Author Topic: Recommend a head unit  (Read 4552 times)

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Offline Luke

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Recommend a head unit
« on: Sep 26, 2007, 12:28AM »
Ok sound junkies, Jason and I are lookin at what stereo system were puttin in his car as it startin to come along now fairly well. We are not looking for big wank brands, and were not goin in any sound offs. We are looking for a quality system that sounds good, and you can hear over the exhaust when your cruising at 110km\h.

I have response 6x9's and response 6.5 inch splits from Jaycar in my car and they have proved to be awesome for the price. So we have pretty much settled for response 6 inch 2 or 3 ways in the back, and response 6.5 inch splits in the front. We are also looking at a response 4 x 100WRMS amp. 2 Channels to power the front splits, and the other 2 channels for 1 sub woofer. Back speakers would run off the head unit. We have pretty much decided on this and are going to buy it all on saturday unless one of you noise nerds comes on here and tells us that we are completely wrong.

The main question is what head unit, and to a lesser extent, what sub and box? We want a head unit that has a bit of tunabilty, looks good, and can play MP3 cd's. Any of this bluetooth bullshit will be wasted cos I know Jason won't use it. Same with DVD's, couldn't care less. So can anyone recommend a head unit??

And also, A cheap sub??? I have a pioneer 12" and that does the job for me just fine. Apparently it's crap?? but if we could get somethin just a little bit better than that that will be cool. And a box, we are quite capable of building a box, so if anyone can tell us some dimensions, or like how many litres, or maybe some calculations for resonant frequencies or somethin I dunno, that'd be cool. If no-one comes up with anything we'll just go to autobarn and buy a cheap sub and box combo.

Ok, go :)
Jason reffering to the OzVR4 Forum... "Even their forum is slow" "FJ20.com on the other hand, yep that S12 does Mono's"

Offline Luke

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Re: Recommend a head unit
« Reply #1 on: Sep 26, 2007, 12:30AM »
Oh, and I want people who work in this area to answer. I don't want any, "I have a fooly sic Sony stereo its hectic" replies from 16 year olds that don't know what they're talking about.
Jason reffering to the OzVR4 Forum... "Even their forum is slow" "FJ20.com on the other hand, yep that S12 does Mono's"

Offline Kranzy

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Re: Recommend a head unit
« Reply #2 on: Sep 26, 2007, 09:29AM »
I have always had pioneer units and the higher end are fantastic for tunability. My current 9850bt has a 16 (i think) band eq, seperate front/rear hpf and has great sq at low and high volume.

 Between owning my pioneer decks i had the top of the range cd tuner from alpine and it was a bucket of piss. Sq at low volume was absolute crap, to get a decent sound you needed to have volume which was pathetic.

I know im going to get people on here saying pioneer is shit but im talking the top of the range decks here, not your el cheapo.

On a side note other nice headunits are kenwood, eclipse and jvc do some nice decks too.
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Re: Recommend a head unit
« Reply #3 on: Sep 26, 2007, 10:11AM »
Luke, my bluey runs an alpine MP3 deck... soundstream 6x4 speakers up front (50wrms) which sound fantastic and fit in the stock speaker holes like a glove.

6.5" two ways in the back running from the headunit for rear fill.

12" alpine type S sub in the boot.  Front speakers (6x4's) and the sub and running off an alpine 4 channel amp which is mounted to the back seat on the passenger side.

I sit in the front seat of my car, so thats where the sound mostly is :)  Works for me.
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Offline rathies

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Re: Recommend a head unit
« Reply #4 on: Sep 26, 2007, 10:15AM »
eclipse mate, I've had 5 of them. They're much cheaper than a Pioneer or an Alpine unit when you consider the features and SQ they produce. The mid-range models are 'simple and just go' with a bit of tuneability if thats what you want.  :)

My second recommendation would be an Alpine or a JVC, bear in mind a good Alpine is costly but just like the eclipse, it goes and well. The new JVC head units are moving on up the ranks, quite tuneable and very affordable, I had one for a year, longest I've ever kept a head unit for.

