With every audio company out there making a HU these days and all the hype on features on each model it makes it hard to choose just one. For me I am looking at the 500 and under range. Here's a list of my picks so far.
Kenwood KDC-X917
Sony xplod ES cdx-m670 or cdx-m770
Panasonic cq-df801u
JVC digifine2.1 KD-sh77
Clarion Proaudio DXZ715
Eclipse CD5441

I have been told to stay away from Sony, Pioneer, Alpine, and Kenwood all for various reasons. So now we all down to 4, but IMO a tough 4 to choose from. Any help here is appreicated. I would like to see real world usage and opinions of these. Thanks

 

Hopefully, I can let you know something by Friday.

 

KYFordFreak
I don't know why anyone would tell you to stay away from Alpine, I have had a Alpine in my dash for 3 years now, and it is a awsome unit. I also had a Alpine in my 93 and when I sold it I put it in my boat, and that unit is still working awsome 8 years later, even in a salt water enviornment.

I personally won't put anything other than Alpine in my truck

 

I have had a couple of people to tell me to stay away from Alpine. One being a dealer that sells them and other brands. The first person, a friend said that two years back when he lived with his mom he bought one and had it replaced 3 times due to the buttons failing every 3 months. Second person the dealer and also a friend said that around 8 years ago Alpine took a drop in their quality and are not the same as they were. He said that they still sell good but that is because of reputation. The only side note is that Alpine is not this guys major brand. Personally speaking I have nothing against Alpine and think they make some good lookin radios that according to specs should kick azz.
Reasons behind not getting Pioneer is that my brothers OEL display faded in a short time. For some reason I see Sony, Kenwood and Pioneer as mass market prodcers and with mass production usually comes lower quality. It's kind of a a hard and fine line. I think if I did one of those three brand it would be one of the upper end models ( IE: Premier,Xplod, Excelon).

 

I would have to agree with Don C I have had alpine units as far back as I can remember. I have had 4 alpine head units and zero problems with those four. By the way I still have three of them, two being tape decks and my cd player. They are #1 on my list and my first choice. Not putting down any other name brands. Just my opinion.

 

I have been running Alpine products since 1985. I have had nothing but Alpine headunits since then and have run various amps and speakers from them as well. I will tell you that there are better sounding speakers and subs in the same price range as Alpine. Alpine's amps are very clean and musical, although you will spend more money for the power compared to something like a JBL or Lanzar digital mono amp. Alpine dosn't make a digital mono amp, however, if you are looking for clean power (yes, even in subs you can hear a difference) and a very musical amp, Alpine will fit the bill. As for headunits, I started competing in 1989. At that time I had the best deck money could buy-a 7909 (man I wish I would have held on to that). Alpine has continued to build some of the best decks in the industry. My point is that when you pay $149 for a cd player, you are going to get about the same quality no matter who's name is on it. But when you start getting into the $350 area, you can hear and see performance differences. My Alpine decks have played cd's that were so scratched, I couldn't play them in most other decks...even Eclipse. I'm not putting any other brand down, but I will always have Alpine headunits as long as they live up to the performance I expect from them.

Lok

 

Ok this is making more sense now. I knew they (my firends) must of not known or told the whole story. I have gotten a lot of replies that you guys have or have had some of the older Alpine stuff and it was great, which I pretty much knew all along. What I want to know is how good are the recent models. Part of the point in this post was to see about recent HU's, to see if the dealer's statement about recent decline in quality at Alpine. I think all that this boils down to is a few rumers of people with Alpines that had bad experiences on probably lower end models. As Lok n Load said when you hit about the 300 or so mark you get to the higher end gear and I have come to the conclusion that Alpine probably still makes a very good HU in this area. Thanks guys. Let you know what I wind up choosing.

 

I have a Pioneer PREMIER DEH-P930 and it is an excellent unit with a DSP...I would say from what I've found out, go with Pioneer Premier, Alpine or Kenwood...

Stay away from lower end Sony units...I personally don't like JVC but that's not to say their new MP3 unit is not decent.

I don't use MP3, and didn't make that a consideration...

Good luck

FWIW..

 

Alpine, Kenwood, Pioneer, All excellent. Like the others have said when you start getting up around the $300 range quality gets a lot better. I have owned/used all three with no major problems lately. I have had problems with all in the past, but the service has been top rate from all of them.

When you are going into the price range you are considering, its important to check the specs and features. If you want strong radio reception, Blaupunkt and Alpine are hard to beat. Personally I like the Kenwood for CD sound quality and Kenwood and Pioneer offer the Most "eye candy" and features for the money.

IMO Sony is ok and a good all around performer. I am not really impressed or displeased with the units, but it would not be my first choice (or second or third)

For clean looks, excellent specs, and almost no "eye candy" a nakamichi deck is hard to beat. Thats what I am planning for my next deck.JMO

 

Oh come on guys! What's wrong with Sony? Did I just waste my cash flow?!

 

I have a PANOSONIC DF8800U AM/FM CD I will sell, it's less than 6 months old, looks are killer. mhcieslinski@msn.com

 

I have to join in on this topic, even though it is a few days old. Pioneer makes a wonderful head unit, as do most of the before mentioned companies. Pioneer boast one of the lowest defect rates on the market and is usually number one in market share. Whoever told you to stay clear of Pioneer has no solid information to go by obviously. I have been with a Pioneer distributor for over 3 years and prior to that I managed a car audio store for 5 years, and I have NEVER seen Pioneer produce a BAD head unit. Now, people like or hate Pioneer, but that is personal preference. I will say that Pioneer is not the be all end all of car audio, but that darn sure helped start this whole thing, long before some of these other companies. Panasonic is also making large waves in the car audio market as is JVC. The truth is, any head unit is going to be good for you. It really depends on what type of money you want to spend and what type of features you want. Sorry for the rambling, this is just my .02.

 

I am waiting on the digital radio to start. Checked it out at Best buy yesterday, and the only HU's in stock with the "built in" technology were Pioneers. One costing clost to $400, and the other under $200. They also advertise having a plug in unit, that can be disconnected and used in the house, so I might just get that, but they did not have any to look at. I think the subscriptions are going to cost approx. $10/month, so I am waiting impatiently.


DLF

 

ok heres my opinion. i have the pioneer premier 730 head unit. i bought it on ebay for $279. it has 3 preouts, and is xm(digital) ready. i personally think it is great and the price was perfect. lots of other features but whatever. mitch

 

While Pioneer head units say "XM Ready", they are not ready. You will need to buy the XM receiver which plugs into the headunit and you will need to buy the antenna. We just got our first shipment on XM receivers in the other day(Friday), but the service is not available in my are or most of the country until November 15th. Check out www.xmradio.com for details about service in your area. The receiver is about the size of a book and is meant to be a hide away unit. It will plug into the back of the Pioneer radio, or you can get the FM modulated model and it will plug into any radio. Service is up and running in the San Diego and Dallas area and reports are good. Service will be 9.95 a month and as it stands now, there will be no contract. I hope this sheds some light on the Pioneer "XM" stuff. So if someone says it is "built in", it is not truly built in.