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Best Head Unit



  350z & 16v Maxi


If you could buy nearly any CD head unit on the market what what would you buy? Say a £1500 limit. (Not a DVD player but CD Head Unit)
 


One of the pioneer 1s, i think the 1 i seen was £800, with mp3 capability/cd/cdr, and sh*t loads of other extras, look on nearly any advertising page in Max/Revs?fastcar and it should be there
 


Must admit, my Pioneer 6300R is fantastic! The Sound Staging Feature is great, and every other feature is great.

Pioneer are fantastic!

Daz.
 

MaLicE

Honorary Member
ClioSport Club Member
  Lazy v8


yeh it does fit and alpine are regarded by many as the best for quality.



that alpine is really nice and also the ones with the screens are good and the cda 7894r mp3 player is good and cheaper. also the top of the pile kenwoods are good.



i would recomend alpine first then kenwood then pioneer.



if you want to get a head unit with a screen u can fit them in the centre air vent holes u just take out the vents and put a cage in and it just slides in.



MaLicE
 


alpine pioneer....you cant go wrong....sony....you may aswell die:)

i have the pioneer 7400mp, amazing looking, sounds excellent and well is excellent hehe
 
  20VT Clio & 9-5 HOT


The phantom face is the one i like. Was going to buy it but decided i needed the cash for something else. Expensive but v nice!
 
  350z & 16v Maxi


I think i have narrowed it down to 4 units.

Alpine Phantom Face CDA-7998R

Kenwood KDC-PSW9521

Pionner DEX-P9R

Pioneer DEH-9400R

I think the Pioneer P9R is my favorite but it is not an MP3 player which i think i would prefer. Also i like the Mask effect which the Kenwood and Alpine have. If the Alpine one fits ill go for that. Im not bothered about a screen, im more into music in the car.
 
  350z & 16v Maxi


Think the 9400 has be discontinued but i was looking at 8350R but i think it will be the Alpine one, not totally sure yet.
 


I would reccommend the Pioneer DEH-P8400MP. Finished in a chrome-look alloy with a shed load of features, you cant beat it! The dual face facility allows for even more options than on any other headunit Ive come across and the full-dot matrix organic EL display adds a real classy look to any cockpit at night! The headunit offers a powerful 50x4w mosfet amp, spectrum analyser and a WMA feature which allows you to download and play music from the Internet! Perhaps all of these features help to explain why it was voted headunit of the year by Total Car Audio magazine. I recently installed one of these myself and I must say that it doesnt fail to impress! Everyone that has seen it wants one!

If youre looking for a headunit that not only looks impressive but sounds perfect then look no further. The only drawback that I can think of with this particular unit is the price tag (£600) or (£400 from Bass Junkies in Wolverhampton).
 
  350z & 16v Maxi


Does the 8400 fit in the mk1 clio, i didnt think it would open because of way the head unit sits in the car. I know lots of people who have it and like it, but I think there would be better head units to that one.
 

MaLicE

Honorary Member
ClioSport Club Member
  Lazy v8


no it dont fit.



go for alpine they are the best many of the top car installs are run by alpine and the phantom face headunit there is a program on the alpine website where u can go and select your head unit and put in power rating for all your speakers and distances they are from you then it saves all the info in a file on your pc which u copy to a cd and put it in the head unit after a couple of secons it will spit the cd out and it auto sets up your system for time delay etc.

VERY GOOD and u can set up welcome messages too :D



MaLicE
 
  Clio 190bhp Hybrid


I would go with a head unit without amplification presuming you are going for amplification. Amps in head units arent that good anyway so just make sure you have as high a pre-out as possible.

My Denon DCT1000R was one of the best non amplified head units when I bought it and has 4v or 8v preouts depending if you used balanced or not. Denon dont make stuff anymore but have seen a tasty aluminium job available in Japan that is supposed to be the daddy but tuner would be wrong frequency. Nackamichi would be a good bet. Then Alpine.
 
  Clio 190bhp Hybrid


Forgot to say check signal to noise ratio also as the higher the figure (in dB) usually gives a higher quality sound. Nakamichi MB100 is the one I would go for.
 


Just thought I would clear the confusion amongst some. The Pionner 8400 does fit in a mk1 Clio as I have one installed myself. I initially thought that the dual face would catch on the dash when opening due to the headunit location being unusual in the Clios. However, I have had no problems with the dual face opening at all. I admit its a pretty tight squeeze but it WILL fit.
 


sorry but it would be a nakamichi cd700 retail £1700 but if there are no limits then sony do a purely hand built headunit for £8000,

how far do u want to go?

Tom
 
  350z & 16v Maxi


I was also thinking about Nakamichi but they are not very asthmatically pleasing. Yea I want one that does not have a built in amp. The Alpine one I am thinking about doesnt, but there are not that many on the market just now without one. Im not going as far as £8000 or even £1700. I am going to go for one with an absolute maximum full retail price of £1500.
 


the rrp of the nak hu is £1700, im certain that you could easily get £3-400 knocked off that price therefore making it well within your budget
 
  350z & 16v Maxi


You see the thing is I get my ICE at cost so at £1500 retail I can get it for about £1000 but the Nakamichi is £1300 cost and I cant afford that £1000 is my real absolute max.
 


well u could go for a lower spec NAK like cdc500?

i have a alpine cda 7878 at the moment and i want to get rid off it, bout 10 months old, £800 unit,

DHE, time correction, mp3, csd, everything u wat, 3 x 4v preouts etc.....

