Let me start off by saying I know nothing about car audio. I've always been happy with my stock unit in my old cars (Clarion in a SAAB) but after buying the camaro and finding only the right front speaker and looking to find what's wrong and realizing that apparantly a monkey hacked the wiring in with rotten bananas and electrical tape I need a new one. I was looking at the Pioneer Premier DEH-P440 so I could add a cd changer or a sattelite radio at some point, or possibly a Pioneer DEH-P4400 but then again is it good? It seems like a decent mid range system, and I've read decent things about the Pioneer head units, can't say I've found a bad review... Then again the car audio review sites I've found suck horribly. So what do you guys think? I don't want to spend much on this radio cause, well, it's just a radio. Any other suggestions about what to buy?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

 

Oh, here are the specs for both... They seem REALLY similar...

DEH-P440

and

DEH-P4400

Thanks...

 

They main problem with pioneer is the display is hard to read in daylight, it was my number one selling brand dispite this problem and it is better now than before. Main diff. between Prem. & reg. is two year warranty on Prem. this gives the Prem. dealers ability to sell for more w/o having to price match the guy down the road.

 

I'd say go with a Sony Active Black Panel CD player, but then I'd be killed, cuz nobody likes Sony, which is cuz you get what you pay for.

 

i saw this hu from jenson... its brushed metal durrin the day.. but glows red at night!! ahh looks awesome aight peace

 

I have a pioneer and I love it. It is a bit hard to see in daytime but ohh well. They are a great breand, a bit pricy but you get what you pay for man. I'd get a pioneer

 

no--dont get the sony active black--I have one in my camaro now and i have t-tops and it is impossible to see the display in the daytime--i have to have the face folded down 80% of the time i drive-just so i can see it--and when it is up-it has this really annoying slotmachine type of action where it constantly cycles between the time and the track number/name--it gets old quick--but on the upside-it really impresses people at night and as far as the actual performance-it has been great--(even though i had problems with my last sony)--but i think it will get moved to my work car this summer(a hardtop)

 

Sony's work well when they work, I had a high failure rate with them so, I only sold them on request, I found trying to educate people usualy made them go somewhere else where a "salesman" would tell them what they wanted to here. Hopefuly Sony's are better now, but I haven't used them in a while. if you want Pioneer I still have colegues in the industry I can buy from. let me know by email
Thanx
Don

 

I don't care for the Sony's that much, at least the xplode type, they seem to have an annoyingly large amount of features. I was fiddling with my friend's xplode, sure it was fun but I couldn't manage to get it to sound "right." I'm still not sure which one to get, I'll probably go with the Premier due to the good warranty and the same price as the non-premier...

 

Pioneer

 

I got excellent deals on Kenwood,JVC Alpine and more

 

get the pioneer deh-p7300. that is one bad *** head unit.

 

I love my pioneer cd player. I have always had pioneer and have never had any problems except the usual one of seeing to display when it is bright out.

 

it is a pain in the *** to see when its bright out. but the cd players kick soo much *** it doesnt matter.

 

dont know if anyone has mentioned it yet, but stay away from jensen or aiwa for decks. sonys can be a bit touchy too. pioneer should be fine, along with kenwood. my old kenwood never gave me a problem in the two years and two cars i had it in.

 

ALPINE ALPINE ALPINE:hail:

 

alpine is sweet, but too expensive for the ones i want.

 

If you wanna do it and do it right, do Eclipse or Alpine...

Eclipse has a 40x4 statring at $219...and comes with a full 3 yr warranty if the dealer puts it in. Also has the ESN security...no more stupid detachable faces.

Alpine is less expensive, but every bit as good as Eclipse. For $159, their base 40 or 45x4 is a good deal. Not as nice as the Eclipse, but unquestionably a step up from the Sony or Pioneer offerings in that range.

I've owned Clarion, Sony, Pioneer, Eclipse and Alpine heads...and I would never buy anything but Eclipse or Alpine again!