Which High End Head Unit for SQ?

MrDHEJ

There seems to be a plathora of head units out there, and i already know what you guys think about Sony but what are the "Good" ones when it comes to sound quality. If i get this right, the higher the voltage on the pre-amps the better, correct?

Buget: what's that? Can't put a price on SQ
Power: none, need 3 sets of pre-amps
Need to play mp3's and cd's, looks are a factor as i'm kin to the "old" look, i really like the looks of the Clarions, but what's the SQ like?

Commence bombbardment of sugestions!

bknauss

The older Sony ES heads are actually great SQ heads (C90, etc).

For the stuff you want, looks like Alpine is the way to go. You won't get the simple looks (something I would like also), but its definitely hard to find an old school looking face from anyone now-a-days.

MrDHEJ

yeah, i was leaning towards Alpine, then i noticed this from one of there high end models.

Alpine CDA-9835
I read that this HU only has a 1 bit D/A Converter, shouldn't this HU have at least a 24 bit D/A Converter?

Even though i don't like the tilt display i'm kinda leaning towards the Kenwood Excelon KDC-X979 with the 24-bit Burr-Brown D/A converter

what ya'll think.

AustinKP

Originally posted by MrDHEJ
Alpine CDA-9835
I read that this HU only has a 1 bit D/A Converter, shouldn't this HU have at least a 24 bit D/A Converter?

From what I understand, there are two kinds of D/A converters. The burr-brown 24 bit d/a converter either works differently or is measured differently, than Alpine's 1 bit D/A converter. Neither one is better, they just go about the conversion differently. The Alpine 9835 is an excellent choice for SQ and is very highly recommended from almost everyone. Eclipse HU's are also highly recommended for SQ, as are the higher-end Pioneers. At the end of the day, it all comes down to what you think looks the best, or the features you prefer. The SQ will be the same among the upper ends of all the major manufacturers.

TrappedUnder Ice

personally...for high end sq..you need to look at eclipse, Nak or denon...
Denon being the most expensive....but the others mentioned will not even come close. Maybe the Alpine F1...bout doubt even that

MrDHEJ

you got websites for eclipse and nak? I don't see any head units on Denon's web site.

bknauss

1. Don't worry about the number of bits for DACs... sound quality basically has nothing to do with that if the engineer has a decent brain in his head.

2. Naks skip like a ****. They used to be very popular a couple of years ago since they were cheap for the performance, but you rarely hear about them anymore since everyone got ticked off with having to get the HU repaired so quickly. Denon might also be hard to find... the only US distributor I knew of (Red Mountain Audio) went out of business. Luckily, there was Denon head that was rebadged by RF, never went on the market, and now is being sold (the small quantities left) at sounddomain.com. Here's the link
http://www.cardomain.com/item/ROCRFX8250

Definitely a great head unit.

If you want a real SQ head unit, get something with digital out, or at least balanced outputs. Digi out is hard to find without paying for a DVD player... but if you have a friend in Japan, Alpine has a good amount of head units with coax digi out. I believe there was one that retailed for about $350 USD.

MacLeod

I believe that any head unit from a quality manufactuer (Alpine, Pioneer, Kenwood, Eclipse etc) will sound and work great.

I like Alpine best because I think they look best and offer 4 volt pre-outs in my price range!

Pioneer is also awesome.

I really like the RF model that BK mentioned. I like the "simple stealth" look to it and for $300 it aint a bad deal.

I would only stay away from JVC and Sony. Anything else will do you just fine.

exalted512

jvc isnt horrible...
as far as SQ goes, look no further than the Pioneer P9
-Cody

MrDHEJ

You mean the P9600MP? What makes it so much better then the others?

AustinKP

Originally posted by MrDHEJ
You mean the P9600MP? What makes it so much better then the others?

He has one

[Deleted User]

No, it's the DEX-P9. It's a Pioneer Premier high end piece.

MrDHEJ

Yeah, i found it on Pioneer's web site last night. THough some of the spec's are unclear, it says cdr cdrw compatible but doesn't mention if it'll play mp3/wma. If sound quality is noticable i may consider it. Anyone heard the p9?

AustinKP

Well, I haven't heard the P9, but if you're shooting for ultimate SQ, you definitely don't want to be playing MP3/WMA files.

MrDHEJ

with the method i use to rip my cd's to mp3 i doubt you would be able to tell the differance.

Kschultz76

I'm gonna put in my vote for a Kenwood unit, I have been using them for years and never had one let me down. My SQ has always been great, and Kenwood offers many models for many price ranges. I have one of the first Kenwood units that came out with MP3 decoding and I love it, but it doesn't decode WMA, i think mine is an MP8017. It has a Dmask revolving face plate, but it is manually operated not motorized. Def look at a model with the highest pre-out voltage you can afford as that will be a key factor for your system since you're going to power everything with amps. While I am a Kenwood fan, any higher end HU will do you good, Alpine, Pioneer, Kenwood, Eclipse, they're all good as long as you look at a higher end unit and compare them all based on the same specs.....pre out voltage, type of faceplate, etc....

bknauss

Originally posted by exalted512
jvc isnt horrible...
as far as SQ goes, look no further than the Pioneer P9
-Cody

There's the higher end japanese version of the P9 combo... guess its out of the question though since the price is very high and would be difficult to import.

As for the P9, good luck finding it. I've talked to a couple shop owners who either say its on backorder or discontinued.

AustinKP

Originally posted by MrDHEJ
with the method i use to rip my cd's to mp3 i doubt you would be able to tell the differance.

I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. But when you're compressing music, no matter what method, you're losing at least a little bit of data. If you're going to spend that much for a deck for probably only a minor SQ improvement, the improvement would be negated by the loss of data created by compression. That's my opinion. I could be way off

MrDHEJ

Originally posted by bknauss
There's the higher end japanese version of the P9 combo... guess its out of the question though since the price is very high and would be difficult to import.

As for the P9, good luck finding it. I've talked to a couple shop owners who either say its on backorder or discontinued.

There's 7 Pinoeer p9's on ebay right now

mel_jr.

I have a alpine 9807 and a kenwood kdc-715x and love both of them.

bknauss

Originally posted by MrDHEJ
There's 7 Pinoeer p9's on ebay right now

Good call. They generally go through good weeks and bad weeks on ebay.

BTW, of those 7 units, over half are refurbished or from shady sellers (ie only one other ebay transaction)

MrDHEJ

I'm probably going to get the Alpine CDA-9835, it matches the interior of my truck perty good and it looks nice and simple with all the features i am looking for.

exalted512

youre not going to hear a difference in SQ in 99% of head units
the 'great SQ head units' are the ones with the SQ options...ie crossover networks etc
all of which you can do with an eq, but are a PITA to adjust and can take many hours
-Cody

unrealii

My eclipse cd8454 has a microphone which you connect and it listens to itself and adjusts the settings for you.

MTXMAN

Eclipse CD8454

nuff said....

the only other one i'd consider would be the pioneer p9 or the 9600, but i'd still take the eclipse first....

MTXMAN

Eclipse CD8454

nuff said....

the only other one i'd consider would be the pioneer p9 or the 9600, but i'd still take the eclipse first....