What happened to Midrange units?

[DocisChief 10+ year member]

Man, I didn't check back for a while, but I think all of the posts are really good points. I agree with D77 that Alpines are fine, but their dollar for dollar value isn't so great. It seems they have the steepest incline in relation to features to cost.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

In the past I've ran either Alpine or Pioneer. I currently have the 800PRS in my Caprice and a 9855 in my Jeep. Both HUs are awesome quality. The day one of them dies, I'm probably going to cry (quite possibly, literally). Like some of you have said, there are a couple of things that are stopping aftermarket companies from putting out high quality HUs. The average consumer, who thinks he or she is an "educated" consumer, does not want to spend the money for the extra features. This reduces the demand for high quality HUs. Factory equipment in cars now is getting better and harder to change. This also reduces the demand for HUs in general. If you have ever checked out other countries' websites to see what they offer in terms of HUs, you'll see some high quality products out there. Americans in general are hurting economically. Putting my car audio addiction aside, I will agree with the general public that there are more important things out there to spend $500 on than a HU for their car. Now, in reality, my car audio addiction always takes president over all else. I would probably cut down my food intake for a period of time just to get something I wanted for my car. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif That's probably not a good thing either...

 

[Vossy 10+ year member]

In the past I've ran either Alpine or Pioneer. I currently have the 800PRS in my Caprice and a 9855 in my Jeep. Both HUs are awesome quality. The day one of them dies, I'm probably going to cry (quite possibly, literally). Like some of you have said, there are a couple of things that are stopping aftermarket companies from putting out high quality HUs. The average consumer, who thinks he or she is an "educated" consumer, does not want to spend the money for the extra features. This reduces the demand for high quality HUs. Factory equipment in cars now is getting better and harder to change. This also reduces the demand for HUs in general. If you have ever checked out other countries' websites to see what they offer in terms of HUs, you'll see some high quality products out there. Americans in general are hurting economically. Putting my car audio addiction aside, I will agree with the general public that there are more important things out there to spend $500 on than a HU for their car. Now, in reality, my car audio addiction always takes president over all else. I would probably cut down my food intake for a period of time just to get something I wanted for my car. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif That's probably not a good thing either...

Me too, I skip eating out saying "that could buy me some wire" or something like that.

For some real quality head units you're almost going to have to buy used, there's not enough demand. People are satisfied with what they have, unless they are true audiophiles like us and will pay the price for running active.