Well my choices are slim, I found very few nice head units. Its come to these, Pioneer 1.5 DIN (cant remember model number, but its the one that specifically fits GM/Chrysler cars, ya kno), and the Kenwood KDC-516S. The Kenwood price is within reason, I believe around 170 (sale), but the Pioneer one is a bit much, somewhere in the 250 range. Now I still have stock speakers, I might change em one day, but for now-stock. I believe my stock system sounds alright, but I can only play tapes and hear like Pop Crap on the radio-torture. Usually I just turn it down and listen to my exhaust. But I need to play my CDs, I know for a fact that just changing the headunit makes the stock speakers sound waaaay better (don't challenge that, its tried and true). So which one should I get, are there others which you would recommend or have?
Thanks for the help.

 

It really depends on what you are looking for. Personally, I was looking for a "stock" Delco CD Player in attempt to maintain some sort of "stock" look in my ride. I do like the Delco decks and have proven to me in the latter years, to be pretty damn reliable.

If you don't care much about maintaining a stock look in your ride, I would vote for the Pioneer. If you were to get a stock Delco CD Player, choose one from (I think) 1995 to present 1.5 DIN if you plan on playing recorded CD's. The earlier decks (from what I am told) don't like to play them and half of my collection is recorded CD's so I decided on a 1998 Delco CD deck.

 

I'd suggest the Alpine 1.5 din. Though costly at around $400, it is quite a nice unit. Sorry, I do challenge. It's my experience that an improvement in sound will come from speakers before electronics. For example, most high-end stereo freaks would counsel newcomers to choose speakers first (getting the best from the electronics that they already possess), then upgrading the electronics themselves. A $1000 pair of home speakers would improve the sound of a $200 amp by reproducing whatever sound the amp was capable of, but I doubt that a $1000 amp would improve the sound of $200 speakers, which are simply physically incapable of reproducing any real refinement in sound. Having said that, however, an increase in power can provide a more controlled bass which might be preceived as better sound. More power can be problematic though, especially to stock speakers, because at extreme levels, this power causes the distortion that blows speakers to high heavens.

Before I went to the Alpine, I chose a set of Kenwoods, front and rear, that had a high sensitivity (90 something, I believe). This allowed the stock head unit to play louder with less power. Worked pretty nicely. Anyway, my thoughts.

JamesC

 

Go with an Alpine. You can get one for around $200

 

Yep no doubt about it get a Alpine. They got some new models coming out this year( i got a sneak peak at the new catalog not yet released @ the local audio store) And some of those decks are awesome. Im not even going to try and explain how the new downloadable EQs work. They going to be a new full size 1.5din unit coming out too. Awesome **** man get an Alpine!!

 

I see everyone saying get the alpine, but I notice you mentioning the Kenwood is within a reasonable price. Well if you don't have alot of money to blow, like myself...

I'd suggest getting a pioneer or kenwood. to of the better bands for the best price. I am a big fan of Pioneer, becuase their products are excellent.

Alpine is great, if you got 400 dollars to spend on a stupid headunit. Honestly I don't see all the need to spend so much money on your car radio.

Get a pioneer or the kenwood, which ever is best in your price range and meets the specs you want and expect for your dollar. And thats advice you can use.

 

In part I agree with un4: Select a product that fits your price and feature requirements (with perhaps features that would allow you to upgrade). Though $400 for a head unit may be dear, I'd suggest that many thirdgenners have spent thousands on their systems. Stupid? Well, perhaps or perhaps not, depending on individual interest. Apparently, stupid is that which is unimportant to others (I have SFCs. In my estimation they're not stupid, but ask my wife what she thinks).

JamesC

 

Another vote for Alpine. The Kenwood and Pioneer stuff is decent, but nothing special. If you can't afford the 1.5 DIN alpine (Or just don't want to waste the money) do it the old fashioned way and get a single DIN and a mounting kit.

