Headunit Question.

[sc197 10+ year member]

Hopefully some of you guys will help me out here, the last couple times I asked for help, no one replied and it was a waste of time.

Anyways, I'm getting ready to upgrade my HU and I need some second opinions from people who know pretty much about the HU I want.

I'm looking for a good and reliable HU that will give me great SQ. I plan on hooking 2 amps up to it also. I stopped at a local car audio shop the other day and was looking at their Alpines.

Another one I'm interested in is the Pioneer Premier P860MP. Alot of people have told me to get this one, because it looks nicer, and has the 24brown bit. (Whatever that means).

I'm leaning more towards an Alpine deck because I think it looks better, and Alpine seems to have more positive feedback than any other brand.

The one Alpine I was looking at (Either the 9855 or 9835, can't remember) had only 1 preout the person said, but when I did research on the net it has 3. Not too sure if he was lying or didn't know what he was talking about, but I plan on going back to look more into it. The other one he was wanting me to get, said it has more preouts so I could hook more than 1 amp up, and I can't remember the model number either, but it looked more "new" than the other, and said it was the '06 model and it had the color changings settings to match my gauge colors and what not. He was only asking $170 for it, which is cheaper than what I found on ebay.

So should I go back and get one of the Alpines, or get the Pioneer? Any advice would be appreciated.

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[makdaddy 10+ year member]

if those are the only 2 choices I would go with the Pioneer

I'm not sure of the glide bar on the newer Alpine

 

[Ricky616 10+ year member]

Pioneer deh-p860mp FTW.. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif mine is on its way from miami

 

[sc197 10+ year member]

Only 2 people know about either headunits?

I take it this place isn't the place to get car audio help. Ha!

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

I have no experience with either unit personally.

Having said that I continually hear more bad things than good about the GlideTouch mechanism on the Alpine.

Both the Alpines you mentioned and the Pioneer 860 have three sets of RCA preamp outputs (front, rear, and dedicated subwoofer being what those three are)

As far as the 24brown bit goes (using your words) that is referencing a Burr-Brown 24-bit digital to analog converter. The overwhelming majority of HUs available use quad 1-bit DACs in their digital signal to analog output conversion. Some upper end units (such as the Pioneer P860MP, most of the Kenwood eXcelon units out currently, and others) have gone to using 24-bit Burr-Brown DACs (the designers of this particular DAC) instead for stronger processing power resulting in increased SQ. For the '06 model year Kenwood has gone to 24-bit Wolfson DACs (which are theoretically even better than the B-B units) to up the ante even further. I will assume that other manufacturers will follow suit shortly.

Personally given the choice I would take the Pioneer over either of those Alpines if for no other reason than I hear good things about it than I do the Alpines.

Just my $0.02.

 

[sc197 10+ year member]

What's wrong with the glide touch? Or is that for iPod only?

Sorry if it's a dumb question.

 

[goose5741 10+ year member]

I believ people don't like it for sifting through ipod stuff...but i know very little about HU's lol, trying to find one myself that i can control ipod from the ipod, would only go for ipod control through HU if i had a 7.5 touch screen...

 

[Savstyle 10+ year member]

What's wrong with the glide touch? Or is that for iPod only?
Sorry if it's a dumb question.

its really annoying to use, well for some people (me) it is, you use the glidetouch for just about eveyrthing on 9855 and 9853. Plus ive heard about teh glidetouch messing up alot. If you saw a 9835 id take that, its an awesome deck, same with th 860

 

[makdaddy 10+ year member]

As far as the Glide Touch

I have no experience with it, but those that have say it is a pain in the ***

Also Alpine does not offer it in the 06 model. so that may explain it.

Also I have owned a lot of Pioneer gear it is very reliable.

I am currntly using a kenwood XXV-01D and I love it. I was torn between the XXv and the Pioneer , but I didnt care for the look of the Pioneer, background ECT

 

[sc197 10+ year member]

what about any of the '06 model? the guy at the shop was only asking $170 for one of the '06 models. I'll go back there and see what kind it is, unless he's just saying it's the '06 model.

the other one he said only had 1 preout, and i could only hook up 1 amp to it, which is either the 9855 or 9835. I can't really remember because I was in a hurry.

 

[sc197 10+ year member]

Plus to me $170 is cheap for a new alpine deck. on ebay they're going for $200-$300 for the 9855, and the 9835 are all used. Plus it's bought from a store and i'll get it the same day plus free installation. That's pretty cheap imo. Even tho I already know how to install them, so if it's free, i'll let them do it to save me time, cause I'm lazy. Hahaha.

 

[makdaddy 10+ year member]

Plus to me $170 is cheap for a new alpine deck. on ebay they're going for $200-$300 for the 9855, and the 9835 are all used. Plus it's bought from a store and i'll get it the same day plus free installation. That's pretty cheap imo. Even tho I already know how to install them, so if it's free, i'll let them do it to save me time, cause I'm lazy. Hahaha.

Well word to the wise

Dont be in a hurry when buying a head unit

the reason the older 9835 and 9833 bring more coin is because the new 05 9855 and 9853 with the glide bar are not as popular!!!!

And remember on the FREE Install. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!!!!

If you want to here a scary story about Best Buy on my wifes Explorer, let me know