Head Unit Help

[wannabehero 10+ year member]

alright well im new here. real new. i really odnt know anything about car audio. im not new to trucks though. ive done everything on my truck from pulling the engine and rebuilding it to re wiring the entire truck. im lookin to upgrade the audio system now. the truck is a 90 k5 blazer. the big ol boxy ones. its my baby and my toy. i already have 2 infinity kappa 6in. in the panels right behind the front seats. the truck isnt a cluttered and is very open inside so just these two speakers along with the stock dash speakers sound excellent together. im lookin to get a head unit now. the truck came with a dual that is in all honesty a p.o.s. it skips at every bump and is just cheap. im lookin for the best sq for the price. i dont have an ipod, just a regular mp3 so something that could hook into that would be awesome. i was lookin at the alpine cda9885. id like to keep the price below $300. thanks for all your help.

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[MrDave 10+ year member]

For a sub $300 price point, it's tough to find something that is both a newer model, and had good SQ features without compromising other features.

Check out this Alpine...

CDA-9887

For SQ for the price, it's a great choice. If you shop around, you can get it at about $300.

 

[wannabehero 10+ year member]

features im not real worried about idc about sattalite radio and hd and that stuff. im lookin to spend 250 to 350. id like the best sq and if that means losing a couple features i can deal with it. so the best bang for the buck in that price range would be what i want or if you know something cheaper that would be even better. im not lookin for audiophile grade sound. just something that will make everything work together.

 

[MrDave 10+ year member]

Well then the options start to become much larger in that case. You can find both old and new quality decks from the likes of Pioneer, Alpine, Clarion, and Kenwood.

 

[mil81 10+ year member]

Out of the common manufacturers I like the sounds of the Alpines. If you can find anything by Eclipse in your price range that's where I would go.

Almost all Alpines are going to sound the same, so if that's what you are looking for, just look around for one that has the options you are looking for. If you are getting into car audio, I would try to find one with sub output RCAs. You will thank me later. LOL.

Murray

 

[wannabehero 10+ year member]

ok so eclipse or alpine? what would be a good eclipse head. its between the pioneer cda 9887 or an eclipse then.

 

[MrDave 10+ year member]

I've never had any personal experience with Eclipse, but I heard their interface is unintuitive and slow.

 

[kovemaster559 5,000+ posts]

ur all wrong maybe if ur lucky u can get a nakamichi those kill pioneer alpine anyday a used nakamichi would goo very good

 

[nismos14 5,000+ posts]

And how about some more info than just a blanket statement? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

ur all wrong maybe if ur lucky u can get a nakamichi those kill pioneer alpine anyday a used nakamichi would goo very good

 

[mil81 10+ year member]

I wish I could tell you about newer Eclipse units. I ran an older one for about three years until I decided I needed an MP3 player (which I haven't used to date). I bought an Alpine. I wish I could get the Eclipse back. The face openned so fast when you were changing CD's. The bass was a lot more responsive. The highs are not quite as nice as the Alpine's but it sounded all around better.

That's my experience. But don't get me wrong, I still like my Alpine too, just like the old Eclipse better.

I have heard great things about Nakimichi too, but I have never heard one, so...

Murray

 

[MrDave 10+ year member]

ur all wrong maybe if ur lucky u can get a nakamichi those kill pioneer alpine anyday a used nakamichi would goo very good

People just say strange things sometimes. Nakamichi, while they had good sound quality, and I say had because they actually went bankrupt a long time ago after their hayday, they have nowhere near the audio features headunits have today. It's outdated. No unit they make is sub $300, or even sub $400, and have fun getting tech support.

Mil81, I know what you mean. I had a budget JVC headunit that was so much faster than my later and greater Pioneer.

Aside from that, I was referring to the Eclipse models of the past few years. I've heard from several reliable sources that they are clunky, in terms of interface. Now, what I may find clunky someone may be perfectly fine with.

I won't lie, I've really had my eye on their new unit, the CD7200 MKII. It looks nice, has great features/audio, I just wonder about the interface. Unfortunately, it really isn't available yet. Not even sure if it'll be sub $300.

Eclipse stacks their units with some heavy preamps, that's probably why your bass sounded louder and better.

 

[Fat_boy 10+ year member]

Since your looking at $300.00 price cut off, and are eye balling the CDA-9885..take one step up to the CDA 9886.noticable difference in SQ and the display is also much nicer I test ran the 9885 and 9886 side by side with the same speakers and I manually adjusted all the settings. The 9886 is a step up and comes in around 3 bills

 

[MrDave 10+ year member]

I suggested the 9887 to him already.

 

[Fat_boy 10+ year member]

True, but I cant speak for the 9887 as I havnt put my hands on it. I can safely assume its very nice, but it is also over his 300.00 limit. Thats why I dropped in the 9886 as an alternative.

 

[MrDave 10+ year member]

I feel you. The 9887 is right at the $300 mark. I saw a site offering it for $299. Granted, after shipping it'll be $310, but I think it's worth it.