McIntosh VS Pioneer help

[sp33d 10+ year member]

debating over getting a 880 prs or this head unit that is being sold on the forum right now

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=183091

my whole ambition is for SQ entirely, and both the 880 and the hu in the link above will support it, but i want people's opinions on the situation. 375 for the mcintosh, or 300 for the 880. anything replied is greatly appreciated. hu is going in a 03 solara, so the DD will be a perfect match for a low key look.

-mark

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[forceofwill 10+ year member]

debating over getting a 880 prs or this head unit that is being sold on the forum right now
http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=183091

my whole ambition is for SQ entirely, and both the 880 and the hu in the link above will support it, but i want people's opinions on the situation. 375 for the mcintosh, or 300 for the 880. anything replied is greatly appreciated. hu is going in a 03 solara, so the DD will be a perfect match for a low key look.

-mark

The Mcintosh will probably give you better sound quality, but the rest of your setup is going to have to be really kick *** to tell. I believe Audionutz over on ECA did a HU challenge and the Mcintosh won. That being said, it has no features, if you want to go active you're going to have to buy some external XO's and EQ's like the ones Arc sells. It also won't play MP3's.

The 880 on the other hand is a very nice unit that I do have hands on experiance with, you can use it to X/O your active setup and it even has a decent EQ in it built it. Much easier to run active with this unit.

I was debating on my next HU to get and really wanted the Denon z1/Mcintosh. After some thinking, I would have to run an external XO and 2 external 30 bands to get the tuning I'd want. Which means, A) A crap load more wiring, and B) You have to go to wherever you mount your X/O and EQ's to change it. This lead me to want to go with either the p9 combo or the Russian URAL HU.

If you don't mind having to buy X/O's and EQ's that Mcintosh is a great deal. But if you want something that will be much easier to tune decently and have more features, get the 880.

 

[Slaugh 10+ year member]

i would trust Alpine or Eclipse before Pioneer for sound quality itself, even thou i haven't listened to this Pioneer hu..

 

[2Fast2Furious 10+ year member]

If you still haven't bought the head unit and still debating over which brand to buy, I suggest you go for the McIntosh. You won't regret it, I'm sure.

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