Hydro Posted on Saturday, December 06, 2003 - 01:34 am:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I ranked these Head Units from 1-10 Alpine-10 Eclpise-10 Rockford Fosgate-6 Sony-7 Kenwood-7 JVC-7 Blaupunkt-8 Panasonic-7 Clarion-9
MR. Unit Posted on Saturday, December 06, 2003 - 02:12 pm:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You people are talking about head units. Whoever wrote the two idiot comments is right.where Nak?? who knows about Denon or McIntosh. anyone here ever had anything other than a single bit D/A converter.. i say na,,, you are IDOTS
GlassWolf Posted on Sunday, December 07, 2003 - 01:32 pm:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eclipse' top of the line, with their Eclipse Commander module. that's the best you'll find.
Nakamichi was good when tape decks were the thing. Sony, Panasonic, Aiwa, and Kenwood are all very poorly made products. Alpine is my second choice, as they have always offered outstanding products as well, just like Eclipse. Pioneer Premiere would possibly be a third choice. yes I've owned 24bit DAC, 1bit DAC, and Hybrid units before, and probably unlike you, I actually understand the precise differences between them, as opposed to the marketing hype people read in magazines. As for the head unit not mattering, that's also ridiculous. Any chain is only as strong as it's weakest link, and if the source is poor, then the end result will be as well. looking for a source with 4V line outs will help as well, as the higher line voltage will give better resolution to the signal given a fixed dynamic range from a digital source.
Mr. Unit Posted on Monday, December 08, 2003 - 11:23 am:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ive worked in this industry for the last 10 years if that says anything about what i know. Alpines only great head unit is the F-1 status... and thats the bottom line... all of there other stuff sounds over enhanced. you have to turn things down past o to try to get a flat response. and they put to much unnessasary crap on there decks. it confuses the customer. who here knows how to adjust a bandwith and what to do with it??? and and far as Eclipe they dont make there decks.. Fujitsu Ten does. they also make Rockfords decks and a few others so why not just buy one of thoses???? let me leave you with a chinese proverbe (man who live in glass house"with wolf" should not throw stones.
GlassWolf Posted on Monday, December 08, 2003 - 05:31 pm:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Then allow me to riposte.
I've been in this industry for over ten years as well, since the late 80s. I've worked in repair, sales and as an installer, and one of my degrees is in electrical engineering. I have also competed in IASCA Pro circuits for a number of years and hold state and regional championships. Now that the resumes are out of the way, lets move on to some quantitative data. I can just about program an Alpine's parametric EQ and crossover with my eyes closed. It's not that difficult for anyone who can read a manual once. Their head units are laid out more simply than quite a few others that are quite popular, and the navigation of their setup is simpler as well. Using an alpine source in my own IASCA vehicle I had a perfect C-weighted sound curve on an RTA, which is about as flat as it gets. Fujitsu Ten owns Eclipse and always has. Rockford's head units, for a time anyway, were what used to be Denon's. Rockford's head units aren't that impressive these days to be honest, and saying that a Rockford head unit is the same as an Eclipse, is the same mentality as a kid who buys a VTEC Accord and thinks he can match an Acura NSX. Gee, they're both a VTEC Honda, right?
Mr. Unit Posted on Tuesday, December 09, 2003 - 12:26 am:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let me begin by conveying my deepest most sincere apoligy. i had no idea you were so smart. maybe you could teach me how to tye me shoes??? your new best pal BLOW mE
Mr.Unit Posted on Tuesday, December 09, 2003 - 12:30 am:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No i was just kidding it sounds like glass wolf probly knows what hes talking about and any advice he has to give im sure is worth while to listen to.
zacdavis Posted on Tuesday, December 09, 2003 - 02:33 am:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- may i interject?, i tend to agree that alpines do seem to be somewhat "overprocessed". the upper freq's have dare i say?, harmonic distortion. and glasswolf, you would have to agree that we aren't average customers, we're installers, that gives us an advantage in setting headunits. in my opinion the alpine controls seem quite confusing in comparison to others-hold this button 3 seconds and then scroll with another...ect. everone hears sound in a different way, i mean come on, the shape of ones ear physically characterises ones own hearing. mine are huge so i guess i may have an advantage in collecting decibals, haha. anyways, who else hates that little 10mm in old hondas under the deck, or havin to hardwire each speaker in a caddy, or run power wire in an intrepid, or being a foot short on your rca's in a suburban, or tryin to find a spot for that dammb xbox, or tryin to find that alarm defeat wire when they're ALL light green in the drivers lower kick and your speakerphone has been on hold for an hour with directed and the stores closing in ten minutes and the customer has already been rescheduled because someone didn't order product in time and your sales"Boy" is paging you wonderin whats takin so long n you sit back...run your hand across your face...take a deep breath and realize you've been lookin in passengers kick, arggg, don't you love this job, have a good one guys, later
GlassWolf Posted on Tuesday, December 09, 2003 - 07:36 am:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- yup sound is always subjective.. different systems will sound good to different people, I totally concur there. The ability to properly tune a system has a lot to do with the outcome as well, as you noted. That's probably one of the biggest factors I see. (this sounds to tinny, that has too much midbass" hey, that's why the system has to be set up well. I'm probably just used to setting up Alpines. To someone who never has, yeah it could be confusing, but as electronics grow more complex and more compact, it's difficult to make these head units do so many things and still stay simple to operate. When a haed unit has a parametric EQ, 3 way crossover, CD changer controls, AM/FM, CD, and XM radio along with the usual plethora of features and functions, it gets complex. heck, ten years ago, most head units were AM/FM/CD, and had two sliders for bass/treble. Maybe loudness, and a few other features and that was it. If you wanted an EQ, you bought one separately.
the newer hondas aren't much better with the Metra T-harnesses, and stuffing the factory radio behind the dash with a new radio in place just so the power locks still work, etc. yeah those stories can go on for hours. heh
As for tying shoes.. I didn't take that elective in college. I wouldn't be much help. Isn't that why they invented velcro?