Recent content by Suomi

I'm really happy with the MP3 playback on my Kenwood KDC-X790. Mine doesn't have a USB input, but there are similar models which do.

I can't comment on the Clarion as I've never used one, but I can tell you that I love my X790 and the 791 is nearly identical. The only complaint I have at all is that the face plate is too shiny making it nearly impossible to read in direct sunlight.

I honestly would have preferred the warranty as well. I had never purchased this type of thing from Ebay before for that very reason. But I saw this on Ebay and decided to bid, and to my surprise no one at all bid after me.

I picked up my X790 on Ebay for $130 with shipping BNIB. Don't know how I managed that. Just not enough bidders I guess.

I think you'd be happy with that unit. I just picked up a 790 and it has really killer sound quality.

I have seen a few mobile systems that were 5.1 capable. I've just never seen one that could play SACDs. I own quite a few SACDs for my home system, and they sound incredible, so I wish I could play them in my car. I've heard some mobile DVD-Audio systems which sounded pretty nice. The bit-rate...

I own Dark Side on SACD. That version was produced in 5.1 surround (by Roger Waters) and sounds pretty amazing on my home setup. I wish my car had an SACD 5.1 setup, but alas, I have never seen car deck with SACD.

I use whatever is on sale at Best Buy. I have never had any issues with any brands. Even the cheapest ones—$5/25CDs—sound fine. Try some of the brands recommended, and if those have the same issues then your CD burner may be the problem.

It sounds like you're just upset that he said that Americans don't generally buy as many high-end speakers as some other countries. That's a strange bit of patriotism. Who cares if better products are sold in other countries? Relax.

When I was working in sales at a Honda dealership I had some customers who were upset that most of the new cars didn't have cassette players in them. According to them, CDs are new technology and most people don't have many CDs yet. It took a lot of self control to not laugh at them right then...

How much power are sending them? If they're running on just HU power then they won't sound too great. They need upwards of 50 watts rms to sound very good at all, and really should have closer to 100 watts rms.

CDs are recorded in 2.0, not 2.1. The .1 refers to a channel encoded specifically for a subwoofer. But CDs are just uncompressed sound (AIFF) files which include nothing more than left and right channels. It doesn't change the point you are trying to make with two speaker and two channels of...

It sounds like you're saying that your left and right speakers are both getting the signal for both left and right channels from the HU. If that's the case, then you aren't getting stereo, but rather mono in both speakers. Is this how Kicker says to set it up (I've never touched a Kicker amp, so...

To whom? I would agree for most classical music, but not all music. Then again, I like the feeling of being surrounded by the music. As a musician, that is the setting that feels most natural to me; like I'm on the stage rather than facing it.

My biggest gripe with the concert analogy is that not all music is mixed to sound like a concert hall. I have a lot of CDs which are produced to encompass the listener, and many sound best through headphones, and not sitting with a pair of speakers in front of you. My preference is some rear...