cheap head units w/time alignment, 3 way

Hi,

I just noticed that Pioneer and Clarion both have head units with Time Alignment and 3-way Crossovers that are, especially the Clarion, very cheap. I'm just curious if anyone has any experience with them or any comments.

In my opinion, everyone should have time alignment in their car, especially with the Clarion being so cheap. How do all HUs not have this by now? I'd probably rather listen to one of these head units paired with cheapo pioneer 6.5" coax up front than a $5K system without time alignment.

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id always rather a good EQ than time alignment any day, although both is better. the positioning in most cars isnt that bad to truly need time alignment to have a nice system. i went without it for years and years and still had everybody i know telling me that mine was the cleanest system they have ever heard in a car. but the catch was that i was only using one set of components in my front doors so i didnt have to worry about speakers from the back competing with the front.

what sucks about time alignment is that it usually costs a lot of money to get and its a feature that you only really use once and you tend to forget that its there. honestly if you look around you can probably find a JVC NT-700 which is what im using now. it has time alignment, 3 way crossover with selectable slopes and lots of points to choose from, and a 13 band EQ. its last years model so it should be on sale for a decent price

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I like time aliment cause it takes some of the interference between the two speakers out of the equation, so I can more easily and predictably adjust my EQ. In general I've also noticed that when I'm setting up a system that has time alignment the EQ requires much less adjustment.

That's also my point. The Clarion CZ702 isn't expensive; Only $169.99 on amazon. Time alignment for all! --unless of course if this HU is a POS and breaks after a week of use.

I think i might have to try one out.

DSP is getting cheaper all the time.

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a radio can have all of the DSP you can handle but if it isnt backed up by good electronics on the output side then the radio as a whole probably isnt that good. honestly, it depends on how the actual feature works to tell you whether its worth anything or not. it probably isnt fully adjustable to the exact measured distances from your ears to the speakers, it probably just has a few common presets that get you close enough. similar to how some radios have an adjustment to choose which seat you are listening from, which is a cheap time alignment method and doesnt let you adjust anything specific. just like the crossover in a cheap radio will only have one or two points to choose from versus a nice radio that has many points for all levels of the crossover network including different slopes.

i will say though i used to be a fan of clarion head units until about 4 years ago when they started making these very cheap junky radios and stopped putting good sound features in all but their top level radios. maybe they are attempting a come back

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In 3-way mode, the product manual says the time delay can be set to 0-501.4cm for each speaker. So, it's not the preset type. But it also doesn't say by what size increment it varies.

Also in 3-way mode, there are quite a few crossover points available. But the options for slope are only 6db/oct and 12db/oct. But still seems good for the price.

I understand that it won't be on the same level as an alpine unit with the Imprint processor, but it's also less than half the price. To me it seems like a good choice for my 2nd vehicle or for the common folk that will never spend $400-$500 on a headunit/processor/bluetooth module.