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I believe harnesses run from $10-20 on average. It is well worth the price because it plugs straight into the factory harness so you don't have to cut the factory wires making it impossible for you to put the stock deck back in.

I would say any low model Alpine, Pioneer, or Clarion would be trustworthy. Sinister Audio likes the Panasonic's, so I'd take a look at those too. RMS ratings are the significant ratings. The highest power from a head unit will be 26 RMS from Alpine's V-Drive units. You can't get much power from a head unit which is why there are so many aftermarket amps just for speakers; the difference is night and day, too.

Signal to noise ratio... ehh, you really shouldn't worry about that. Most CD's sold today cap at about 90 dB, but theoretically, the higher the better (*note: theoretically). I wouldn't base any decision with signal to noise.

If a HU doesnt support WMA or MP3 format, what other format would most people burn custom CD's in?

Just regular WAV format (or a normal CD).

just burn as a normal audio CD. the compressed MP3/WMA files on the HDD will be re-expanded to normal size (with the usual loss from going to the initial MP3) and you'll have a normal audio CD.
Nero does this all for you pretty much effortlessly.

So even if it doesnt state what it can play (WAV), Playing WAV is something all cd players do?

Can you set Windows Media Player to burn the files in WAV rather than WMA format?

Thanks :)

The normal cd format is a collection 44.1kHz WAV files or tracks on the cd. Windows Media Player should have an option to burn a cd so that all cd players can read it (or it should say something like that). I'm not sure it if it is the same for all versions, but look in the options and see what you can set it to if you can.

a WAV file is raw, uncompressed audio.
an audio CD will actually show up in data format as a *.CDA extension, which is WAV format, but readable by an audio CD player.

you can't burn WAV files to a CD and just play it. The files have to be put into redbook format by CD writing software to be playable in a CD player.
again, just use Nero 6.6 and it'll do everything for you.

Awesome, thanks guys :)

I'll let ya know if I have anymore questions :)

Alright, with the current setupid I have now (which is a few years old) It says 80w on the back of the two speakers and 30w on the HU itself. When I get up in the top 10-20% of the HU's volume the speakers sound distorted, is that due to the HU giving the speakers distortion? It shouldn't be overworking the speakers, right?

Also, how does cell phone mute technology work? Does the stereo mute anytime someone calls? What type of wiring is required?

Thanks :)

Yes, your HU amplifier is clipping, making the speakers distort. Most head unit amps clip around 50-75% volume level, dependant upon the unit itself.

Cell phone mute simply mutes the volume of your head unit when you recieve or make a call. There is a lead on the back of the head unit that you connect to, and you must have a kit for the cell phone to allow you to utilize it, they're usually sold at your wireless phone dealer, if not, you can get them online. They're offered with most types of phones.