Radio Swap Recommendations

[bpd138]

Hello,
We have a 2010 Fleetwood Encounter. It currently has the Magnadyne m1 radio in it. It's kind of old and antiquated so I'm looking for recommendations on what to swap it out with. It's my understanding that this radio is a 1.5 DIN, will a double DIN fit in the hole or will I have to get creative and do a little cutting? Should I go with a radio like a Kenwood, Jenson, Pioneer ect., or should I go with an Android based system?
As always, thanks in advance for any help.

 

[GypsyR]

I divide the radios into two categories, name brand and no name who knows.
There are a whole bunch of variables, it depends on what you want.
I put a no-name double DIN in our driver. Weird tuner but it did what it was supposed to. Win CE operating system which meant you couldn't add or change anything. Had GPS capability and the antenna but you had to buy "Igo" or whatever on a memory card and put it in a slot. Definitely gawky and quirky. Played CD's and DVD's and had a backup camera setup. Finicky touchscreen. Lasted about a year and started having power issues where it would just shut off. One day it didn't come back on anymore.

Next one was about the same thing but upgraded. Scored cheap off eBay. This one is Android and I made sure there was mention that it had and would work with Google Play. Meaning I could download what I want. Swapped it in. It's been over two years now. We played a DVD once to see how it worked and never put another DVD or CD in since so we probably could have skipped that. Tuner is goofy. Goes to 88.3 FM most of the time after you've cut the car off. So you have to hit one of your presets to listen to something. Sometimes like at a gas stop it will remember what you were listening to and pick right up where it left off like every radio did for 60 years.
On road trips I hotspot wifi on my phone and then we listen to Slacker/LiveXLive, or Pandora, etc as we drive. Backup music is a bunch of MP3's on a small thumb drive or simply using a phone's earphone jack. Has Blutetooth to answer phone calls etc, but we don't use it.

Currently in our coach I have and older single DIN with an audio input jack. During trips I mount an Android tablet above it and jack it in. From there we use our choice of GPS apps and music streaming apps. It works fine but I plan to unify all that into a "mechless" touchscreen. Google Play, GPS, and a radio tuner mandatory and don't care about the rest. Got my eye on a couple well under $100 on eBay. I will probably go double DIN as I have all sorts of space to work with.

In your situation I think I'd buy a bracket kit to reduce the 1.5 to a single DIN. Then shop those. There are lots of them now that have a big screen stuck on the front, about as large as you like. I've been eyeing those for my single DIN commuter with an old Pioneer but all I ever do in that truck is play MP3's from a tiny USB drive and have Bluetooth for my phone. Other truck has a Kenwood and does the same thing but the more upscale Kenwood can't play songs in random order from the drive for diddly. Starts with folder three, track 77, every time. The Pioneer has no problem.

Got a Jensen double DIN and adapter kit to put in my wife's Toyota, when I get to it. Has everything but all she cares about is the radio and Bluetooth so she can talk going down the road. Having a backup camera won't hurt I'm sure. I don't see any real value beyond the warranty going with this brand over no-name Chinese. Not for this unit. I have a couple of older Kenwoods that are almost audiophile quality it will be hard for me to let go of even though they are very dated (we have too many vehicles). Nothing wrong with going for a quality brand name.

Hopefully something in all that gives you an idea or two.