 

I thought you might enjoy seeing what the Alpine 1.5 din looks like. Sorry, the pic isn't quite what I remembered. Seeing the pic has reminded me, however, of a handy way to store a remote: Simply adhere the 'hook' side of Velco to the remote's back side; this allows the remote then to be stuck to the carpet. My wife usually puts the remote beside the radio on the console.

JamesC

 

Is that a GPS under the Center vents?

 

Im pretty happy with my clarion deck I just got. I have the hx10 i think and the eq/processor and it sounds very nice!

 

I just wanted to say. I have been a die hard fan of Kenwood since about 1989. I've had alot of systems and I've used many headunits also. Most of course were Kenwood but I also had Pioneer, Clarion, JVC, and and a few others. My last unit was a Kenwood Excelon 615 which I loved and I bought it for like $250 new. I remember Alpine had some ads way back when and it was a picture of a Lamborghini and a slogan that said "If a Alpine is just another Car Stereo then a Lamborghini is just another Car" or something like that. I knew that they were and are factory installed units in alot of Exotic cars like Lamborghini, Lotus, and etc. but I had never heard one before and honestly didn't care to because I thought Kenwood was good enough for me and I was staying with their products because I'd had such good luck with them also. In this post https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...=Flush+mounted I thought why not try an Alpine and just see if they are that much better. So I asked Jim his thoughts on Alpine headunits. Well shortly there after I went to my local Car Stereo store and they had an Alpine 7863 for sale. I bought it, got home and hooked it up and the difference was like night and day. The Alpine was much brighter, more open sounding and yet it had a very smooth sound as Jim stated. I couldn't believe how much difference it made in my system. Thanks to Jim for taking the time to give me the info I was looking for and come to find out I bought the same headunit that he has. Am I happy with Alpine? It's the best headunit I've ever had. Are they expensive? Well they can be but they're like Kenwood the more options the more expensive it is but one that I'd suggest is the Alpine 7874. It has alot of nice features and it can be bought for $200 at Circuit City and prob. cheaper than that on Ebay.
So my point is this. Just because it's Alpine doesn't mean that it has to be expensive. I didn't think much about Alpine till that day I asked Jim. And now I thank him. I think you would too.

 

Not a GPS. I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that it's a Co-Pilot, a digital compass that does all sorts of fancy things (my wife is the navigator on our road trip, so she gets what she wants).

JamesC

 

I went with the JVC KD-SH99 MP3 player, it is under $300, has 3 sets of RCA outs, RCA Line input, AUX input, MP3 input on the face, plays MP3 CD's, faceplate is made out of aluminium, has a volume ****, sounds great, looks great, it's just awesome.
here is a pic of it,

 

Hey I'm curious, does the Pioneer 1.5 DIN play CDR's? CDRW's? In the Summit catalog it doesn't mention if it does. Does any one here have the Pioneer 1.5 DIN?
Thanks again, thanks for all the opinions!

 

I have a high line Kenwood that I love. It was costly but its got alot of toys. I have only one complaint, it does play CDR and CDRW but if you so much as put a hair line scratch in them you are done, they wont play, or they skip. I don't know if this is common or just related to Kenwood or even the discs I'm using. Other than that this deck is great.

 

i have a jvc headunit it is the kd-sx870 and i like it a lot mostly because of the 4 volt pre outs so i can turn down the gain on my amp and it runs without overheating like it useed to

 

Well, my JVC arrived today. About to go put it in, and burn an MP3 CD while I am installing it.

 

Zepher gonna post a review for us?

 

Ok, Install of the unit was easy, as I had an Alpine installed before. I connected the power, ground, remote, and ignition power to the harness. I have 3 pairs of RCA's going to my 2 amps, one amp for the highs and the other for the sub.

The deck sounds awesome. The sound is so much cleaner than the 2 Alpines I had before. Didn't change any of the amp settings, just swapped the head units.

