Quality Head Unit for Car Audio System ??
 

What would be a good head unit for a car audio system?

Looking for Quality sound (Focal speakers - but not the uber alles version)

and a good D to A conversion routine if possible - I'd like to plug in an iPhone and have the head unit itself do the D to A if possible


Ian?

Alpine and Focal are what I use.

I'm still using a blaupunkt Toronto......aux in for my phone (about 8gig worth of music)....
running around 400 Watts on 2 5.25” and another 800 on 2 10's.....

I went with Kenwood excelon HU , Audison amp, Hertz speakers. Very happy with the setup.

If you haven't already, then go listen to what you are looking at buying.

Focal vs others, and straight head unit vs. amps.

I've got an older Los Angeles MP3 from Blaupunkt. I chose it because it has a very wide Eq, and 3 separate inputs, which pairs well with the crossover. I like the fact that it has a calibration mic, that listens to the signals from the speakers and "tunes" the Eq automatically. It also has the ability to turn up the volume as the road noise increases.

Focal is a good choice. I had the 165 VB's in the Lexus and they are great. Head unit choices are a bit more difficult. In my experience, I would stay away from Alpine. Generally, their designs are gaudy with oddly shaped buttons and back-lit buttons that only come in eyesore shades of blue.

My friend and I were both installing touch screens in our cars at the same time. He went with an Alpine and he regretted it. The on-screen navigation is clunky and to pick a song on your ipod, you had to scroll through your artists or songs ONE AT A TIME. It takes forever. Also, his bluetooth never worked and it sounded like you were in a tornado.

I always do my research and went with a full touch screen Pioneer. It is great. Navigation and song selection is quick and easy and the buttons can be changed to any shade to match your interior (if that matters to you). I would definitely consider one of the new Pioneer units.

I used to be into car audio (~10-15 years ago) and Alpine was one of the best out there, so its sad to hear they have dropped so much.

I have a Kenwood in my 914 and Sony in my Civic. Both seem to work fine but the Sony seems a bit too much like a spaceship.

If you have a Fry's or larger car audio place nearby, you should be able to see many at one time and compare the sound quality. Just be aware that displays are usually hooked up to good speakers and amps to make the headunits sound really good.

I have one of these in my daily driver, costly but few better.

http://www.productwiki.com/upload/im..._dex_p99rs.jpg

It's all made in China out of the same parts bin. There will be little to no difference in sound quality with same settings. Buy the speakers based on sound quality and electronics based on features/price.

The Blaupunkt I just installed in my MB....made in China. Works and sounds fine but any brand would have sufficed (under $200).

I always check at crutchfield, cross reference wit Amazon because sometimes their prices are a little out of whack but the head units are competitive and their service is great.

I just got a Kenwood for the Miata, does all the bells and whistles (USB, bluetooth) since it is a top down car didn't need uber hifi.



Just to add... not to rain on your parade however IMHO HIFI and automobiles are an oxymoron... lots of ambient noise and a horrible acoustics... YMMV

Yup. Just like there is no difference between an F-150 and a Corvette, all made in the same place with the same stuff. :rolleyes:

What Willtel said...love it.

I've been looking for head units for the nissan. I think I've decided on a double din DVD/etc. The one I'm liking right now is a Pioneer unit, about $300...at Walmart.

I just installed a Pioneer AVIC-X950BH double din in my gun gear hauling Chevy HHR. It originally had the high end 6 disc changer, 6 Pioneer speakers and a woofer in the rear so I left all that alone. The only issue was the integration module which allows on-star and steering wheel controls to work and the unit did not need to have the dealer do any programming. It plays my ZZ Top videos just fine on the way to the range to exercise those muzzle loaders!!!! GPS has traffic status built in now too.

If u are smart and don't want to spend on that P99R pioneer you'd look at the Kenwood KDC-x996. time delay DSP and all kinds of crap under $200 all day long.

I have 2 versions of that stereo I use, older and they destroy anything from Alpine and lesser pioneers in terms of adjustability and SQ. USB direct of course, no funny adaptor cables. Then again, the two I have are in cars that use exclusively Polk Audio and old, old skool Rockford Fosgate Punch equipment. So no, I'm not kidding around about fidelity.

Buy a head unit that has the features you need. Also try to buy one that doesn't light up like the Las Vegas strip. That is much more difficult. Alpine has always sounded bright & forward btw . . . I bought a plain-Jane Dual deck but that was 5 years ago or so. I put the $s into the amps & speakers & a lot of effort into the install & car acoustics. 70 mph top down bliss. :D And I can STILL hear the engine . . .

Ian

Dex-P99RS is the answer but only a 1%er would buy one. He would have to buy it under duress.

I agree with the Alpines sounding bright. I owned a CDA-9885 for 4 years, been through 4 cars with it, I was happy with it through stock speakers and only when I got back into building systems I realized just how ungodly hard and flat it sounded. The Kenwood transformed the system.

Alpine is on my desk in the office waiting to be traded in or sold one day with a car...

Kenwood. Nothing special, but biamped with good speakers it sounds nice.

All of the new bluetooth decks are a pain to use, set up and scroll thru menus. Just too many features. But in the end, worthwhile if only b/c their d/a chips are better than those in the iphone, so if you run a flac app like goldenear you actually get pretty good sound out of the portable. CD performance is pretty similar across the board these days.

Your money would probably be better spent on a decent HU with 4V minimum preamp outputs and a really high quality amp. No HU will give you the same quality as a good dedicated amp. I'm a big fan of the Kenwood Excelon stuff, but it's been years since I built a good sound system.

Check out crutchfields closeouts. Usually last years models at awesome prices!

