The best hu on the planet
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Bronze Member Username: ShamuchefOrlando, Florida United states Post Number: 15 Registered: Aug-05 | Pioneer DEH-P8MP totaly cool looking and the most power without an amp Pioneer Premier all the way man |
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Silver Member Username: Basshead86Ocala, FL USA Post Number: 521 Registered: Aug-05 | if you want to go Balls Out on the pioneers, go with the head unit i have the DEH-P8600MP it reatils for around 5 Bills, or it did when i bought it, and i'm sure you could get it for less. it is worth the extra money, b/c it has a lot more features, and upgraded internals. |
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Bronze Member Username: ShamuchefOrlando, Florida United states Post Number: 16 Registered: Aug-05 | i must admit , you are right i just bought it from e-bay 310.00 love the color display |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfWisteria, Lane USA Post Number: 9334 Registered: Dec-03 | umm, based on the topic of the thread.. no. the best head unit, bar none, is Alpine's F#1status. The CDA-7990 retails for $3,000 burr-brown K-grade DACs, optical outputs, no mp3 support, no fancy crap you don't need.. just pure functionality and SQ. I use one in my car and it is hands down the best ehad unit I've ever seen in 15 years as an installer. |
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Bronze Member Username: ShamuchefOrlando, Florida United states Post Number: 20 Registered: Aug-05 | yea ok who in thier right mind would spend |
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Bronze Member Username: ShamuchefOrlando, Florida United states Post Number: 21 Registered: Aug-05 | 3000.00 for a head unit unless your a millionare or really dumb or for hardcore competition |
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Silver Member Username: Riebread77Post Number: 550 Registered: Jun-05 | i couldn't find it on alpine's site...glasswolf...do you have a link to it? |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfWisteria, Lane USA Post Number: 9362 Registered: Dec-03 | alpine's F1status site http://www.alpinef1status.com/e/index.html as for the price, that's MSRP. I paid less, and in my case it is for SQ competition. Hey, read the thread topic. I named the best product available. I said nothing about value. With the F#1status head unit and optical link to their Alpine digital processor/crossover/EQ module you have a pure digital signal path up until you go to the amplifiers, and with that setup you can manipulate the signal in just about any way imaginable without going back and forth from digital to analog and vice versa.. it's an amazing system. also prohibitively expensive to most people, much like high end sportcars are. |
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Bronze Member Username: ShamuchefOrlando, Florida United states Post Number: 23 Registered: Aug-05 | when i win the lottery im going to get one for my new sportscar its on my to do list |
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Silver Member Username: Xdrummer03Tenessee Post Number: 121 Registered: Jul-05 | Im shocked it doesnt play mp3's for that much i mean damn.Do any amps even accept optical yet? |
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Silver Member Username: Audioguy22Post Number: 152 Registered: Jul-05 | Hey Glass, unless the $3000. Alpine is analog only? I would be suspect to it being the best. I've found Alpine leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to DSP. Pioneer has every other brand beat with there design an implementaion of DSP(at any price). As you know, you'll need a bunch of AudioControl devices to get a flat sound as long as you use an Alpine HU. If you've ever tryed a Pioneer 860/960? You may like it? A 860 HU will shoot your car and get it flat without and extra devices. Pioneer has been working on DSP's for 20 years and have takin it further the any other Car audio company. Just one year ago I felt Alpine made a great HU. Now that I've heard a Pioneer, its bumped the Alpine down to good as the Pioneer takes the place of Great! I replaced my Alpine 9815 with an Pioneer 860(with know other changes to the system) and the differents was night and day. I dont exspect you or anyone else to believe me(as I would not in your shoes)but its true.Many friends have said the differents is very apparent. They also ask, how can two of the best brands sound so different? |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfWisteria, Lane USA Post Number: 9381 Registered: Dec-03 | drummer, the better your audio system is, the worse mp3s will sound. the compression destroys any sense of imaging and dynamics in the original source most times, making the resulting audio sound very flat and lacking like going from CD to radio. The optical output is for Alpine's signal processors in the F#1status lineup, and a select few other products that use optical inputs like the Orion Concept 97.2 and DEQ30 equalizers. The longer you can keep the signal purely digital without going back to analog, the better. I sold and installed pioneer premier and alpine both. I'm familiar with both product lines and used pioner's top of the line CD