^yup that pretty much sums it up
some other pieces of advice:
a soldered connection is way better than a but connector connection...
The best way to solder
go to radio shack and pick up the following:
-$8 pencil style 15Watt soldering iron (more wattage isn't always better, first timers are better off with lower wattage anyway)
-a spring holster with a sponge (optional)
-a set of "helping hands" (optional)
-some Silver Bearing Solder
-heat shrink tubing that looks like it's big enough to easily slip over you wires.. but not TOO big. you'll need a heat gun (or a hair dryer) to shrink the heat shrink tubing too, if you don't have that, then electrical tape will work fine so pick up that instead.
-cut and and slip on the tubing to all the wires you need
-point the wires at each other and overlap the bare metal and twist them together (like two people shaking hands)
-use the helping hands to hold them in place while you solder... use the iron to heat up the metal and then melt the solder into the metal, use the sponge to clean off the iron if it gets solder on it
-once you've completed all of the joins slide the heat shirink tube up over them all and use your heat gun or hair dryer to shrink each tube one by one, don't over do it through or they'll start to melt right off the wire.
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another thing I've noticed is that the ground wire on the factory stereo harness isn't active. so the stereo needs to actually be mounted in place (with the metal chassis of the stereo grounding to the metal chass of the car) before it will get adequate power.
it doesn't matter what head unit you buy you wont have some booming stereo by just replacing the CD player... those people typically use large external Amplifiers and subwoofer enclosures to produce that level of noise.
honestly if you're just looking for a quality CD player I'd highly recommend Alpine, they're easy to use they sound phenomenal and they're filled with every feature you'd likely want in a CD player.
think about what you want to do with it... CDs? Satellite Radio? iPod hook up? HD Radio? MP3 CDs or External USB media? Bluetooth phone integration? do you want to add subwoofers down the road? if it's a screen unit do you want DVD and navigation?
Also think about what you like on the interface... do you prefer a knob for volume or up and down buttons? do like to read the names of your iPod tracks through the CD player, make sure it's got a screen that will show you the info you want to see... etc.
once you've got the features you're looking for start looking for head units that meet your critera and keep a list of the makes and models... then start looking at which ones have those features BUILT IN and which ones require additional hardware and how much that hardware costs... for instance most CD players require additional hardware to use an iPod... the adapters can range from $20 to $200 on top of the cost of the unit, other CD players have the port built right in and you can use a generic usb ipod cable with them.