need help picking out a new head unit

[Jamie79]

I have a flexible budget of around $300.00. I'm trying to avoid pioneers since my last deck gave me all kinds of trouble. I'm looking for a deck with great sound quality and that is Ipod ready. I was initially going to get an alpine cda-9885 but I heard for the same money there are better decks. So which decks should I look in to?

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[theothermike 10+ year member]

i like eclipse, kenwood excelon headunits, and pioneer premier.....

i would recommend you get the kenwood 891 or 990 from last year... has amazing sq and is ipod ready but not greatest navigation.....

eclipse has great sq as well and ipod is a little better recently..... but they removed some important features from the 5100.

pioneer premier 880 prs...... amazing sq, and very good ipod navigation.....

it all up to you...

 

[Jamie79]

After reading some more on this site iv decided to give pioneer one last try, the 880prs looks real nice but would the 07 model DEH-P590IB have better ipod operation being that it is one year newer?

 

[theothermike 10+ year member]

yes but u loose many sound processing and sound quality features in the unit

 

[Jamie79]

Ok, gotcha. Im going with the 880prs then. One more question my previous pioneer which i got a few years ago blew a microfuse from not being directly grounded to the chassis of my car I used the factory harness ground. Do the newer pioneers still have this issue? Because Id hate for it to happen again because of a weak ground.

 

[theothermike 10+ year member]

ummm i would do a new ground to chassis anyways.... why settle for less?... but no not many problems other than some have to have rcas grounded by wrapping wire around them... there a thread with info....

 

[MBrock4u 10+ year member]

The 880prs is a nice choice. I almost bought that deck myself. I went with the Kenwood Excelon X-990. This is a awesome deck. Either way you can't go wrong.

 

[MBrock4u 10+ year member]

The 880prs is a nice choice. I almost bought that deck myself. I went with the Kenwood Excelon X-990. This is a awesome deck. Either way you can't go wrong.

 

[Babs 10+ year member]

I had the XXV-01D very similar to the excelon 990.. I was fairly pleased with it. Only complaint was the time alignment didn't split front or rear speakers to left/right, which is better than nothing I suppose. Good SQ processing and noise level though.

Too bad Kwood isn't making any higher end preamp only units anymore.. They have the potential.. Guess the market just isn't there.. and they get good SQ out of their middle lines now acceptible to the masses.