Which HU’s do you prefer for SQ?

i personally find it easy to sell pioneer but i will not own it. the problem i have with pioneer is, if you have subs when you have it turned down low, the subs are loud and as you turn it up the subs quit getting louder at some point and the mids and highs start to catch up...its wierd and maybe its me but i dont like them because of that...and it sucks how they have thier head units volume set up anyhow...62 is tops??? way too many turns of the wrist! I like alpine always have...always will...agreed that they used to have this used to have this and that built in..but now its an add on...its like everyone in electronics is going the route of IPOD you have to buy everything separate. But i know you can get an alpine add the eq that they make and you can do whatever you want from there! the thing is sick!

i'd have to go with alpine or eclipse. i personally own an alpine and i love it. i've owned an eclipse and loved it as well, kinda wish i still had it. i love the alpines time alignment feature but of course adjustments for correctness to the driver affect the alignment to the passanger. but it's all about me anyway since i'm in the drivers seat.

I agree with dwarren 100% and will add another that I recently heard and was absolutely blown away: Linn Audio.  Now only available as OEM products in some high-end cars, the Linn car audio line is supposed to become available as aftermarket gear in the US in 2007 or 2008.

That being said, I have owned all the brands Dan mentions and would class Nakamichi as far and away the best sounding head unit that is commonly available (and yes it's me, I think the CD transport and the external DAC in the CD700II are the best ever used in car audio and it's not likely to be surpassed any time soon.)  I will be able to give an opinion about the new Alpine heads with 24-bit Burr-Brown DAC, as this weekend I'm replacing my broken Eclipse CD5444 with a new Alpine DVA-9860.  I'll be sure to post my impressions after I listen for a while.

The forum going to Eclipse is all my fault. You can blame me. David, I am very interested to hear your test results.

Why are you using that Alpine? I am sure you are aware that there are almost no audio control functions built in on that deck....unless of course you plan on using the h701, which is a pretty cool piece. And what do you have use for a DVD capable h/u?

Rob, I blame you for SO MUCH more that that.    Seriously though, I think it is a very GOOD thing that this forum promotes high quality gear like Eclipse and tries to protect children from spending their allowance money on crap brands.  So thanks.

Dan, I have no use for any control functions other than volume in a head unit.  I decided to try the Alpine for the DAC, and went for it instead of the 9861 since I don't need iPod controls.  The DVD will be interesting since I own quite a few DVD-A's and I assume I could also load up a DVD-R with quite a few more audio tracks than a CD-R for those long commute drives.