Ooooh! Preeeeetttty!
Got tired of the piece o' crap factory radio. The right speaker went out for an hour, then it came back on for half an hour, then went out forever. Then, the Fader, Balance, Treble, Bass controls, instead of going up or down a number when you turn the knob, would either spit out random numbers, or just go 121212 no matter which way you turned the knob. Time to start anew.
I'm limited to the dash speakers only unless I want to get into a really complicated custom installation for some better speakers. I upgraded the dash with Kicker KSC4 speakers ($80). They won't give booming base (2-way, 4" woofer and ½" tweeter, 60-20kHz, 75 Watts RMS), but they do have a much fuller sound than the factory speakers (or the $40 Fosgate speakers that are popular replacements but aren't much better than the factory brown paper bag speakers- 100Hz - 20kHz, 30 Watts RMS).
The radio is a Pioneer DEH-X3600S (about $110, less on Amazon). Not the Bluetooth model, but the "SiriusXM Satellite ready" model. It has an AUX input on the front, as well as a USB port for attaching a device or a flash drive containing music.
I dumped the separate XM Radio tuner and got the SXV200 SiriusXM Connect Tuner (about $50) that plugs into the rear of the head unit. Now with the touch of a button I can cycle between AM/FM/SXM. The tuner also gives you the 20 or so Xtra Channels that are only available online or with the Onyx Plus, Lynx, or Edge tuners.
Before I got the Sprinter I had a satellite ready radio with the connected tuner and controlled the XM with the radio head unit, and I really missed it. Didn't realize just how much until today.
Between the speakers and the considerably better radio, it's a major upgrade in sound. Sounds 100 times better.
Had it done at a car audio place in Greensboro, NC.
