Nitewing911
10+ year member
Member
I'm planning on purchasing a new head unit within the next two weeks, but I'm having a really hard time settling on one. When I think I've made a decision, the next day I'll be considering something else. Clearly, I need help.
I've narrowed down my choice to the ones below, and here are my thoughts on each.
Premier DEH-p880prs:
I didn't know about this deck until about a couple weeks ago when I saw it on Pioneer's website. I did some research on this and people are touting it as a unit that's 80% of Pioneer's reference-level P9 deck at 20% of the price. About.com had a little CES show blurb on it stating that it had a home-unit quality Burr-Brown 24bit DAC (though Pioneer's site doesn't say anything about that). So far so good. But I used to have a Premier p860mp and I really didn't like the fact that it had no dedicated mute or pause buttons on the face; instead you had to dig through a couple menus to do it. I also didn't like having the track advance function on the right knob. In my car, it's a bit of a reach, and I tend not to use remote controls for head units. The p880prs seems to be pretty much a better sounding, cleaner looking p860mp, meaning it'll still have the poor ergonomics and severely inconvenient pause/mute functions.
Premier DEH-p780mp:
More so than the screen, which I'm not too concerned with, I'm intrigued by the fact that I can control the volume and switch tracks with just one knob, which happens to be on the driver's side. Pioneer's site also says this unit has 24bit Burr-Brown DACs, and I'm wondering if they're the same as the ones in the p880prs, since Pioneer doesn't make any sort of differentiation on their site. If the DACs were the same, I'd choose this over the p880prs. However, I've played around a bit with the p6800mp and I found the main rotary knob to be a lot less fluid than I thought. I was expecting something that moved smoothly and easily, but it takes quite a bit of effort to tip the knob side to side. This I didn't like, nor do I like the fact that the pause/mute functions are, yet again, buried in the menu system.
Kenwood XXV-01D:
I've probably used Kenwoods a bit more than any other brand and their eXcelon line has rarely let me down. Although this unit has been replaced by the x990, I'm partial to it because of the engineering that went into the 25th anniversary products. I read that much of the internals used are more robust and of higher quality than even their standard eXcelon line. Plus, I've read some very complimentary reviews about how well Kenwood implemented the Burr-Brown DAC into this unit, and how good it sounds. However, my friend has the x889 and I don't like the little joystick they have on the right side (again, not very ergonomic) that controls track switching and pause/play. It moves very fluidly, but since it's so small, it's very easy to tip it the wrong way. You push the joystick in to play or pause, but again, it's so easy to tip it that you end up switching folders and losing your place. Another thing is that Kenwood doesn't have any good mp3 navigation in their units. The Pioneers and the Alpines have the ability to cycle through the tracks by spinning the rotary knobs, but Kenwood has nothing of the sort. How unfortunate.
Alpine:
It's hard not feeling disappointed with Alpine's current offerings compared to what they were coming out with a few years ago. I was considering getting the 9835 from two years back, but after some research on it, I decided it's not worth the $300+ price that it usually commands on ebay, especially since the deck is used and there are a number of issues with the unit itself. The thing with Alpine is that they have the ideal button/knob layout. It's all on the driver's side, and there's a pause button and mute button, and there's mp3 navigation with the ability to remember where you are in your mp3 search instead of having to start from the top of the list like in the Pioneer models. I've considered getting the 9857, but I really feel like I'd be downgrading, and I don't want to do that, especially in light of the fact that the Premier and Kenwood models I've listed above probably sound much better due to their 24bit DACs and the Alpine has only 2v pre-outs compared to the 5v on the others. The current top-of-the-line 9861 has dvd audio playback, 24bit DACs (a first for Alpine), and the great ergonomics, but has a horrible, bottom-of-the-line screen. I know I said I'm not too concerned with the screens, but I have my limits. I'd like at least something dot-matrix or something.
