Looking for A Car Head Unit

[TampaVmax]

LOL I hear that. I have a way that I go by most of the time. It is, spend a little extra the first time and get what you want. So in the end there is no way for dissatisfaction or a reason to buy twice. I understand totally where you are coming from though.

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[crazyhobo]

Check out the Pioneer DEH-P800PRS or DEH-P880PRS. Neither are made anymore but can be found used on Ebay. You'll be amazed at what the 16 band auto-eq will do for your sound, and the output is crystal clear. It's the best option short of the $1000 units like Alpine F1 and Pioneer Stage 4. DO NOT HOT SWAP THE RCA CABLES or you will blow a pico fuse on the main board that requires soldering to replace. That's the only issue with these decks. You will need a $10 cable to hook up an aux input. There is no built in amp. I recommend an Eclipse class A/B (NOT the new class D - they have 1% distortion at rated power).

I am running an Eclipse PA5422 for my highs. I think I paid about $70 for it. (It was around $400 new.) You could carefully run the factory speakers off of something like this until you upgrade them.

Then check out Polk's MM coaxials. They are outstanding for the price.

For a sub, I recommend Dayton Audio's Reference High Output line, the bigger the better, in a sealed, 50% fill box.

The sub amp can be anything decent, but the old Rockford amps like the 125.2 or 225.2 can be had for very cheap on eBay. Lots of power for the price.

My setup:

Deck -Pioneer DEH-P880PRS
Front - Polk MM651
Rear - Polk MM691
High amp - Eclipse PA5422
Sub - Dayton Audio Reference HO 15" in 1.7 cu ft sealed with 50% polyfil stuffing
Sub amp - Rockford Fosgate 225.2 (from 1998!)

Car audio was one of my hobbies from 1996 up to last year. This setup killed that hobby, because I want for nothing now. It's perfect.

The deck and amps came from eBay used. The speakers I bought new.

My 3 cents.

EDIT - The DEH-80PRS is the current model and has the same guts, but I read a few reviews that complained that the face felt cheaply made. It DOES have a built in amp. It's about $250. This is what I recommend if you don't want to buy the previous model used, or don't want to have to buy an amp right away.

 

[TampaVmax]

Great head units this guy has recommended. Only reason I haven't tossed them out there is the search for a double din.

A double din with time alignment, a great eq, and active capable like the pioneer listed is the clarion nx702. Only double din out with that capability so far except I think pioneer just came out with a nex4000 that has cool features. Price is out of the question though.

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[crazyhobo]

No offense, but that Clarion has some pretty harsh reviews, and you could buy a whole system for the price. OP, consider getting a dash kit that allows you to use a single din unit. The one I have in my Accord adds a little compartment underneath the deck that I use quite often.

 

[Javalin]

Agreed, the Clarion didn't get very good reviews, I've planted the seed about the touch screen Pioneer. I think it's just a matter of which model now. (Of course being a girl she could change her mind 600 times between now and purchasing)

Crazyhobo, I've looked at those units and they don't look stock. and a lot of the time they end up looking like an after thought. Where as the double din looks better to us.

I looked up the current stage 4 Pioneer last night which is a single din (really just for fun to see what available in the stupid expensive range).... I think it's $exy and done right would sound fantastic! but she thought it was terrible looking. And the cost..... $1200 for a head unit is out of the question!

 

[TampaVmax]

No offense, but that Clarion has some pretty harsh reviews, and you could buy a whole system for the price. OP, consider getting a dash kit that allows you to use a single din unit. The one I have in my Accord adds a little compartment underneath the deck that I use quite often.

Agreed. It does have some harsh reviews. I don't know about a whole system for 600$ though lol. I got that in only my sub amp. Only linked it because its the only active capable double din out on the market. Since the above person linked single din active capable units such as the 80prs.

Hope you can get the wife convinced on a the pioneer. They make great units.

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[crazyhobo]

Pioneer all the way. They do make good stuff.

As for $600 for the whole system, it can be done if you get lucky on eBay.

