Sup guys, price range for price range, which head-units do you guys prefer? Alpine or Pioneer. I'm currently shopping for a head unit around 200 dollars MSRP cheaper at ebay. Pioneer 200 dollar range they have the DEH-4700 and Alpine in that price range the best one is the CDE-9845. Anyways, yeah, alpine or pioneer?

 

I believe Alpine are performance headunits. Also Alpine headunit looks more pretty

 

sup guys, let me clarify a little, i'm shopping for head units around 200 dollars. MSRP that is, and I think in that price range its between these head units

Alpine CDE-9845 - 200 dollars MSRP
Alpine CDA-9847 - 250 dollars MSRP

or

Pioneer DEH-P6700MP - 250 dollars MSRP
Pioneer DEH-4700MP - 200 dollars MSRP

I DONT KNOW SHIT ABOUT AUDIO, this is for my old ass 1988 Camry 4 door, thats all stock at the moment. I plan to just upgrade my speakers (3.5" front) and (5.25" rears) to cheap 35-50 dollar drop in replacements.

I'll only go for the 250 dollar ones if it provides a significant upgrade over the 200 dollar ones. Now, On to the question at hand...

Alpine or Pioneer? Like I said I dont know shit about Audio, but I do know the Pioneer HUs come with a remote control, so thats a big plus... anyways need your opinions ppl!

 

i personally own a pioneer premier

up until recently i would have ALWAYS said pionner is my preferred headunit. I have gone through many headunits, nakamichis, alpines, and a few pioneers, and the pioneers have always been the only ones to never break on me. i owned a P1R, worked flawlessly, traded for a P930, which i sold to my bro, and liked it so much, i bought another P930. all of them worked very well.

however, i have yet to see a new pioneer headunit come out recently that has really caught my eye. even the one i have seems too flashy and dare i say "ricey". maybe my taste just has changed since i was a teenager (like 3 years ago). But the Alpines these days look much better, and i have heard the build quality on them is better as well. I only have owned one alpine (7965), and i bought it used, and received it without a working sub out . So maybe i just haven't given them a fair chance.

so basically if i were to buy a new headunit, i would be looking at probably an Alpine....(or maybe an Eclipse, but i don't want to complicate things more than they already are). and this is assuming both companies offer the same basic specs in your price range.

 

alpine

 

I dig Alpine gear. I'm on my second unit (different models, different cars) and I have no complaints. But, for full disclosure, I have no experience with Pioneer. All I want to say is that unless there is some particular feature you absolutely have to have, I'd stick to your $200 cap, as anything more would likely be a waste - given your stated experience.

 

 

alpine, no doubt about it

 

of those you mentioned, i think the alpine 7845 would be enough for you. I think the only real advantage of the 7847 would be that it has a dedicated subwoofer out, but if you aren't planning on using that, it doesn't really help you.

If you plan on upgrading in the future however. 3 preouts is very helpful, and i would recommend trying to get at least 4V preouts, if you're gonna be running external amps. I don't think any of the headunits you mention offer the 4V outputs, so they are probably more expensive than you are looking to spend. But if you just need something to play CD's/MP3's, i think the 7845 would be enough.

another thing that kinda bugs me about pioneer is that except for their top of the line models, it is hard to find them with the motorized faces. I never really liked the flip down things. i guess some people might like it, cause it looks a little cleaner, but it seems like it would be annoying to have to flip that thing open every time you want to change the CD.

 

it's pretty clear. alpine.

 

Alright, seems like Alpine is the way to go with this. Do you guys know If I can get a remote control and how much it cost for the Alpine CDE-9845? I think only the 9847 is "wireless remote control ready" but I'm not sure. Remote control would be really convenient for me, not a necessity, but a really nice feature to have.

 

alpine > *

 

Eclipse HU

 

 

You have to get an alpine that comes with a remote. not all alpine has remote capabilities. I would recommend an alpine with a remote though.. pushing buttons on the headunit fades away the numbers lol.

As someone mentioned before, not to get you confused but Eclipse also is a performance headunit - just a fyi. What do you want to do with this camry? You want it to hit super hard?? I think camrys are good for it. Do the back seats fold down??

 

I would always pick Alpine over Pioneer.

