Pioneer 8600MP

scottyf
scottyf Posts: 129
edited February 2006 in Car Audio & Electronics
I have the Pioneer 8600mp player. It sounds great and I love the features. However, I want to share a serious flaw with the model. Perhaps I've just been unlucky, but my first unit stuck with the door closed. I couldn't get my cd out or remove the face. We shipped it off to the service center and they fixed it. It worked fine for a month or so, then it locked closed again.

My dealer is very cool and got me a new unit. (If you are in San Antonio, you should definitely check out Scott at Cartunes.) We installed it about 2 months ago. Three days ago, this unit locked up in the closed position. Today it's working fine, but it makes you wonder, don't it?

I love the way it sounds and I also like the way it looks. But I no longer trust it's reliability. I guess I'm looking for another head unit that has 2 sets of pre-outs, sub-out, and a killer DAC. Any suggestions?

HOME: VPI Classic/Grado Reference Master, EVS-modified Oppo BP83, Bryston DAC, Counterpoint 3000/SA-100 modified by Alta Vista, Polk LSi15

TRUCK: Pioneer 8600MP, Soundstream 300SX, pr of Xtant 1001i, Autotek SS490.2, Polk SR6500, Polk MMC6500, pr of Polk MM2084DVC
Post edited by scottyf on
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Comments

  • neomagus00
    neomagus00 Posts: 3,899
    edited February 2006
    price range? offhand, i'd look at eclipse, alpine, kenweed, in that order... pioneer is starting to slip off my good-names list...

    and man, yet another 860/8600 failure... creepy...
    It's not good, very fundamentally simply not good. - geolemon

    "Its not good enough until we have real-time fearmongering. I want my fear mongered as it happens." - Shizelbs
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  • audiobliss
    audiobliss Posts: 12,518
    edited February 2006
    I would go with Eclipse, Kenwood, Alpine. As of late, none of Alpine's HU's have good specs as far as preouts and DACs. Eclipse is a given, and I've seen some nice stuff from Kenwood lately.
    George Grand wrote: »
    Jstas wrote: »
    Simple question. If you had a cool million bucks, what would you do with it?
    Wonder WTF happened to the rest of my money.
    In Use
    PS3, Yamaha CDR-HD1300, Plex, Amazon Fire TV Gen 2
    Pioneer Elite VSX-52, Parasound HCA-1000A
    Klipsch RF-82ii, RC-62ii, RS-42ii, RW-10d
    Epson 8700UB
    In Storage
    [Home Audio]
    Rotel RCD-02, Yamaha KX-W900U, Sony ST-S500ES, Denon DP-7F
    Pro-Ject Phono Box MKII, Parasound P/HP-850, ASL Wave 20 monoblocks
    Klipsch RF-35, RB-51ii
    [Car Audio]
    Pioneer Premier DEH-P860MP, Memphis 16-MCA3004, Boston Acoustic RC520
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  • exalted512
    exalted512 Posts: 10,735
    edited February 2006
    I talked with my Pioneer rep today and he told me all of the bugs are supposed to be out of the new models.

    The only decks that were having problems were the 8600, 860, 9600, and 960. They were said to be fixed with Pioneers first new shipment of the year. Maybe if you can just make sure you get an 06 model, you should be fine.

    I'm still a big fan of Pioneer, every brand has their off years. Eclipse had some really major problems in 01-02 and they were fixed. When you come out with new products, youre always going to have problems with it. For example Polks MM12s and 10s. At their first sign of defects no one ran and screamed infinity perfects, polk fixed the problem and their new series are great.

    That being said, I'd still stick to Pioneer, Eclipse, and Kenwood in that order. Alpine, unless they undergo a major change, will never get my business as far as head units go.
    -Cody
    Music is like candy, you have to get rid of the rappers to enjoy it
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  • MacLeod
    MacLeod Posts: 14,358
    edited February 2006
    Yeah, Alpine does suck now. They were the **** before but theyve decided to go for the Ipod/MP3 market and totally abandon the SQ and purist market. Eff em!

