New headunit!

Danneh Boy · Post by **Danneh Boy** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 1:27 am

Hey guys,

This is my first post the the forums, so hello all!

As ive just got my first car, obviously being a corsa as I wouldnt be here my first wage since ive had the car is coming in this friday and ive decided to get a headunit. Ive got about Â£200 to spend, and im wondering if any of you knowledgeable people can give me recommendations?

At the mo, ive spotted 2 headunits that catch my eye:

http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product ... duct=20931

http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product ... duct=20785

What you all reckon?

Thanks,

dan

punkheadgray · Post by **punkheadgray** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 2:12 am

hi mate, welcome to the site.

i am a fan of panasonic, and that headunit seems pretty good. id say they are both equally matched tho, that particular kenwood seems good value. panasonic seems bit more trick.

only thing id say is that neither of them say they have RCA preouts, which ud probs want later on, they probably do have them, but worth checking before you buy

if you happen to have an ipod id go for something in the pioneer range and get an interface part for it later

ive always had pioneer and think they are awesome

i tend to run everything threw shopgenie.co.uk. car audio centre came out cheapest.

(ps theres a section in \'about you\' where you can introduce yourself as a newbie and post photos if you have any, even if bog standard we dont mind mate)

Danneh Boy · Post by **Danneh Boy** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 11:43 am

thanks for the reply mate,

yeh as a matter of fact I do have an ipod, and ive ordered an iTrip which transmits the tunes though the fm, so you can tune ur headunit into your ipod. I was thinking this would be a good idea whilst I had my crappy stock stereo, but the thing aint arrived yet!

I was thinking that the quality of this would be poor, as ipods store music in crappy quality, and transmitting the tunes via fm waves would make it even worse?

Ill check out some pioneer ones, and reply to the post soon as

Danneh Boy · Post by **Danneh Boy** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 12:13 pm

Ok, had a few looks at some pioneers and this one catches my eye:

http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product ... duct=20754

What you reckon?

punkheadgray · Post by **punkheadgray** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 12:40 pm

that headunit seems ok, again tho, worth checking it has RCA\'s
fm modulators are notoriously crap, you wont be happy with the one you\'ve ordered, i know you wont. sorry mate
pioneer do an interface unit called a CD-IB100, ive bought one but havent had a chance to use it yet, ive heard good things about it tho. costs Â£50ish
you can control the ipod from the front of the headunit

Danneh Boy · Post by **Danneh Boy** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 3:05 pm

Ive seen you can get many ipod adapters for headunit models. Seeing as though its available to many models, I might aswell just go with the one that looks the best as they are all of the same quality? I still love the look of that panasonic

corsapaul · Post by **corsapaul** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 3:56 pm

have you got an ice direct near you?they do the alpine head unit with the ipod for Â£200.the web site is,www.ice-direct.com.

Danneh Boy · Post by **Danneh Boy** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 4:14 pm

Hmm not by the looks of things.

Ive got a car audio centre right near me, so i\'ll pop down tomorrow and tell em what I want and they will give me recommendations hopefully

Thanks for your help guys!,

dan

sweet_corsa · Post by **sweet_corsa** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 5:18 pm

cant go wrong with alpine matey!!!

corsapaul · Post by **corsapaul** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 6:03 pm

best headunit ive ever had alpine was guna get the ipod head unit but they had sold out.must b realy popular

tom87 · Post by **tom87** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 5:12 pm

yeah i agree with sweet_corsa alpine is top stuff if you have money to burn. if your on a budget though you cant go wrong with kenwood stuff. i have a kenwood kdc3027.

flash22 · Post by **flash22** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 8:44 pm

hi all i have been looking at head units myself always been a big fan of kenwood and was looking at the 7031 had a play with one in a local shop and there very good also been looking at the alpine 9851 what has a lot of features and is a better spec\'ed than the kenwood its hard to chose between the two also have a shop around on the net there are some bargins to be had. i found the kenwood inc p&p for Â£169.99 but i lost the bookmark i had for it.

link to the alpine 9851 spec\'s >> http://www.alpine-europe.com/content/en ... CEIVER.htm

voodoo_jellybaby2k2 · Post by **voodoo_jellybaby2k2** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 7:32 pm

Right, well first of all you need to determine what you want to do with your sound install. Do you want to keep it standard? or do you want to be running a number of subs and components with a set amount of amplifiers.

If you arnt really bothered about your sound install and just want to be able to buy cds, just buy anything you want thats reasonably cheap and looks good.

If you are wanting to run a number of amplifiers (which will run a number of speakers in your car) you need to get a head unit with pre-outs. One set of pre-outs on a head unit is commonly used for subs, and then any other speakers, are ran from the headunit. Running 2 amps, its best to have 2/3 pre-outs, and having 3 or more amplifiers running from your car its best to have 3-pre-outs.

You really need to have a think about what you buy now, and how it will affect you later on, as you dont want to spunk Â£200 on a cd player that hasnt got the features you may need in the future, which will mean you have to buy yet another head unit later on down the line.

Anyways, the headunit im currently running is an Alpine 7876rb

Originally i had a nakamichi one (slightly out of your price range) which was amazing and had great sound quality and features, although lacked in looks. I then got the alpine one that i currently own, and then owned a Pioneer PH-9600 or sumink like that, which was good, and had more features than the alpine, but lacked in sound quality, and amps did not run as well of it, as the alpine one.

I then reverted back to the Alpine 7876rb for 2 reasons, cheap and also very good. Due to all of the newer ranges coming out, this can be picked up second hand for about Â£100 (originally cost around Â£500 new a few years ago)

Spec below:

Silver finish (with blue illumination)
3x4volt pre-outs ( 1 dedicated sub-out)
remote control
4x60w internal amplifier
FM/MW/LW RDS
CD text
CD changer compatible
dimmer control
BBE
Blackout mode
1x aux in
Traffic info
rotary volume knob
Face-off security

Places to buy them are limited i suppose, i dont believe alpine make them anymore, so try Ebay or amazon, i picked up the one of mine for Â£97 off ebay, and also sold my standard cd player for Â£107 on there

....so i made a profit, and own a great head unit now.

For your price range, if you can get hold of one, they are a very good head unit! But its upto you.....