best HU for under $200?

Based on your experiences what brand or specific head unit (@ least CD AM FM) is best? Power, skip protection, quality, appearance, and yes price are important. Keep it under $200 and be specific please. Everyone is invited to post just state your reasoning.

Thanx

i think that any LANZAR product will blow u away... and the price it great to

-Bergwin

Pioneer DEH-6500..Awesome head unit. I absolutely loved it. Great looking display, easy to use, good sq...all around great unit in my opinion. This can be had on ebay for $135 on buy it now for the refurbs. Definitely look into it. You wont be disapointed.

another good choice ... thanx for the tip

yeah, that clarion packe a lot of punch for the scrilla, but....

all the major manufacturers make "stripped down" models like the ones typically in your price range. after years of experience i have found that most customers will dramatically increase their satisfaction in the end result of a new system by carefully analyzing the benefit to cost ratio and spending just a little more, sometimes $20 makes all the difference in the world.  that said, i will make my recommendation of the kenwood excelon kdcx579!  this units got a lot of pluses like the clarion (three preouts w/ sub control, high pass and low pass crossovers) but also adds the sound quality of a 24 bit burrbrown DAC. thats the processor that takes the digital info from the disc and converts it to analog music we can hear.  you wont get the auxilliary input, but if this feature interests you, you could add the kenwood ca1aux adapter ($20) to create an  input from the changer control of the unit.  youll spend a few bucks more @ $239.99 MSRP from a dealer, or prob get a lower price on ebay.  but the difference tin that price is worth 40 or 50 bucks easy for all the service youll get from the dealer over the life of your new toy!

good luck on building up your system

My choices for an under $200 head would be from Blaupunkt or Alpine.  Look at the Blau Monte Carlo or the Alpine 9825.  Pioneer, Panasonic, Kenwood, Clarion etc. probably just below those two brands.  Steer clear of Sony, Dual, JVC, etc. (someone was serious about Lanzar?  No way.)  Just my opinon.

These are way out of the sub-200 category, but Nakamichi and Eclipse are in the same class, uthink, and I'd have to say Eclipse has the edge with a better CD transport mechanism these days... I believe Nak still has better sounding electronics in the higher-end models, but not when comparing the same price points.  Fujitsu Ten has come a long way towards surpassing Nakamichi, and Nakamichi's bankruptcy in 2002 halted their R&D while Fujitsu rolled on.

lol...thanks for all the replies. Everything from Lanzar(lol) to Nakamichi(wow), the personal experiences help.  

p.s. just out of curiosity why are sony, JVC, etc. so bad?

damn customsuburb, i didnt know that decks had resonant frequencies, and i sure as hell didnt know that eclilpse's res. freq. was as low as 19hz!!!!wowzerz

anyhow, back to reality. i would just like to say that any customer, installer, or store owner about to make a purchase decision should compare actual models side by side and not brands in general.  you could only gather a vague idea of what your gear would do otherwise

Listen to DYohn damnit! He knows what he is talking about. Read the title uthink, it says under 200 dollars I repeat under 200 dollars one more time under 200 dollars He probobly would like a waranty and customor support also so ebay isn't a good option.

I'm done .

chill boys...just looking for some opinions not arguements, but im glad i got all these responses.