TTurboPimp

iTrader: (12)

Im looking for headrest monitors for my GS. I was looking at the Alpine 6.5", but damn they are steeply priced, or maybe monitors are more expensive than I thought. Has anyone here used a different monitor that they liked? Prices? Pros and Cons?

Thanks

VVT-i

I used 5" Mobile TV. It's a little bit too small but you can get a pair for under $400.00. The picture is good ,IMO, but may not good for the other. If you want your car for show then you have to go with Alpine.
The Mobile TV is good quality picture and inexpensive. But no remote to adjust the picture( the adjusting is on the side and you have to remove the screen to adjust it) and no head unit or what so ever incoporated with this unit. It's pretty much a stand alone unit, but I'm happy with mine. I think 6" is perfect.
Some of the member use the 7", but have to use the back seat headrests to install the monitors. Very nice set up.

DoubleWhoosh

This is like most other things, you will get what you pay for. The $500whatever/$600whatever you pay for the Alpines will get you a nice monitor with pretty good capabilities and features. Yes, there are decent $200 ones out there as well, but if you ever did an a/b comparison, you'd see that the picture quality isn't as good.

If you can only afford the cheaper ones, those will suit you fine. If you want really nice ones, you will have to pay for it.

The price differential isn't that much either, not like $100 vs $900 or anything like that. If it was me I'd just save up the little bit more and get the better stuff. That's just me though.

Do also remember that a good install in the headrests will cost a pretty penny as well.

We're doing two GS's for headrests with the 6.5 Alpines as we speak, $800 per headrest (price includes the monitors). This includes complete 100% rebuilding of the headrest including the foam and the leather. Kinda expensive, but overall not a bad price considering it's done right.

You can use that price to gauge with when shopping around...

Todd Matsubara
TM Engineering LLC
www.tmengineering.net

TTurboPimp

iTrader: (12)

Todd, thats actually a pretty fair price compared to what I have been quoted on so far, although I just started looking. The shop that I used to build my trunk up quoted me $700 per Alpine 6.5 monitor(which is about $200 to high), and $250 to $300 for install, and I doubt that they are building back up the foam on the headrests. So given that, $800 per doesnt sound too bad.

DoubleWhoosh

Yeah, it's a totally fair price as far as I can tell. Plus when you see the total hack jobs from other places, it looks like an even better deal!

I'm definitely not soliciting here, just helping you gauge what's out there and trying to steer you away from any mistakes!

Just FYI, the upholstery people here do all the Alpine demo cars (RSX, X5, etc.) and also did everything in Steve Brown's M3 including the leather on the crazy dash! So it's definitely good work.

Todd Matsubara
TM Engineering LLC
www.tmengineering.net

futuregs

Farenheight. =]

Rico's Revenge

I use the MobileTV as well and $400 for (2) 5" is a smokin' deal! The MobileTV units are very good quality and as the size goes up , so does the price. A 7" MobileTV and a 7" Alpine will be within $50 priced at retail and have similar quality. The Alpine name (which IMO is NOT what it used to be, that coming from a 15 year Alpine guy) will cost you that extra $50.

Either way you go, you will be happy with the picture, and hey...you probably don't spend a lot of time in the back seat anyway! Wait a minute, that didn't come out right...

But to echo what Todd said, the install is the key. I didn't go real crazy with the install on mine. I had new headrest leather anyway and I cut away the foam (and some of the plastic form) to allow the mounting bracket to be placed under the cover. Then I put the cover over it, cut the cover and installed the monitor. This way there is no big mounting bracket/trim ring on the outside of your seat.

Anyway, I'll put a couple of pics of mine below...Todd's deal at $800 would be fantastic! If he'd throw in shipping, you should immediately contact him and go for it. It is rare for someone to get the chance for people of that quality to work on your car!!

Todd (Dalton)

TTurboPimp

iTrader: (12)

Those look pretty good to me, Im definitely diggin the two tone interior, looks good on that tan leather.

Lexdub99

Accele in my opinon makes the best monitors for any mobile video application. Accele deals only with monitors and mobile video entertainment and carries over 200 hundred produtcs in there line. If u have any questions about the monitors pm me for model info and availabilty. And also accele's prices are no where near as steep as alpine or quite a few other monitors and honetsly mobile tv monitors are terrible and they only have a decent picture if your are sitting directly in front of them otherwise the picture usually is distorted from other viewpoints.