What happened to Midrange units?

[DocisChief 10+ year member]

It seems when I got my unit about 5 years ago or so, that Pioneer & Alpine spread out features to their mid-range units much better. Now it seems not so much, especially with Alpine, it's like they stripped them down. Maybe it's just me, and I misremember. I never really look at Kenwood before, not that I thought they were trash or anything, but how are there upper-mid-range units to you? I'll probably end up sticking with the Pioneer mid-range whenever I do get a different car. One of their media units without a CD player. Just for reference, I currently have a limping DEH-5800MP

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[d77543020 10+ year member]

kenwood to me has the best bang for your buck even some of there lower line hu have 4volts out and some decent features, with pioneer and alpine it seems you have to choose from the crap or pay top dollar for the good stuff

 

[rc10mike 10+ year member]

Its sad really, you cant really get a nice HU with some decent audio tuning features anymore (unless you buy used). The only real high-end one is the P99RS. Once Pioneer drops the P99RS because they dont sell a ton of them, all we'll be left with is crap ipod friendly units.

Like it or not, its the trend...

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

Its sad really, you cant really get a nice HU with some decent audio tuning features anymore (unless you buy used). The only real high-end one is the P99RS. Once Pioneer drops the P99RS because they dont sell a ton of them, all we'll be left with is crap ipod friendly units.
Like it or not, its the trend...

this

 

[d77543020 10+ year member]

gone are the days of the 7800 and 9800 bt with a nice built in eq and ta, when ipod came into the pitcher everything changed low end decks with headphone jacks in are the norm but you can still get great processors but at a hefty cost

 

[4x4runner 10+ year member]

i use to have a cda 9831 and a cda 9833 a while back , i recently purchased a cda 105 after being out of the audio game a while. suppose to be a pretty nice midrange hu. The adjustibility was treble and bass lol. I sold it and got the cda 117 ( the nicest din one they make now) , and i swear the old 9833 has more options and eq. Now to get the better eq you have to add alpine imprint , everything is additional (bluetooth, hd radio, satellite, imprint,etc) in addition to the top of the line unit, all other manufacturers hu's in this price range include bluetooth and hd radio at least. However I still pick alpine lol, just wish they would include more built in options like the old units , i miss picking any color for the buttons too, the cda 117 is just blue which does not match alot of factory dashes.

 

[d77543020 10+ year member]

i use to have a cda 9831 and a cda 9833 a while back , i recently purchased a cda 105 after being out of the audio game a while. suppose to be a pretty nice midrange hu. The adjustibility was treble and bass lol. I sold it and got the cda 117 ( the nicest din one they make now) , and i swear the old 9833 has more options and eq. Now to get the better eq you have to add alpine imprint , everything is additional (bluetooth, hd radio, satellite, imprint,etc) in addition to the top of the line unit, all other manufacturers hu's in this price range include bluetooth and hd radio at least. However I still pick alpine lol, just wish they would include more built in options like the old units , i miss picking any color for the buttons too, the cda 117 is just blue which does not match alot of factory dashes.

alpines are great but they are the worst dollar for dollar you have to pay a good chunk of money to get a nice deck and making you buy that imprint is just greedy,alot of decent head units used to have those features built inside the deck

 

[rc10mike 10+ year member]

alpines are great but they are the worst dollar for dollar you have to pay a good chunk of money to get a nice deck and making you buy that imprint is just greedy,alot of decent head units used to have those features built inside the deck

I agree, Imprint is just plain stupid and should be included.

 

[rc10mike 10+ year member]

My Pioneer 800PRS does everything I need. Its just slightly better than my old 860MP. Once I realized they dropped the 800PRS I was pissed. Then they came out with the P99RS, which costs 4x more than my 800.

The subject of this thread pisses me off, just have a look at Pioneers website and EVERY HU they offer is ALL ABOUT ipod support....and then it jumps all the way to their "stage 4" stuff.

The main reason why car audio is the way it is nowadays is the general consumer. The general consumer doesnt care about nice things like 30 band EQ and T/A, all they want something they can set their precious ipod filled with 128kb mp3's into and be on their way..

 

[d77543020 10+ year member]

My Pioneer 800PRS does everything I need. Its just slightly better than my old 860MP. Once I realized they dropped the 800PRS I was pissed. Then they came out with the P99RS, which costs 4x more than my 800.
The subject of this thread pisses me off, just have a look at Pioneers website and EVERY HU they offer is ALL ABOUT ipod support....and then it jumps all the way to their "stage 4" stuff.

The main reason why car audio is the way it is nowadays is the general consumer. The general consumer doesnt care about nice things like 30 band EQ and T/A, all they want something they can set their precious ipod filled with 128kb mp3's into and be on their way..

i dont blame the manufactures for the ipod use it is the future as cds are on the way out so they have to have some type of usb support today

 

[Jroo 10+ year member]

We have to face that in many ways car audio is dead. The OEM stuff has basically killed the aftermarket. The ave. joe is not going to rip up his car to put in a deck that has half the features his factory touch screen nav and ipod control unit does. Now tack on the fact that his factory deck contains heat/AC, steering wheel control, controls the kids factory mounted DVD player in the back, and has bluetooth so his wife can talk on the phone. Who is going to pay big bucks and installation cost to replace something that really only gets them close to where they started. When you look at the heads offered, they are either super cheap entry level stuff or high end audiophile stuff. The guy that is selling his car or his 8 years old head unit died, buys the entry level stuff. Then you have guys like us that are still in the hobby and look at the more expensive stuff like the pioneer premier heads or the alpine 9887. The issue with the high end stuff is they will sell like 10 of those this year and companies cant justity keeping the lines when that happens. Walk into a car audio store and you notice they arent exactly tripping over clients in the store. My local stores are dead and the inventory they keep gets smaller and smaller every time i visit. I used to go in to see the new stuff coming out and more and more it is easier to look online. The stores around me simply dont keep the stuff in anymore, nobody is buying it.

 

[LaserRed38 10+ year member]

Bit one, bit ten, MS-8, etc. These are the future for high end "SQ" head units. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[d77543020 10+ year member]

Bit one, bit ten, MS-8, etc. These are the future for high end "SQ" head units. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

this is true if you buy a new car today processors will be the only way to go, or the return of high end eq and crossovers,aftermarket decks are on there way out,and high end ones are already leaving,i think this is why pioneer decks haven't changed in years

 

[SPLAudioHz 10+ year member]

CDs sound better. Phonographs sound better than CDs. Not sure if I would ever compete with iPod.....unless it was SPL, then maybe I would use an iPod.

 

[SPLAudioHz 10+ year member]

I think most aftermarket companies are going for quantity more than quality anymore.