What up ya'll. I'm about to get a new cd head unit today but I'm torn. What manufactuers should I be looking at? Kenwood, Alpine, Panasonic, Pioneer, JVC? I saw a nice Panasonic but I don't know how reliable they are. My boy just but a cool JVC in his 98 Lengend coupe and that shit is ridiculous! Gimme some ideas. thx

here's a pic of the alpine

http://www.alpine1.com/html/D2_n_1_n_n.html

here's the panasonic

http://r1.east.rmi.yahoo.com/rmi/htt...X701&display=L

here's the jvc

http://r1.east.rmi.yahoo.com/rmi/htt...SH77&display=L

 

heres the Alpine

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/carau....asp?sku=11634

 

The made legends in 98?

Anyway i have a pioneer and i really like it. My parents have a panasonic headunit in the truck and it looks really nice but the buttons are too small and hard to push. The alpine is probably the highest quality followed by kenwood as the prices probably show. So get what you can afford

 

oops you're right, I meant '89 Legend coupe (L). thx for the info.

 

I have the panasonic cq-df800u. I bought over 3 years ago when it first came out and it cost me like $400. Its really great HU that has not given me any problems at all. The only complaint that I have is that when the sun shines right at the face its really hard to read. At night its awesome when it changes colors to blue and its really easy to read then. So IMO panasonic receivers are very reliable.

 

I have a kenwood. my last deck was a panasonic. The kenwood is by far superior. It does everything, cd text, RDS, naming discs, calender, memos. It has the electronic mask, so it turns around backwards when its off, everyone who sees it for the first time just loves it, when ever i take my car some where to get it worked on they always tell me that they love my CD player. The only thing it doesnt do is play MP3 cd's.

 

personally if u want a decent unit i liek pioneer. they seem to give u the most for the $$$ they are much better then average, but its no eclipse.

 

I like poineer also, but would opt for the pioneer premier, they sound really good and have nice functions like seperate controls for your subs. Eclipse would probably be my #1 pic, followed by kenwood and clarion.

 

i got the alpine, its the best thing out there right now

 

I've heard some not-so-great things about the JVC Kameleon line from various people, but went ahead and got one anyway. The few months that I had one in my car I liked it. The mechanism is nice, and quality is pretty good, and the prices are fairly good on Ebay (also, I'm selling mine..).

I'm sure there are better headunits, but I was perfectly satisfied with the JVC Kameleon.

 

i just bought that panasonic face.....except its the 901 (top line 60x4).....i love it....looks awsome, and at night its the coolest thing out there! I like the looks, as im doing a complete brushed aluminum kit to match it and having my woodgrain wrapped in leather......so i got it for looks too.....but like the other dude said, it does get difficult to read sometimes during the day...but once you learn the buttons you know what its doing.....the sound quality and volume out the stock speakers with that headunit is 4/fold.......i cant wait to hear it with some kappa perfect components!....KIT with your decision!

 

ill defenately get the alpine but NOT the 79series b/c it has no internal amp. U will need external amps. If ur going to have a full system expansion than go for it. I would go with the one i have. the 7875 is exact same thing but WITH an internal amp. V-drive 60x4. Its very strong for internal amp, Its so strong that i am powering premier speakers and components off the deck and at over halfway level its hurts. its confortable at level 17 out of 35. about halfway.
BUt i will get the 7875 b/c its the same thing and u can power ur speakers before u get an amp( if u decide to get one. I didnt)

 

Depends on your $$$$....

any alpine would be great... obviously some better for more $$$...

if not Pioneer I'm assuming would be good to.... but its gotta be the high end models... not just any...

I have bought a Nokamichi 6-disc in-dash radio... its costly but rated as giving one of the clearest signals...

best bang for your $$$ is Apline by far!

 

kenwood..alpine..pioneer .. no way ... go with an eclipse... all those u mentioned spend all there money and time on looks and less on the quality of the sound... nacamitchi is the ugliest HU but gives the best sound ... eclipse was rated second and has a decent display to go with it... spend the loot on sometin good ... not somethin thats pretty...

MaCe

 

Out of those choices, I'd prefer the alpine, if you were going to use it to build a system around it. I personally like my sony h/u, but I know not everyone is into sony h/u...i used to have a pioneer in my civic, and the buttons were simple, easy to use and the sound quality was good for the money. From what i've heard, the new eclipse's aren't as good as they used to be, but still really good h/u's

 

Just get an eclipse, I bought one a couple years ago for around $350, it's worth it.

