Gday guys, I can appreciate that this post is probably slightly of topic for this thread, however I am struggle to find one that stays on topic long enough to find the answers that I am after. I have recently purchased a 2006 model VE, and am interested in upgrading stereo as a fairly high priority. Like many of you I am keen to keep the look of the car as standard as possible, as well as maintaining the steering wheel standard functionality. Has anyone looked into the car System Integration Audio Processor from Alpine, if they have can they send me a PM and let me know if it as good as alpine makes it out to be. It is a fairly expensive option ($700) but it allows for any system noise and equaliser work done by the standard head unit to be filtered out, re-processed and then sent to the speakers; that is uses the standard head unit as an input device before applying the “alpine high quality” sound processing then sending it to the speakers and essentially tuning the car into a high-end sound system (5.1) without loosing the normal functionality.
Aside from that, what sort of out-put quality has everyone found the factory head unit. If the factory speaker outputs are used and the speakers are upgraded does the overall quality increases (and if so by how much) or is it a waste of money. Have anyone looked at creating an 8.1 setup (tweeters, front and rear doors, parcel shelf + sub setup) using a sub modifications and again if so how has this been achieved. Thirdly and finally does the standard single CD unit have the functionality for a MP3 6 stack to be added in the boot?
For gshaw, check out https://forums.justcommodores.com.au thread. By all reports this probably what you would be wanting.
Sorry for the long and off topic post but it is a little hard to find the answers to these questions. If there is a more appropriate place to be posting these questions please let me know. Regards mickyj