Well I have a MS-8 and was wondering if there are any good after market HU's to run it with. The basic features I'm looking for are CD, iPod control and 4v pre-outs (idk how important this is) or do you think I should just run the MS-8 with the stock unit. I drive a 09 Camry without the upgraded sound system. BTW I went and got the MS-8 because I'm planning on doing a 3 way front stage with raw drivers so I thought I could use all those pre-amp outputs and the simple setup.
Any $170+ head unit from Pioneer or Alpine will do fine, just find one that supports the features that you want.
Actually these devices support the use of stock head units (including an internal LOC) but IMHO it makes no sense to have a very expensive signal processor tied to a low quality signal source.
One other thing to keep in mind is that the internal amplifiers are low power, probably midbass drivers on your system will not get enough power from it.
Yeah that's what I was thinking, that even if they're designed to work with stock units doesn't make sense to basically amplify a bad source. How important are 4v pre-outs are they even important?
Yeah I'm most likely going to get a full range class d 4 channel for atleast the midbass and midrange drivers then maybe down the road get a small 2 channel amp.
Yes higher voltage is beneficial, specially if you are running long signal cables and the reason is that a high voltage signal will let you lower the input gain of the amplifier, so that more of the signal gets amplified and less of the noise.
Of course this becomes critical in setups where noise has shown to be a problem.