    Eclipse is the new king of the hill in my book.

    Another brand most people overlook is JVC. Their low end stuff aint that impressive but their EXAD stuff looks pretty good.
    polkaudio sound quality competitor since 2005
    MECA SQ Rookie of the Year 06 ~ MECA State Champ 06,07,08,11 ~ MECA World Finals 2nd place 06,07,08,09
    08 Car Audio Nationals 1st ~ 07 N Georgia Nationals 1st ~ 06 Carl Casper Nationals 1st ~ USACi 05 Southeast AutumnFest 1st

    polkaudio SR6500 --- polkaudio MM1040 x2 -- Pioneer P99 -- Rockford Fosgate P1000X5D
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  • audiobliss
    audiobliss Posts: 12,518
    edited February 2006
    Yeah, I tend to overlook JVC. But on purpose. To be honest, I don't know if they're horrible or worth their weight in gold, but judging from the offerings from Eclipse, Premier, and Kenwood, I don't really care. I personally don't see a need to look any further than Eclipse.
    George Grand wrote: »
    Jstas wrote: »
    Simple question. If you had a cool million bucks, what would you do with it?
    Wonder WTF happened to the rest of my money.
    In Use
    PS3, Yamaha CDR-HD1300, Plex, Amazon Fire TV Gen 2
    Pioneer Elite VSX-52, Parasound HCA-1000A
    Klipsch RF-82ii, RC-62ii, RS-42ii, RW-10d
    Epson 8700UB
    In Storage
    [Home Audio]
    Rotel RCD-02, Yamaha KX-W900U, Sony ST-S500ES, Denon DP-7F
    Pro-Ject Phono Box MKII, Parasound P/HP-850, ASL Wave 20 monoblocks
    Klipsch RF-35, RB-51ii
    [Car Audio]
    Pioneer Premier DEH-P860MP, Memphis 16-MCA3004, Boston Acoustic RC520
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  • 1996blackmax
    1996blackmax Posts: 2,436
    edited February 2006
    MacLeod wrote:
    Yeah, Alpine does suck now. They were the **** before but theyve decided to go for the Ipod/MP3 market and totally abandon the SQ and purist market. Eff em!

    Eclipse is the new king of the hill in my book.

    I have been saying this for quite a little while now :D . People finally came around and saw what I had been talking about ;) .
    scottyf wrote:
    I guess I'm looking for another head unit that has 2 sets of pre-outs, sub-out, and a killer DAC. Any suggestions?

    As these guys said, Eclipse :). Their two top units use 24bit DAC's from Burr Brown. The Pioneer unit uses 1bit Burr Browns DAC's with 24bit resolution .
    Alpine: CDA-7949
    Alpine: PXA-H600
    Alpine: CHA-S624, KCA-420i, KCA-410C
    Rainbow: CS 265 Profi Phase Plug / SL 165
    ARC Audio: 4150-XXK / 1500v1-XXK
    JL Audio: 10W6v2 (x2)
    KnuKonceptz
    Second Skin
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  • MacLeod
    MacLeod Posts: 14,358
    edited February 2006
    Well you were wrong then because they didnt start sucking til this year. Last year they still had high voltage pre-outs, time alingment and a bunch of good tuning features. Its the 2006 models that suck.

    But we agree now, viva Eclipse!
    polkaudio sound quality competitor since 2005
    MECA SQ Rookie of the Year 06 ~ MECA State Champ 06,07,08,11 ~ MECA World Finals 2nd place 06,07,08,09
    08 Car Audio Nationals 1st ~ 07 N Georgia Nationals 1st ~ 06 Carl Casper Nationals 1st ~ USACi 05 Southeast AutumnFest 1st

    polkaudio SR6500 --- polkaudio MM1040 x2 -- Pioneer P99 -- Rockford Fosgate P1000X5D
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  • 1996blackmax
    1996blackmax Posts: 2,436
    edited February 2006
    No, I was not :D. I believe Alpine's best SQ, Non F#1 HU combo was put out in 1997-1998. Alpine CDA-7949/PXA-H600 combo :D. Over the years their 4V preouts started not being 4v preouts, but more like 2.3v's. The 7949's 4v's had been measured a tad over 6v's :).

