looking for a new head unit in the future

Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=90592
Printed Date: May 30, 2024 at 3:15 PM

Topic: looking for a new head unit in the future

Posted By: Sad, little man
Subject: looking for a new head unit in the future
Date Posted: February 17, 2007 at 7:35 PM

I was considering upgrading my head unit at some point a few months from now. I currently have an Alpine CDA-9811. The one feature that I'm really looking for that I don't have is DVD playback. I want to be able to fill a dual layer DVD with mp3s and play it. I don't care about DVD video playback though, so a screen isn't necessary, just a DVD drive. Really all I'm looking for are a few crucial features...

DVD mp3 playback (Also has to be able to read the folders/file names for song navigation)
Time correction settings
A half decent internal amplifier, it will power some 3.5"s
An equalizer would be great

Alpine currently has the DVA-9861 which looks good, minus the EQ.
Eclipse has the AVX5000 which has pretty much everything I could ask for, but with a hefty price tag due to the 7" screen. Any other units that fit the bill?

Edit: Actually the Eclipse is out because it looks like without an added signal processor all it does is general preset time correction for types of cars, not fully adjustable.

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'96 Mazda Miata

Replies:

Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: February 18, 2007 at 9:54 AM

I am currently using an Alpine DVA-9860 and I love the sound quality. It has no time-alignment DSP, not sure about the 9861 which is the new version but it looks to be the same electronics. You may need to add the PXA-H701 to get that sort of control.

Did you even fix your speaker situation?

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Posted By: Sad, little man
Date Posted: February 18, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Nope, but once I do I'm going to want a whole lot of music to play. posted_image

I'll do all of this when I'm out of school for the semester and have more time and money to play with everything. As I mentioned elsewhere my volume knob is going out, and while I'll probably still fix it, it's an indication that it's time for a new unit.

Looks like the DVA-9861 has iPersonalize, which I thought included time alignment, but I have no idea what it actually is. The PXA-H701 says it has auto time correction. Is that one of those microphone setups? If so does it also do auto EQ? Those are features that I'd also like to have, but I'm not about to pay $1500 for the Eclipse unit and buy their signal processor for another $400 to get them.

Is anyone else really annoyed with how head unit quality seems to fluctuate year to year? Like the DVA-9861 only claims 18W RMS, whereas my unit from 2004 says 23W, and was even a cheaper unit. I'm not sure if they changed the testing methods or they just assume no one will use the internal amp at that level, but it seems that every model year is just a new mix and match of specs and features.

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'96 Mazda Miata