if you had to rate them

[patrick82]

like i said in my previous thread i am looking @ Kenwood Excelon KDC-X794

but i thought i would ask:

pioneer

kenwood

sony

apline

how would you put them in order of best to worse....

Click to read more...

 

[smoothcriminal]

First off.... I just went through a "hands on" kind of personal testing of many of these. I have a 12" JL Audio w3v2 runnin off an Alpine mrp-m850 and a pair of 4" x 6" Boston Acousics S70 dash speakers and a set of 6.5 w/ 1" dome Kenwood KFC-P708 components runnin off an Autotek 490.4 with a visonik 6 band EQ.... oughtta sound pretty **** good in a single cab chevy s-10.....plenty of power, quality eqipment.... I had an Eclipse CD1000 head unit and my system sounded like crap ! So I went with a Kenwood KDC-422....got a little better, but nowhere near what it should be. Went with a Sony.....no better, went with a PIONEER Premier deh-660mp and it sounded ALOT BETTER, but still lacked that crispness I knew it should have. FINALLY I went with an Alpine CDA-9885 and HOLY SH*T it's everything I knew it should be plus some. I never knew the difference the head unit made till now. I've had Alpine in the past, but they have really raised the bar the last few years while Sony, JVC and Kenwood seemed to have dropped the ball. Pioneer Premier still seems to have it, but for the money.... $400 with Alpine equals $800 with Premier as far as quality goes. I'm sure you'll get 50 other posts with 50 different opinions, but this is my opinion and it's based on recent personal experience. So.... here ya go >>> 1) Alpine 2) Pioneer 3) Kenwood 4) Sony Good Luck !!!!!!!!!

 

[whitedragon551 5,000+ posts]

Eclipse over all of them.

 

[4OZGLOVES 10+ year member]

I've got a 9855 for sale in the classifieds right now:greedy:

First off.... I just went through a "hands on" kind of personal testing of many of these. I have a 12" JL Audio w3v2 runnin off an Alpine mrp-m850 and a pair of 4" x 6" Boston Acousics S70 dash speakers and a set of 6.5 w/ 1" dome Kenwood KFC-P708 components runnin off an Autotek 490.4 with a visonik 6 band EQ.... oughtta sound pretty **** good in a single cab chevy s-10.....plenty of power, quality eqipment.... I had an Eclipse CD1000 head unit and my system sounded like crap ! So I went with a Kenwood KDC-422....got a little better, but nowhere near what it should be. Went with a Sony.....no better, went with a PIONEER Premier deh-660mp and it sounded ALOT BETTER, but still lacked that crispness I knew it should have. FINALLY I went with an Alpine CDA-9885 and HOLY SH*T it's everything I knew it should be plus some. I never knew the difference the head unit made till now. I've had Alpine in the past, but they have really raised the bar the last few years while Sony, JVC and Kenwood seemed to have dropped the ball. Pioneer Premier still seems to have it, but for the money.... $400 with Alpine equals $800 with Premier as far as quality goes. I'm sure you'll get 50 other posts with 50 different opinions, but this is my opinion and it's based on recent personal experience. So.... here ya go >>> 1) Alpine 2) Pioneer 3) Kenwood 4) Sony Good Luck !!!!!!!!!

 

[AllenH427 10+ year member]

Alpine > Pioneer > Kenwood > Sony

Have heard multiple units of each brand. Alpine has the most natural sound, just you have to get the 117 or 9887 to really have all the features.

Pioneer has a lot of features for a good price, sound is moderate.

Kenwood, never really liked any of the ones I've heard, cant quote any models, but just didnt like the sound.

Sony, cheap sound, cheap made, messed around with 2 different units, not impressed.

 

[Ksan 10+ year member]

Well I am kinda the other way. I had a alpine and I did not like it I bought the pioneer DEH-P800PRS and WoW, there was the sound I had been looking for, it was much better than the Alpine and yes, the Hu makes a BIG difference in the SQ. If I was to rate HU it would be like this and I have owned them all at one time of another but some of them were old models so the newer ones might be better than what I had at the time....here is my ratings

Higher End Pioneers

Eclipse ( I know it was not listed but it is **** good)

Alpine

Kenwood

Sony ( I think the Sony's **** imo)

 

[kr15 5,000+ posts]

All these companies make good models and shitty models... For price to features ratio, id say Pioneer. But I also like my Alpine more than the Pioneers that I have had. Not a huge fan of Kenwood, but some of their upper models are **** good. Sony I have the least experience with, so I dont want to comment one way or another