amp is weak, so because of that probably it got damaged, so he propose to use an amp more capable, so he sold me an Alpine mrp f300, and now it sounds good.

The thing is, is this brand ok ? is this amp ok ?, i live in Costa Rica, so for me it's better to buy stuff from US through ebay, normally i get all i get from it, and i pay less than buying here, but as i didn't want to wait, i have to buy it here, and he sold it to me with a cost of $400 installed, i mean he charge: working time + device = $400 i know this cost in ebay like $140.

But the thing i wanna know is if it worth it...

firebirdude

iTrader: (3)

Alpine makes fabulous equipment. And Boston makes fabulous speakers. They're both solid companies. As I'm sure you've figured out, $400 installed is pretty steep. Retailers will always charge more than eBay, but that's still pretty high. Labor should be about $75 - $100, unless there was some extra work or installation parts you didn't mention. Amp wiring kit? Line output converter? Both of those would be required if the rest of your 8 is factory (other than the speakers). And in that case $400 is fair.

richcoto

I'm not sure, i suppose he used all that, and i hope so, so yo make me feel better saying $400 is fair, haha, thanks man, i sounds great, now i'm thinking changing factory radio, for two reasons, one i can't listen any other thing than the fm radio and cd's, i want mp3 and attached my iphone, and two, sometimes the radio doesn't read the cd's so, do you have any advice on replacing factory radio ?

firebirdude

iTrader: (3)

Replacing the factory headunit is going to give you night and day better sound overall. Having all the bonuses (iPod, USB, Bluetooth, etc) is just icing on the cake. It really comes down to how much you want to spend. The installation kit is ~$150 for whatever headunit you want. Most people decide to install a touchscreen double-din sized headunit such as this Pioneer. Or, since you have an iPhone, Pioneer's new AppRadio is pretty sick. It's really more of what I've personally been looking for in a headunit. All your MP3's, Navigation, Pandora, and much more. Goes for about ~$350 online. If these are too much money, you can buy the single-din version of the installation kit and something like the DEH-P8400BH, which I personally use in my Ford Ranger.