HU...whadda you lookin for....

[Willy D]

I just thought I would put this question out and see what it is that people are lookin for in a HU.....

I went to Best Buy yesterday and looked around...I took a favorite CD in with me and I looked and listened.....Don't fear...I think I am going to a high end place today....it is a good drive from my work and my house, but I wanna check some things.....

Anyway....I looked, I listened, I put my hands on these things and spent some time.....Here is what I found...what I want...what I like and what I dislike....

First off....
My main operation in a HU is first and foremost playing CD's....At this time, I don't care about radio reception very much....If I can tune in a few stations here or there when I get bored, that's cool...I don't really care about satellite radio, HD radio, or even Ipod at the moment....I want three sets of pre's even thought I only plan to use the frt. and sub outs...As far as EQ abiltiy...to be perfectly honest I rarely use EQ in my car or at home...I want the ability to adjust the sub level up and down....High pass and low pass?? my amps have that capabilty, so it is not necessary in the HU....I want something that looks good...I want something that is fairly simple to use with the day to day things while I am DRIVING...preout voltage.....in reality, it is not a big issue...I am not competing....Having the JVC for a couple weeks (2v sub pre) and now with the Eclipse for a week (5 v sub pre)....I think I got better quality out of the JVC (not night and day, only slight)...both seem to ne a non issue with noise factor in my truck....

I looked close at the Alpine 9856 and 9857...I like both of them...I love the display on the 9857, but don't know if it is worth the extra $150.00....They did not have the Excelon Kenwoods....The ones they did have, I did not care for the face opening action and when the face was in the closed position, it was spongy and moved......I really liked the sound difference with the BBE in the Alpine.....The pioneers I looked at, just did nothing for me...I turned the rotary knob on a couple of the expensive ones and did not like the way it felt.

Anyway.....just thought I would throw this out there and get other people's opinions on their choice of HU


Willy

[DMP]

I dont really go for the "fancy looking" head units. I like ones that have most features like MP3, WMA, CD-R compatible...etc with a built in equalizer. The only head units I like are by Pioneer.

BTW, Best Buy doesnt carry anything special, IMHO.

[aznboi3644]

Only thing good that best sells are the Type R's and the higher end Alpine head units

[The Viking]

I look for high voltage pre outs, lets you turn the gain down on the amp to lower the noise floor. i also prefer a rotary volume control, a BIG one...i dont like tryin to drive and have to look down to see what freekin button i have to push..... i prefer a potentiometer for the volume control, but i dont think that is an option anymore.

i also like to see a clan basic design...the more lights, the more bells and whistles, the less i like it. I dont care about onboard x-over or EQ, i will add that if i want to. the fewer the buttons, the better. Bass, treble, treack forward and back, eject and power on / off, volume......thats all i need reeally. Oh and a BIG NON fancy display....I am a purist, dont need all the crap that i would never use.....Ipod, xm, sattelite........go to heck...i aint got no use for paying money for stuff i can hear on the airwaves, the quality may be a little better, but i know what to expect from FM broadcasts, and am happy with them. Most tuners made today from any HU manufactureer is gunna be a good one....clarion makes one of the best in my opinion.

As for CD player, just let it read whatever i throw into it, and i am happy.......

Would really like to see a shafted unit that does CD......... Two big knobs, and simple controls...........

my 2 cents

[Willy D]

Well....basically I went there to check out those two Alpines (9856 & 9857)..
I wanted them to show me through the menu's...I was also gonna look at a couple Kenwoods (excelons....they dont carry excelon....bummer).....Pioneer never was something I liked.....sue me.....Since I got used to that JVC I had, I knew I could make A/B comparisons with it right there....

Funny thing is..Later on today, I called the shop where I bought my Excelon (that broke about 8 months ago)....I talked to the owner, a guy I have known and done business with since 1983/1984.....When my Kenwood originally broke, I called there...I asked for him but he was not available....I told the guy what happened...he told me it was about $150.00 to repair it more than likely and for the price of a new HU, it may not be worth it....hell maybe he was just trying to sell me a new one.....Well today, I talked to the owner and he said that yes, that is most likely the case and the cause of my broken unit.....he said he gets them, sends them off to Kenwood and then gets them back.....While he was talking to me, he remembered that he did one of these a year ago for a guy who was a long time customer....The guy dropped off the unit and he has never heard from him, or been able to contact him...He told me if I brought my HU in to him, he would take it on trade and $100.00 for this repaired one...So that is what I may very well do..

Willy

[DaveDSMer]

willy, i found something you may like man. I am prolly getting this HU to try out for my girl. Big thing i like about.. a built in HD radio tuner.. no addon needed. For that price, wow. Just thought you should know.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-97z0GPM...hDi splay=JVC


that or this bad boy.. with satillite radio built in! .. jeez

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-97z0GPM...3ez700sr&wm=cl

[Willy D]

Those look cool Dave.....

let me ask you a question....

On your CD3000, do your radio select buttons at the bottom light up for you?
Do the lights on the upper outer edges light for you??

When I hooked this puppy up, I connected the headlight dimmer wire, but when I turn on my headlights, nothing changes (every other radio I have had in this truck, did....they dimmed like the factory).....On my CD3000 only the dials light up and the disc button, the sound button, the AM/FM button, and the disp. button....No others light up......these are the six buttons at the bottom, the pwr button, trk frwd & rev (far right) and the return button....nor does the cd eject button, or the mute button, or the tilt button or the function button......That makes 20 buttons on the front face and 14 of them do not light up so you cannot see them in the dark.....

Is this the same with yours.....I am just curious as to if I connected the wrong wire to the H/L dimmer....Maybe that is supposed to make those other lights come on when you turn on headlights....I found nothing in the manual for that....Just curious...

Willy

[DaveDSMer]

yeah man mine light up , just checked.

[Willy D]

I am gonna investigate......

Willy

[Hautewheeler]

my eclipse 8445 lights up fine, and the background lights dim with the dash controls. sometimes that is a function of the vehicle.

you might try and see if in the function menu, you don't have your display set so that the lights are off.