what matters most when buying a new head unit?

[Nu Concept]

i wanted to get a new headunit along with subs amps and new components speakers and wanted to know what your guys' opinions were. i was doing some research and i read that the following things matter :
- preout voltage
- peak wattage
- cd signal to noise ratio
- fm sensitivity

but i was recently told that if i get a good brand name HU and i use external amps and aftermarket speakers, its the quality of those products (especially the amps) that will have the greatest effect on sound quality. and that it would then be my personal preference on what i like.
i was looking into the jvc lx 3333 el kameleon and it has great reviews but it isnt doing too great in those areas. what do you guys think?

btw, would you guys recommend that HU or the kenwood kdc-722?

[GTSchick]

I know there is a huge diff b/t factory and a new deck..the speakers dont' seem as loud w/o the factory deck. but i heard the kenwood is good

[BrianGTS]

Originally posted by GTSchick
I know there is a huge diff b/t factory and a new deck..the speakers dont' seem as loud w/o the factory deck. but i heard the kenwood is good

this is probably because the factory amplifier was bypassed when the new deck was installed. Metra makes a harness that enables you to keep the factory toyota amp in place by utilizing the pre outs on the new HU and not the high level speaker wires. Just make sure to buy a HU with front and rear pre outs if you want to keep the ability to fade front and rear after the installation is complete.

The biggest thing that goes into buying your headunit is "where do you want to be with your system when you are completely finished with it?" thats probably the biggest question to ask. You dont want to limit yourself to what you can do with it. Sometimes when reccomending HUs to customers of mine I ask them to think of everything they could possibly ever want to hook up to it (realisticly)

There are so many different variables when it comes to a system sounding good , some of it is the product and the combinations of others that are paired with it, some of it is tuning, some of it is the car that its going into, some of it is just trial and error. I wish there was a more to the point answer that I could give you but there really isnt if you pick it apart. The factors that you listed for HU specs are definetly good starting points to start looking from. If I had to pick between the Kenwood and the JVC I think I would go with the Kenwood. Just my 2 cents.

[PoweredbyRICE]

can i use that metra harness even though i dont have the stock stereo harness anymore?? also where can i get one of those metra harnesses...i wanna run my front two 6"...only running mids and tweets and then the rears:(

[J3adSeed]

honestly, i don't think a lot of that matters. for instance, the internal amp wattage is crap. all of them are overrated and exaggerated, 50 peak vs 40 peak or whatever is not a big deal, especially when you'll never really get the peak anyway.

fm sensitivity and stuff, eh, maybe that has SOME effect. CD signal to noise, that i donno, again, they're all pretty damn close.

The problem is you can't really worry about these numbers too much, because they cheaper the brand, the more they lie about the numbers. Things like peak watts: well how much distortion are they allowing in this calculation? Good brands will allow less. And at what voltage are these made? Things like this are probably more important on amps.

Preamp voltage IS important. Thats the one thing that will have an effect, because if your signal is stronger, it will be amplified less, and the noise from the cables will be amplified less too. If you want to make sure to have no audible noise from your RCAs, you don't need expensive cables, just a decent preout voltage. I have cheap plain rca cables and i have no noise.

Really most head units are the same. Some people say eclipse is the best "SQ" head unit, and that alpines are next. after that maybe pioneer premier, clarion, stuff like that. but really, i don't buy into most of that. you can't really tell the damn difference as long as its a good one.

eclipse's big marketing game is "we don't give you **** for features because we concentrate on sq, all those other headunits must not have good sq because they have more features". I have a pioneer premier because i think the sq is just as good as anything else and it has tons of features that many don't have (like a 13 band eq, and an auto-adjusting eq with microphone).

if you're using factory speaker locations, or really any locations, get a cd player with time alignment, this will make imaging much better.

as for what has the greatest effect.... INSTALL. and SPEAKERS. get good speakers, install them well (damping and a good solid mount with a good air seal). speakers installed right get much better bass response. most amps are pretty good actually. most people who really know their **** will tell you that all the decent amps are about the same, and that "SQ amps" are a gimmick. I have jl audio amps, they are more than others, and so you can say i wasted my money, but i like their features and i know their sq is good. but most will be alright.

but speakers are without a doubt usually the weakest link, you can have all the greatest **** you want, all everything else has to do is reproduce the signal on the cd. the speaker is where you start getting most of your distortion and crappy sound.