Tom
 


Theres nothing wrong with Sony head units, I bought a xru-800 head unit (competition head unit with pre-outs only, and dsp ready) about 7 years ago, and it still out performs most modern head units.

Cost me £800
 
  350z & 16v Maxi


I dont like any current Sony units, they used to be good but Im not impressed by any of their new high end stuff.
 


colin

its a nice unit the 7998, very nice got lots off toys, it all depends on what you are going to do with it, i am waiting for BBG to start to distribute Naks the n i will change mine. but then again all my sound will be going through a Phoenix gold Ti DEQ. :)

do u work in the trade?

Tom
 
  350z & 16v Maxi


Yea mate I work in the trade and have got a direct account with BBG, they do Nak head units just now as Ive supplied a couple. Not many but a couple. Ive got Caliber competition pro amps and Caliber CWX12 subs with Polk Momo components in the front all on Phoenix gold wiring. I dont have any processors as the amps have a built in 7 band eq for each channel. I like Nak units for sound quality but I want some show to go with the go and I think the 7998 has a good balance for reasonable money. All my sounds are from BBG so it makes sense to go for a Nak but I just like the Alpine. If I went for a Nak it would be an absolute minimum of a 45z as there is no point in going for the 40 I dont even know why they make it. What EQ you got?
 


yea having a bit of show is always nice, at the moment we have two project cars on the go,

my cup is having a overhaul asap, i already have a w7 12" and 1000/1 just waiting for my 500/5 and PG comp elites 3 way set up, and my ti deq and then it will be installed , however im contemplating the cd700 NAk.

Tom
 
  350z & 16v Maxi


That sounds an awesome set up mate, i love W7s they are fantastic. Even that wodden box they come in is better than some of the subs on the market. Are you gettin it paid for by your company? I like my sounds and wanted something not may people have got and the Caliber competition pro stuff is pretty uncommon. I didnt want to go too over the top, and well dont have the money to as ive just spent a lot on my Maxi kit. However the sound that comes from my car is awesome, just need a bigger alternator so i can turn the gain up form about 9volts to the 4 that the head unit will be suppling. THe sound is louder and better than anyone i have met even down at a gain of 9 volts.
 


not paid for but u know the deal, cost to staff etc.....

my car is going to be comapny demo obviously but we plan to enter into SQ comps in both 0-600w and 600-whatever,

not decided on whether to change to a optima cell, but a guy near us does custom alternaters, polished and specced to how we want them.

im more worried about dynamatting the sod, i will be needing shares in the stuff.

Tom
 
  350z & 16v Maxi


Dynamat extreme is the boy, light, easy to use and the best investment you can get for sounds. I have only done my boot cant be bothered doing the rest yet. Im going for a dry cell battery to put in my boot so I can get a CDA filter where the battery should go and then Ill get the 110amp Clio alternator as I have the 70amp one just now. What gauge of power cable are you using? Also what kind of money does that company charge for a custon alternator, i may be interested.
 


funny you mention dynamatting. they have released dynaplate which is flexible metal based, supposed to be lighter, may try some on my roof lining.

i will probably run 0-G through my car purely becasue my amps need as much power as i can get, other people obviusoly dont thinki it is enough but i think with a optima battery, 0-G cabling, and 1.5 farad cap it should get enough power to my 1000/1, plus i cant forget my 500/5

the custom alternaters are around 200 mark polished and wound to spec.

Tom
 
  Clio 190bhp Hybrid


Sorry to crash but any1 know of a good place to get a half done boot install finished? Place that did it messed me about with shoddy work on door installs so never gone back and amps, crossovers etc screwed on to mdf base need sides and a top fitting with cutouts in the top to see the amps.

Dont mind travelling but live in midlands.
 
  350z & 16v Maxi


I think that would be enough Tom but I would go down the route of a bigger alternator and a dry cell deep cycle battery which is what I am doing, I dont need as much power as you tho as I made a mistake when buying my amps I ordered 2 the same (read out the same part number twice) instead of a mono digital amp and a multi ch amp i got 2 multi channels, BBG wouldnt take one of the amps back and change it for a digital amp as they were brought into the country esp. for me.

As for the Dennon it looks good the 24bit DAC and 115db Signal to Noise Ratio are very attractive.

I like the Alpine 7998r but my shop has just started to do Alpine because I was looking at this unit and I dont know what DAC or S/NR it has, it doesnt tell you on the web site. Can anyone find out for me?

Might just go for a Nak as I have just remember the extra 10% discount you get from BBG for demo stuff. Tom do you get that too?
 


your headunit needs at least 24 bit DAC, the nakamichi are superb, little things like the volume control purely only for volume as multi function volume knobs interfere with sound quality, also there is no track arm on the cd , a magnet is used to keep the disc in place to reduce interference,

discounts vary, all depends on what price you orignally get and what car is being used for i.e. demos also how much stuff you are going to buy>?

Tom
 

MaLicE

Honorary Member
ClioSport Club Member
  Lazy v8


guys did 1 of u 2 post a few months back saying if ne 1 wanted stuff u could get it for them ????



i wanted to know how much u can get the JL audio W3 subs for it will be powered by a Alpine MRVT757.

oh and how much for optima car batts and also powercaps :)



MaLicE

see i just want a small install not mental :)
 
  350z & 16v Maxi


Cup so all headunits have 24 bit DAC, im sure they dont, am i wrong? Ill phone BBG tomorrow and see if they can send me a Nak cat.

Malice I can get you some stuff, ill get you a price tomorrow.
 


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