 

I have actually done a lot of research on this as I am into car audio and I do most all instillation myself

I would look for :
Alpine
Kenwood
Eclipse
Pioneer(decent)

There are deffinately much better ones but you need a lot more money for stuff like that

 

I have an Uncle who runs an install shop in PA, and he swears by Eclipse.

 

... The best out of the bunch is Alpine. They are one of best headunit companies out there.... My fav is Eclipse though and that's what I have. Here's my list

Good
------
Alpine
Eclipse
Nakamichi

Just ok
---------
Pionner
Kenwood
Sony
Panasonic

 

I got the JVC mp3 head unit sh99 shit is nice as hell. it also has a dvd add on like 5 bills but ya gotta buy a screen for it. Good deal mad options on it.

 

I have the JVC SH99 also. Had it for about a month and still trying to use all the features! Sounds awesome! It is 1 step up from the SH77. It looks the same, but the 99 plays mp3s. It decodes folders and files so you can arrange crap on your PC and burn like 12 cds worth of music on 1 cd! Right now, it is the only mp3 player in this price range (370-470) that will decode folders. Any other mp3 player will read mp3s, but not folders. This can be a big pain if you have like 100 songs on 1 cd! If you don't have an extensive collection of mp3s, don't plan to, or no cd burner, then you might want something else. Hope this helps bro.
SWClown

 

Please be advised that any advice given here in is based on knowledge gained years ago.

I used to work at a place called music systems while I was going to school. I have built multiple $20k systems, had multiple cars go to shows (IASCA) and helped on one that was featured in car audio and electronics. So I consider myself somewhat well versed in the area.

During my four years of installation I can say this:

Alpine and Eclipse I loved, all of my personal systems were one or the other

Kakamichi sounded great but had numerous quality problems, we ended up dropping the line.

Hated JVC (which stands for Japanese Victor Corp for those of you who do not know) but I understand that they are alot better than they used to be.

Kenwood at that time was made by SONY (which stands for Someday, Only Not Yet) and could not stand their products.

Pioneer Premiere was OK, but the generic pioneer sucked.

I must agree with most of the advice you have been given, so with an Alpine or an Eclipse, you won't be sorry.

As for speakers, ADS rules, period. But hard to find and very expensive.

 

thanks man. Looks like Alpine is the winner.

 

One last thing

Buy a tuner and not a receiver. The difference is that a tuner does not have a built in amp and a receiver does. Yes, this means you need external amplifiers, but you are going to want those anyway. You usually get more features and more line-level outputs in a tuner. Those power ratings on the receivers are B.S. That kind of output can not be achieved without a switching power supply, the kind you find in good quality amplifiers. The amps in the HU's are chip amps and it is physically impossible for them to put out the amount of power they say they do. Remember your physics, V=IR, no matter what the head unit says it must still obey the laws of physics.

 

Not to say that you are not entitled to your own opinion but...
MACE you smokin some bad shit man! Eclipse only clear unit costs $2500.... and it is NO comparison to ALPINE!

 

go eclipse...good preamp output voltage at a staggering 8 V standard...and with the eclipse eq u can bump it up to either 12 V or to 16 V....it sounds clear as hell because of it...i've heard many different setups to hear the difference...almost all new headunits are less than 4 although they say 4v (thats their max voltage but averages around 2 something)....save money and get eclipse hands down...if not get alpine...very good selection as well

 

fuck all the bullshit and get an eclipse. or if you can find one...the Sony CDX-C90...Sort of rare but an awesome h/u. However..I do not recommend you purchase any other sony products unless you have a fetish for cheap crap.

 

my 2 cents: Eclipse has served me well for the last 6 years. I never had it break on me, although one complaint is the buttons tend to loosen up and wear out quickly. But they sound good.

Nakamachi units sound good, but are ridiculously expensive for the quality. Sometime in the early 90's, they switched their manufacturing plant from japan to taiwan and everything they made (including home equipment) went down in quality.

but whatever head unit you get, make sure you get a good amp for your mids and highs. and as a general rule of mine, I'd rather have an average unit with an average or good amp, than a good unit with a poor amp.

 

Eclipse's rule ... nak's are ok ... but HELLA ugly.