Pioneer vs. Panasonic

[87accordlxi]

OK, I want to get a new CD player for my car, and I have it narrowed down to two models, the Pioneer DEH-P3700MP, and the Panasonic CQ-C1301U. I don't want any flashy graphics or all kinds of features other than playing MP3/WMA. I'm not going to add any amps or subs. These two will do the job and don't cost much.

I've had Pioneer in the past and I like them a lot, so I'm pretty sure I would like this one. However, the Panasonic seems to be a bit cheaper, probably because it doesn't have a remote, which I think is unnecessary anyway. But I don't know how they sound. Does anyone have any experience with Pioneer and Panasonic and know of any differences in sound quality between Panasonic and Pioneer?

[Acidbath88accordlx]

I had both Pioneer and panasonic in the past and think that panasonic sounds better... BUT, that was in two different cars (way different) I'd go with the Panasonic... Thats the next brand I might put in my accord or a Alpine... right now I have a JVC KD-S580 180w (45w x 4) cd player

[Vanilla Sky]

panasonic, hands down. i own the panasonic directly below that one (but i have the remote) and it blows the pioneer out of the water. i have a pioneer unit in the next line up, and it's not as good as my panasonic.

[87accordlxi]

Yeah, maybe this Panasonic does have a remote. Doesn't matter much to me.

[MrBen]

Yeah, maybe this Panasonic does have a remote. Doesn't matter much to me.

OMG I have to reach 6 inches to the reciever, I might pass out

[Vanilla Sky]

OMG I have to reach 6 inches to the reciever, I might pass out

remotes are just something that get lost. i've used them once or twice. just when i'm outside of the car and want to change stations, like at a party.

[ACCORD1.8CARB]

so how much this deck gonna run u? if u dont mind me asking. cause im getting a pioneer soon and its tight so i mean u get what u pay 4.and i have an old school panny in now and its nice but i like the whole remote / serius or xm ready deal. cd's get boaring on long drives. oh and the remote is good for say getting out 2 pump gas and changing songs or say busy in the back seat or other and not being able 2 reach up. plus washing your car and many other reasons. but yes its 4 lazy ppl. so count me in.

[86AccordLxi]

Can people really tell the difference in sound between decks?? I had a panasonic in my 3g that I really like a lot. Had an alpine in my gti that was alright. Now I have a panasonic in my 240 that I really like, except for the blue backlighting which is too bright and can't be turned down. But the speakers have been different in all my cars, so I don't think they're really comparable. Plus I have a 12" Pioneer in my 240 that makes it sound infinitely better automatically.

alex

[87accordlxi]

so how much this deck gonna run u? if u dont mind me asking. cause im getting a pioneer soon and its tight so i mean u get what u pay 4.and i have an old school panny in now and its nice but i like the whole remote / serius or xm ready deal. cd's get boaring on long drives. oh and the remote is good for say getting out 2 pump gas and changing songs or say busy in the back seat or other and not being able 2 reach up. plus washing your car and many other reasons. but yes its 4 lazy ppl. so count me in.

I found it for $109.00 here. Plus you get the installation mounting kit and harness free. So after shipping it will probably be around 125 bucks. I've never heard of this store, but they have pretty good feedback on ebay.

[Vanilla Sky]

see if the user "portugalfocus" still has one. i bought mine from him, new in box, for $57 shipped.

[MrBen]

Can people really tell the difference in sound between decks?? I had a panasonic in my 3g that I really like a lot. Had an alpine in my gti that was alright. Now I have a panasonic in my 240 that I really like, except for the blue backlighting which is too bright and can't be turned down. But the speakers have been different in all my cars, so I don't think they're really comparable. Plus I have a 12" Pioneer in my 240 that makes it sound infinitely better automatically.

alex

Yeah there is a huge difference between decks, generally the biggest being between the cheap pieces of crap and the high end ones. I've found that with the cheaper ones you do not get the customization and optimization with sound as you do with higher end ones. Likewise, the difference between brands plays a huge role in this because each brand offers different features and different customizations. For instance, my Sony deck compared to a Pioneer makes the Sony sound horrible because all there was to adjust was bass, treble, and fade on my Sony, while on a Pioneer they have 50 quadrillion settings you can fiddle with. Of course there's lots of other reasons that play roles in this too, such as cheap parts. But whatever, you get the idea.

