pioneer HU - deh80prs vs. p9400bh

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spackelman
spackelman Posts: 31
edited September 2012 in Car Audio & Electronics
Hey Guys..

Looking at a new Pioneer HU - 80prs or 9400bh

2002 Silverado Crew Cab with Polk momo 6500 in the front doors and momo 650 in the rear doors, old, but they still sound great.

Bluetooth and sound reviews for both units are great.

Old HU was a Pioneer deh 960mp - died. However I was very pleased with the SQ.

I'm not running any amps or any subs and I'm am no audiophile.

My questions are:

The 9400 has HD radio built-in and the 80prs has none. Do I want HD radio?

Does the 80prs need an amp and a sub woofer to fully utilize the SQ?

If the the 80prs had the HD Radio option, I would go for it. But I'm thinking keep it simple and go for the 9400...

Not sure if I would notice the difference in the SQ between both units.

+ the 9400 is $120 cheaper at crutchfield.

I guess my question is how important is HD radio. I'm in the NJ NY area - there's a lot of stations that broadcast in HD.

Thanks for any advise.

BTW, this is one of the best forums for car audio info.

Thanks again.
Post edited by spackelman on
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Comments

  • Ern Dog
    Ern Dog Posts: 2,237
    edited September 2012
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    I just bought the 80prs last month because I want to upgrade my 6 year old pioneer HU. The biggest advantage is that this model is all about sound quality and that is the TOP priority. So if that's important to you then it is a steal because this level of quality is usually avail in the $1000+ range. Shop around, you can find it for a smidgen over $300. I got mine from Amazon for $323 shipped.

    I use the internal amps in the HU to power my fronts and rears and it does so with ease. It has an automatic EQ plus time alignment feature which is great. Just set up the mic and it does all the work for you of dialing it in so that it sounds perfect. I thought it sounded so good that I didn't need to tweak it any further. I'm a bass junkie so I have a JL Audio sub and amp which integrates well with this HU.

    The other feature that I really like is that the unit connects seamlessly with my iphone and it bypass the internal iphone DAC and uses the DAC in the HU. Now the DAC in the HU is awesome because it uses three 24 bit DAC's! So the iphone sounds almost as good as my cd's!

    Trust me. The sound quality you will be getting with this unit will sound better than the HD Radio feature in the 9400 model.
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  • MacLeod
    MacLeod Posts: 14,358
    edited September 2012
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    If you're not an audiophile then just get the cheapest one. The benefit to the 80 is all the tuning options. If you're not going to be doing any tuning, no reason to pay for EQ's, crossovers and such. There will be no difference in sound quality aside from the tuning features.
    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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