Complete setup for $600 max

[rabeta]

Hi!

I just bought my first car, a powerful 1.0 VW Polo //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif and i need complete audio system for it.

I need a head unit which can play DVD mp3's. There are many of them which can play mp3's in CD but not DVD... I don't need a fancy display or anything like that, but something which is easy to read, with an excellent sound, no skipping, a removable panel (i live in a big city with lots of crime), a powerful bass (i listen mostly to electronic music), good stereo separation, etc. I don't need a Video-dvd player.

I'm currently looking at the Alpine 9860R, which seems a good unit, costs about $380. Do you guys have a better recommendation? Any good/bad experiences with this unit?

Also, i would like you to recommend me some good speakers for electronic music, with a puncy bass and clear highs and mids. An amplifier would also be nice, if that's possible with $600.

thanks!

PS: a subwoofer is not needed right now, but i would like to add one in the future

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[Spr0ket 10+ year member]

I think you should focus on a good head unit and a nice set of components up front. That alone would run you close to $600. There aren't very many systems that have a DVD reader without the video portion, so you'll have to really dig for them (I know of 2, the alpine and dual, you don't want dual).

Good component sets:

JL components (XRs offer some good low and midbass)

Boston Acoustic G6

CDT components

I've heard people say Focal components are decent

There are many others you can look at when it comes to good speakers. I have XRs in my setup and my preferred music is electronica. Without the subs, they stand on their own.

 

[rabeta]

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll look into the JL XR

I just read a review of a 9860 user which said that dvd-mp3 is too slow on that unit, so i'm dropping it. I came across Sony MEX-R5, which seems nice, although it doesn't play wma. It costs about the same. Can anyone tell me good things about this unit? here's a link http://www.crutchfield.com/S-5InAUeVn0Bz/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=168550&I=158MEXR5

 

[Spr0ket 10+ year member]

I came across Sony MEX-R5, which seems nice, although it doesn't play wma. It costs about the same. Can anyone tell me good things about this unit?

It doesn't play WMA. That's a super huge extra spectacular bonus in my book. WMA codec is cr ap anyway.

 

[rabeta]

It's just that i have some files in wma i would like to play. But nothing major really.

Anyways, why aren't HDD player manufactured anymore? Products like MEX-1HD and Pioneer DEH-P90HDD were discontinued in the 2005 line...

 

[Logikalliquid 10+ year member]

ipods killed in-car harddrive units I think. Despite the higher audio quality that was possible from those units, its probably pretty expensive to build for such a small market. Doesn't kenwood still make their music keg though?

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

you wont be able to get an amp\sub\components\amp\dvd-mp3 hu for close to that.

you can get that alpine (i would) and like he said, a pair of comps for the front. imo - id buy each part seperatly.

get the hu and comps ($500~600) (the alpine and some comps, ask squeak. somthing with good midbass //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif )

get an amp for the comps (100~200) (id prolly just get somthing cheap... a 2 channel like a profile ap600 or somthing)

get a sub and amp (400~500) (same as above, id get a pair of image dynamics IDQ12's [dvc4] and a profile AP1000 prolly)

do it seperatly and get a setup you are happy to listen to man. i think that would be a great little setup.

 

[Spr0ket 10+ year member]

You can still get a music keg. It's a rebranded PhatBox that PhatNoise won't even sell anymore outside of the cartridges.

 

[rabeta]

Well i just went to the store and tried several models. Alpine 9860R, Sony MEX-R1 (almost the same as R5) and JVC DV-6101.

They all have good quality sound, but some major flaws: Alpine doesn't allow skipping in mp3 (you can't press FF and skip from track 1 to 5 - it has to load track 1, then 2, then 3... What were they thinking?), the JVC doesn't allow FF in mp3's (!) and Sony is very slow to load mp3 dvd's. Anyways, i think i'm sticking with Sony.

thanks for your advice i'll look into the XR's.