 

 

Well guys, the 200 dollar Pioneer head unit (DEH 4700) can be had for ~115 dollars new, and comes with a remote, while the 200 dollar Alpine unit (CDE-9845) can be had for ~130 but doesn't come with a remote, and isn't remote ready. At this point, i'm leaning towards the Pioneer unit... am i making a big mistake?

It'll be for a 1988 camry with (probably) crappy drop in replacements for the stock speakers, 50 dollar speakers for the front 3.5" and 50 dollar speakers for the rear 5.25", so yeah. Am i making a big mistake? Will it be a noticable difference between the Pioneer and Alpine?

 

Thinking about getting these speakers to replace my stock front dash speakers.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-xtfeoDI...0&I=023ODX352A


And these to replace my rears.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-xtfeoDI...0&I=20605KS525



Heres the list of what fits, could you guys tell me if they're decent choices?


Available 5.25" speakers that http://www.crutchfield.com/S-xtfeoDI....asp?g=400&l=E


Available 3.5" speakers that fit
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-xtfeoDI....asp?g=400&l=A

 

You'll never use the remote, so don't base your purchase on that.

 

i use my remote all the time........course i bought the big nice pioneer remote instead of that tiny steering wheel remote they give you. but i guess everyone is different.

i don't think you'll be too dissappointed in a pioneer headunit, i would gladly take them over almost any other headunit brand (besides alpine and eclipse). so i think you could do a lot worse. course i haven't check out any of their new stuff, so hopefully their quailty hasn't diminished too much in the like 4 years.....

 

since the speakers are cheap, i guess go with the cheap headunit..

 

where in LA are you?
have you been to the wherehouses in downtown, on like 11th and central?

i used to go there all the time, and usually found their prices competitive w/ ebay prices, after shipping. I haven't been there in a few years, but you might want to check them out if you are going to be buying a lot of stuff, as you can usually bargain with them a little.

last time i was there however, they had gotton pretty upscale, so maybe their prices have gone up, but i'm pretty sure they can offer better deals that crutchfield. and the convience of it helps if you're gonna be buying a lot, as it's basically a one stop shop for everything you need, (or shops as there are like 6 different stores on one block).

 

Pioneer if you want full control over your internal crossover, and eq. Pioneer > alpine

 

Alpine if you want the option of running an active crossover and a 31-band equalizer.

Alpine >> Pioneer.

 

11th and Central? What's the name of this place and does it have a website? Oh and im not too familiar with downtown, wheres that? I know where Figueroa, wilshire, olympic, spring and stuff are though... How far is it from figeuroa?


Oh and do you know any decent place to get my stuff installed for a decent price? Basically a head unit, and 4 drop in speakers...

 

You want clearity...Alpine is the way to go!!!!!!!!

 

Show me an Alpine head unit that has a 1/3 octave EQ built in.

Ease of Use: Pioneer
Looks: Subjective
Quality: Tie
SQ: slight edge to alpine, provided you have good enough drivers to hear the diff.
Features: Tie

If it were up to me, I'd use and Eclipse, but Pioneer or the newer Kenwoods after that.

 

i'd actually give the Ease of Use to Alpine. I think they are much more user friendly

for me, i like the pioneer having the full digital eq, but i think a majority of people would like the simple BASS, TREBLE, and sometimes MIDRANGE adjustment. I guess pioneer has the built in eq presets, but trying to make a custom eq range, is kinda hard.
My pioneer premier even gets me pretty confused sometimes. And don't even get me started when i was trying to configure my P1R, the manual for that was like a small novel.

sorry i don't really know any good places in SoCal to install that kind of stuff. I know some pretty nice audio shops up in glendale/pasadena, but for a simple headunit install, i can't really think of anyplace to recommend that would be cheap. I personally have never paid for any professional audio installation, so i haven't been to that many shops either.

 

Hmm... how much does a head unit install run? does anyone know?

 

DIY!

 

^ comming from a Kicker fan (Still Water Designs)


Show me a Pioneer that gives u a 6 ch TC processor with ms adjustments.

Ease of use: read the damn manuel
Looks: If u can't see the title of the song cuz a fuking dophin is jumping around on the damn screen, then u answerd wrong... But yeah, it's "subjective"
Quality: It says something about quality when most Alpine costomers are worse then VW owners when it comes to loyalty.
SQ: ummmm yeah....
Features: toys vs. tools

ALPINE >*.*