i need to get a head unit for my 88gta. i want mp3 playback for ~$150 and thats about it. what do you guys suggest?

 

for only 150 you wont get a very good deck wtih many features on it. but, if its a choice between those 2. stick with alpine.

 

Those are both good hu's for the money, hard pick. I am leaning towards the Kenwood though, just because I find that particular hu easier to operate...
I've owned both a kenwood and an alpine hu.

 

i have a kenwood in the vette and i love it. my buddy has that kenwood in his formy and its cool too. i've alsways heard good things about the alpines and thats why i'm stuck between the 2. the major difference i see is that the kenwood puts out 22 watts rms while the alpine puts out 16 watts rms.

i know i won't get many options but this is my daily driver so it really doesn't matter

 

I find that mp3 decks that are THAT cheap tend to reflect the price strongly...

I say just save up a bit more and get AT LEAST a $300 deck, you'll be better off in the long run. I don't know the specs on the decks you're looking at, but I bet they have what, <3volt preamp out, probably only 2 sets of them? 3 band eq? any mp3 decoding correction? definitely no Time Alignment, no fancy screens(but that's no big deal,) how about subwoofer control?

$300-$500 is the "Sweet Spot" for retail stereos, if you ask me... once you go higher than that, you're only paying for brand name.. you can expect 3 pairs of 5v output, 12+ band eq, Auto TA/EQ, speed sensitive volume adjustment, and very customizable displays...

one the cheaper decks, sometimes you just can't get the screen to show what you want... this is VERY annoying... the $300-$500 decks probably even let you put on your own pictures and movies... I don't care too much about this, but at the same time, I can change all aspects of text being displayed on my screen, and at the same time have my clock displayed... the only other deck I've seen that can display Artist on one line, Title on another, as well as a clock on another location was some JVC deck my friend had a year ago...

Some of the good kenwoods, like the kdc-mp922 even have self-hiding faceplates, so if you forget to pull the faceplate, at least it's in a good hiding place til you remember.

good luck, and why are you limiting the choices to only these two decks?

 

not limiting to these two but they both fit my criteria. as i said before, this deck is only for my daily driver so itt doesn't have to be fancy.

 

as much as you may hate to hear it, you can probably get a more feature-packed mp3-playing headunit from Sony for that price range... or AIWA or DUAL or whatever... the other well-known brands just put out junk at that price level...

I had the first jensen mp3 play mp3510 and it had a faster song-to-song track time than even my brand new pioneer... its menu was fast, and songs scrolled smooth and fast... had several eq curves, but nothing to brag about.

I'd bet theres a nice Sony or DUAL that would catch your attention. For $150, that is.

 

i'm happy with my alpine. bought it for $279 about a year ago. i think decent ones can be had for about 150 now, but they may not have all the options like you may want. i liked my alpine because it was the only deck out at the time that allowed you to browse your'e music while listening to it to find a song, besides higher models, I think. take a look at crutchfield.com, there's a kenwood, panasonic, and pioneer for $149. i wouldn't mind either of those.

 

my H/U $150 on etronics.com pioneer DEH-P6600

 

hey z28...

the first unit to actually let you browse your songs while you were listening was the rockford fosgate mp3 cd player... my brother bought it about 4 years ago... its a nice player... I still haven't had the time to see the sound options and such... a basic unit.

if I were to offer up some good advice to the thread starter...polishdevil... I'd say honesly... you've waited this long to get a headunit... what's stopping you from waiting a little bit longer, and paying more for something you'd be proud to listen to?

That's my advice... and your ears will thank you.

-Steve

 

well for now i'm using a tape deck out of a 94 formula...the stock deck was locked out and i couldn't get it unlocked. my main reason for going with a cheap deck is that i drive the car daily, some times leave the windows down, and where i go to school is know for deck theft. the vette has a nice $300 kenwood deck but since this is my daily driver, i rather go with something on te cheap side...

 

that makes no sense to me what-so-ever...... i'd say let your DD have the nicer H/U. Just roll the windows up, it takes what an extra 30 seconds to do???

 

agreed... the weekend driver vette doesn't even need a radio! just have nice exhaust!

almost everyone here who has a nice deck, has it in their daily driver... they just take precautions.

 

i agree, i don't even necessarily need an mp3 player in a car that isn't a daily driver since i wont have to change the cd as often. i'd much rather have a better system in the daily driver so i get more use out of the equipment and have it as mp3 so i only have to change the cd every couple of weeks.

 

I go through about 2 or 3 mp3 cds a week...