Is there still high-end car audio?

[ghause]

Hi, I'm new here, but not to car audio by any means.

After many years I am looking for a new deck and I'm a bit dismayed by the companies still in this sector. Blauplunkt seems to be largely out of the picture, Nakamichi is history, thankfully Alpine is still around. What happened? Do I have to buy something that I could get at Best Buy if I want a high-end deck?

Yes I could sit here and read debates for hours and satisfy all you guys who just want me to search, but I need clarification.

Pioneer, JVC, come on, I don't want goofy features, I want great sound.

Click to read more...

 

[benzmansl65amg 10+ year member]

Kenwood KDC-X993

 

[misfit138 5,000+ posts]

McIntosh and Nakamichi are still available...

Nakamichi CD/MP3 Players - Lowest Prices - Largest Selection - WoofersEtc.com

McIntosh CD/MP3 Players - Lowest Prices - Largest Selection - WoofersEtc.com

Alpine, Pioneer, Kenwood, Eclipse (now out of business, but equipment is readily available) and JVC make some nice cd players too. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

 

[kmanian 5,000+ posts]

still some of the best head units are OS

 

[RJesus 10+ year member]

is an alpine 9887 high end??

 

[Slammer 10+ year member]

Love the sound quality I get with my Kenwood KDCX-693. Has a 24 bit processor that cleans up music files.

 

[Rich B 5,000+ posts]

The latest high end HU.........

DEX-P99RS

Reference Series CD Tuner with Digital DSP and USB Port with Digital Direct Signal Transmission

• Dual L/R Independent 31-Band Equalizers
  
• L/R Independent 4-Way Crossovers with Slope Setting
  
• Auto EQ and Auto Time Alignment
  

Suggested Price: $1,349.00

Pioneer USA - DEX-P99RS - Reference Series CD Tuner with Digital DSP and USB Port with Digital Direct Signal Transmission

 

[Wingman0121 10+ year member]

Alpine's F1 Status lines are still around.

 

[plugitin 5,000+ posts]

eclipse...nuff said

 

[Rich B 5,000+ posts]

eclipse...nuff said

Eclipse has left the building.

 

[plugitin 5,000+ posts]

Eclipse has left the building.

D:

Old eclipse...nuff said //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[ghause]

Thanks for the responses. I was expecting to get flamed. Alpine IVA-W505?

 

[raverx3m 10+ year member]

dual and jensen NUFF SAID!!!!!!! lol comes with free built in smoke machine.

the car audio is in a deep shock right now as usual when technology changes.

the brains behind car audio companies seem to be very inflexible and have to go thru great amounts of pain before catching up to speed.

i mean look at nakamichi. they still make a CD only players and they expect a big market for them?

PC has been around for more than 2 decades and the digital sound has surpassed the cd quality by far.

MP3 is a different case.

the fact that CD is a digital recording should give a hint to companies to catch up to speed and start producing USB units capable of playing high quality digital recordings.

but its been a loong and painfull waiting they are finally waking up from their hibernation and adjusting to the market.

other thing is the fact that jazz and classical and other previously popular HI-FI music is not that popular.

you dont need a 2000 dollar cd player to listen to rap music that is produced at your neighbourhood basement studio.

then the general tendency of people to buy cheaper stuff everyone wants cheaper and cheaper.

people have been conditioned to expect new CHEAPER products to come out each year and its not the companies fault that people are becoming dumber by the year.

you dont want to pay 300 for a mid class radio, ok well make it cheaper so you can get it for 249.99 but well cut down on some features...

nottice how pioneer got rid of their mid-class radios that had alot of features and limited the high end to only one unit and one setup that they call stage 4?

that only carried by certain authorised dealers.

there used to be 8600 there used to be 880 that were reasonably priced.

now they are all gone and we got a 500 dollar unit that doesnt have shit except the dumb flashing lights and animations and bluetooth and EQ that stops at 8000 HZ instead of 16k or at least 12.5.

i hate the car audio world at the monent too since we are getting not what we want.

 

[raverx3m 10+ year member]

oh but to answer the question.

if you do just listen to cds then there should be no problem for you since there are plenty of CD capable units that have great EQ.

but if you want to play digital music, WAV, FLAC for example then youre halfway out of luck

they finally started to add WAV support to this and last year's units.

but still no flac support.( i just call it beeing a ***** since they dont want to add flac support in fear that it will not be popular)

as far as units.

the cda-9887 alpine is a great unit, but doesnt have USB

cda-9886 is a great unit , but doesnt have bass engine pro

cda-117 is new replacement for 9886 and has added limited time allignment that will definitely fool alot of people into buying it.

kenwood does have the 9 series but they are also cutting down on audio features and adding useless features like animations and annoying faceplate light beat boxes

KDC-x592 was a great unit but didnt live too long. it was kenwood's attempt to bring more customers by selling an underpriced unit.

it had nice eq that goes from 40 hz to 16k

3 way crossover that started from 30 hz for mids

and some other usefull features

kdc-x693

came out and has more limited eq and crossover... but has the multicolor display...

 

[misfit138 5,000+ posts]

Alpine IVA-W505?

I installed one in my friend's Lincoln. I don't know how it would do in a high end sq build, but it's nice as hell in that LS. The ipod integration is the best I've seen so far...