# questions on decks, and satellite radio



## jessman (Oct 24, 2006)

On CD decks, like at bestbuy or circuit city, on the card there are numbers like:

50 x 4 watts


The guy said to match up wattage with wattage on speakers, but all the speakers are like 200 watts, and not 50 x 4 watts. What does this 50x4 mean?

Also, what are preouts? I see some decks have 2 and some have 3, which is better?


And with satellite radio, when I get either an XM or sirius they come with car kits, so is that everything I need right there, to start listening to it in the car? a couple of the radios I was looking at came with something called a secure direct cord or something like that. where would that plug into?


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## jaggerwild (May 21, 2007)

Hey Jess,
guys at best buy (no offense if anybody here does) don't know all that much really. The 50x4 watts means that it has four outputs for speakers, total of 200 watts. Most units are four channel too so.......... Cheap ones may not be.
Preouts are for an Amp to amplify the sound to a bass box or replacement speakers too.
The car kit usually has all you'll need, some cars have special needs but not all. Let them know what car you have to make sure that you will not need other pieces for it. The secure thing I've not heard of.


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## jessman (Oct 24, 2006)

I have a 94 buick century

So to find out what wattage a deck is, I just multiply that 50x 4 to get the overall wattage.


Also, are Alpine, JVC, Sony, Kenwood, and pioneer good deck brands?

When I was looking at them at bestbuy, they all said the same thing on the card (sat radio ready, bluetooth ready, ipod ready, etc)

The only thing I really noticed was that the pioneer ones tended to not have any AUX port on the front, so this made me think that they are rubbish decks, cause how else would you hook your MP3 player to them


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## Slimjd2001 (Jun 2, 2008)

with speakers saying that they are 200w etc... that is there maximum power load, so they can play at a maximum power of 200w while their RMS (which is continuous) will only be like 75wrms or so, the higher the Wrms the better, all the aforementioned decks are good, pioneer may not have a 3.5mm jack for mp3 players but generally have an Aux set of RCA's at the rear, so u would get two RCA's too a 3.5mm jack to solve your problem of Aux listening. When the deck says that it is ready for something it means that there is an attachment or additional piece of hardware required to actually use that function even though the deck is 'ready' to use it. The more pre outs the better i tend to believe but it also depends on the volts of those pre outs, but that is more then focusing on sound quality etc. 3 pre-outs generally mean that there are two preouts for the front and rear speakers and 1 set of pre outs for a subwoofer. Alpine are arguably the best bang for your buck when it comes to car stereo's but it comes down to personal preferance for example i love clarion and tend to use only clarion hardware but i also use pioneer which is also a good solid reputable brand. That should just about cover it, anymore questions just fire away.

Cheers JD


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## jessman (Oct 24, 2006)

ok the other thing that usually confuses me is Ipod hookups. There are so many ways to hook up an ipod or MP3 to the deck! I know how the Fm transmitter, AUX cables, and cassete tape adapter work, but What are these Ipod interface boxes from kenwood, pioneer, etc? Also, those same brands make some Ipod cables for their decks. Are these the same as AUX cables?


And lastly, What is the HArmen Karden drive an play kit? Why would you choose that?


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## jaggerwild (May 21, 2007)

Usually a deck comes with a hook up nowa days, not to say it will but.......
Harmen Kardon is a GOOD quality name brand!



> but What are these Ipod interface boxes from kenwood, pioneer, etc?


 Usually there just FM modulators, basically they interface so you will have to preset a channel for the I-pod to play through the stereo, I'm pretty sure this is the most common one too.

If you have a choice to use try a USB hook up as there is less chance to loss sound quality there, IMHO.
post back...


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## jessman (Oct 24, 2006)

ok, one last thing I thought of, when a deck says bluetooth ready, does that mean if I but a hands free kit, I can talk through the deck?


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## Slimjd2001 (Jun 2, 2008)

no, unless it is the corresponding one to that model h/u, when it says bluetooth ready it means you will have to buy their actual bluetooth receiver ******** to be able to use it through the stereo. The Ipod Interfaces with those brands actually act as itunes, it allows you to connect to the H/U and use the H/U to cycle through all your music playlists etc.


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