Head Unit Choice

T

trialsted

Guest
I would like to know what head units everyone is putting in their car please. I've been looking round at new head units a lot lately and not that impressed.

I'm a bit annoyed at how the manufacturers make them look ugly, then claim them to produce high power and neglect sound quality.

I hate pioneer and alpine and sony. I can't stand dolphins flying around on the screen or EQs bouncing around and definitely can't stand flip out screens.

Gimme a nice looking head unit with some quality internal components any day.

Enough grumbling, anyone got any ideas?
 
Ive had Kenwood for years mate and am completely happy.The sound quality is excellent, It dont have no EQs, or animals on the screen. It just simply has your own text on the front. and the LED display changes colour to match your interior,if your really that bothered :rolleyes:
And its only a tape unit (obviously i have a disc changer) :)
 
i have a brand new JVC EXAD unit.. it has a mosfet 4x50 amp, touch screen monitor and motorised panel and it talks :)
it plays MP3 on cd and it's really great. my last one was a JVC also great quality IMHO.

KD-LHX501_l.jpg


it may be a bit too much bling bling for you though since it's motorized tray
 
i'm not sure if i personally would want to pay $1700 (a nakamichi CD700) for a head unit when most of the music is drowned in induction/engine/exhaust noise.

perhaps i'll put one in my $300000 mercedes when i get one.
 
top quality stuff no gimmicks then nakamichi is the way to go. £400 for a base model nakamichi.
if not then alpine IMO. the alpines give good sound across the whole range rather than a particular range as the pioneers do.
what you need to do is pop into a shop and listen to the head unit, you're interested in, in action

i know u said u didn't like alpine but listen to them.
pioneer p80 is pretty good too.
if you want no fuss then theres no alternative but the nakamichis. look like bog standard radios with quality components and sound
 
if you want some thing really good, then what you want is a Pioneer P9R, no fancy gimicks, no internal amp, just pure repoduction, you will need to run a seperate graphic equaliser with it aswell as amps, as it has no setting for an equaliser either, pioneer also sell a good equaliser to go with it, but we're talking lots of money still
i have the headunit in my car and use a pheniox gold TIDEQ with it, but would of just went with the P9R equaliser but already had the TIDEQ, most of this years SQ comp winning cars are running this set up
Naks are good aswell, but its got to be said, they do look poo(outside casing wise)where the pioneer is just a nice silver finish and no dolphins either lol
 
i understand why one wants to have good audio in the car.. i'm a bit of an audiophile myself. however i actually don't see the point in investing too much money in a head unit with extra equaliser and paying up to £2000 for it.

i mean, when are you listening to the music? when you're driving of course..
what other noise enter the car when you're driving?
we have road noise, wind noise, creaking, clonking, engine noise, induction noise, exhaust noise.. theres no way you can enjoy the fidelity of your $2000 head unit in such an environment.

i think i payed around £800 in total for my complete system with head unit, amp, sub, 4 X new speakers.. it sounds really good.. to tell the truth i don't think anyone of you would hear the difference between my system and the nakamichi unit with extra super equalizer and forty blingbling 2000w amps and £10000 speaker system.. theres simply too much ambient noise in a car.. the almeras aren't the quietest cars i've seen either :)

the $300000 mercedes might be well isolated enough to hear the difference though..

anyway this is just me rambling.. trialsted, you need to say about how much the head unit can cost.. are you willing to spend $2000 on it or £100

the nakamichi looks a bit late eighties :)
cd700ii_new.jpg
 
steve NaylorGTi said it, Pioneer p9. noshit, Just quality.

i´ve got an panasonic cq602n.it is quite simple and ok to my use...
 
Just a personal opinion i think any of the mid range to the top priced sonys are great. I dont think you can bet the sound quality and they are so easy to use also most come with sub pre out :cool:
 
well i was quiet happy with my sony unit until i got an alpine & i must admit the sound quality is much better, not 1/2 as many gizmo's & entertainment going on, on screen but it does have motorised adjustable angle & plays mp3's. it even has this setting that allow's you to adjust the bass timing on each speaker to make the sound more 'central' cos if you think about it you do sit in the corner of your car !
 
GTi said:
well i was quiet happy with my sony unit until i got an alpine & i must admit the sound quality is much better, not 1/2 as many gizmo's & entertainment going on, on screen but it does have motorised adjustable angle & plays mp3's. it even has this setting that allow's you to adjust the bass timing on each speaker to make the sound more 'central' cos if you think about it you do sit in the corner of your car !

Which one is it? Sounds like mine which is the CDA9815RB.
 
mines a CDA-7893R how much you get yours for ?
thing i realy miss from my sony was the joystick remote, f*ckin waste of time these tv type remotes you get... :rolleyes:
 
Draca said:
i understand why one wants to have good audio in the car.. i'm a bit of an audiophile myself. however i actually don't see the point in investing too much money in a head unit with extra equaliser and paying up to £2000 for it.

i mean, when are you listening to the music? when you're driving of course..
what other noise enter the car when you're driving?
we have road noise, wind noise, creaking, clonking, engine noise, induction noise, exhaust noise.. theres no way you can enjoy the fidelity of your $2000 head unit in such an environment.

