VWBobby 10+ year member
PG and SS nuthugger
Awesome post! Everything you said was right on. I have a $60 Pioneer deck that sounds OK in my beater work truck, and it puts $100 Boss and other low end decks to shame. It definitely clips the signal on anything but the "flat" or "normal" settings. Most people don't have a trained ear to hear when they are clipping or damaging their speakers. I know many people that are blowing or have blown their speakers and can't even hear the speaker hating life until its too late! lolThat's not even a valid point from this side of the argument because you can get warranties for everything. Do you really think people pay several hundred dollars extra for reliability? Most electronics you buy will be fairly reliable, it's about the components each of these companies use, how their head units SOUND(it's actually very important; you obviously can't tell, but your head unit most likely makes your music sound like dookie), how good their internal amplifiers are(how soon they clip your signal). You may not know that you're sending a clipped signal to every single thing beyond your head unit, but it's happening. It's there, it's square, get used to it.
I'm only trying to help you out. I care because I don't like seeing ignorant people stay ignorant. What's wrong with that?
If you have a good quality D/A converter (24 bit burr brown) in your CD player and are running an external amp......you will be hard pressed to hear the SQ difference. I am running a $130 Kenwood deck with a 24-bit Burr Brown into a Rockford 501x amp....it sounds great to me, and I've heard 100's of systems. I think its more like 50% install and 50% equipment...contrary to what I read on this forum. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif
Current head units:
Kenwood, Pioneer (x2), Harmon Kardon.... all in near daily use.