    But we agree now :D.
    Alpine: CDA-7949
    Alpine: PXA-H600
    Alpine: CHA-S624, KCA-420i, KCA-410C
    Rainbow: CS 265 Profi Phase Plug / SL 165
    ARC Audio: 4150-XXK / 1500v1-XXK
    JL Audio: 10W6v2 (x2)
    KnuKonceptz
    Second Skin
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  • exalted512
    exalted512 Posts: 10,735
    edited February 2006
    Ive been hating on alpine for about 4 years now. Im old school hatin'
    -Cody
    Music is like candy, you have to get rid of the rappers to enjoy it
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  • cam5860
    cam5860 Posts: 632
    edited February 2006
    In my opinion kenwood makes one of the best decks right now. If I were upgrading I would buy that 25th Anniversity from kenwood. It's on special over at crutchfield for 399.99 right now. Goodbuy for what all it has to offer.
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  • exalted512
    exalted512 Posts: 10,735
    edited February 2006
    cam5860 wrote:
    In my opinion kenwood makes one of the best decks right now. If I were upgrading I would buy that 25th Anniversity from kenwood. It's on special over at crutchfield for 399.99 right now. Goodbuy for what all it has to offer.
    thats a very sexy hu right there
    -Cody
    Music is like candy, you have to get rid of the rappers to enjoy it
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  • 1996blackmax
    1996blackmax Posts: 2,436
    edited February 2006
    I got my CD8455 for $450, which was not a bad deal at all :). That Kenwood does seem like a nice unit too.
    Alpine: CDA-7949
    Alpine: PXA-H600
    Alpine: CHA-S624, KCA-420i, KCA-410C
    Rainbow: CS 265 Profi Phase Plug / SL 165
    ARC Audio: 4150-XXK / 1500v1-XXK
    JL Audio: 10W6v2 (x2)
    KnuKonceptz
    Second Skin
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  • MacLeod
    MacLeod Posts: 14,358
    edited February 2006
    cam5860 wrote:
    In my opinion kenwood makes one of the best decks right now. If I were upgrading I would buy that 25th Anniversity from kenwood. It's on special over at crutchfield for 399.99 right now. Goodbuy for what all it has to offer.


    Thats not a bad price. Ill have to look into that one.
    polkaudio sound quality competitor since 2005
    MECA SQ Rookie of the Year 06 ~ MECA State Champ 06,07,08,11 ~ MECA World Finals 2nd place 06,07,08,09
    08 Car Audio Nationals 1st ~ 07 N Georgia Nationals 1st ~ 06 Carl Casper Nationals 1st ~ USACi 05 Southeast AutumnFest 1st

    polkaudio SR6500 --- polkaudio MM1040 x2 -- Pioneer P99 -- Rockford Fosgate P1000X5D
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  • scottyf
    scottyf Posts: 129
    edited February 2006
    Thanks, everyone. I'll work on trying to get this one replaced if possible -- if not, I'll probably check out the eclipse. Only problem is my XM radio as it looks like eclipse is in bed with serius.

    Thanks again!

    HOME: VPI Classic/Grado Reference Master, EVS-modified Oppo BP83, Bryston DAC, Counterpoint 3000/SA-100 modified by Alta Vista, Polk LSi15

    TRUCK: Pioneer 8600MP, Soundstream 300SX, pr of Xtant 1001i, Autotek SS490.2, Polk SR6500, Polk MMC6500, pr of Polk MM2084DVC
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter