how important is HU for total SQ?

[goodrich 10+ year member]

i have a 4 channel amp for mids and highs and a mono amp for a 12" XXX. all the money i spent doesn't leave me much for a new HU. i would like to spend about $200-$250. the one i'm looking at is a alpine for $200, it has (3) 4 volt outs. is this going to cut it or what? any suggestions would be appreciated.

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[LBX2G 10+ year member]

head units are very important it is where the sound starts. Alpines are good, which mdel is it.

 

[Shugarra 10+ year member]

http://forum.elitecaraudio.com/showthread.php?threadid=77016

General consensus is there isn't much of a difference. Higher voltage pre-outs will let the amp get louder but not much else.

My personal thoughts on the matter is that there is a difference. I know I heard more seperation and just plain cleaner music with my Nak over my old alpine. Whether this was all in my mind I don't know. I did not have them in an a/b setup but I figure as long as I think there's a difference it really doesn't matter if there is one or not.

 

[sumone 10+ year member]

What about one that's cheap like $100 [like mine]? I only got it cause it had rca aux inputs, and the other head units that did were > $200. Didn't need a radio/cd player - only the aux ins to get my mp3 hooked in. cd player/radio I hardly ever use.

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

If you have nice speakers it doesn't take a $500 hu to get them to sound good - it takes power.

High voltage pre outs don't hurt. That helps reduce the chance of picking up noise in the signal path. However, I believe anything over about 4v is overkill.

IMO the big money HU's are a lot more about pretty displays and a whole lot of on board processing that I don't think is necessary for great SQ.

 

[Mark_ab 5,000+ posts]

i have a 4 channel amp for mids and highs and a mono amp for a 12" XXX. all the money i spent doesn't leave me much for a new HU. i would like to spend about $200-$250. the one i'm looking at is a alpine for $200, it has (3) 4 volt outs. is this going to cut it or what? any suggestions would be appreciated.

That will suffice just fine. HU's and Amplifiers are about the two largest money makers out there, as far as the marketing voodoo myth of "SQ" is concerned. You won't hear a difference from one HU to another as long as everything is flat. A HU's ability to change/distort the signal through XO's or EQ's is where the money, and presumed "SQ" gain, lies. Outboard processing is where true high fidelity rests.

 

[JLCivic 10+ year member]

That will suffice just fine. HU's and Amplifiers are about the two largest money makers out there, as far as the marketing voodoo myth of "SQ" is concerned. You won't hear a difference from one HU to another as long as everything is flat. A HU's ability to change/distort the signal through XO's or EQ's is where the money, and presumed "SQ" gain, lies. Outboard processing is where true high fidelity rests.

I have heard differences in head units(as have many others). I know that my eclipse cd8053 sounds much smoother than the clarion 835mp does(I owned one for a few months). It isn't a function of sounding louder, but smoother. I have owned most major brands of head units and prefer eclipse(have owned 4 different eclipse decks over the years). When I changed from an eclipse cd8051 to a clarion 835mp because I really wanted satellite radio without using a separate controller, I was really hoping that the clarion would make me completely happy. The bottomline was that no matter how much tweaking I or the shop did with it, it didn't sound as nice, on as many different recordings, as I was used to.

We swapped it out for the eclipse, and with it set flat(it is still set flat), recordings that didn't sound right before now sound much better, smoother(remember, I didn't want the eclipse to sound better since the clarion was cheaper and with the eclipse, I would need a separate sirius controller, but my ears have told me what sounds better).

I also know a guy who had an alpine 9815 and went to an eclipse 8053 who says his frequency response is smoother with the eclipse(he had plotted it using an rta).

..and there is another guy who changed head units and finally "got rid of that ringing sound"

Some people hear no differences between decks, and others hear differences. I hear them, so to me, saying head units sounding different amounts to "voodoo" is something I strongly disagree with. I don't believe you need any external processing or the use of a deck's eq to hear differences among head units.

Now, all of that being said, I think I would do other things with a system before changing head units.

I think front speaker location is more important to overall sound

front speaker selection is important too

 

[GSteg 10+ year member]

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=161841

 

[ss3079 5,000+ posts]

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=161841

You owned that one big time ... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

- Steve

 

[LBX2G 10+ year member]

Yo I get what he is saying. But when u buy an head unit u are buying the processor to. You are buying the screen and the EQ and all that stuff. It is just like buy a honda over a BMW. If u look at it and engine is an engine, they all make the car go, but one does it better than the other. SO sit on that HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAA

- Holla at ur boi

 

[GSteg 10+ year member]

You pay for the features, but what you like doesn't translate into better sound quality.

