car stereos best brand

[klinetime574]

Bluetooth would be for like connecting your phone and being able to make hands free phone calls.

If its new it should have at least a 1 year manufacturers warrantee.

 

[Tofudebeest]

The truth is that if it is under the $350-400 price point, it is pretty much s***. But, that's all most people will ever want/need. I second the Sony Xplod. It is sub $100, will sound great with decent speakers, and will last at least 7-10 years. The Pioneers and Alpines are good units too, but are really no better than the Sony and are more expensive and you really get nothing more for the money.

 

[Michael Hanson]

Alright say we step into the 600.00 range. thanks, MIke

 

[ntsqd]

Backing up a bit, my 60 came with a Sony Xplod of some sort or other. I hate it. The display is always doing something that is distracting and it feels that it has to remind me that the face plate is in the unit every time I turn the key off. I'll be replacing it with a Pioneer. Probably about the 5100 level of options.

 

[Matt60]

The truth is that if it is under the $350-400 price point, it is pretty much s***. The Pioneers and Alpines are good units too, but are really no better than the Sony and are more expensive and you really get nothing more for the money.

i'll agree with this..

if you wish to hook up an ipod or play burned cds then go with the cheapest thing (sony) you can find. the sound quality will be the same.

unless you plan to drive these:

 

[ginsudan]

I have pioneers in three of my seven vehicles three have stock and one has panasonic. I am partial to the pioneer for the tuners as well as the sound quality and ability to up grade, amps ect.., all come with remotes. I bought all Pioneers from Crutchfield.com. They are very good at providing the necessary mounting hardware included with purchase. They have tech support for everything they sell. There is also great information on their site to help you choose the right equipment for your taste and specific application. speaker quality is crucial to sound quality. Speaker selection depends a lot on the space they will be used in. Use the information from Crutchfield's site to help match what ever products you are partial to for the best quality performance. I have had Alpine products in the past found them to be of good quality except for the controls there always seems to be trouble with durability issues with Alpine's controls. Maybe it's me too much trigger finger.

 

[esh]

I compared the Alpine and JVC media-type receivers (didn't look at the double-dins, but the IXA-W404 is right in line). JVC won because I didn't have to buy as many add-ons to get the same features (JVC includes bluetooth and a CD/DVD player).

Bluetooth can also be used for streaming music wirelessly from your phone or player. It gives you the digital quality of USB and the usually better interface of your player, without wires.

I ended up with a JVC AVX-33, which is the same as the new AVX-type(40/49/77) models except with tactile controls. It was around $250 on ebay(old model, new unit). I like the Alpine double din's ability to search by tag types.

 

[T-bones 60]

i'll agree with this..

if you wish to hook up an ipod or play burned cds then go with the cheapest thing (sony) you can find. the sound quality will be the same.

unless you plan to drive these:

From what I understand the Pioneer is most compatible with the new ipods. (2nd gen touch) I paid $250 for mine at Circuit City (RIP) in December and love it! Works great with my 32G touch.

I wish I had room to run those Corner Horns. At 104db 1w/meter sens, you could rock with as little as one watt! I wouldn't even need my amps!

 

[lehiguy]

Pioneer. I had one in my 60 for ten years before it was finally overwhelmed by dust build up and wouldn't load disks any more. The Clarion I put in as a replacement has not been as good, skips too much.

 

[trucruiser]

I used to install Car audio professionally for 8 yrs and have installed every brand name indash unit out there.
Im all of my vehicles I run Alpine

 

[mwood5]

Hey Michael,

If you're still looking....I work about a mile from you. I'm at Plano Pkwy and Coit area. I've got a Pioneer/Premier unit in mine....with an MTX amp, JL Audio sub box w/ 2-12", JL Audio 5.25" in front door and some older Clarion speakers in the rear spots.
I too went with sound clarity and quality...or tried to. You are correct, most of the stuff on the market is garbage. There is some nice stuff, but no on locally (DFW) seems to stock it. All they have is the garbage.

My all time favorite headunit was a Clarion that was recently stolen...or the faceplace was. It was a preamp only...no power in the unit itself. It was top notch...the specs were really nice as it used high quality Burr Brown D/A chips. They're top of the line. Also, the fact that there is/was no amplifier section in the unit, heat and interference was kept to a minimum. I really hated to loose that one.

I replaced it with what I could find under $500, which was a Pioneer Premier unit that too used the Burr Brown chipset. It's not quite as nice, but I'm happy with it.

If you'd like to hear/see it, let me know and I'll meet you any day....

m

 

[KayakPanic]

pioneer.
best quality for the price of $200.
green display, less kalideoscope shifting lights to be distracted by (xplode has lots of these)...

 

[effjay60]

anything but Kenwood. I've owned two kenwood head units and two Kenwood amps and none of the above lasted even 6 mo. I too vote Alpine for head unit, Rockford for amps (i have two in my boat for 6 years) and polk for speakers (all polk car audio speakers are marine rated)

 

[workingdog]

I have to agree on the Xplod from Sony. I have one in my 40 and a Panasonic in my truck. The display on both drive me crazy but the but the button layout on the xplod makes no sense whatever.

Peter

 

[Michael Hanson]

I agree that most unit buttons are too small and make no sense.Im leaning toward Alpine or Pioneer.Double din or single din? Mike

 

[baxter650]

I have Sony's in both our trucks, i am going more deaf by the day so the sound quality is good enough for me.
I will also not spend any more than $150.oo on a deck that the little bastard down the street will pry out in a week.
All the flashy lights don't bother me either, i mount the decks in the glove box and leave the stock AM radio in the dash, out of sight out of mind.

 

[nuclearlemon]

it feels that it has to remind me that the face plate is in the unit every time I turn the key off. .

you can turn off the attenuation beep.


fwiw, i usually run cheap ass sonys. i think the best bang is in updating speakers. any stereo is going to sound like crap if you crank it with stock speakers.

i'm running a $60 delphi head unit now in my 80, have maybe $175 in new front door speakers and a powered subwoofer and it sounds great (well, great for a cheap stereo). the only thing that looks different is the head unit (everything else is behind stock panels, so if anyone breaks in, they get a crappy $60 head unit.

the 60 got broken into three times. it wasn't worth giving someone a stereo that was worth a crap and i'm not entering any competitions.

 

[Michael Hanson]

I hate buying cheap,I cant afford cheap.But I understand your points.Id rather buy things that are like cruisers :excellent and built to last. But these days ,What is quality? Mike

 

[jeverich]

...

Alpine hands down. I've got a CDA-9883 - pretty bulletproof.

Why spend more than $200.00+ ?

In my opinion it's just more eye candy for the tweakers.

 

[Cruzerman]

I've been real happy with the Pioneer unit (although it's in my Subaru). I really like the ability to put cheap thumb drives in the usb port. Lots of music online for cheap. Bounce proof too.