player for years in my car.. that unit, if I recall, retailed for $900. Anyway comparing Alpine's mass produced products to the F#1status head unit and signal processor is apples and oranges.. They're in completely different leagues, and until you're actually used the F1 products, it's fairly hard to explain the differences to a point you'd appreciate them. The CDA-7990 uses the best DACs for analog outs that exist and the entire unit was purpose built from the ground up purely for purity without any fancy, unneeded features. The unit actually comes as two separate modules, separating a lot of the electronics in a second 'box' to reduce heat and keep a clean signal path, blah blah anyway there's no comparison between a 7990 and anything you'll find in crutchfield or circuit city. My only problem with Pioneer is that while I really like their features, the aesthetics aren't really to my tastes, and while I've owned top end products in the Elite home and Premier car lines, every one of the products has failed or needed to be sent back for replacement or repair in an unreasonably short period of time, regardless of how gently the products were used. That gets annoying after a while. |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfWisteria, Lane USA Post Number: 9382 Registered: Dec-03 | Benny, check out these (3) reviews of the unit.. they're very accurate (for once on that site) Description - AlpineF#1Status. - Optical Digital Output. - Copper Plated Chassis. - MaxTune SQ Tuner with Hi-Fi and Normal Modes. - Bass Engine. - Detachable Face Theft Protection. - BioLite Display. - Dual Illumination Buttons (Green/Blue). - Blackout Display. - Disc Title Memory. - CD Text / CD Text Display. - Versatile-Link Ready. - High Performance Rotary Encoder Volume Knob. - Burr-Brown K-Grade 96kHz/ 24-Bit Sign Magnitude DAC. - 24-Bit Burr-Brown Digital Filter. - High Precision DT/ST Transport Mechanism. - STAR Circuit PCB Design. - 4 Volt PreOut with High Performance DC-DC Converter. - 3 PreOuts. http://www.carreview.com/cat/car-audio/cd-receivers/alpine/PRD_97324_2861crx.asp x |
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Gold Member Username: Suleman36Maryland U.S.A. Post Number: 2028 Registered: Feb-05 | Ive owned Alpine and Pioneer and now Eclipe. I feel that the Pioneer Premiers have the new Alpines beat overall. I also think the Eclipse Decks are much nicer then the Alpine and has the most features but is also the hardest to get use to. If your looking for a headunit thats $600 or less then go with a Eclipse or Pioneer Premier or even a Nakimichi or Clarion. |
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Silver Member Username: Audioguy22Post Number: 153 Registered: Jul-05 | Well Glass, I'm sure the 7990 is a cleaner soundind HU than most anything else. I did not explane my point very well. The point I was trying to make was this, Having the cleanest/Prurest HU in a world of dirty sounding CD's is not a good thing. I found out years ago that getting the super high-end home audio only makes listening that much more uncomfortable. I had to back pedal in my home system to get a sound that was sweet. With this Pioneer 860, they make it sound really nice with most source material with there use of sound shaping. Its not High-End but I can listen all day at loud levels and I dont get the fatigue that came with the Alpines. I bet with well mastered CD's, there's not much that will come close to the Alpine 7990. That said, I've got around 500 CD's and 30 of them were well mastered. I cant spend that kind of money to play 30 CD's. If I were doing an install in a Bentley for someone who's big on classical music, I'd use a Alpine 7990. For everyone else, I'd go with the Pioneer 860. |
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Anonymous | i cant say anything good about a hu with status quos such as "super bass" if you cant pull the whole thing out by a handle buy a piezo array |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfWisteria, Lane USA Post Number: 9392 Registered: Dec-03 | Benny, that's one reason most of my CDs that I listen to regularly are MFSL gold master editions or similar quality recordings.. one of my biggest pet peeves is a poorly mastered CD from a company and person or band who can do better if they bothered. regardless of the source unit though, the entire system is going to affect the final outcome as to if the system is fatiguing, or if any CD will sound good or not though. Having a system capable of high resolution reproduction of sound is a two edged sword, just like having something more basic. the better the recording, the more wonderful the experience of listening.. however, if you're happy to settle for a more "average" experience regardless of how good it "could be" then you can get that with a lower end system. always pros and cons to everything somewhere along the line |
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Silver Member Username: Audioguy22Post Number: 154 Registered: Jul-05 | I Concur Sir! |
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Bronze Member Username: XkawnPost Number: 42 Registered: Jul-05 | i thought i had a decent system, but when your head unit cost more than my entire system i feel quite humbold........ |