Btw, how will one car get you to one place "better" than the other? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

 

[LBX2G 10+ year member]

so are u sayin that a sony mobile es has the same sound quality as a jesen. Or Macintosh a has the same sound quality as Prymiad or a pyle.

ha go figure i had it all backwards.

:tomatofac

 

[GSteg 10+ year member]

SQ-wise, aren't many differences between them.

But jensen's cheaper quality will affect how precise their EQ is.

Kind of like the FMOD. advertise at 12db octave, but tested only to be 6db. Basically it is a simple 6db octave Capacitor.

Again, decks like the Denon DCT-Z1 has very little features that alters the sound, yet people praise them. Then again, people who buys those kinds of decks will run outboard processors such as EQ and Xovers.

I just don't buy into those voodoo stuff. To me, Speaker and it's location will affect the sound the most. Speakers will put out the most distortion out of all the other equipment. The location and how it's installed will greatly affect sound staging and imaging.

Some people actually claimed that their super high-end god-like amp imaged their speakers better. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

Some even went far as saying their 8 gauge speaker wire sounded more "fuller" than when they had their 12 gauge wire. Fuller...whatever that means.....

Some people need to spend more time on tuning and working with the speakers.

 

[cdr 10+ year member]

I agree with a little of everything said so far, heres my take:

I would say that there is a difference between some cheap no name brand and a decent quality brand (doesnt have to be well known hehe) signals are simply cleaner and some of the components used are of better quality, build quality is better, IMO those factors lead to better quality of sound a cleaner signal whereas with no nam joe brand you could get some crappy components in those pieces of equipment. Take this as an example, microphones you have on one hand you have optimus radioshack brand which can make some decent very budget mics for what drums and umm lectures, then on the other hand you have a company such as sennheiser which makes some **** good mics, both recieve a physical wave signal and put it into some electronic signal that is usable but they do it very differently you will get truer, better and a wider range of sound from the sennheiser--kind of like the car analogy that was stated before but slightly different. Both mics do the same essential thing but the final result is a sure different.

So I dont think that a crappy HU will come near to reproducing the clean signal that a higher quality HU will, but heck most normal people wouldnt know that a bad HU sounded bad, people are so used to bad sound that whenthey can any upgrade its a wow for them.

Now on the other hand lets look at the pioneer HUs the DEHP-1500 (now into the *600 serieses but bahh) has the same mosfets in it as does the 7500 or 8500 what gains do you get from a DEH-1500 to a DEHP-3500? some nice little gains in just general sound manipulation such as a few more eq tweaks if I remember correctly (dont use an onboard eq myself but bahh) and a few more preouts and a nicer screen past the 3500/3600 you get what mp3 capability and some cool screeens no effect on sq at all.

So I think that it is important to pick a HU line that does have decent electronics in it and has a clean signal but when you upgrade within that line it is usually just for frills some useful like mp3 others just cool like OEL

Now I will agree with you GSteg that one of the biggest bottlenecks in any audio system be it Live, PA, home, or what do you know car is speakers and their placement and how that affects the total imaging of a listening enviroment, heck working with a PA in an open grass field just turning one speaker 2 degrees can balance everything out or screw it up, can make everything clearER (no perfect clear sound in open air hehe) or muddier

but you also have to admit that an amp with decent components in it that produces a clean signal is better than an amp that just replicates a HU amp or a HU amp itself. I notice no difference whatsoever in a display enviroment between a set of drivers beiing run off of a Pioneer HU and a set being run of a Profile amp except more power in profiles side of the arena, switch the amp to a Cadence or something nicer and I notice a cleaner more defined and distinct signal, didnt change the imaging or the rms capacity of the speakers though //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif **** that amp said it would fix all my imaging and ground loop and bad luck problems with the flick of the "magic switch" //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eek.gif.771b7a90cf45cabdc554ff1121c21c4a.gif

anyways my long $0.02 //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/toast.gif.bc0657bf54b9ee653b6438524461341e.gif

 

[Taycron 10+ year member]

Well, I'm not an audiophile so maybe that's why I can hear a difference between head units.