[SQ GT-S]

Originally posted by J3adSeed
honestly, i don't think a lot of that matters. for instance, the internal amp wattage is crap. all of them are overrated and exaggerated, 50 peak vs 40 peak or whatever is not a big deal, especially when you'll never really get the peak anyway.

fm sensitivity and stuff, eh, maybe that has SOME effect. CD signal to noise, that i donno, again, they're all pretty damn close.

The problem is you can't really worry about these numbers too much, because they cheaper the brand, the more they lie about the numbers. Things like peak watts: well how much distortion are they allowing in this calculation? Good brands will allow less. And at what voltage are these made? Things like this are probably more important on amps.

Preamp voltage IS important. Thats the one thing that will have an effect, because if your signal is stronger, it will be amplified less, and the noise from the cables will be amplified less too. If you want to make sure to have no audible noise from your RCAs, you don't need expensive cables, just a decent preout voltage. I have cheap plain rca cables and i have no noise.

Really most head units are the same. Some people say eclipse is the best "SQ" head unit, and that alpines are next. after that maybe pioneer premier, clarion, stuff like that. but really, i don't buy into most of that. you can't really tell the damn difference as long as its a good one.

eclipse's big marketing game is "we don't give you **** for features because we concentrate on sq, all those other headunits must not have good sq because they have more features". I have a pioneer premier because i think the sq is just as good as anything else and it has tons of features that many don't have (like a 13 band eq, and an auto-adjusting eq with microphone).

if you're using factory speaker locations, or really any locations, get a cd player with time alignment, this will make imaging much better.

as for what has the greatest effect.... INSTALL. and SPEAKERS. get good speakers, install them well (damping and a good solid mount with a good air seal). speakers installed right get much better bass response. most amps are pretty good actually. most people who really know their **** will tell you that all the decent amps are about the same, and that "SQ amps" are a gimmick. I have jl audio amps, they are more than others, and so you can say i wasted my money, but i like their features and i know their sq is good. but most will be alright.

but speakers are without a doubt usually the weakest link, you can have all the greatest **** you want, all everything else has to do is reproduce the signal on the cd. the speaker is where you start getting most of your distortion and crappy sound.

Yeah, what he said. :)

Curt

[Jas]

Eclipse does make the best quality HU. Like you said they don't have a ton of features. Alot of those "extra" features on any other HU is pretty pointless. The Eclipse head Units also has one of the best time alignment controls and features to adjust the mids and the highs. Go to any store and play with one for awhile and see.

[kkrkeith7]

from my experience some good head units are alpine, pioneer premier, eclipse, and clarion

[T3HKMAN]

Originally posted by J3adSeed
honestly, i don't think a lot of that matters. for instance, the internal amp wattage is crap. all of them are overrated and exaggerated, 50 peak vs 40 peak or whatever is not a big deal, especially when you'll never really get the peak anyway.

fm sensitivity and stuff, eh, maybe that has SOME effect. CD signal to noise, that i donno, again, they're all pretty damn close.

The problem is you can't really worry about these numbers too much, because they cheaper the brand, the more they lie about the numbers. Things like peak watts: well how much distortion are they allowing in this calculation? Good brands will allow less. And at what voltage are these made? Things like this are probably more important on amps.

Preamp voltage IS important. Thats the one thing that will have an effect, because if your signal is stronger, it will be amplified less, and the noise from the cables will be amplified less too. If you want to make sure to have no audible noise from your RCAs, you don't need expensive cables, just a decent preout voltage. I have cheap plain rca cables and i have no noise.

Really most head units are the same. Some people say eclipse is the best "SQ" head unit, and that alpines are next. after that maybe pioneer premier, clarion, stuff like that. but really, i don't buy into most of that. you can't really tell the damn difference as long as its a good one.

eclipse's big marketing game is "we don't give you **** for features because we concentrate on sq, all those other headunits must not have good sq because they have more features". I have a pioneer premier because i think the sq is just as good as anything else and it has tons of features that many don't have (like a 13 band eq, and an auto-adjusting eq with microphone).

if you're using factory speaker locations, or really any locations, get a cd player with time alignment, this will make imaging much better.

as for what has the greatest effect.... INSTALL. and SPEAKERS. get good speakers, install them well (damping and a good solid mount with a good air seal). speakers installed right get much better bass response. most amps are pretty good actually. most people who really know their **** will tell you that all the decent amps are about the same, and that "SQ amps" are a gimmick. I have jl audio amps, they are more than others, and so you can say i wasted my money, but i like their features and i know their sq is good. but most will be alright.

but speakers are without a doubt usually the weakest link, you can have all the greatest **** you want, all everything else has to do is reproduce the signal on the cd. the speaker is where you start getting most of your distortion and crappy sound.

