My friend's in the last stage of picking the headunit and I had narrowed it down to the following after considering his budget: 1. Alpine CDA-9835 - $385 4V 2. JVC KD-AR3000 - $200 5V 3. Kendwood KDC-X979 - $290 5V 4. Panasonic CQ-C9800U - $340 5V 5. Pioneer DEH-P960MP - $420 6.5V All prices include shipping.
The pioneer one I think is the best, but's kind of going on a budget limb. I appreciate all the suggestions! Thank you
Go between the Alpine and Pioneer IMO. The Pioneer offers the most features, higher preamp output, 24 bit DACs, more tuning capability, etc. The Alpine is a great head unit as well, lots of good features on that one as well.
Thanks man. Just out of curiosity, why would you not go with the other units? How would you think kicker k65.2, 75W RMS, components sound if powered by either of the units you suggested? I appreciate all your help.
Not as reliable units is why, JVCs tend to have tuner issues, Kenwoods tend to be unreliable all around, and the Panasonics are kinda shaky as well. Both the Alpine and Pioneer are solid units, and will both compliment those speakers very well. Choose on what you like best as far as ergonomics go, both are excellent units.
Oh, I thought you were eventually planning to amp them. If you eventually plan to get an amp, still choose on ergonomics. If you plan to keep running components off the head unit, you're better off w/ the Alpine since it has the V-drive chip for more power per channel.
Also, now that I'm going to run his speaker off the HU, the kicker amp for the subs is 4 channel. So, would I connect the RCA's to the sub-out on the HU and then use a Y-adapter for the amp to get the same signal to all 4 channels of the amp?
Nope, you can only use 2 channels for 2 speakers. I think (don't hold me to this) the Eclipse HUs allow you to use the internal amp for active components, meaning the front channels would power tweets and the rear would power mids, I can't remember though as I don't use the HUs internal amp. For the amp, yes, you can use y adaptors for the amp, but I think that Kicker amp will allow the rear channel input to operate from of the front channels.
Ok, thanks. One last question. Ultimately it's not up to me to decide because I'm not the one paying for this, but that Panasonic CQ-C9800U HU is rated @ 70W x 4 Max, what do you think the RMS rating is? Can't find it anywhere.
It claims to be 60 watts RMS per channel due to a digital Class T amplifier built in, but it isn't certified to do so and I haven't seen any independant tests. I'm not a fan of digital amps for full range speakers, but you should at least listen to it and try it out. An external amplifier would sound better than the receiver's internal amp would ever hope to. Believe it or not, 60 watts RMS isn't a huge jump over 27 RMS, doubling the power will provide around a 3 db increase, but that digital amp will also clip earlier and harder than an A/B amp will.
Jonathan has pretty much got you sorted, and I agree with him on pretty much all points. The 9835 has one of the best built in amps you will find in a HU. The Pioneers is pretty good aswell. From those two your friend could safely choose based on personal taste and budget.
Cheers Glenn
Anonymous
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I have a panasonic CQ-5410U and it's sick. So i would go with the panasonic 9800. the motorized face is awesome and w/ the dot matrix display that has to be sick. but alpine is also very nice too.