A car radio receiver is the heart of your car stereo system. Make the right choice here, and every other component of your sound system will just fall into place.
On this page, we are going to give you an overview of what you need to think about when purchasing digital car stereo receivers.
DIN
This is essentially the size of the opening for your receiver, and it is the first thing you will want to think about:
- Single DIN Size: this slot is 2″ high
- Double DIN Size: this slot is 4″ high
If you are looking for a digital system i.e. with a touchscreen and all, then you will want a double-DIN slot in your vehicle. If you don’t have that, then you will need to purchase a car receiver with a fold-out screen.
How Do You Want To Play Music?
You should think about the ways in which you want to play your music. Remember, the digital car stereo receiver is going to be at the heart of your entire audio system, so you need to ensure that the system is compatible with your sound source.
This should be listed in the specs for the receiver somewhere.
Potential sound sources can include (but certainly won’t be limited to):
- Radio
- Streaming from your smart device
- CD
- USB
- BlueTooth
Is The Digital Car Stereo Receiver Compatible With Your Phone?
Most digital car receivers will either work with Android Auto or Apple CarPlay.
This will essentially enable you to stream the screen of your device onto the touchscreen of your car stereo receiver. This means that you can interact with pretty much the same apps that you have been using on your phone or tablet.
We know that this isn’t an essential feature for some people. However, it is still wise to try and get it running. It can really unlock the functionality of the car stereo receiver e.g. allowing you to access GPS apps, answer phone calls, make phone calls, etc.
What Features Do You Want In Your Digital Car Stereo Receiver?
Gone are the days where car stereo receivers allowed you to do nothing more than play and stop the music. Most digital receivers have a ton of features built into them.
For example, you can find some with GPS built-in (perfect for navigation), and others will enable you to play video files (great for keeping the kids entertained).
TIP: Top of the range head units have Wireless carplay, which allows you to get in your vehicle and drive off all while your iPhone connects to the stereo.
There are some systems that can even hook up to the diagnostic equipment in your vehicle and give you readouts on the vehicle status, etc.
Whenever you are looking to pick yourself up a receiver, we highly suggest that you go through all of the features included. See whether there is anything there that ends up catching your attention.
Car Stereo Compatibility
You will also want to consider compatibility issues when purchasing a new car stereo and whether it will work with your mobile phone.
For instance, Samsung phones don’t work with CarPlay; instead, you’d have to use a default infotainment system.
And for all Android phones, you would also want to consider a stereo with Android Auto built-in.
Digital Touchscreen
We recommend that, if you can afford it, you pick up a digital car stereo receiver with a digital touchscreen built into it. It will make interacting with the receiver that much easier, particularly if you have selected an option with a wealth of features.
Bear in mind that you will probably want to keep that screen size small if you are in a smaller vehicle. Some of those screen sizes can end up being rather bulky!
Conclusion
This is just a brief overview to choosing a new car stereo receiver for your vehicle. There are hundreds of potential options out there, and we hope that this information is going to make it a little bit easier to find the right stereo for you.
All you need to do is work out the size of the DIN slot in your vehicle, and you can go from there.
