Ok, I've got my audio upgraded. I'm very pleased overall. The total cost was about $200.

Headunit: Jensen HD5212
[blockquote]The HD5212 features an HD radio tuner, CD MP3 player, SD card MP3 player, iPod inputs, front AUX input, pre-amp outputs, and satellite radio hook-ups. Like other Jensen products, the blue LED lights are a bit bright, but it is better than some of the others, best if installed down low on the console so its not shining in your eyes at night. Installation was simple. I used a factory wiring schematic and mapped the wires to the Jensen unit. I soldered them, hit them with liquid tape, and then a duct tape outer cover. Works perfectly. The SD card reader correctly located a subfolder called "C:\Music" and started playing the mp3s. MP3 playback is a lot quieter than radio, but that might be due to the volume level of the MP3 files. HD radio works if you have a strong signal, but I might need a newer antenna in my mountainous terrain. Regular FM sounds great. The unit is "pretty loud" at max volume and easily covers the howl of my N1 catback, but if you are trying to waste your ears then you'd want an amp I suppose. I had it cranked up very high and there was no noticable clipping or distortion. The headunit cost about $130 from some Yahoo! electronics store.
[/blockquote]Front Speakers: Kenwood KFC-1661s and the stock AR tweeters from the EX
[blockquote]The Kenwood speakers sound pretty bright which is good for the front. The component tweeters help also. What can I say, they're pretty inexpensive speakers, but they sound good to me. They sound better than the JVC speakers in the rear to me, but the mixture adds an interesting complexity that all Kenwood's would probably lack. I picked them up from some dude on Ebay for around $40.
[/blockquote]Rear Speakers: JVC CS-V625
[blockquote]The JVC speakers are more boomy than the Kenwoods. They seem to have more bass capability, and they are slightly more sensitive than the Kenwoods. These were Wally-World specials, but the hole patterns at least mostly lined up with the odd 6.5" plastic baffles that the stock AR speakers came with in the EX. The JVC's seem to work well in the rear and help add some fullness and extra bass to the otherwise bright front Kenwoods. These cost about $35 I think.
[/blockquote] Well thats about it. The Jensen headunit is pretty much bleeding edge new, but it looks and sounds good so far. The SD card player and the HD radio works, and it sounds great. The low end speakers are surprisingly good, much better than most factory setups anyways.

Tips: get a butane soldering iron and good electronics solder for trouble free connections. A cheap automatic wire stripper might be a good idea too. Take your time and do it right and you will be rewarded. The stereo that I removed had nothing more than twisted together wires wrapped with electrical tape, and every time I hit a bump the radio cut out. My factory Honda speakers had almost completely disintegrated, the paper cones had huge holes in and around them. If your radio is still factory then get the adapter plug so you don't have to cut any wires!


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Does that unit store your HD multicast selection? I have a JVC HDR-1 and it is OK but when listening to FM HD additional channels, every time you retune to a station or turn the car off it will come back on the main channel. I'd like to set a button so it goes immediately to the HD2 channel of a station.

 

You can assign the preset buttons to HD1, HD2, etc. I noticed that if you are on HD1, it can fall back to the regular analog just like stereo can fall back to mono, and it automatically chooses HD1 if it can get the signal. Kind of cool. The digital radio does sound really nice. I found that my antenna wire had been spliced by twisting the wires together and wrapping with tape, hence my spotty reception. I replaced the antenna today and it works perfectly now.

Heads up though, I'm getting a weird effect on mp3 playback from the SD card. Once it a while it will just jump to the next track in the middle of a song. I've contacted Jensen customer support and opened a ticket. I'll try a faster SD card and see if it makes a difference, the one I'm using now is actually a micro-sd transflash in a SD card adapter, so *maybe* thats causing the buggy behavior. I'll burn some stuff to a mp3 cdrom, and a USB drive and test those out as well.

I also ran mp3gain on my tracks and boosted their gain up to a nominal 92dB to see if that helps the quietness issue. I'll burn them to a different SD card tomorrow and keep testing the unit out. I also noticed that if you switch from SD to radio, and back, it returns to the exact point in the MP3 song where you left.

 

That's cool. I'm leery of anything Jensen, without hands-on experience. Hopefully the SD card problem can be worked out, as that's another major feature I'd use if i had that unit. So keep testing and report back.

Yeah you need a good antenna for HD reception. I think part of the problem is that stations have to split their allowed power between analog and digital. Most of them are likely transmitting rather low power on the HD side, in order not to reduce the signal much for the vast majority of listeners that are analog-only.

 

I have an older Jensen cd-mp3 player in my old Volvo 240 and it has been working fine for years. That was one of the reasons that I got the new unit. Plus I couldn't find anything else that had both a SD card player and HD radio.

I'll be able to test a different SD card tomorrow, I have one at work. And I ordered a couple cheapie 2Gb high speed SD cards from Newegg that should be here maybe Tuesday.

 

It looks like it was the card. I used a "regular" 2G card today and it hasn't skipped a beat. Also, boosting the nominal MP3 gain up to about 92dB made the SD card playback about as loud as the radio.

So, don't use a micro-SD with an adapter in the unit. I suppose that makes sense. Otherwise it looks good to go!