If ya asked me, and despite what a lot of people think, everything with those flip-up LCD displays looks cheesy especially with a huge hole in the dash just below it.

I also see some other double-dins with a cassette player to fill in the blank front panel space. Seems like a useless feature to me esp since nobody sells tapes these days, and I bet hardly anyone knows what a tape recorder is anymore. Don't know what those marketing guys are thinking. Seems to me it'd be easier sticking in a flash or disk-based MP3 storage device in that space.

Anyways, to answer the original post's question, if you don't want to use a LOC and you're good with a soldering iron and have basic EE skills, you can easily tap into the stock head unit (at least that's true in my '05) and pull out the equivalent of some preamp signals straight off the internal DSP. I haven't verified it with a scope yet, but it should work fine based on the DSP part specs.

The sound quality should be just as good as any other aftermarket headunit, and you won't have to spend anymore than a few bux for some coax cable and some RCA connectors. You get to keep the system completely stock-looking to boot, and of course, you'll probably technically void any warranty on the HU

 

I totally agree. I think that Nav system would be pretty cool, and there are some double din units that are really nice for the new style f150, but would be too big for my 1.5 din truck. and since i really hate the flip-out displays, I decided against going that route.

 

the cd6 is a 2din right? I have a 98 and with a little modification it fit in there but the player was defective so I'm sending it back and looking for another type of radio other than factory.I already reverted my old 8 plug harness to the new world plug.I dont like the look of a single din in a 1.5 or 1din opening either!Can anyone refer me to a nice 2din HU that wont break my pocket?