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Silver Member Username: RovinTrinidad & T... Post Number: 119 Registered: Jul-05 | Quick question about mp3s (as i saw it being said that quality will lack/be reduced compared to normal cds) - if i have mp3s stored on my PC & burn it into regular CD format , will the overall quality get back same or close to the original quality ? |
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Silver Member Username: Audioguy22Post Number: 157 Registered: Jul-05 | Nope!, MP3 is a lossy type compresion. Once done there's no going back. Your program changes them to aiff so they'll play in a non-MP3 player. |
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Silver Member Username: Mikechec9Chicago/atlanta Post Number: 761 Registered: May-05 | the f1 is reviewed in detail in CA&E's new issue this month. glass, compare the HU to these if you don't mind. Denon Mcintosh and especially the Pioneer corozzeria rs-d7xII (Japanese model of the DEX-p9) http://www.pioneer.co.jp/carrozzeria_x/lineup/rs-d7x2/index.html the first two, i know were excellent, but because of dropping sales in the US, production and distribution was limited to overseas (where most all the good stuff is anyway). and the pioneer rs was used by scott buwalda in his highly acclaimed (and award winning) altima. |
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Silver Member Username: Audioguy22Post Number: 158 Registered: Jul-05 | http://www.buwaldahybrids.com/japanesecaraudioproducts.htm |
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Silver Member Username: Mikechec9Chicago/atlanta Post Number: 762 Registered: May-05 | yeah. scott travels quite a bit. he's well respected overseas and can get just about anything here in the states. which is how he was afforded the ability to use the rs piece. |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfWisteria, Lane USA Post Number: 9411 Registered: Dec-03 | taking a CD and compressing a track to MP3, you lose quality with a lossy compression ratio of about 12:1. Reconstructing the MP3 into a WAV or AIFF just takes waht's left of the source material in the MP3 compressed format, and interpolates data to fill in the gaps, so you really just have a bloated MP3 file that takes the same space as the original audio. If you want to test this, rip a track to MP3, then make it back into a WAV tile.. then recompress the WAV to MP3, and keep doing this about 5 or 6 times. each time you'll lose more quality in the compression, but you won't regain any of it on the reinflation.. so eventually you'll get something that sounds like an out of tune radio station. Comparing the denon, mac, and pioneer JDM units would be a little tricky, not having any of them in front of me at the same time to compare. |
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Gold Member Username: Suleman36Maryland U.S.A. Post Number: 2043 Registered: Feb-05 | I experienced the same thing going from a regular alpine HU to a Top of the Line Eclipse CD8454 24 bit dac unit. The sounds are very crisp and hurt your ears. Benny you were on point with that earliar post about the Alpine to the Pioneer DEH -P860 and how it sounds smoother and less painfull on the pioneer premier. That is the reason im taken out my Eclipse CD8454 for the Pioneer Premier DEH - P860 unit. Cant wait to go back to Pioneer. I was very pleased with my last pioneer HU i had 4 years ago. |
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Anonymous | its hard to hear depth with road noise |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfWisteria, Lane USA Post Number: 9429 Registered: Dec-03 | not when the car is sitting still, or it's well sound deadened. If you have some crappy ford escort with no sound deadening then sure, at 70MPH all you'll hear is road noise. If you have a MB or a Lexus and it's deadened, you'll hardly hear any road or engine noise at highway speeds. that aside, the mid to low end alpines do sound over-processed. the F1status gear is virtually transparent. again until you've heard the F1 products, don't assume they sound like the low end $300 units do. That'd be a mistake. If you want to hear other good Alpines that cost less, find an older CDA-7909, or any of the old ones like a 7903 or 7905 with the 6 radio preset green buttons on the right side and green display. Those are classic alpine, and the type of unit that earned alpine it's reputation. The 7990 goes back to it's roots, and I pray they follow suit with the rest of their products and go back to what got them famous to begin with. simplicity and purity. |
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Bronze Member Username: XkawnPost Number: 43 Registered: Jul-05 | i have a jeep wrangler with a soft top. on a windy day me and the wife can't hear eachother (with top on) sitting right next to eachother yelling, but as long i can hear some music who the he11 cares......... |
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Bronze Member Username: ShamuchefOrlando, Florida United states Post Number: 31 Registered: Aug-05 | lets keep it to the best hu on the planet under 600.00 anything over that is just overkill |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfWisteria, Lane USA Post Number: 9436 Registered: Dec-03 | ok see now you're setting new restrictions.. that makes a difference  |
