Best Head Unit

gonna be hard to do for 200 bucks.

 

those are pretty good for the price. They'll get the job done. I have the Alpine CDE-9843 and it works fine. Not the best but my cash flow back when I got it wasnt too good. My first system was that HU, 5.25 pioneers all around and 2 10 inch bazookas off a 300 watt bazooka amp and it sounded pretty good. Enough for me at the time.

 

There decent, but I think you need the ipod adapter to actually connect it to them. I may be wrong though as I haven't paid much attention to them lately. I don't care much for the new alpine line up

 

Cool , didn't know if the new models needed it or not

 

Pioneer DEH-P4800 is a good unit but Pioneer is really proud of there Ipod interface. Last time I looked it was priced a little high, plus its big.

Kenwood has a good interface, but their radios have gotten a little cheesey over the years. I love my Kenwood equipment but you would have to pay me to put a new Kenwood in my truck.

Panasonic is decent, upper line Panasonics are better and the interface is good and reasonablely priced.

These are the brands the shop I work at deal with.

So you now have my opinion Happy hunting

 

I don't deal with Alpine. But most units look good and Alpine does have a really good reputation so I don't think you can go wrong there.

Now for the Ipod part, you'll love it. I no longer keep any CD's in my truck. I have around 350 songs on my Ipod broke down into 22 playlists. I love it.

Personally I found iTunes to be a little confusing, Anapod Explorer is what I use. Also MP3 Gain is used to adjust the volume of the MP3 file before it is sent to the Ipod.

 

download.com

 

I use Blaze Media Pro for conversions but its not free.

Just make sure you rip you music as MP3 files or download MP3 files only. Saves a lot of time. Windows Media Player will Rip music and save it as MP3 Files.

http://www.caraudiotalk.com/audio-forum/showthread.php?t=2924
read what I posted.

Almost forgot Best free Ipod Program is Ephpod 2.75. Its easy to use. It has a volume ajusting program built in, DONT use it, MP3 Gain is much Better.

 

I personally love Alpine.I have owned 6 in the past 10 years and have not had any trouble with any of them.I currently have 2 CDA-9835's,each of them are both using the Alpine KCI-4020 ipod adapter wich works very well .The pre amp outs are for front ,rear,and the third is for a dedicated SUBWOOFER,which is an absolute must for bassheads.I have the two front and rear outputs going out to a four channel amp and have the sub output going to my sub.I can do a little more research into the CDA-9856 to let you know what it can do.

 

not left right and sub its prob front rear and sub if its 3 SETS of preouts

 

that would be six separate rca jacks out of the back of the unit..

front right and front left
rear right and rear left
and sub left and right (unless the HU has a setting for mono output, then it's two parallel outputs for the mono ch sub outs)

in addition to the four powered speaker leads.


PS..(I don't have alpines of my own, but I install them all the time for friends- they are great head units -very user friendly, and I've never seen any problems with them)

any help? :huh:

 

i have an alpine hu a sony hu and kenwood i must say the alpine is my fav and hasnt let me down in the 3 yrs i had it