Importance

[Thedeadly1 10+ year member]

I have a pioneer 4900ib, Which is a mid grade head unit. If i was to buy a better head unit (say alpine 9887 or a 880prs) Would my sound quality or anything like that be different? The guy at best buy Told me that once you hook the amp up, the deck doesn't control any of the sound quality or parameters of the music at all. Its all about the amp. Im not very educated on this topic so i would like some input. I can see that the amp takes over all of that, just making sure thats true. If not, or if half true, please explain //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

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[tapout 5,000+ posts]

The guy at best buy Told me that once you hook the amp up, the deck doesn't control any of the sound quality or parameters of the music at all. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Best Buy at its finest.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eek.gif.771b7a90cf45cabdc554ff1121c21c4a.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wow.gif.23d729408e9177caa2a0ed6a2ba6588e.gif

 

[Thedeadly1 10+ year member]

Lol alright, well can anyone explain then? and thanks for the quick response //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Flipx99 5,000+ posts]

Lol alright, well can anyone explain then? and thanks for the quick response //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

The head unit controls the signal being sent to the amp.

 

[Thedeadly1 10+ year member]

i dont understand can you elaborate

 

[nismos14 5,000+ posts]

The headunit provides ALL of the data that the amplifier then amplify's. So the source unit can pretty much be considered the most important piece of the system, to a degree.

 

[maldecido33 10+ year member]

Here's how it works:

Headunit will recieve music from a source, whether it be a CD, radio, DVD, iPod, etc. It then outputs this date via your RCA cables to the amplifier. The amplifer recieves this signal and, as the name suggests, amplifies the signal and outputs through your speaker wires to your speakers/subwoofers.

For the purposes of this discussion, we will assume that the amplifier does not modify the signal it recieves from the mp3 player (in actuality it does modify it several different ways, but not so much as what you're thinking). Here is a sequence of events:

CD/DVD/Radio/Media -------> Read by your headunit -------> Headunit sends music signal to amplifier -----> Amplifier "boosts" that music signal and sends them to your loudspeakers.

Thus you can see that the headunit reads your music, so the quality of the music is primarily concerned with the quality of the decoders in your headunit. The quality at which the CD is burned also could play a factor.

 

[Thedeadly1 10+ year member]

okay, so how do i know which headunit has better decoders and sorts? Would lets say a pioneer 6900 be better than my 4900?

 

[Phreakshow 10+ year member]

I had an older pioneer unit deh 4900mb I believe. I think my Kenwood x591 I just got sounds 100% better than my pioneer. If you are looking into adding an amp to the system from what I have read you should buy a unit with good voltage to the rca plugs which feeds the amp. I used to love Pioneer but after that last head unit I dont think I will go back for a long time. I would suggest an Alpine or a Kenwood but that is just me and I am a Noob.

 

[Gary S 10+ year member]

For the most part, a CD transport is a CD transport... not much sound quality difference, if any... (I have not heard any difference)... however, tuners, eq's, crossovers, noise, and system tuning can make huge differences in sound quality. Pioneer seems to have the best sounding analog AM/FM tuners... but HD radio would be better... and a separate HD tuner box would be better still than HD built-into the head. A tube pre-amp might sound better... not too many of those around, however.

Honestly, as long as you have pre-amp outs if you are using external amps, and the crossovers in your amps are decent... speakers, speaker placement, installation quality, system design and tuning will make a bigger impact on sound quality.... I'd start with those things before dropping big dollars on a head unit looking for sound quality.