The JVC setup menu is not too user friendly at first, but if you read the manual once on how to change and toggle through all the settings, you are set.
There are a bunch of EQ adjustments to really configure your sound settings as well as a few preset EQ settings like Rock, Dance, R&B, etc...

The main reason I bought this JVC unit is because it can play MP3's from a CD. I wrote a CD with about 170 songs on it and the JVC played the CD just fine. Drove around for a couple of hours and only hit song #43 on the disc.

I paid $275 + $11 shipping from Best Price Audio Video.
http://www.bestpriceaudiovideo.com

I talked my friend Lenny with the 95 Supra into getting this deck about 3 months ago. He too is also very pleased with this Deck.

The faceplate is Aluminium, has a very nice display, face plate can tilt to 3 or 4 settings, contrast of the screen can be adjusted, Has an AUX input as well as a Line Input, has 200watt amp (50watt x 4) if you want to run your speakers off of the head unit.
you can also turn off the built in amp to keep the unit from getting hot, another plus.
Also comes with a remote, which I think is rather large, and a face plate carrying case.

All in all, you can't beat the features and sound quality at this price. This is a high end unit at an economy price.

I give it a 9 out of 10 (I'd give it a 10 but putting the face onto the deck isn't as easy as it should be, the mounting bracket on teh head unit is motorized and come forward when you put the face on, then the face snaps on. Should be easier when I get used to it.).....

I haven't found any thing I don't like with the unit yet.

 

One more vote for Alpine.



I have the CTA-1505 commander / receiver. (The picture is the 1502, one below mine, but they LOOK the same except the colors of the analyzer.

Ive had Pioneer decks, Pioneer Premier, one clarion (was in the car when i bought it), a sony (way back when they were still pull outs), a JVC, and two alpines now. NOTHING compares to the two alpines.

One of them is a 6 or 7 year old alpine tape deck running a cd changer, and i like IT better than the other decks ive had. The 1505 and ai-net changer blows everything else ive had away. The sound is increible, its clean, it has functions gallore. The EQ is easy to use (if you use it, you dont have to), three sets of pre outs...

I love my Alpine deck

 

Cool Zeph so the Faceplate is made out of Aluminum instead of Plastic looking like Aluminum. Sounds like maybe JVC is finally starting to get back into the game. I never personally owned a JVC but alot of my friends has and they've had alot of problems with their Car Audio gear. Hence the reason I never bought one. I really like the looks of it tho.

 

Ya, the faceplate is pretty heavy, seems to feel about 1/2 pound or so.

My personal preference for a head unit is Alpine, but the Alpine MP3 Player is $600+ and I can't justify spending that much for a car radio, my home receiver doesn't even cost that much.
My JVC HR-S6700U SVHS VCR on the other hand set me back $800 about 7 years ago. This is the most expensive item in my theater system, exlcuding the $20,000 Projector I have which I got for free.

 

CDR's yes, CDRW's not sure. I have had my Poneer (DEH-P47)deck for almost a year now and I love it. Needless to say my wife and I got our taxes back today and we will be installing one in her car tomarrow. Haven't regretted buying the Pioneer name one bit. Sounds excellent.

 

This one right here it's pretty $$$ though.
http://www.caraudiomag.com/archives/..._tests01.shtml

 

I have a Pioneer in my cars I love them,it
was worth every dime I spent.Honda's
come with Alpine from the factory and I must
say my wifes car sounds better than mine.My
cousin has an alpine in his car,his radio sounds
so clear I hate to have him drop my off at my car
his sounds that good.But my Z will whip his honda
Prelude anytime. :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon:

 

Three words: Pioneer Premier 740MP. If you can't find it, go find a Pioneer 7400MP. Hell, look at a Pioneer 3300!

Go listen to one.

 

i would suggest a jvc. from my expierence they are very reliable, and look nice, and also have very good performance. Just a thought