Decisions, decisions.

[Tim_P]

ICE time.

In just about every car mag that advertises car audio there is a Sony head unit, CDX L450R or something. It's doing the rounds at £99.99. 4x50W, face off, RDS yadda yadda.

Is it any good?

Normally I dislike Sony head Units but the price makes it tempting and it seems good spec too.

I fancy a change from Kenwood but there appears to be nothing else in that price bracket.

Has anyone seen a better unit for similar money?

Also I'm gonna need some speakers in there. I realise it's best to go with fronts first, so what size are they and what do you recommend?

There is also some amps going cheapish, Boshman or something, £75 for 600W 4ch. Not bad I thought.

So who's gonna be first to tell me what I need?

Cheers in anticipation

[Joycey]

With ICE it's the old - you get what you pay for. The only thing I can see with the Sony is that is has no RCA output to run any amps off (from what I can find). It's not a problem you can't get round, it just means that you will be limited at a later date. But It depends how far you want to go, and usually with ICE it's furthur than you first think.
As for the speakers - I don't know what size fit in a mk2 Astra, but again it's probably what you can afford, ideally you want a set of comonents for the front but they genrally cost more than a set of two or three ways (and you might be limited by the size).
Amp - Don't know a huge amount about them, but from the threads I've seen, people don't seem to rate the cheap ones, but I have used a cheapish amp and it's been ok.
I always try and use stuff that either I've used before, or someone I know has used and it's ok, but you can always post on here and check the reaction.
Anyway I've waffled on enough - Sorry for the long and not very useful reply.

[Tim_P]

Cheers mate.

You've pretty much confirmed what I thought. Never liked Sony head units anyways!