Headunit

[acco-R-d]

what do yall think of this HU. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6982795&type=product&cmp=++&id=1099388622665

i was wanting one that was under $200. i like music with bass ans also headbanger music. what would ya'll recommend?

[Sabz5150]

Decent baseline headunit. I'd prefer more preouts for amping front/rear speakers instead of just subs, but the internal amp should handle that fine.

Plays MP3/WMA, good.

Sirius, good.

Changer, good.

Looks good to me for a baseline unit.

[acco-R-d]

thanks

[HostileJava]

Me no like Sirius. XM is the way to go. More members = no bankrupcy.

[acco-R-d]

lol... me thank you for response..

[Cheeseburger]

ya thats a good one

[acco-R-d]

what is the HU or XM?

[snow_man_20]

what is the HU or XM?

:huh: Well HU = HeadUnit and XM = satilite radio


If you like rock or music with alot of high end sound, and you like rap/music with low end sound. You need somthing with a EQ.

2V pre-out isn't very good either. I don't think you would be happy with this HU.

For 50 bucks more you can get alot more.

I'm going to do some searching for ya,

[snow_man_20]

This is what i would go with for under $200.00,

Pioneer DEH-P7700MP MSRP $300.00 Stats:http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/product/detail/0,,2076_4039_150874695_tab=B,00.html?compName=PNA_ ProductDetailComponent
Pioneer DEH-P6700MP MSRP $250.00 Stats:http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/product/detail/0,,2076_4039_150552873_tab=B,00.html?compName=PNA_ ProductDetailComponent

DEH-P7700MP
http://baystereo.com/pidecarincd.html $198.00
http://www.savinglots.com/lotprod.asp?item=DEHP7700MP $199.00

DEH-P6700MP
http://www.dbuys.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=dby.proPage&product_id=4147&tproi_cid=&CFID=2488173&CFTOKEN=78429658 $168.00
http://www.shopharmony.com/product.asp?file=PRICEGRABBER&i=PIODEHP6700 $159.00

[Sabz5150]

This is what i would go with for under $200.00,

Pioneer DEH-P7700MP MSRP $300.00 Stats:http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/product/detail/0,,2076_4039_150874695_tab=B,00.html?compName=PNA_ ProductDetailComponent
Pioneer DEH-P6700MP MSRP $250.00 Stats:http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/product/detail/0,,2076_4039_150552873_tab=B,00.html?compName=PNA_ ProductDetailComponent

DEH-P7700MP
http://baystereo.com/pidecarincd.html $198.00
http://www.savinglots.com/lotprod.asp?item=DEHP7700MP $199.00

DEH-P6700MP
http://www.dbuys.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=dby.proPage&product_id=4147&tproi_cid=&CFID=2488173&CFTOKEN=78429658 $168.00
http://www.shopharmony.com/product.asp?file=PRICEGRABBER&i=PIODEHP6700 $159.00


I've watched too many Pioneer HUs break to recommend them.

[NXRacer]

i will soon have a (used) Alpine 7892 for sale. Looking for $150 shipped. It works GREAT. It has a flip down face and the face angles in 3 diff positions. The onlything bad about it is it doesnt play MP3's.

*edit* its also XM and Changer ready with 6 (i think) pre-outs on the back.

[88accordalltheway]

since your planning on buying it from my work.....
yea its a good head unit, ive played around with allt he kenwoods, and there right up there with pioneer. Good choice IMO(which counts cause i work in the speaker department at BB) ;)
Good Luck!

[acco-R-d]

well thanks 4 the feed bacl.....but on a low budget so whatv would yall recommend under like 150?

[snow_man_20]

well thanks 4 the feed bacl.....but on a low budget so whatv would yall recommend under like 150?

i know this is a old thead but you said under $200 first and now under $150?? I recomend saveing your $$ because i couldn't recomend anything under $150. It would be hard to find a good HU for that price.