[87accordlxi]

Can people really tell the difference in sound between decks?? I had a panasonic in my 3g that I really like a lot. Had an alpine in my gti that was alright. Now I have a panasonic in my 240 that I really like, except for the blue backlighting which is too bright and can't be turned down. But the speakers have been different in all my cars, so I don't think they're really comparable. Plus I have a 12" Pioneer in my 240 that makes it sound infinitely better automatically.

alex

Yeah, when the amp blew out on the Pioneer in my 3G, I just went out and picked up a cheapie Dual CD player from Best Buy. There was a very noticeable difference. The Pioneer just sounded clearer, crisper, and you could hear a lot more subtleties in the music. The closest thing I can describe it to is listening to a 192kbs MP3, and then going and listening to the same song in 96kbs. The Dual just sounded muddier. The reason I'm asking this here is so that I don't repeat that same ordeal.

[86AccordLxi]

Hmmm ok. Thanks for clearing that up. All my decks have been around 200-250 and to me they've all sounded just fine.

Alex

[88eyeguy]

lol, i've never paid more than 200 for a deck. panasonic is by far superior to pioneer, but i'm still an alpine guy. my $130 alpine has quite a few customization options as far as sound staging goes, and as for the display, well i don't really care too much about looks. granted, all my speakers are run off of amps, so i couldn't tell you how the decks sound unamplified, but when i sitched from the pioneer to the alpine, i noticed a HUGE difference in sound quality.

[TheWatcher]

lol, i've never paid more than 200 for a deck. panasonic is by far superior to pioneer, but i'm still an alpine guy. my $130 alpine has quite a few customization options as far as sound staging goes, and as for the display, well i don't really care too much about looks. granted, all my speakers are run off of amps, so i couldn't tell you how the decks sound unamplified, but when i sitched from the pioneer to the alpine, i noticed a HUGE difference in sound quality.

http://forums.caraudio.com/vb/showth...=109048&page=2

Quote: "^^^ya. also it seems that panasonics have worse sq than the pioneer, kenwood, alpine big boys. I switched out my panasonic with my kenwood excelon, and the sq was a world of difference"

Opinions are like @ssholes, everyone has one.

I would go to a car audio store and listen to both, and make my decision, based on my ears and/or other aspects of the HUs based on the store visit. You don't have to buy the HU at the car audio store, but you will be able to form your own opinion (based on experience), rather than relying on someone else's opinion/experience.

Both have lousy preamp voltage (2V), so you don't want to build a SQ system on either of these HUs.

Peace.

[TJ89Accord]

I like Pioneer better, and have had one for a few years now. But just bought a new one. I say Pioneer.

tim

[jman123]

I have a Panasonic - model a few up from one listed - I love mine! Much better than anything else in the price range for a MP3 HU.
I've always had very good experiencing with all of my Panasonic equipment.

Just check it out at the store. So much of the HU experience is what you listen to, how you tune it and what speakers you run. Pick comparable speakers like you have that you test at the store and see which HU you like best.
So much is subjective when buying audio equipment.

[87accordlxi]

Yeah, I might check them out sometime this week. I'll be running stock speakers for the foreseeable future, since I have to pull out dozens of little clips to remove the door panels in front. And I have to physically remove the rear seat and header panel to get at the back speakers.

[TheWatcher]

Yeah, I might check them out sometime this week. I'll be running stock speakers for the foreseeable future, since I have to pull out dozens of little clips to remove the door panels in front. And I have to physically remove the rear seat and header panel to get at the back speakers.

