Which one of these decks is better for sound quality? Anyone tried them?

[axeten 10+ year member]

get a kenwood excelon, youll be happy. I run the 494, its sounds great. But any headunit should be accompanied by a 2 or 4 channel external amp

The x994 looks good and has bluetooth for only $300. Is the KIV-BT900 i listed above an older model? it doesnt seem to be in their main lineup on kenwoods site. I'm guessing the 994 is better if its a later model.

Yeah i got other bits....

Alpine PDXF4 (4x100RMS)

Alpine Type X reference 6.5" components

Alpine PDX-M6 (600RMS mono)

JL 13TW5 13 inch slim sub

Will get the Type X pro's and move the ref's to the rear in a few weeks when the bank (and wife) allows //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[whitedragon551 5,000+ posts]

Eclipse CD7200 mk II CD MP3 In Dash Receiver Brand New - eBay (item 160508767390 end time Nov-26-10 13:43:59 PST)
If nobody else bids on it and you won with the starting bid, it'd be a better deck for the same approx money //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Those are very sought after decks. There will be more than 1 person bidding. I would never buy a high ticket item like that from someone with no feedback as well.

Don't just be sayin a brand cause you like em. Lookin for people that have tried these decks before //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif
Bluetooth would be handy. Alpine needs an adapter so i'll have to see. I'll have to read up on running active, i thought it was more splitting the channels on your amp to run seperate parts of a component set of speakers but i guess i need to learn more. Will have to find a thread explain the head unit side of things.

My last eclipse deck shattered all the other decks i owned in sound but that was 5 or so years ago.

Hmmm decisions....

Ive used the Alpine and the upper end Eclipse CD7000. The CD7000 was a great deck. Only reason I went to the 9887 was because I wanted to try something else. I like the 9887 better. It feels more sturdy than the CD7000 did.

 

[*SlappinAzz*]

The x994 looks good and has bluetooth for only $300. Is the KIV-BT900 i listed above an older model? it doesnt seem to be in their main lineup on kenwoods site. I'm guessing the 994 is better if its a later model.
Yeah i got other bits....

Alpine PDXF4 (4x100RMS)

Alpine Type X reference 6.5" components

Alpine PDX-M6 (600RMS mono)

JL 13TW5 13 inch slim sub

Will get the Type X pro's and move the ref's to the rear in a few weeks when the bank (and wife) allows //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Id definetely get that, thats what im lookin to get in the future.

 

[axeten 10+ year member]

Ok i put my IXA-W404 up for sale so will look at a new unit now. If i were to go double din, can you still get ones that sound as good as the single din units listed in this thread? I like the idea of a big screen and stuff but the low voltage pre outs and from what i've heard lower qualityt sound output has put me off double dins in the past. Plus the alpine i have is poo for changing songs on a usb drive.

Sorry to open the questions up again but what would you recommend for a double din under $500? And would you recommend getting a double over a single din unit?

 

[Vossy 10+ year member]

There's not too many good double dins out there, I'd go with the 87

 

[axeten 10+ year member]

There's not too many good double dins out there, I'd go with the 87

What brand is the 87.

To lower the potential numbers down. I cant have a full screen one. (Must have buttons for volume track etc). This is because it sits up high on my dash and the sun shines onto it so a touch screen unit i wont be able to see very well. Built in bluetooth would also be nice.

 

[axeten 10+ year member]

Ok i'm stickin with single din. Can be bothered looking for a double now.

Just wondering if it worth the extra $150-$200 to get the P800 or P880 pioneer head units with the auto eq and auto time alignment?

Any opinions on these?

So far i'm down to the Pioneer 9800BT, Alpine 9887, and the Pioneer DEH-P800PRS or P880PRS (not sure on the difference yet). These all have the 24 bit Burr brown D/A converters which everyone raves about. So the Kenwood is out at the moment.

Out of the list above, are any better than others as far as navigating a USB hard drive full of music goes?