i think i payed around £800 in total for my complete system with head unit, amp, sub, 4 X new speakers.. it sounds really good.. to tell the truth i don't think anyone of you would hear the difference between my system and the nakamichi unit with extra super equalizer and forty blingbling 2000w amps and £10000 speaker system.. theres simply too much ambient noise in a car.. the almeras aren't the quietest cars i've seen either :)

you can tell the difference believe me, for example, I have had simple set ups with the usual set up's you would find in a car modifiers car, to what I have now, there's a massive difference
or, take my car and my lasses saxo vtr, she has a pioneer cd head unit and autochanger, front infiniti co-axials, sony 6x9's on rear shelf( :rolleyes: she insisted on them) and a 10" vibe sub and amp, now her car is a hell of a lot quieter on the move than mine, less induction, less road noise, less tire noise, less exhaust noise, you name its less, almost like a standard car quiet, before I went and put my comp system in mine I could listen to hers while i was in it, it was shit compared to mine(compared to what I had in then, but even then I still had gensis amps, focal comps, jl audiov2 10" sub,still good shit), but now I cant even turn hers on when im in, same with when im in other peoples car, the music just gets turned off
if you need more convincing, what about when you're in traffic jams?(or do you not have them over stockholm?lol), or traveling at low speeds (30-40mph)
, its quiet then in the car
 
GTi said:
mines a CDA-7893R how much you get yours for ?
thing i realy miss from my sony was the joystick remote, f*ckin waste of time these tv type remotes you get... :rolleyes:

I'm with you Mick, Alpine are great. I have the same headunit as you, had a Sony black panel before that (which got nicked :mad: ) and the Alpine is a lot better. Got it from a place in Guildford Ian Banning, £275 fitted, which at the time was a bargain.
 
I'm not afraid

I'm not afraid of spending money as long as the upgrade is worth the extra. I can imagine that the extra money spent on a decent head unit can only improve on the horrible sound and terrible reliability of the Sony unit I have now.

As for the looks of the nakamichi, I still maintain that you have to admire the braveness of the designers to produce something that looks like a unit taken out of a ford granada.

I enjoy simple systems. I am working on getting a system to run on a pair of door speakers and a sub.

I also agree about listening to other people's systems. My friend has put compnents in the front doors and 6x9s in the back of his new mini and he insists on running the 100 watt RMS Infinity speakers from the standard 20 watt head unit, with appaling results. Very disappointing as he has £3000 worth of hi-fi at home (CD, Amp, Speakers and Cables).

I will check out the Pioneer with no internal amplification.

ed
 
NaylorGTI said:
you can tell the difference believe me, for example, I have had simple set ups with the usual set up's you would find in a car modifiers car, to what I have now, there's a massive difference
or, take my car and my lasses saxo vtr, she has a pioneer cd head unit and autochanger, front infiniti co-axials, sony 6x9's on rear shelf( :rolleyes: she insisted on them) and a 10" vibe sub and amp, now her car is a hell of a lot quieter on the move than mine, less induction, less road noise, less tire noise, less exhaust noise, you name its less, almost like a standard car quiet, before I went and put my comp system in mine I could listen to hers while i was in it, it was shit compared to mine(compared to what I had in then, but even then I still had gensis amps, focal comps, jl audiov2 10" sub,still good shit), but now I cant even turn hers on when im in, same with when im in other peoples car, the music just gets turned off
if you need more convincing, what about when you're in traffic jams?(or do you not have them over stockholm?lol), or traveling at low speeds (30-40mph)
, its quiet then in the car

well you're talking about the difference between shite/standard systems and good stuff..

i'm talking about the difference between good stuff and the extreme stuff.
i could hear a superb difference between my original speakers and my new speakers.. but what i meant is i doubt many people, or anyone for that matter would be able to tell the difference those £8000 you put out on your sound system did. i don't think so. there is simply too much ambient noise for you to tell the difference in clarity/distortion/signal processing/etc

but when comparing a good system to a standard or bad system of course you will hear a difference.
 
Draca said:
well you're talking about the difference between shite/standard systems and good stuff..

i'm talking about the difference between good stuff and the extreme stuff.
i could hear a superb difference between my original speakers and my new speakers.. but what i meant is i doubt many people, or anyone for that matter would be able to tell the difference those £8000 you put out on your sound system did. i don't think so. there is simply too much ambient noise for you to tell the difference in clarity/distortion/signal processing/etc

but when comparing a good system to a standard or bad system of course you will hear a difference.

guess who's back, back again :rolleyes:
lets go through this again, re-read my post, this bit in particular
take my car and my lasses saxo vtr, she has a pioneer cd head unit and autochanger, front infiniti co-axials, sony 6x9's on rear shelf( she insisted on them) and a 10" vibe sub and amp, now her car is a hell of a lot quieter on the move than mine, less induction, less road noise, less tire noise, less exhaust noise, you name its less, almost like a standard car quiet, before I went and put my comp system in mine I could listen to hers while i was in it, it was shit compared to mine(compared to what I had in then, but even then I still had gensis amps, focal comps, jl audiov2 10" sub,still good shit), but now I cant even turn hers on when im in, same with when im in other peoples car, the music just gets turned off(in a nice bright colour so you can see it easier)

now, you will see, the stuff I had in my car before this system was I dare say far better than the stuff you have now, and I can still tell the difference between that and the one I have now, wether on the move or stationary(I dare bet Ive had more sound systems than youve had cars, I know the difference by now :rolleyes: )
so there you go, you are wrong, I can hear the difference, and I bet the rest of the lads who i compete with can hear the diffference, and many others who dont happen to be deaf either
Spacka said:
almera arent the queitest cars youve seen?
I would say they arent the quietest Ive heard but thats where sound deadening comes in
 
I've sat in a few cars with good systems and I've also sat in Steve's car. I can honestly say Steve's system blows the rest away. The clarity of it is just awesome. I would love to have a system of that quality but I just haven't got the money for it.
 
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