Ian - do you know of any headunits that do the D to A conversion in the deck itself - and do a better job than the iPhone I will connect to it?

One question for the audiophiles - if the source is an iPod, would the source be the primary quality constraint?

anything that uses a USB input for Ipod (using stock IPOD cable) will do that Weeb.

Especially Kenwood.

Somewhere there is a test of the 1st gen IPOD freq response VS a CD player. In short, it was found the DA converter in the IPOD is so close it's a non issue.

I guess the 4th Gen IPODS have a Wolfson designed DA converter and that's the one to have. I use a 3rd gen and a 5th gen mini with my Kenwood and they sound great. Of course, you have to have the resolution when you copy the CD maxed out to get the quality but it works well. Kenwood player decodes the IPOD in my present setup.

Noticeably smoother than the Alpine with a cable using the IPOD DA

I don't think so. To get direct access to the Apple data stream from the dock connector the player has to be licensed with Apple and Apple has to grant rights to do it. The DEX-P99RS can do it but only with the Pioneer cable. If you connect it with an Apple cable it uses the DAC in the iPod\iPhone.

According to Crutchfield many units do it- Car Selector

Blaupunkt units have an earphone input. You just plug the wires in and you're good to go. Just plug that into the iphone.

The Kenwood I have (an intermediate level excelon that was under $200) does it. I convert to flac exclusively and run the golden ear app. Sounds very crisp. Not likely an issue w/ low bitrate mp3's. It only does it plugged in though, not with a bluetooth stream.

Great analogy there Willie. A $70k car vs a 35k truck. Nailed it. How about a Taurus vs a Malibu? Or Camaro vs Firebird for us older folks.

As stated, in a similar price point (under $200), the differences will be in features, not audio. Speakers, sound deadening, etc will affect sound more than comparably priced head units. They're all pretty good today, so get what you would prefer to live with in looks and features.

It seems so! The info I was looking at was from when the Pioneer I have was released so it looks like much has changed in 3+ years.

When you paint with a broad brush you're likely to miss a few spots. The fact of the matter is that not all head units are made in China with the same parts. The Pioneer in my BMW and the Denon in my 930 were both manufactured in Japan. That must be a big parts bin.

And how old are those?

The Pioneer is a current product, the Denon was made in 2009.

That pioneer P99RS is cutting edge. I'd love one but may need to settle for the PRS 80.

Weeb- get yourself some old HiFonics amps like a Zeus and 4x 15" subs for your van. You'll be hip.

I just picked up an E28 and trying to decide between the x997 and the pioneer 80prs. My M3 has the x996 and I'm happy with it. I'm not seeing what would pull me towards the pioneer.

thx for all the advice, everyone - I will be using a separate amp on this

one comment I read said the the PRS 80 was not nearly as nice as the P99RS

$1,200 does seem a bit steep, however...

unfortunately, there is no way I can listen to any of units with good speakers - I can listen to some Alpine units in one store here but with their speakers, their "listening room - it's almost all glass walled - etc.

And listening in a store won't tell you much. A car's acoustics are unique. Uniquely poor. :(

I am glad that I have never sold 12v audio. I remember at one CES years ago getting a flyer under my door advertising car stereos for $6.49 . . .

Ian

nontheless I'm interested in hearing anything your contacts, colleagues, or fellow-travelers have to say on the matter...

one thing about car audio - the synesthesia of driving thru a beautiful landscape in a fun sports car while listening to your favorite music (or even her favorite music) with the right passenger on a sunny spring day cannot be duplicated in the house's listening room

I only have 2 car audio dealers in my whole dealer network & I don't know either of them well enough to really trust their judgement. I will ask however.

And I know about cruisin' with tunes. That's why I needed something that I could hear top down at speed. 600 watts with the twin Focal 8" drivers gives me the thump I wanted & the door components give me enough detail. I do turn it down in the city cause I don't want to look/sound too ghetto. :D

Ian

Here is some good info on quality head units. Most of the units mentioned are no longer made and somewhat featureless compared to new ones.

Best Head Unit-Sound Quality - DIYMA Car Audio Forum

While I have the DEX-P99RS I don't use the EQ or time alignment features it offers. I didn't plan it that way, I was going to keep my factory head unit and run the signal it provided to a JBL MS-8 signal processor which does time alignment, and a 31 band EQ with Logic 7 processing. During the install of the MS-8 someone broke into my car and stole the MS-8 display (useless without the processor that they left behind) and JBL couldn't provide me with the replacement parts I needed so I bought the Pioneer. Later on I located a used MS-8 display so I ended up with both.:rolleyes:

Currently my Pioneer passes a full range signal to the MS-8 and it does all the processing before sending it's signal to the Soundstream amplifiers. I have a 6.5" separate set in the front doors, a 10" JBL sub, and a DIN sized center channel to get full functionality of the Logic 7 processing.

The MS-8 is excellent and the car sounds great while offering loads of adjustability. As Jim mentioned car acoustics are poor but the MS-8 does a good job masking many of the issues. My commute is long and the car is the one place I'm alone most often so I can crank it up without disturbing anyone, that doesn't happen often at home.

Can any of you car audio Einsteins recommend good door speakers for my 993 Cab? I have a decent Alpine head unit and a JL Audio amp. No idea of model numbers, sorry. I purchased these about 8 years ago, with door speakers for something around $1500. The door speakers are Focals installed in RSR door panels, but the sound is worse than an AM radio in a 1975 Ford truck. I am tossing the RSR door panels and going with 993 stock premium sound door panels. So, I believe I need 5 1/4" main drivers, 1" tweeters and a crossover. I am open to a new head unit, if that's a good idea. The Pioneer PRS80 looks nice. Any input? And apologies to the OP for stepping on your toes a bit here :)