Is the auto eq a worthy feature on the PRS models?

Sorry for all the questions guys, But i just bought my SPX-pro alpines and the mono for the sub so the last thing i need now is a decent deck.

 

[axeten 10+ year member]

I just read a thread on here about the 9887 vs the P880/P800's and the prices for the Pioneers were lower than the alpine. Anyone know where i could buy a Pioneer from that ships to Australia? Only place i've seen them so far is on woofersetc site for $549 vs the $329 for the 9887? Can you get the Pioneers for around $300 somewhere else?

Oh, the Alpine doesnt play USB standard. Need to spend another $150 on an adapter....... Looks like the alpines out to then

Dammit, The pioneer PRS models dont have USB either

Ok, now its looking like the Pioneer DEH-P9800BT which has USB in(EDIT: Read it wrong, no USB on this one either), burr brown DAC's Bluetooth standard. Also back in the mix is the 7200 and 5030 from eclipse.

The Alpine CDA-117 has burr browns still and USB compared to the 9887, is it worse though? dont hear many people mention this model.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

The Pioneers seem to have jumped up in price recently because they're no longer in production. I love my 800PRS BTW. I'm running a 9855 in my Jeep, which is pretty much an earlier model of the 9887 (minus a 24-bit DAC and plus an external DC-DC converter). I've got a Kenwood Excelon 693 in my GFs PT Cruiser and that's a pretty nice budget HU. One of my buddies runs the new Kenwood Excelon 994 and that's pretty nice too. It's basically a new 693 plus bluetooth. I've played around with my fair share of 9887s and they seem to be a pretty solid HU as well.

 

[axeten 10+ year member]

The Pioneers seem to have jumped up in price recently because they're no longer in production. I love my 800PRS BTW. I'm running a 9855 in my Jeep, which is pretty much an earlier model of the 9887 (minus a 24-bit DAC and plus an external DC-DC converter). I've got a Kenwood Excelon 693 in my GFs PT Cruiser and that's a pretty nice budget HU. One of my buddies runs the new Kenwood Excelon 994 and that's pretty nice too. It's basically a new 693 plus bluetooth. I've played around with my fair share of 9887s and they seem to be a pretty solid HU as well.

Thanks for your input. Though the 9887 and pioneers (800 and 880) are out of the list now as i need USB input. Any thoughts on the CDA-117?

This is all getting too hard. I might just get the eclipse since i've always had them and had good luck with them and they both have bluetooth and USB

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

From my understanding the 117 is pretty much the replacement for the 9887. It may offer a few different or possibly less features, but I think it's pretty much identical. Obviously, USB is one of it's benefits over the 9887.

 

[axeten 10+ year member]

From my understanding the 117 is pretty much the replacement for the 9887. It may offer a few different or possibly less features, but I think it's pretty much identical. Obviously, USB is one of it's benefits over the 9887.

Yeah thats what i thought. I could get the 117 plus the imprint for what i can buy an eclipse for. And then just sort out bluetooth later on. The only thing that worries me about the Alpine is the banking when you turn the unit on each time. On my W404 it takes ages and you can skip songs or anything while its banking the songs into its memory. Would be fine if it only did it once but it does it every time you start the car (when the unit been off)

 

[oxsign 5,000+ posts]

I had good luck with my 980, but if you can get your hands on an 880 or even an 860 you'd do well.

 

[Techmaster05 10+ year member]

I always trust the pioneer decks. Very good. I love my DEH-5100UB, the tuning settings are amazing.

 

[axeten 10+ year member]

Read some more on the pioneer 9800bt..... No USB either //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

And the Alpines all do the banking rubbish. Takes about 10 minutes for the amount of songs i have.........

Eclipse is starting to look like the go i think. And i'll add The Kenwood Excelon X994 back to the list since it has USB.

The JVC arsenal KD-A815 has burr browns and USB in so that might be good too