Best NEW SQ HU's?

[req 5,000+ posts]

well if you have no reason for an expensive headunit.

then why the hell would you spend monies on it?

first. learn.

then spend.

ill tell you what, in the long run you will thank me.

seriously, dont come in here with tons of cash to blow and have absolutly no idea what you are doing. go to best buy or circuit city (or crutchfield) and buy one with sub\front\rear RCA outputs that plays MP3s and you will be happy. one that looks nice and you can understand (i recommend alpine because thats my unit of choice).

otherwise, spend as little money as you can, and set the rest of it aside when you do learn what you are interested in.

 

[forms89 10+ year member]

well if you have no reason for an expensive headunit.
then why the hell would you spend monies on it?

first. learn.

then spend.

ill tell you what, in the long run you will thank me.

seriously, dont come in here with tons of cash to blow and have absolutly no idea what you are doing. go to best buy or circuit city (or crutchfield) and buy one with sub\front\rear RCA outputs that plays MP3s and you will be happy. one that looks nice and you can understand (i recommend alpine because thats my unit of choice).

otherwise, spend as little money as you can, and set the rest of it aside when you do learn what you are interested in.

I tend to stay away from the best buy and curcit city products... They tend to be cheap and companys like to cut corners to make for profit.... Think about it.... best buy guarantees alpine they will buy x amout of head units if they can meet a certin price.... you dont think alpine is going to cut corners on their product to lower cost? Alpine no longer has to worry about quality because they have a guarentee that their product will be sold....

 

[forms89 10+ year member]

well if you have no reason for an expensive headunit.
then why the hell would you spend monies on it?

first. learn.

then spend.

ill tell you what, in the long run you will thank me.

seriously, dont come in here with tons of cash to blow and have absolutly no idea what you are doing. go to best buy or circuit city (or crutchfield) and buy one with sub\front\rear RCA outputs that plays MP3s and you will be happy. one that looks nice and you can understand (i recommend alpine because thats my unit of choice).

otherwise, spend as little money as you can, and set the rest of it aside when you do learn what you are interested in.

Also when your talking about one I can understand.. alpine HU's tend to be more complicated.. EX: time correction BE tunning LP and HP filters so wouldn't alpine not be the best choice in terms of simplicity? Also if i spend a little money now... and more later..... im actually spending more money then spending it now... and i have to go through the trouble of installing a new HU later.

 

[theCybe 5,000+ posts]

I'm still in love with my 880PRS, for what it's worth.

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

you are taking things way out of context.

just because units are sold in stores does not always mean that they will be low grade piece of junk.

in general, headunits do exactally what they are meant to do. play CD's.

get a $100~150 one, learn about crossovers, time correction, output voltage, ect ect, and why you might need these features - and then decide on getting something WORTH spending $1500 on. rather than buy a unit because it has navigation or something stupid built into it.

do you want a TV in your dash? do you need a TV? do you want to play DVDs burned with all your MP3's to hold 8gb of music instead of 750mb on a regular CD? do you have external amps, front\rear and sub are all amped? do you have external crossovers that you can use? does your sub require a subsonic filter? do you need time correction and equalization? how much EQ - will a 7 band parametric EQ be sufficent?

there are a lot of things a headunit can do for you. for me, im getting an alpine-H701 processor. you can use this with the W200 (indash touch screen) or via the RUX-C701 display control (hopefully you have double din space) and a seperate headunit (maybe a pioneer or something else too). so that is possible for a future upgrade containing equalizers and crossovers.

i mean, it really depends on the application. if you arent going to be using external amps and you just have some coaxial speakers, then get something cheap. if you have single drivers in need of a crossover network and some EQ tuning, get something nice that can support external amplification.

why not look at the alpine DVA-9861.

http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=DVA-9861

paired with the H701 and C701

http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=PXA-H701

http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=RUX-C701

or the W200

http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=IVA-W200

paired with the H701

http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=PXA-H701

prices w warranty found here;

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-67OWVXfOsfY/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?search=w200&i=500IVAW200

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-67OWVXfOsfY/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?search=9861&i=500DVA9861

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-67OWVXfOsfY/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=168450&I=500RUXC701&search=h701

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-67OWVXfOsfY/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=168450&I=500PXAH701&search=h701

 

[envengineer 10+ year member]

you are taking things way out of context.
just because units are sold in stores does not always mean that they will be low grade piece of junk.

in general, headunits do exactally what they are meant to do. play CD's.

get a $100~150 one, learn about crossovers, time correction, output voltage, ect ect, and why you might need these features - and then decide on getting something WORTH spending $1500 on. rather than buy a unit because it has navigation or something stupid built into it.

do you want a TV in your dash? do you need a TV? do you want to play DVDs burned with all your MP3's to hold 8gb of music instead of 750mb on a regular CD? do you have external amps, front\rear and sub are all amped? do you have external crossovers that you can use? does your sub require a subsonic filter? do you need time correction and equalization? how much EQ - will a 7 band parametric EQ be sufficent?

there are a lot of things a headunit can do for you. for me, im getting an alpine-H701 processor. you can use this with the W200 (indash touch screen) or via the RUX-C701 display control (hopefully you have double din space) and a seperate headunit (maybe a pioneer or something else too). so that is possible for a future upgrade containing equalizers and crossovers.

i mean, it really depends on the application. if you arent going to be using external amps and you just have some coaxial speakers, then get something cheap. if you have single drivers in need of a crossover network and some EQ tuning, get something nice that can support external amplification.

why not look at the alpine DVA-9861.

http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=DVA-9861

paired with the H701 and C701

http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=PXA-H701

http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=RUX-C701

or the W200

http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=IVA-W200

paired with the H701

http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=PXA-H701

prices w warranty found here;

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-67OWVXfOsfY/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?search=w200&i=500IVAW200

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-67OWVXfOsfY/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?search=9861&i=500DVA9861

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-67OWVXfOsfY/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=168450&I=500RUXC701&search=h701

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-67OWVXfOsfY/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=168450&I=500PXAH701&search=h701

Well said, req.

forms89, read this thread http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=222653 and answer the questions I asked this kid. If you want to know what's best for your setup I'll try to help you. You'll probably be pleasantly suprised to find that you can get ridiculously good "sq" without spending $2 grand. You need to know what your future setup is going to consist of or at least what you want to be able to expand to.

If you are going to do a search, do it over on elitecaraudio.com/forums or on diymobileaudio.com/forum . Trust me, it has been answered before.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

 

[forms89 10+ year member]

thanks guys