[Vanilla Sky]

for that, i would recommend going used... and yes, i know this is an old thread, too

[snow_man_20]

ok ok, a good NEW headunit. lol,

[mouchyn]

the head unit is the most important part of any stereo system. why would you intentionally get a cheap one? right off the bat, you're limiting yourself to "entry level" sound. The system will never sound good and won't have any room to grow. Then again, i don't know what kind of ears you have. Maybe a crappy $150 head unit from breastbuy will sound good to you.

save your pennies and get a decent one. It makes all the difference in the world. My current head unit has lasted my almost 7 years and i don't plan on getting rid of it any time soon. It cost me $500 when i bought it, but look at how long i've used it. It's been through 4 different cars, 3 girlfriends, two accidents, countless competitions, and people have tried to steal it twice.

personally, i wouldn't pay any less than $250 for a head unit unless i found a great deal on a used one that i knew the history of.

even though my current HU is a sony, i would avoid them if possible. Sony just doesn't make good car audio stuff anymore. It's kinda sad, really. I bought my head unit right after they made their fateful turn down the audio quality hill. I'm rockin the orignal active black flip down face head unit. It's Mobile ES. CDX-M750

[Sabz5150]

the head unit is the most important part of any stereo system. why would you intentionally get a cheap one? right off the bat, you're limiting yourself to "entry level" sound. The system will never sound good and won't have any room to grow. Then again, i don't know what kind of ears you have. Maybe a crappy $150 head unit from breastbuy will sound good to you.

save your pennies and get a decent one. It makes all the difference in the world. My current head unit has lasted my almost 7 years and i don't plan on getting rid of it any time soon. It cost me $500 when i bought it, but look at how long i've used it. It's been through 4 different cars, 3 girlfriends, two accidents, countless competitions, and people have tried to steal it twice.

personally, i wouldn't pay any less than $250 for a head unit unless i found a great deal on a used one that i knew the history of.

even though my current HU is a sony, i would avoid them if possible. Sony just doesn't make good car audio stuff anymore. It's kinda sad, really. I bought my head unit right after they made their fateful turn down the audio quality hill. I'm rockin the orignal active black flip down face head unit. It's Mobile ES. CDX-M750

Not entirely.

I built my entire system for less than $1,000 and it sounds superb. As long as you know what to look for and how to set it up properly, you can get excellent sound for minimal buck. An externally amplified headunit, even though not top end, will yield decent results. Just be sure to buy a HU with decent preouts.

Granted I'm not after earth shattering sound. I prefer to stay on the high quality side. 96KHz > 48KHz > all.

However I will agree 110% with you conerning Sony. Avoid them at all costs.

[Vanilla Sky]

i fully agree with mouchyn... 5 year old $500 HU that costs you $200>new hu that costs you $250

[mouchyn]

Not entirely.

I built my entire system for less than $1,000 and it sounds superb. As long as you know what to look for and how to set it up properly, you can get excellent sound for minimal buck. An externally amplified headunit, even though not top end, will yield decent results. Just be sure to buy a HU with decent preouts.

Granted I'm not after earth shattering sound. I prefer to stay on the high quality side. 96KHz > 48KHz > all.

However I will agree 110% with you conerning Sony. Avoid them at all costs.

that's personal preference, though. No offense, but I bet your system would annoy me if i had to listen to it for any extended period of time. That's because I have competition quality stuff in my car. My sub is only getting about 200W rms. It's a sound quality setup.

Deck: CDX-M750
Front stage: JL Audio XR 525 csi -- two way component system with an programmable external crossover capable of biamp input
Front Stage amps: (2) JBL 80.4 amps bridged to two channels. one amp is for the mids and one amp is for the tweets.
Sub: JL Audio 12W3-V2 in a 1.2 cube sealed enclosure
Sub amp: JBL 300.1 bridged
RCA wires: Stinger double shielded interconnects
Speaker wires: 14 gauge shielded monster cable
Power/Ground wires: Stinger super flexible oxygen free. 2 gauge running from the battery to the distribution block. 4 gauge to the sub amp and 8 gauge to the front stage amps
Distribution block: Stinger with a volt meter

the whole trunk, all 4 doors, roof, and dash have been dynomatted. I also don't have any rear speakers. rear speakers totally destroy the imaging of the front stage. Since I don't have any digital time correction, there's no way to properly integrate rear speakers, so i just leave them out. Most people don't even notice when they listen to my setup.

