Blaupunkt Alaska RDM168 Car CD Player

I got this at Fry's Electronics (Southern California) at the same time I got my Polk DX3065 components. I paid $50 for it because they're an older model now. The guy who reviewed earlier probably had crap reception because of his rural location and in-windshield antenna. If you set the menu options BEFORE you go on long drives, you shouldn't have to mess with them while you're driving. Blah, blah, but I digress. The red was the last color they had (the guy before me picked up the last blue face) but oh well, for 50 bucks... Open it up and I'm greeted by this matte finish red face receiver. I kinda like the look. It is a drop in install for my car, an '89 Honda CRX, mounting ring had more than enough tabs to secure it to the console trim. The included wiring harnesses allow for all connections except for RCA pre-outs and CD changer hookup. Those must be purchased separately. The installation instructions are fairly detailed and contain more than enough info for even novice installers although I recommend you take measurements and check fit before you do ANYTHING. Also testing connections would probably be a good idea. The wiring harness for the power lines weren't labeled but the speaker harness was, and even if you lose the instructions, it's printed on the top of the deck so hooking it up the wrong way is pretty difficult. The box also included a faceplate case (detachable face security) which was a nice touch, and also removal clips/handles for the proprietary Blaupunkt locking system which actually locks the deck into the mounting ring. Nice. Now we come to performance. This is a '99 model and even though I got it for dirt cheap (again, $50) it was a higher end model for Blau at the time. Almost everything is customizable from the menu system which is fully detailed with options in the excellent instruction manual. Power-on, display, on-volume, mute volume, low-pass EQ, loudness, etc. etc. Almost too many features. The sound quality is excellent with my Polk DX3065's but I suspect the deck would sound good with just about any aftermarket speaker, even running off of the deck power (14watts RMS, 40 peak) as my components aren't slamming, but more than adequate for freeway driving (85mph in SoCal). You should be able to find one at this point for well under $200. Great value and lots of features for the money, but setup of the features should be left to someone familiar with car stereos as novices could easily kill performance with arbitrary feature changing from the menu.