Between Two Headunits

[houtrd00]

my brother has the same panasonic is his 99 se the first one craped on him after 3 months and he has had waranty probs they screwed him out of $300
so he had to buy another and he has onlu had it for like 3weeks....so i would IMO go with what i know and thats pioneer plus it looks hella cool but stay away from the motorized face its just something more 2 break

[Assyrian]

^^^^^^^^^^^agreed. I'm about ready to buy the unit now... and I've been putting some more thought into alpine... panasonic is no longer part of the equation. I will either have a Premier (80 percent) or an Alpine (20 percent) in about two weeks... I'll post pictures with the final choice.

[houtrd00]

i think u will be happy with the 80% choice
good luck 2 ya!

[Monkeyman]

I wouldn't go with either (although if it HAD to be one of these two than the Pioneer is the better choice). You should take a close look at the Eclipse CD-8455. The Eclipse stays digital until the end of the signal path resulting in less induced noise (lower THD). In addition the Eclipse CD-8455 has 8 Volt pre-outs, so your signal is as strong as it can be when it gets to the amps in the trunk (High S-N Ratio), so you can get more dB from the same amplifiers.

David

[Assyrian]

well, I like the thought of a cleaner signal... but I don't really care for more decibels... I'm not really into future hearing loss.

Just well balanced Bass, Mids, and Treble.

But I'll take a look at Eclipses before I pick up a headunit this Saturday (hopefully). Thanks for the input!

I do love fujitsu.

[Grazi07]

I used to have the apline 9815 and loved it, upgraded to the 9860 to get the DVD playback... $350 shipped off ebay, can't beat it!!

[Monkeyman]

You don't have to use the full dB range of the head unit, what you could do instead is keep the gains on your amps down. With 8 Volts they will not have to be turned up as much as they would with a lower voltage output. With the gains down your amp(s) don't have to work as hard, will heat up less, and as a result will sound clearer, cleaner, and will last longer (with less chance of melting a power or ground wires or themselves!). I would suggest that you run both power AND ground to/from the battery to the trunk. Doing this will allow the amplifiers to run with less resistance on the power side. Speaking of resistance, there is a upside/downside to the eclipse head unit, it has VERY low resistance in the signal path. While this results in a cleaner, warmer, fuller sound, it also means if you disconnect an RCA accidentally while the unit is powered up and playing, you will roast-n-toast the preamp. Make sure you use secure RCA's! I use Nordost Vallhalla's myself, but Monster makes a few models which would fill the bill.
Oh, I almost forgot: With the CD-8445 and CD-8455 the parametric eq includes a microphone with which you can test the acoustics of the car, write the info directly to a memory stick (both heads have memory stick reader/writers built in) take it to your computer and use Eclipse's "e-iserv" website to automaticly adjust the parametric eq. You can also adjust it yourself on the head, or on the website. I think the Pioneer may also have an option like this.