Seconded.

[EasyC]

i need to get a new head unit because my pio 9300 fried last week (accidentally bumped the sub RCA to the 8 gauge power wire)....and i wanted to know what the best sounding and quality deck i could get for around 400-500 dollars (even on ebay). i have the scosche or whatever harness with terminating resistors to get rid of that god awful engine noise. So obviously i need atleast 3 pairs of pre-outs.....let me know guys

[Nu Concept]

the best sounding is without a doubt the blaupunkt san francisco (i think thats the name). it retails for around $500 on crutchfield but ive seen it for $400. many people say it is nothing compared to eclipse units, but they never have tried both. just look at the tech specs and see hos much higher it rates in quality compared to others. of course i would get it but i wanna spend less than $250.

[SQ GT-S]

I would have to put an Alpine 7909 up against the Blau. Or the Alpine 7990. :)

Curt

[Nu Concept]

Originally posted by SQ GT-S
I would have to put an Alpine 7909 up against the Blau. Or the Alpine 7990. :)

Curt

if i had the technical specs of both HU's in front of me i would post them to show the difference in sound quality-on paper. the only issue with the san francisco is that i dont think it accepts mp3's.

[J3adSeed]

Originally posted by Nu Concept
the best sounding is without a doubt the blaupunkt san francisco (i think thats the name). it retails for around $500 on crutchfield but ive seen it for $400. many people say it is nothing compared to eclipse units, but they never have tried both. just look at the tech specs and see hos much higher it rates in quality compared to others. of course i would get it but i wanna spend less than $250.

I wouldn't say "without a doubt." Some people like this headunit, but some say their specs are overrated and its not all that. And then a lot of people including me have never used it really, so you can't get that many opinions on it.

car audio tech specs don't mean ****.

I would probably only buy one of the well known brands like alpine, pioneer premier, eclipse, and clarion. probably in that order.

And as for the people who say x and y are nothign compared to eclipse, they're crazy anyway. i know lots of "nothing touches eclipse" people. i wouldn't say they're anymore clear than mine or a lot of other head units out there. nobody seems to be able to show me a difference....

[SQ GT-S]

I've seen full competition cars running brand X headunits. And yes, they do very well. Some people even run stock headunits. The speakers are far more important than the deck. Just get a deck with high voltage pre-outs and the "features" you want, and you'll be set. Signal to noise, stereo seperation, blah, blah. VOLTAGE!! :)

Curt

[EasyC]

for voltage got PIONEER P940MP baby....6 volts!

[T3HKMAN]

EasyC, you still have your 9300? How much for it?

[Jas]

Originally posted by SQ GT-S
I've seen full competition cars running brand X headunits. And yes, they do very well. Some people even run stock headunits. The speakers are far more important than the deck. Just get a deck with high voltage pre-outs and the "features" you want, and you'll be set. Signal to noise, stereo seperation, blah, blah. VOLTAGE!! :)

Curt

i don't know man. I have alot of friends that are into the car audio bizz. I'm starting to get into it right now. Like someone said before it's definately true that you get a head unit with the features you are happy with that will let you achieve the goal that you have set yourself. Some people don't want a big system. My goal is to have a very good SQ system that can hit hard when i want it to and can get very loud. and yes it is also true that peak wattage doens't really matter because your probably going to be amping your speakers or subs anyways. 50 watts is really something like 20 watts RMS. A couple weeks ago i purchased the Eclipse 8443. I'd put it against any Blaupunkt or any other head unit to it's class or above it. Time correction, DSP pro mode (can adjust crossovers and frequencies), an excellent time correction system, and 8V preouts. I know im on my way to achieving my goal.

[SQ GT-S]

Originally posted by Jas
...Time correction, DSP pro mode (can adjust crossovers and frequencies), an excellent time correction system, and 8V preouts...

Exactly. 8V preouts do a lot for a car.

Curt