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Bronze Member Username: XkawnPost Number: 45 Registered: Jul-05 | so does that make the best hu under $600 the DEH-P8MP ???? i hope so cuz i get mine tommorrow.... |
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Silver Member Username: RovinTrinidad & T... Post Number: 123 Registered: Jul-05 | Isn't the P860MP the better/higher ranking model to get ?! I intend to buy during this wk the 860 model , about $40 more & SO much more features incl a built in 13 band EQ ,multi color display , put in your own display etc getting it = $329 @ http://www.electronicsbonanza.com |
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Silver Member Username: BananakrillVallejo, California Post Number: 137 Registered: Jul-04 | Going back to what Glass said about the better your system, the worse MP3s sound, if you turn an Audio CD tracks (wav files) into MP3s, and then back into wav files to make like a mix CD, is the quality still going to be as bad as the MP3s because you compressed it? Or when you uncompress it do you get any quality back? |
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Silver Member Username: Audioguy22Post Number: 159 Registered: Jul-05 | It works like a jpeg! in the jpeg format the software will take a raw file and strip away colors that it thinks we wont notice, ie; theres 300 shades of blue but it will somewhat look the same with 30 shades of blue. The program will than trash 270 of the shades of blue and make a smaller file. Same thing with an MP3 but with sound. Once music is coverted to MP3, there no way to get the lost sound back. And yes, the 860 is a better HU than the P8MP. |
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Gold Member Username: Suleman36Maryland U.S.A. Post Number: 2051 Registered: Feb-05 | I ordered my Pioneer Premier deh-p860 today for $309 plus shipping. |
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Silver Member Username: Mikechec9Chicago/atlanta Post Number: 775 Registered: May-05 | i love my 9835. imo, they just went down from there. i used to have a "pull out" top of the line alpine tape deck in '91. very solid. i lugged that thing into stores and had older ladies swear I just stole it out of a car. i would plead with them, but they just continued how wrong it was. one of the more comical years of my life. anyway, it played darned well for a tape deck. |
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tydcrcxtk Unregistered guest | I started out with a pull out Alpine deck that I bought for seven bucks from a used junk store. It was awesome. |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfWisteria, Lane USA Post Number: 9452 Registered: Dec-03 | heh I've owned at least half a dozen 7903s and a 7905 that I took the old Denon colored light bulb sleeves to and made the buttons orange/pink instead of green just to be different haha good old pull out units back in the day. Kirk, once the file is made into an mp3, you can never, ever get the original quality back. making an mp3 into an audio CD file just gives you a bloated file that still has the same quality as the mp3. didn't you read anything I said above before asking that? |
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Silver Member Username: BananakrillVallejo, California Post Number: 140 Registered: Jul-04 | Wow, you said it all up there. I skipped the whole middle of this thread for some reason. Oops. I feel like a bronze member now. |
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Silver Member Username: RovinTrinidad & T... Post Number: 124 Registered: Jul-05 | MO - where are u getting the 860 @ $309 ?. I searched alot with google & $329 was the lowest i could find . |
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Gold Member Username: Suleman36Maryland U.S.A. Post Number: 2053 Registered: Feb-05 | Rovin, www.electronicgiant.com has the best prices for pioneer and eclipse products. They sell alpine and clarion also. |
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Silver Member Username: RovinTrinidad & T... Post Number: 131 Registered: Jul-05 | Saw it now ! , their sight opens really slooooow . http://www.electronicgiant.net/catalog/index.php?cPath=23_31&filter_id=13&page=2 &osCsid=1d151a361b58e13d830ca0d3037b4f57 Thanks dude ! - saved me a $20 there & more for the others on here who was about to buy . All the more reason for those who originally wanted the M8MP model to 'splurge' the $10 more & buy the better 1 . Funny how they sell the lower Pioneer 8600 model for $40 more than the better Premier model - maybe some1 who set the prices made an error there ,so i'll hurry & get it now . |
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Gold Member Username: Suleman36Maryland U.S.A. Post Number: 2055 Registered: Feb-05 | Exactly |
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Bronze Member Username: SuthurnlatinoPost Number: 30 Registered: Jun-05 | is the 860MP the same model for 2005? I can pick up one locally for $320ish |
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Silver Member Username: Audioguy22Post Number: 160 Registered: Jul-05 | Ya, its going on its 3rd year! |
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