ok so ive been looking for a hu for a while now and I having a very hard time deciding what i want to get.
I used to have a pioneer 590 ib and i liked it very much except it had white noise at high volumes when tracks faded in and out (music masked it once it played at volume but im sure it was still there,quite annoying to me, been told its unavoidable but i doubt it) and now i want something with bluetooth since i cant afford to be getting any cellphone tickets.
ive been looking at decks like the jvc Kd-R800 and kd-r900 (very similar but supposedlywont work with my phone which is the samsung sch-u750 or alias 2), the pioneer deh-p710bt, eclipse dc5030 and kenwood x993.
I really dont think i need time alignment since im not a sq freak i just want loud, noise free, clear music. i dont need staging and all of that though it would be nice, i would most likely not have the ear to set it up properly.
Some things which are a MUST: direct ipod control (willing to purchase ipod cord but nothing more), BLUE TOOTH (included none of this ready crap where u need to buy an adapter), aux input, usb (dual, unless the direct ipod control is not through the usb then single is perfectly fine), simple to use, no noise, clear output.
some things which i would like but dont need: Some sort of compressed file restoration (all my music is compressed), a nice eq, good display, ability to search ipod through unit or ipod itself
That JVC and that Kenwood are actually what I have been looking at for my next upgrade... the only thing thing the annoys the hell out of me is none of the new units with the features I want have numbered preset buttons... some may think that is not an issue anymore cause who uses the radio these days... BUT those presets are very useful for controlling sirius sat radio.
i think im going to get the kdr800 its only 183 shipped with a 3 year warranty. went through the manual and its it seems very simple to use. has the 24bit dac, direct ipod using either the ipod or the deck for control, aux, dual usb (not really tho if you use the bt)
hopefully the bluetooth works although i dont think it will with my phone (not on the list of phones that work). but then i will at least have a true dual usb deck for the time being.
since it only has 2.5 volt pre-outs ill use the extra money i save to buy a line driver/eq probably get the absolute eq500 to go with this deck. boosts the line voltage to 6.5 volts and gives me 5 bands of eq if i can ever figure out how to use it lol.
the only difference i see between the kdr 800 and 900 is the 900 has 5 volt pre outs vs the 800's 2.5 volt and the 900 has a flap face while the 800 is a slot in design. i can really justify $40 for 2.5-5 volt pre outs when i can buy a line driver/eq for $40 and have 6.5 volt pre outs and better equalization.
You aren't realizing that the line driver will do absolutely nothing in terms of benefit.... the signal is only as good as the weakest link... raising the line voltage from a lower level to a higher level does NOT improve the signal quality. If it were a higher voltage from the HU to begin with then you get slightly less background noise with it, but that difference will not be noticable anyway.
Line voltage affects the amount of background noise in the signal and nothing else. The primary use for a line driver would be when you have a lot of amplifiers recieving the same signal and have split that signal a bunch of times. Not sure if there could be other uses but that is the only one i know of.
This topic just comes up over and over and the bottom line to it is always the same, you will never hear the difference between line voltages all else being equal and amplifiers being properly tuned.
So then basically there is no difference at all between the kdr800 and 900 then since the only thing that seperates them is the 2.5 vs 5 volt line voltages and they charge $40 for nothing that is even audible?
MS, if you were gonna buy either the kdr800 or kdr900, which one would you buy? Is Preout voltage a feature that you take into consideration when looking into HU's?
doesnt Preout voltage effect your gain setting for your amp?
getting confused and not thinking straight atm lol
I would choose the the 900 because I like that faceplate design much better. No line level voltage isn't really a selling point... all models have at least 2v and even that is enough to squelch noise.
The purpose of the gain setting on the amp is to calibrate the amp to match the input signal level. That is why gain should not be thought of as a volume control even though it can be used to reduce amplifier output.
Higher line out voltage from the HU is obviously a good thing even if not noticable and can't hurt anything, but boosting the level with the line driver wouldn't have any useful effect.
so i bought the kd-a805. exact same deck and the r900 on has the faceplate of the 800 but it has the 5 volt pre outs.
I prefer the slot in design rather than a flap face and also the nobs are a darker metallic silver color rather than just plain silver which matches my interior better.
so i got my unit installed today and its great except for that mine is defective. the right front rca has a crackle sound. Im sure this issue will get resolved since i purchased from amazon and i have the a-z guarantee so im going to pretend this is not an issue for now (unless the new one is bad too)
other than that this unit is amazing it has every feature you could want (except for time alignment) and the bluetooth ended up working with my phone just fine.
the sound quality is superior to my pioneer and its just as easy to use.
only complaints i have is that i cant get the passenger ipod control to work (not that big of a deal) and that the ipod takes a while to load once plugged in and is slow to scroll through large play lists also the bluetooth sometimes restarts my phone automatically before it will actually work but once it restarts it works fine.
for the money it cost im happy (assuming i can get the new headunit and the rca works)