This isn't a recommendation to anyone, just felt like I should get my setup out there so people know what I have and what my tastes are. I have tuned the musical reproduction with an oscilliscope. I have tweaked the imaging with carefully selected recordings of opera and classical performances. My friend Zach is a music major at Rice university and is an opera performer himself. He knows the recordings we chose intimately. He knows what equipment was used to record it, where it was recorded, what the room should sound like, where the instruments and voices are on the stage, what the shape of the stage is, etc. My front stage is damn accurate.

generally, if the speakers are running off the head unit's internal amp, I won't like the sound. Those internal amps are just crap. Alpine is the only company that makes "decent" internal amps, but even those are cheesey.

really, when it comes down to head unit selection, you have to make your decision on what features you want. sound reproduction hasn't changed in the last decade or so, when it comes to CDs. the quality of the DAC is what is important. If all you want is to listen to normal music CDs, there's nothing wrong with getting a 5 or 7 year old head unit. You can find some nakamichi, alpine, or old sony deck (before they started to suck) and it'll sound better than most of the "fancy" mp3 players made these days.

I don't really care for a deck that can play mp3s and stuff. I want a deck that reproduces music accurately and cleanly. My head unit doesn't even have an internal amp! The space that would normally be taken up by amp circuitry is replaced with higher quality caps, and power supply parts in my head unit. I can burn a music cd in 3 and a half minutes on my computer. Therefore, I don't need a deck that can play mp3s, ya know?

it's always been my thinking that if you need a deck that can play discs that hold 11 hours of music... you might want to look into A.D.D. medicine. Unless you live your life on the hiways, there's no way you listen to that whole disc like a normal cd. you skip around from song to song like a 7 year old with the TV remote. i haven't really seen any easy way to navigate MP3 cds, either. really, it boils down to track by track selection just like a normal cd -- except there are hundreds of songs.

"hmmm, i want to listen to Enter Sandman. That was track 146 or something" *click click click click click click click click click...*

[Hash_man_Se_i]

^^^ Lol, I totally agree with that comment about the mp3 cd's... I have an Alpine CDA-9813 and I love it, but I have never even made myself an mp3 cd, I just can't be bothered.

Depending on what you want to do, maybe try and find one of last years alpine decks, as they still had the 4v pre-out, and this year, they have dropped it significantly. But if you never plan to run an amp or anything off the deck, then that doesnt really matter.
Clarion are pretty good decks too if you don';t want to spend much, but I personally Have not had any experience with Pioneer HU's.

and SQ is the way to go IMO... i wouldn't have my system any other way. And IMO if you want the really good sounding stuff, you will have to dish out some money,

[Vanilla Sky]

well, for quite a few members here, a seriously expensive setup just isn't possible... this is when i recommend going with used equipment...

what sabz has in his car is carefully selcted equipment... nothing really expensive, but i personally think he needs to upgrade his drivers...

i myself have a set of boston acoustics front speakers and a set of infinity reference mids from my old component set in the rear... i have a POS pioneer deck, no external amp (it's sitting in my closet waiting to go in)... i've been asked if i have subs, and i just laugh... my next good deck will be either an eclipse or a nakamich... for the time being, i'll have to get what i consider a disposable CD player (because i'm gonna upgrade again in the somewhat near future anyway) like a mid line clarion, panasonic, or blaupunkt... i may consider something used...

oh, and i love MP3 capability... too bad most people trade off the MP3 capability for features that i'd much rather have...

to me, features like time correction are useless because i have a distaste for anything above what mids can produce in the rear... when i put new speakers in my car, it's getting Vifa PL18W0-09-04 7" midbasses all around, and one of 3 vifa tweeters in the front only... i may consider a small (10") subwoofer, something along the lines of a dayton audio MKIII...

you know, i think it would be a good idea for someone to set up an audio recommendation thread here where we post what we recommend for that price level...

[TheWatcher]

Since you're only gonna spend $200 on a HU, you're not gonna be spending alot of money on your tunes. So the real question you have to be asking yourself is ... is this all, or will I upgrade in the future? If you have to throw out your HU to upgrade later, then maybe you should spend some bucks upfront, since the HU will be a limiting factor in the future if you want to upgrade.

Lots of good advice, so I'll add my $0.02. Get mp3 capability, then when your car is robbed, you only lose the dozen burned mp3 cdrs, NOT your 20-50 CDs. Get 5V preamps - front and rear minimum, subwoofer and center would be nice. 5V gives you a cleaner signal w/ less noise when you get amps in the future. Get a removeable face, they all have them now, and take the face off and bring it in your house (when you go to work, put it in your trunk, out of sight). Without the face, it is less attractive to thieves. If you get a HU w/ AUX, you can plug in your iPod or whatever portable mp3 player you own.

