Question about different headunit brands...

[bk12321 10+ year member]

Was talkin to my buddy the other day, he owns Dedona tint and sound in Greensboro, one of the better shops to get stuff done at around here.

Anyways I was talkin to him about me getting a new headunit, and he told me to stay away from Eclipse and Pioneer. He said the EQ on those isnt as good as Alpine's, and that I should pick up one of those new imprint decks and that would be my best bet. He said that Eclipses ESPECIALLY dont have the best SQ.

Well i've been looking around for a cd5000, cd7000, cd8455, cd8445, cd5100, etc. They aren't TOO flashy but they are nice looking.

I guess my question is will I notice a BIG difference between, lets say a cd7000, a pioneer p880prs, and an alpine deck like a 9835 or similar?

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[almond 10+ year member]

lol eclipse decks are known for their sq. does the shop heappen to sell alpine and not eclipse??

 

[Paddywad 10+ year member]

I guess my question is will I notice a BIG difference between, lets say a cd7000, a pioneer p880prs, and an alpine deck like a 9835 or similar?

Just my $.02, but why don't you go around and try to listen and tinker with the h/u's mentioned above? Get acqainted with the units and see which one best suits your needs. Good luck.

 

[bk12321 10+ year member]

lol eclipse decks are known for their sq. does the shop heappen to sell alpine and not eclipse??

Yes I know that they are known for their SQ, I was just wondering before I go and spend my money on a deck, I simply want the best sound possible for my money, which is why i'm asking if i'll notice a huge difference between the 3. If so, i'll pick up the best sounding one that fits my needs.

I don't have a ton of experience comparing headunits, I simply know whats pretty good and whats not, and what all the features mean and what not. I don't actually know how good one will sound next to another.

Just my $.02, but why don't you go around and try to listen and tinker with the h/u's mentioned above? Get acqainted with the units and see which one best suits your needs. Good luck.

Well, there isn't a shop near me that carries the specific Eclipse decks that I want, otherwise I would love to go and mess around with a few. That being said, in-store setups will sound WAY different than in a car, and I want to know how those headunits will sound in my CAR not in the store where the unit is.

Anyways, I guess i'm wondering if I pick up an Eclipse deck, will it be much/any worse than those 9835's that everyone raves about? I know the SQ in the 9835 is TOP NOTCH, but the newer eclipses are supposed to have 24bit DSP and great tuning capabilities.

 

[sdmtnbiker420 10+ year member]

p880prs owns all

 

[92SC300 10+ year member]

p880prs owns all

x2

a lot of people here bad mouth pioneer headunits, granted their noise problems (which are fixable) I will never move away from pioneer, just got my DEH-P780MP and can't wait to start using it

 

[dipitydoo 10+ year member]

I wouldn't worry about the SQ capabilities of these decks. I do like the parametric eq's of the Alpine (9835/9855) and Eclipse (cd7000/cd7100) over the 16 band graphic eq of the 880prs. A graphic eq has set center frequencies and bandwidth, and the 16 bands are spaced at 2/3 octaves apart. The parametric eq's on the Alpine and Eclipse, though with less bands, offer adjustable Q and center frequencies at 1/3 octave intervals, and are more powerful for correcting response problems. I believe they both have a more flexible crossover section as well. Whether you might make use of these features is a different story.

 

[almond 10+ year member]

or you could just get an empeg where you can have a 10 band fully parametric eq (from 50hz to 30 khz in incriments of 1hz, with adjustable q from 0-10 in 0.1 incriments) either locked for all four channels, left/right, or each individual channel fr, fl, rr, rl. as far as processing empeg owns all, sorry guys, but by far not an sq deck. (it only plays mp3's, well you can hook up a cd player to it, but whats the point really)