This is what I paid for what I listed earlier:

$200 Deck -Pioneer DEH-P880PRS
$100 Front - Polk MM651
$100 Rear - Polk MM691
$50 High amp - Eclipse PA5422
$150 Sub (the price has gone up since) - Dayton Audio Reference HO 15" in 1.7 cu ft sealed with 50% polyfil stuffing
$100 Sub amp - Rockford Fosgate 225.2 (from 1998!)

OK... that's $700. Close.

 

[TampaVmax]

EBay scares me sometimes.
Car audio was my hobby. Still love it, just got out of hand.

I run
Pioneer avh-x8500bhs~500
Crescendo pwx 6.5s~70
Crescendo ft1s ~90
Crescendo c1100.4 high amp ~400
Crescendo bc3500d sub amp ~550
Two American bass xfl 15s in 7.5 cu ft slot port tuned to 34hz~400
One Xs power s3400 and two d3400s~600
Lots of murdermat sound deadening and knu konceptz 0 gauge ~ 300-500

Was spending wayyyy to much on that hobby. That's why I hoped over on this forum but come to find out its no cheaper! LOL



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[crazyhobo]

Yeah. I've been burned on eBay a few time over the years. Amps are usually safe though. Speakers... not so much. Your system sounds loud!

 

[Javalin]

Sorry all, Life got busy but I think I've pieced together a system That I'm going to get. Here's what I'm looking at:

Pioneer AVH-X4500BT DVD receiver at Crutchfield.com
Kicker 12CX300.4 4-channel car amplifier — 40 watts RMS x 4 at Crutchfield.com
Polk Audio DXi571 5"x7"/6"x8" 2-way car speakers at Crutchfield.com - Fronts
Kicker 40CS684 6"x8" 2-way car speakers at Crutchfield.com - Rears (Polks won't fit)

No sub right now because we need the trunk space for our cross country trip but we want a Kicker amp and a 10" sub in the future.
What do y'all think?

 

[crazyhobo]

That deck looks nice. 8 band EQ. You could put 4.7 gigs of MP3's on a DVD too... As with all Pioneer decks, just don't hot swap the RCA's or you will blow a tiny fuse that is soldered onto the main board.

Those speakers look OK, but some people get listening fatigue from metal tweeters.

As for the amp - I promise you something like this will sound better. It's a bit bigger though. Eclipse PA5422 Car Amplifier | eBay

 

[Javalin]

Just over an hour ago I pulled the trigger on that system. I talked to her about the tweeters but we decided that it's something that we will be able to adjust via the EQ, and by the sounds of the reviews the clarity is something I wanted to pay attention to.

Why do you say that amp will sound better?

 

[crazyhobo]

THD @ rated power is 10X lower. S/N ratio is 30 dB lower.

 

[Javalin]

Well dang. With specs like that there's no denying it would probably sound better. For our purposes the kicker should do fine. And if later on down the road we want to upgrade... well, to be honest we'll probably put a lot more into the truck's system than the family daily driver

Thanks for all the input It's definitely helped us make a decision and we even opted for the slightly more expensive head unit thanks to you all. (Of course now that I think about it we started out looking at head units 3X cheaper haha) She's never had a "proper" system so this is her car audio cherry so to speak. I'm confident that she will be impressed. Now I get to install the system this weekend, weather permitting.

 

[crazyhobo]

Anything is better than stock. I put a $100 Pioneer deck and bottom of the line Pioneer coaxes in all four corners of my neighbor's car a few years ago and it sounded freaking amazing for the money. We just ran them straight off the deck. She was thrilled. Adding any kind of separate amp to speakers does wonders though. I bet this setup will sound really nice, especially with that 8 band EQ. Having lots of EQ bands is crucial. Later when you add a sub and cross everything over just right it will be super nice. :beer:

 

[Javalin]

Thanks Crazyhobo, I got the email notification this morning that you replied and I read the thread title again... we were looking for a car head unit and ended up with a nearly complete system! Crazy how it all worked out, from just wanting to be able to hear youtube and Pandora from the phone to being picky about the sound quality of the speakers and driving them with an amp.