Goodness, this is a long post. If you've stayed with me this far, thanks a lot. I'd like to know your thoughts. It seems like with any of the above units there will be compromises, but what do you think would have the least compromises?
I've narrowed down my choice to the ones below, and here are my thoughts on each.
Premier DEH-p880prs:
I didn't know about this deck until about a couple weeks ago when I saw it on Pioneer's website. I did some research on this and people are touting it as a unit that's 80% of Pioneer's reference-level P9 deck at 20% of the price. About.com had a little CES show blurb on it stating that it had a home-unit quality Burr-Brown 24bit DAC (though Pioneer's site doesn't say anything about that). So far so good. But I used to have a Premier p860mp and I really didn't like the fact that it had no dedicated mute or pause buttons on the face; instead you had to dig through a couple menus to do it. I also didn't like having the track advance function on the right knob. In my car, it's a bit of a reach, and I tend not to use remote controls for head units. The p880prs seems to be pretty much a better sounding, cleaner looking p860mp, meaning it'll still have the poor ergonomics and severely inconvenient pause/mute functions.
Premier DEH-p780mp:
More so than the screen, which I'm not too concerned with, I'm intrigued by the fact that I can control the volume and switch tracks with just one knob, which happens to be on the driver's side. Pioneer's site also says this unit has 24bit Burr-Brown DACs, and I'm wondering if they're the same as the ones in the p880prs, since Pioneer doesn't make any sort of differentiation on their site. If the DACs were the same, I'd choose this over the p880prs. However, I've played around a bit with the p6800mp and I found the main rotary knob to be a lot less fluid than I thought. I was expecting something that moved smoothly and easily, but it takes quite a bit of effort to tip the knob side to side. This I didn't like, nor do I like the fact that the pause/mute functions are, yet again, buried in the menu system.
Kenwood XXV-01D:
I've probably used Kenwoods a bit more than any other brand and their eXcelon line has rarely let me down. Although this unit has been replaced by the x990, I'm partial to it because of the engineering that went into the 25th anniversary products. I read that much of the internals used are more robust and of higher quality than even their standard eXcelon line. Plus, I've read some very complimentary reviews about how well Kenwood implemented the Burr-Brown DAC into this unit, and how good it sounds. However, my friend has the x889 and I don't like the little joystick they have on the right side (again, not very ergonomic) that controls track switching and pause/play. It moves very fluidly, but since it's so small, it's very easy to tip it the wrong way. You push the joystick in to play or pause, but again, it's so easy to tip it that you end up switching folders and losing your place. Another thing is that Kenwood doesn't have any good mp3 navigation in their units. The Pioneers and the Alpines have the ability to cycle through the tracks by spinning the rotary knobs, but Kenwood has nothing of the sort. How unfortunate.
Alpine:
It's hard not feeling disappointed with Alpine's current offerings compared to what they were coming out with a few years ago. I was considering getting the 9835 from two years back, but after some research on it, I decided it's not worth the $300+ price that it usually commands on ebay, especially since the deck is used and there are a number of issues with the unit itself. The thing with Alpine is that they have the ideal button/knob layout. It's all on the driver's side, and there's a pause button and mute button, and there's mp3 navigation with the ability to remember where you are in your mp3 search instead of having to start from the top of the list like in the Pioneer models. I've considered getting the 9857, but I really feel like I'd be downgrading, and I don't want to do that, especially in light of the fact that the Premier and Kenwood models I've listed above probably sound much better due to their 24bit DACs and the Alpine has only 2v pre-outs compared to the 5v on the others. The current top-of-the-line 9861 has dvd audio playback, 24bit DACs (a first for Alpine), and the great ergonomics, but has a horrible, bottom-of-the-line screen. I know I said I'm not too concerned with the screens, but I have my limits. I'd like at least something dot-matrix or something.
Goodness, this is a long post. If you've stayed with me this far, thanks a lot. I'd like to know your thoughts. It seems like with any of the above units there will be compromises, but what do you think would have the least compromises?
