i have a kenwood excelon 915...its absolutely perfect. 8v preamps, sub controls, everything.

And its juuuuust old enough that its not scary looking like the new ones. NEVER had a problem with it.

Im brand loyal to kenwood excelon products for the most part, but also think Alpine makes really good stuff.

Is there a better sub for the money compared to the Alpine type r's?

 

I have a pioneer head unint the old 5200. Had it for about 3yrs its a good unint I think never had a problem with it and I kinda like pioneer bc of othe mosfit chip. Alpine is a good head unit too.

 

I recommend kicker, clarion, and eclipse. I've had bad experiences with alpine and kenwood.

 

Alpines are good but nothing is compared with a pioneer headunit. I have one for 4 years now it's the 6100 and works great. Also nothing is compared with pioneer's graphics and OEL display

 

Well my experince is probably too old for today's gear but I will chime in anyway. I don't like Pioneer and never have, although their high-end projection TVs rock. Alpine is pretty impressive, I was very happy with my CD-changer they made.

Clarion I liked then disliked, mainly cause the one I have now is the pickiest deck I have ever seen. Little scratches on the CD and it won't play.

Again, my info is old and things might have changed in the past 5 or so years but head units were never great if you used their built in power. I always prefered using the audio outs to a quality amp and have it run the speakers. But that is not always an option or warranted.

But if I had to choose between Alpine and Pioneer I would pick Alpine.

 

I had alpine in my car for many years, untill I bought the Nakamichi CD-45z huge difference... sounds so much better than my old Alpine, the sound quality really surprised me and encouraged me to go all out and got some mcintosh amps and focal speakers to compliment it. Now I am thinking about getting another Nak a more modern model.

You should really consider upgrading to Nak it's not much more expensive than the Alpines

 

Nakamichi is one fo the few I would pick ahead of Alpine's "high end" decks. I've been thinking of adding Nak's in-dash 6 cd for a while now.

 

Naks are pretty good, but it is infair to compare a +4 years old high end deck vs a modern high end deck.

Still a Eclipse fan

 

That's the other I'd pick over an Alpine any day

 

I've had good luck with both companies next-to-highest-end units. I prefer Pioneer's 15 band graphic EQ's to Alpine's 5 bandparametric EQ's. The Alpines just dont have enough center freq choices to make it effective for me. The Eclipses are better implemented. I'm about to buy a deck and I keep coming down to this as a reason to make the choice.

I feel that there are a lot of over-enthusiastic Alpine Fanboys that blindly and universally choose that brand over any other. They *do* make decent equipment, but it's not *always* leaps and bounds above any other.

 

Do NOT buy a Sony. I have installed Tein coilovers on my FD, and on the softest setting the damn thing would skip like crazy. Now it doesn't play cd's at all. It was top of the line when I bought it, and within 2 years it wasn't working.

The reason I purchased it was because I wanted a blackface/hideaway face. I don't want to deal with having to remove the face. Are there any good headunits out there with black or hideaway face that will not skip and sound good?


Petros

 

I've got a Nakamichi CD-40z that I bought a few years ago. I chose it primarily because it was one of the few options that had a subtle appearance. It is available with an amber display, but I bought it from uBid and they sent me a green one. It was only $140 and it was so nice that I decided to keep it anyway.

The controls are simple and it has everything I need. The display is clear and is easy to read even in direct sunlight. It looks stock, and doesn't have wacky crap getting in the way of listening to music. It has a real **** (easy to grab, feels solid -- much better than anything else I found in this price range) for adjusting the volume and other settings. It has enough power to drive my 6.5" front and 6x8" rear speakers to decent volumes without much distortion -- enough to rock out even at high speeds and over my loud exhaust. It seems to play my CD-Rs just fine.

I have heard of some trouble with Nakamichi in terms of skip resistance and failures, but my experience has been unexpectedly good. I have a stiffly sprung, heavily damped suspension (very bumpy ride on the street) and it very rarely skips. I drive hard and don't like to slow down for bumps.

I don't know what the status of Nakamichi's mobile sound division is, but I am very happy with my CD-40z.

-Max

 

Not sure why you think Alpine is priced high due to name. I had a choise of Pioneer or Alpine. With more features, the Alpine was about $100 less. It's the 60W/channel MP3 playing model. External metal box on cable for power boosting switching power supply, if you want to figure out which one. Or I can look up the model, though it's now two years old, and long since replaced with one that's "better".

Oh yeah, and be careful which one you buy because the car does not have a lot of extra space in there (depth or width). It was tight getting all those cables and that metal box to slide back in! I also bought the stock storage compartment to put in the other DIN space (lined the interior of it with leather so things would not rattle - like I would hear that in this car

 

wow this thread is over a year old.

i hope the guy has a cd player by now

 

I have had Pioneer and Panasonic headunits that served their purpose. The Panasonic was a tape player and it did fine. Pioneer was a cd player and it worked until it got stolen. I then was told about Alpine and how nice their head units are. I bought the CDA-7873 a couple years ago and I love it. The layout of the buttons is good, the volume dial is easily reached and easily adjustable, and the head unit makes my music sound great. I have been in friend's cars that have aftermarket systems and they don't sound as good. I even convinced my friend to buy an alpine head until and he loves it. (mine still sounds better cuz he got the cheaper one) Only one time did I have a problem with my head unit and that was over a year ago. I overheated it and it needed to shut down for a few minutes. A few minutes later I turned it back on, took it easy the rest of the day and have never had a problem since. I am a loyal Alpine customer and will not settle for anything less. Their speakers on the other hand, there are better brands. Such as MB Quart.

 

I prefer Alpine...

 

Funny thing. My friend actually bought my old CDA-7838. Didn't even put it in his car and sold it to someone else. I was a little upset, because I gave him a deal on the headunit because he needed one...but that was his decision.

Anyway, I then bought a CDA-7893 and used it, coupled with XM, for almost a year. I then sold that headunit to my mom and bought a CDA-9815. The 9815 is just AMAZING and having the dual-line display for XM is very good.

To the person who said they like the Pioneers x amount of EQ settings. If someone is going to properly setup a stereo they are not going to use internal equalization.

 

Alpine kicks major ***, no questions asked. I have an Alpine Head unit, alpine class d sub amp and type r 10s in the trunk. I have never heard a better system that didn't cost thousands of dollars. Overall I've got about a grand in mine and am completely satisfied. Tell our friend to get an alpine and not screw himself over with a pioneer.

 

Well, at least, not Alpine's internal EQ anyway... (except for the F#1 Status)

 

start savin now and you might have the money for that in 2075

 

i just bought an alpine , and is pretty good, but is you want the best sound quality go for a nakamichi ...is the best in SOUND ...

 

Pioneer sucks my ****. I would only get alpine or eclipes. But i would take anything if it where free! I have had friends with pioneer and they suck nomatter what model you get. Eclipes is where it is at!