Door panels are easy to remove. It takes me less than 5 minutes.

Peace.

[87accordlxi]

Well I ordered the Panasonic. It was a good deal. I paid less than $130 shipped, and I believe they're shipping the wiring harness and GM mounting kit too.

[Cheeseburger]

that’s sweet bro. keep updated on which one works better

[ice_cold_ian]

I have a panasonic Deck in my car, and the big selling feature for me on Panasonic is that they are probably the best quality electronics on the market, in my opinion. Although Panasonic is rated very high by most people, i still feel they are very under rated. There is no shortage of shotty electronics on the market, and time and time again i am impressed with Panasonic, weather it be a television in my house, speakers, a vaccuum cleaner or the deck in my car. as we are all Honda drivers, we know the value of a quality product. With that said, i have herd alot of good things about pioneer, never experienced pioneer products though.
Really i would look for a Deck that has a independand subwoofer control (i think almost every deck comes with that now) if you are planning on putting subwoofers in your car.
I also have all 4 Speakers as Alpines, which provide awesome awesome clear sound. Never had panasonic speakers in my car before, but i would be willing to bet they would be very impressive in their own right.

[KoNEY]

Dude, you made the wrong choice. I have been dealing with car stereo for over 11 years and have had my share of head units. Panasonic belongs on the same end of the spectrum as units like Boss Audio, Legacy, Pyramid, Power Acoustik, etc, etc...Pioneer hands down makes the best sounding units available. I had a Panasonic ($250) just a few weeks ago, and my DEH-8500MP sounds 4-5 times BETTER. In fact, the lowest model Pioneer will sound better than the highest possible model Panasonic makes. I assure it. Plus the Pioneer's are user friendly and simple to operate and within one minute of first turning it on you can set it to sound AWESOME. Pioneer has been making head units way before Panasonic ever got involved in the car audio industry, and Panasonic's pick up interference easily and are just lower quality. Pioneer > Panasonic

[AccordEpicenter]

i prefer pioneer, but i think the panasonics arent bad, they just arent my fav

[logic]

Dude, you made the wrong choice. I have been dealing with car stereo for over 11 years and have had my share of head units. Panasonic belongs on the same end of the spectrum as units like Boss Audio, Legacy, Pyramid, Power Acoustik, etc, etc...Pioneer hands down makes the best sounding units available. I had a Panasonic ($250) just a few weeks ago, and my DEH-8500MP sounds 4-5 times BETTER. In fact, the lowest model Pioneer will sound better than the highest possible model Panasonic makes. I assure it. Plus the Pioneer's are user friendly and simple to operate and within one minute of first turning it on you can set it to sound AWESOME. Pioneer has been making head units way before Panasonic ever got involved in the car audio industry, and Panasonic's pick up interference easily and are just lower quality. Pioneer > Panasonic

I certainly wouldn't presume to tell you you're wrong, but personally I think you're caught up in the hype... I don't believe you can hear a difference between two different head units that are putting out the same power with the same equalization settings, Speakers are whole 'nother world!! I believe in getting a cheap (but reliable/quality) head unit that has the features I want and spending my money on speakers where there really is a difference. Of course all that must be understood to mean you can't go get a super cheap ass pyramid or something because while it may say it's putting out 20 watts, it probably isn't putting out anywhere near that...

The only difference that may be there is FM/AM reception. I love all my Panasonic products (just like Ice_cold-ian said) because you get Sony reliability for much less $$$, but I do have to admit that I am not perfectly satisfied with my FM reception (but then again I live in the Mountains and reception sucks anyways so I don't know if Pioneer would be any better...)

Anyways, that's my $.02

[edit]And B.T.W., I have two Pioneer decks that have died, 0 of my Panasonics have ever died, Not that owning 8 Decks in the last 20 years is any kind of scientifically sound basis, but I think it does inconclusively give an indicator...[/edit]