any ideas on which stereo head unit is the cleanest sounding, clarion, kenwood, alpine, etc............

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Best all around HU I've owned to date is the Premier DEH-860 MP...


Ox

My sony CDX-C910 probably was and is still one of the best around. 4X20 bit burr brown DA converters, copper wrapped chassis and no internal amp. It's old so there's nothing fancy about it but it sounded fantastic until I wore it out that is...there's something wrong with the disc loading unit http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/smiley19.gif but I digress. You'll pay alot for it though if you can find one. Also alpine makes a setup called the f1. It's supposed to be the best around. pricey too. And finally if you can find one rockford fosgate made (I should say put their name on) a HU that was actually produced by Denon in Japan which is supposed to be awesome. My buddy got one but we haven't installed it yet so I can't tell you how cool (or not) it is. I was going to link you to cardomain.com becasue they were selling the units out (no one really knew about them) for $300 but they must've sold out.

If you ever go to a stereo competition, you will see that everyone competing uses Alpine.


http://upload.pbase.com/rjctamu/inbox&amp;edit=YEdited by: BassinRVer

If you ever go to a stereo competition, you
will see that everyone competing uses Alpine.


<a href="http://upload.pbase.com/rjctamu/inbox&edit=Y" target="_blank">http://
upload.pbase.com/rjctamu/inbox&edit=Y</a>

What a load of crap that is! Go to a competition and you'll see it all.
Not to take anything from Alpine, they make great stuff and you pay
for it. There's also plenty of other great stuff out there. I would stay
away from Sony, their car stuff is crap. For awesome sound Alpine,
Pioneer, Denon and Nakamiche (SP?) are all top dogs.

Really it boils down to two things, what you want and what you can
spend....

Ox

I have to agree with Ox on the sony stuff. After they discontinued the CDX-C910 and it's succesor (I forget the model #) all their stuff went to crap. I think they are more into the market of cheap HU's and just trying to sell loads of them to the uninformed public.

If you ever go to a stereo competition, you
will see that everyone competing uses Alpine.



<A href="http://upload.pbase.com/rjctamu/inbox&amp;edit=Y" target="_blank">http://
upload.pbase.com/rjctamu/inbox&amp;edit=Y</A>




What a load of crap that is! Go to a competition and you'll see it all.
Not to take anything from Alpine, they make great stuff and you pay
for it. There's also plenty of other great stuff out there. I would stay
away from Sony, their car stuff is crap. For awesome sound Alpine,
Pioneer, Denon and Nakamiche (SP?) are all top dogs.

Really it boils down to two things, what you want and what you can
spend....

Ox


I have heard on Car Sound and Performance forum that 90% of competitors use Alpine HU. There is no arguing that fact!!! Yes you see all sorts of stereo companies at shows. Sure there are other great HU like the Pioneer DEX-P9 with the DEQ-P9 processor andthe Clarion DRZ-9255. The top HU and processor is the F#1 Status 7990 and H900.


I will do a poll at CS&amp;P to see what percentages comes up.
Edited by: BassinRVer

I recently switched from the alpine unit to a clarion "mostly because xm satallite is horrible and sirius is much better as far as sound quality and programming". The clarion HU blows away the Alpine Hu and both cost about the same $375.00.

My opinion is to go to a stereo store and listen to some of them, make up your own mind. It completely depends on what you listen to. Hip Hop and "Bumpin" music will sound much different on brand "X" than country played through the same unit.


Now old KISS sounds good on anything!

My opinion is to go to a stereo store and listen to some of them, make up your own mind. It completely depends on what you listen to. Hip Hop and "Bumpin" music will sound much different on brand "X" than country played through the same unit.


Now old KISS sounds good on anything!





HU selection does not have anything to do with what type of sound or music you listen. All good HU are designed to accurately reproduce the sound that a recording was meant to be HEARD as. Speakers and subs do have differing characteristics that made them better to a certain type of music.

NAK..... home and possibly in my truck next... we will see.


Monies are set aside for a new turbo ..... so my audio has yet to be installed.... have everything but HU .

BassinRVer- can you post some pic of your F#1 Status? I'd like to see
how it looks in one of these trucks.

In my link to my web site you should be able to see the three F#1 items I have:


H900 - On back wall next to the amp and the control unit is under the screen in the center console.


S680 - In the center armrest console.


M790 - the center console screen up front.





The S680 has ditigal outs via fiber optics lines going to the H900 processor. The 7998 does not have digital outs so when ever I want to play digital sound or 5.1 CD's or DVD's I have to use my S680.

http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/uploads/BassinRVer/2004-11-10_064830_Picture_748.jpghttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/uploads/BassinRVer/2004-11-10_064814_Picture_732.jpghttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/uploads/BassinRVer/2004-11-10_064754_Picture_731.jpg

So you don't have the F#1 HU? I thought that's what we were talking about....

I do not need the F#1 headunit since I have the S680. I get the same quality signal out of the S680 as the F#1 HU.