Kenwoods have a code you can set, if the HU is disconnected from power, they need the code to make it work, there are 9999 possible codes. If you register with Kenwood, just call your Kenwood repair in your area if its stolen. If the perps are dumb enough to bring it to Kenwood to get it reset, the serial number will come up as yours and your call to Kenwood will let them know its stolen. They can call the cops, you get back at least your HU, and if your lucky, you get your ride back. Experienced thieves know Kenwood HU need the code, so they probably will move on, since its no use to them (no code).

$200 can get you a good HU, but don't be cheap. Otherwise, you will have to buy another one later when you upgrade. Spend the money to get a good one now, so you won't have to buy another one later.

Peace.

[Sabz5150]

that's personal preference, though. No offense, but I bet your system would annoy me if i had to listen to it for any extended period of time. That's because I have competition quality stuff in my car. My sub is only getting about 200W rms. It's a sound quality setup.

Deck: CDX-M750
Front stage: JL Audio XR 525 csi -- two way component system with an programmable external crossover capable of biamp input
Front Stage amps: (2) JBL 80.4 amps bridged to two channels. one amp is for the mids and one amp is for the tweets.
Sub: JL Audio 12W3-V2 in a 1.2 cube sealed enclosure
Sub amp: JBL 300.1 bridged
RCA wires: Stinger double shielded interconnects
Speaker wires: 14 gauge shielded monster cable
Power/Ground wires: Stinger super flexible oxygen free. 2 gauge running from the battery to the distribution block. 4 gauge to the sub amp and 8 gauge to the front stage amps
Distribution block: Stinger with a volt meter


You'd be suprised. I would agree that better drivers would be nice, but when I make this sytem strut its stuff, it sounds pretty damn good.


the whole trunk, all 4 doors, roof, and dash have been dynomatted. I also don't have any rear speakers. rear speakers totally destroy the imaging of the front stage. Since I don't have any digital time correction, there's no way to properly integrate rear speakers, so i just leave them out. Most people don't even notice when they listen to my setup.

I *need* rear speakers. 5.1 demands it. There is no way around that one for me.


This isn't a recommendation to anyone, just felt like I should get my setup out there so people know what I have and what my tastes are. I have tuned the musical reproduction with an oscilliscope. I have tweaked the imaging with carefully selected recordings of opera and classical performances. My friend Zach is a music major at Rice university and is an opera performer himself. He knows the recordings we chose intimately. He knows what equipment was used to record it, where it was recorded, what the room should sound like, where the instruments and voices are on the stage, what the shape of the stage is, etc. My front stage is damn accurate.

The processor takes care of most of that by itself. What makes my sound system sound good are the six 48 - 96KHz discrete channels.


really, when it comes down to head unit selection, you have to make your decision on what features you want. sound reproduction hasn't changed in the last decade or so, when it comes to CDs. the quality of the DAC is what is important. If all you want is to listen to normal music CDs, there's nothing wrong with getting a 5 or 7 year old head unit. You can find some nakamichi, alpine, or old sony deck (before they started to suck) and it'll sound better than most of the "fancy" mp3 players made these days.

Nak = good. Alpine = bad.


I don't really care for a deck that can play mp3s and stuff. I want a deck that reproduces music accurately and cleanly. My head unit doesn't even have an internal amp! The space that would normally be taken up by amp circuitry is replaced with higher quality caps, and power supply parts in my head unit. I can burn a music cd in 3 and a half minutes on my computer. Therefore, I don't need a deck that can play mp3s, ya know?

it's always been my thinking that if you need a deck that can play discs that hold 11 hours of music... you might want to look into A.D.D. medicine. Unless you live your life on the hiways, there's no way you listen to that whole disc like a normal cd. you skip around from song to song like a 7 year old with the TV remote. i haven't really seen any easy way to navigate MP3 cds, either. really, it boils down to track by track selection just like a normal cd -- except there are hundreds of songs.

"hmmm, i want to listen to Enter Sandman. That was track 146 or something" *click click click click click click click click click...*

A deck that plays mp3s is quite useful to me. Hell, my changer has mp3 playback capability. As far as searching, the changer has a search feature. Artist, title, etc. Punch it in and it'll find it. Also, a lot of the music I listen to are live performances that are two to eight hours long. Fit that on a single audio disc. I can take the slight hit in quality, since most of them are radio broadcasts. The changer simply serves as a jukebox that I just smack the Random button on and forget.

[Ludi Mali]

I always used this analogy when thinking about HU. The HU is like a diamond and the amp\speakers are like a magnifying glass. Even if you have the best magnifying glass in the world its not gonna make a shitty diamond look nice.

