Printer Friendly Forum Posts - changing head unit need opinions

ok, i have a dilemma on my hands. ive been wanting to get a new head unit for a while now, not that there is anything wrong with the one that i have, it's just getting kinda old. right now i have a Clarion DXZ955MC, its the one you would see in car audio magazine that is a single din with the touchscreen controls.

and on the other hand, i've been looking at the Pioneer premier DEH-P880PRS which seems to be a pretty sweet unit with time alignment and a 16 band eq. even though i already have a kenwood 9-band eq right now i think the 16 band could be useful to fill in the gaps. anyway, my real question is should i spend the money basically just for the time alignment feature and the high grade components it is made from. and, has anyone had any experience with these units.
thanks in advance for any info

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Just don't buy a Pioneer.....

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If the Time Alignment and the 16 Band EQ are high on your list of wants, don't let the noise issues of the Pioneer run you off. The whole problem of the noise issue can easily be taken out of the equation. If you read any instruction manual for any piece of automotive audio equipment, the very first line of the installation instructions reads as follows, 1. Remove the negative battery cable from the battery and leave it disconnected until all connections are made. If you follow this simple rule, you will have no problems with the unit. If you are working on the stereo system ALWAYS disconnect the battery and you will not have this issue.

I have an 880, and for the money I love it.........No pico fuse problem,no noise at all.......My favorite feature is the L/R 16 band EQ,......And the unit is easy to learn and use all the functions..........I also think the look of the unit is classy,and simple........the only thing I am dissatisfied about is the preout V...........

If you are using automotive amplifiers in the system, no need to worry about the preout voltage. I have yet to see an amp that would not max out with (.)5 volts of input.

thanks i am an idiot good to know.......To me it seems the 880 does not get as loud as some of the other units like clarion and eclipse everything set flat why is that Iam an idiot. Everything being the same

pre-out voltage isn't really an issue for me because it will be connected to my kenwood EQ and then from there it goes to a kicker kx3 digital crossover that raises the voltage and then to my amps. im hoping to maybe enter some SQ competitions in the future so the extra EQ and the time alignment are pretty important to me because i dont have any more room in my ranger for more stuff. but anyway thanks for the input and keep it comming

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If you take a 4V unit out of a vehicle and replace it with a 2V unit and do not change anything, well yes you will notice a decrease in the level of sound. However a simple turn of the gain adjustment on the amp will allow the sound to be back at the same level.

Too many problems with Pioneer. Alpine or Eclipse.
Feeding one Eq into another is LAME and just asking for problems.
Time alignment will do nothing without using the multiple Preamp outs.

yeah I agree ditch the kenwood EQ...........Correct I am an idiot, thats why im dissapointed with the preout v of the pioneer because you have to turn the gains up.......Id rather turn them down...and get the same volume.

Boogeyman no matter where the gain is on the amplifier as long as you match it with the voltage of your source you will get the same power in and out. With the preout voltage being louder you will have to turn the gain up, but this does not mean you are driving the amplifier harder you are just matching the input sensitivity with the source.

Your fuel injected vehicle would like to get more air to mix with the fuel, but when you drive to Denver it reduces the amount of fuel injected into the system to compensate for the lack of air. This is the same thing, except you have to do it manually.

Gotcha thanks ragsports, and iam an idiot............I think i am the idiot posted_image

audiocableguy wrote:

Too many problems with Pioneer. Alpine or Eclipse.
Feeding one Eq into another is LAME and just asking for problems.
Time alignment will do nothing without using the multiple Preamp outs.

if there are too many problems with pioneer then what would you suggest i get? what do you think would be the best i could get for about $350 max i dont want an alpine or eclipse either

i will probably get rig of the EQ but it all depends on how many bands it has in common with the new pioneer.

i only need one set of preouts because i dont run rear fill i just have front speakers and i use the X over to split the front signal into front and sub for my amps. but ow that im thinking about it i might need to use the sub out too now to avoid sending a time aligned signal to my sub

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The only problem with the Pioneer deck is the fuse on the RCA shield. This is not a problem if you remove the battery cable when installing the deck. And anytime you work on the system. You should do this anyway, nobody follows this simple instruction.

kinda going off on a tangent but does anybody know of any head units that dont have speaker outputs, just RCAs? an onboard amp for speakers is just wasted space for me

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boogeyman wrote:

I have an 880, and for the money I love it.........No pico fuse problem,no noise at all.......My favorite feature is the L/R 16 band EQ,......And the unit is easy to learn and use all the functions..........I also think the look of the unit is classy,and simple........the only thing I am dissatisfied about is the preout V...........

i just realized the 880 i am looking at has 5 volt preouts, is yours different?

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thats what mine states........5v..It doesnt seem like that to me........the 880 internal amp can be switched off.........check out clarion, the clarion drz9255 is FAR superior in SQ than the 880 but is around 600-700 dollars.

https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp~TID~97511~PN~1~TPN~1

boogeyman wrote:

thats what mine states........5v..It doesnt seem like that to me........the 880 internal amp can be switched off.........check out clarion, the clarion drz9255 is FAR superior in SQ than the 880 but is around 600-700 dollars.

yeah thats a nice player but just a bit on the pricy side like you said the cheapest ive found it is about $700.

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So why not a Eclipse or Alpine? You have a mess going on as far as a signal path goes. Out of a deck, into a Eq, then into a xover.... all that can be taken out and put into one good cd player like the Eclipse CD7200ii. Your system will come to life if you do this. Don't like the looks of the Eclipse, you should be looking at the road and not the cd player. Good sound is what a cd player should be bought for.

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Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.

I'm with Rob on this one... Road, not stereo. That being said, the Pioneer decks are rarely worth the problems associated with them, not to mention the fact that you have to buy into the "premium" stuff to get respectable sound quality. By the time you get to that fundage level, just buy the Eclipse. The Eclipse is still my first choice, but I do have an Alpine right now, and I love it.

Additionally, ALWAYS minimize components in the signal path, especially if even remotely considering SQ competitions. I can guarantee you that all of the really high-end competitors use as few components as possible.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

how about balanced line driver between amps and hu, placed as close to amps as possible. worth it?

cadenceclipse wrote:

how about balanced line driver between amps and hu, placed as close to amps as possible. worth it?

Try again... TWO gain stages... TWICE the interference and destruction/distortion. I am also not even counting the four RCA connections. Four more connections. Worth it? Probably not, with the exception of preventing introduced noise. One benefit, with twice the destruction.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

good call hemp. i had cd8053 w/ b.l.driver. talkin 9 pairs of rcas. hellish. glad to b done w/ that. any1 lookin for top quality monster cable rcas? going from that(16v?) to current 7200-had to turn down gains and volume on hu from 79 to 77. gains allll the way down