Theres also a response head unit available from Jaycar now. It looks like a rebadged ebay jobbie so I guess you can't love everything response, although it seems ebay freaks do   ::)

As for affordable subs have a look at a soundstream x-stream or picasso series, I have the xstream and it produces a very clean sound for an uber base model sub, they're also all dual voice coil.
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Offline Luke

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Re: Recommend a head unit
« Reply #5 on: Sep 26, 2007, 02:04PM »
Oh yeah, forgot to say that we dont wanna spend any more than $400 on a head unit. Is the Eclipse CD3100 a good head unit, seems to be the sort of thing we are looking for? And the Soundstream PCW-12 Picasso sub, whats that like?? Anyone know where I can find prices of these things, we would like the whole thing to come out at around $1000 if we can.
Jason reffering to the OzVR4 Forum... "Even their forum is slow" "FJ20.com on the other hand, yep that S12 does Mono's"

Offline Ka-Bluey

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Re: Recommend a head unit
« Reply #6 on: Sep 26, 2007, 06:50PM »
Ahh more the $400 you say, my DEH-P8650MP is up for sale on ebay, $350 and its yours with free delivery. Ask anyone here about it and they will say its a good reliable unit. Ask Jono he knows it well.

Here is the link for more info on the unit
http://www.pioneer.com.sg/storefront/ProductDetail/default.asp?ProductId=75&CatId=2,24,32

And here is my ebay listing:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Pioneer-CD-Player-DEH-P8650MP_W0QQitemZ110173276634QQihZ001QQcategoryZ39752QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 ;)
 

Offline Sticky

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Re: Recommend a head unit
« Reply #7 on: Sep 26, 2007, 06:57PM »
Ahh more the $400 you say, my DEH-P8650MP is up for sale on ebay, $350 and its yours with free delivery. Ask anyone here about it and they will say its a good reliable unit. Ask Jono he knows it well.


 ;)
Hell yeah, for $350, a DEHP8650 is good value

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Offline NIZ013

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Re: Recommend a head unit
« Reply #8 on: Sep 26, 2007, 08:02PM »
I've had 3x Jvc Head units, a kenwood, a sony DVD + screen, and a pioneer DVD unit.

Out of all of them, i've been most happy with the pioneer.

Offline BILL*69

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Re: Recommend a head unit
« Reply #9 on: Sep 26, 2007, 10:24PM »
Soundstream PCW-12 Picasso sub. Anyone know where I can find prices of these things
I can get you a price from work tomorrow champ.
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Offline Vithy

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Re: Recommend a head unit
« Reply #10 on: Sep 29, 2007, 12:00PM »
I reconmend the Alpine CDA-9857 that is if u can find one to by....if you do should only be around $350

Very happy with this deck plays Cds (wow) and you have the option to plug your ipod into it...comes with the cable... have many tuning options aswell id reconmend it.... its 18w RMS and has 3 Pre amp outputs one of which is for the sub so u can control sub level from your deck

reason y i say its a hard to find one coz its a discontinued model but u might be able to find one around

well thats my 2 cents
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Offline Jason

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Re: Recommend a head unit
« Reply #11 on: Oct 7, 2007, 10:09PM »
I bought my stereo today and it consists of:

Pioneer DEH-69501-b
Response 6'' kevlar splits  front
Pioneer 6'' 60wrms   rear
Response 800w amp
Clarion 400w 12'' sub

thats about all i can tell you. But i reckon it should go alright. Luke got one of these amps aswell today to power his 300w sub and it's heaps clearer than his old alpine amp, So going by what his sounds like now it should be good,

Offline cruizer

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Re: Recommend a head unit
« Reply #12 on: Oct 16, 2007, 09:45AM »
You put the stereo in yet??



1000 Posts  ;D

Offline Jason

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Re: Recommend a head unit
« Reply #13 on: Oct 16, 2007, 02:55PM »
Na not yet, but i'll let you know how it goes, and do a install write up in my project thread.

Offline Sticky

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Re: Recommend a head unit
« Reply #14 on: Oct 16, 2007, 10:44PM »
looks like a nice solid system man

Make sure u dont give those resonse splits too much juice, they dont like it very much, so set your gains somewhat conservative to start off with.

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Offline Luke

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Re: Recommend a head unit
« Reply #15 on: Oct 17, 2007, 01:58PM »
Jason didn't mention that the AMP is only for the Sub. So the all the speakers will be run off the head unit for now, unless we find that they arent loud enough.
Jason reffering to the OzVR4 Forum... "Even their forum is slow" "FJ20.com on the other hand, yep that S12 does Mono's"