[Sabz5150]

Since you're only gonna spend $200 on a HU, you're not gonna be spending alot of money on your tunes. So the real question you have to be asking yourself is ... is this all, or will I upgrade in the future? If you have to throw out your HU to upgrade later, then maybe you should spend some bucks upfront, since the HU will be a limiting factor in the future if you want to upgrade.

Lots of good advice, so I'll add my $0.02. Get mp3 capability, then when your car is robbed, you only lose the dozen burned mp3 cdrs, NOT your 20-50 CDs. Get 5V preamps - front and rear minimum, subwoofer and center would be nice. 5V gives you a cleaner signal w/ less noise when you get amps in the future. Get a removeable face, they all have them now, and take the face off and bring it in your house (when you go to work, put it in your trunk, out of sight). Without the face, it is less attractive to thieves. If you get a HU w/ AUX, you can plug in your iPod or whatever portable mp3 player you own.

Kenwoods have a code you can set, if the HU is disconnected from power, they need the code to make it work, there are 9999 possible codes. If you register with Kenwood, just call your Kenwood repair in your area if its stolen. If the perps are dumb enough to bring it to Kenwood to get it reset, the serial number will come up as yours and your call to Kenwood will let them know its stolen. They can call the cops, you get back at least your HU, and if your lucky, you get your ride back. Experienced thieves know Kenwood HU need the code, so they probably will move on, since its no use to them (no code).

$200 can get you a good HU, but don't be cheap. Otherwise, you will have to buy another one later when you upgrade. Spend the money to get a good one now, so you won't have to buy another one later.

Peace.

Decks that do not have surround capabilities will not have a center channel. In about 99.9% of the cases, the only way you will have a center channel preout coming directly from your headunit is if you have a DVD headunit with DD or DTS processing built in.

Front/Rear/Sub, that's the norm.

[mouchyn]

I *need* rear speakers. 5.1 demands it. There is no way around that one for me.

ah yes! 5.1 is the only way I would ever incorporate rear speakers in my car, too. The rears would only make sound when a 5.1 signal is being played, too. For normal studio, stereo music, it's all front stage.

how come you don't like alpine? I've never found someone who didn't like alpine's quality...

[Vanilla Sky]

i'm not too fond of alpine... i guess it's from seeing all the OEM decks that are built by alpine die horrible deaths...

[mouchyn]

the OEM alpine decks are nothing like the aftermarket units. The aftermarket units, even ones that are 10-15 years old still take home 1st place trophies at competitions year after year after year.

[Vanilla Sky]

true, but i think there's better out there for the money... low end nakamichi decks can be had for the price of a worthwhile alpine...

[Sabz5150]

ah yes! 5.1 is the only way I would ever incorporate rear speakers in my car, too. The rears would only make sound when a 5.1 signal is being played, too. For normal studio, stereo music, it's all front stage.

how come you don't like alpine? I've never found someone who didn't like alpine's quality...

For normal audio play, I can use the processor's SRS option. It can usually make sense of the audio and do a pretty decent simulated surround. It also handles everything outside actually playing CD/DVDs and analog volume control so even though the deck IS an important part, it isn't AS important, hence I can get by with a lesser priced one. (Also, finding a HU with the options I need puts me in two places: inexpensive and UBER expensive. Don't ask me why.)

http://www.enginevoodoo.com/images/decndec.jpg

That's the HU and processor. Wish the camera quality was better.

As for Alpine, they're like the Timberlands or Lugz of car audio. They're popular because of the name. You can get much better for your money and you know it, but everyone goes with the name. I prefer names like Clarion, Quart, Nak and the like.

[mouchyn]

no doubt. clarion, quart, and nak are all quality products.

[Hash_man_Se_i]

As for Alpine, they're like the Timberlands or Lugz of car audio. They're popular because of the name. You can get much better for your money and you know it, but everyone goes with the name. I prefer names like Clarion, Quart, Nak and the like.

Thats very true... Although, Alpine used to make some really nice decks... lately though they have moved their manufacturing plants out of Japan, so quality has gone downhill... and 1 or 2v preouts... wtf is that about?!

But... that being said, the Alpine F1 stuff is still pretty nice, especially the HU.

I work at a high end car audio shop, and a lot of the time, just the average customer will pick an Alpine over an Eclipse, or something else, just because they want alpine, or they like many of the features it comes with.