Head unit suggestions anyone...??

Anonymous · May 10, 2004, 18:48

Okay, so the appearance mods are on the way, but the ICE needs sorting...

To be honest, I'm probably going to stick with just a head unit as not overly interested in fitting sub/amp etc. Currently considering the Panasonic CQC9800N - anyone have any thoughts on this choice?

m http://www.hiwayhifi.com/site/product.a ... prod=22200 m

Thanks
s:D

s:D

GSB · May 10, 2004, 19:50

Pssst.. Alpine... s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Oh, and FFS, at least upgrade the speakers, the standard ones are truly awful...

Anonymous · May 10, 2004, 20:56

Might get some flack for this - being in the 'audio' forum, but do want the unit to look good... sad maybe, but the design of the Panasonic &screen savers/graphic display seem pretty cool.

Not saying Apline's aren't awesome (hey - what do I know?!), but is there an equally eye-pleasing Alpine unit? Pics/model no.??

How do I approach the speaker situ - have a local specialist, but don't want to be led astray with tech talk that I don't understand!. Are there any in particular? Personal preference would be a straight swap with existing speakers...

MRMike · May 10, 2004, 21:09

I personally hate the graphics and things..I turn the stupid dolphins off my Pioneer. Flippers not so clever now. Anyways Alpine tend to be conservative in regard to graphics, as the money is spent elsewhere. If you must go for a glitzy display go for a pioneer which are much better than Panasonic generally speaking. Depending on your budget, there is a old model Sony which has recently come down quite a bit in price.. its the CDX M1000 TFT it was around the £300 mark, used to be £700. You can download screensavers etc to that. Also some of the new Pioneers have this feature too. I know its personal choice but I can't see why you'd need to download a picture onto a 2 inch screen... theres no way you could see anything whilst driving..especially with the mounting in the 2. Anyways good luck finding one!

Anonymous · May 10, 2004, 21:22

s:lol: :lol: s:lol: s:lol: :lol: s:lol: - What's wrong with flipper... don't the women like him/her?

I know - graphics are very gimmicky and I should know better... thing is though, to someone who doesn't know (appreciate s:oops: :oops: s:oops: ) the difference in quality of sound reproduction - can you really tell the difference??!, don't the units all look pretty much the same?

Oh... think I better leave now... just heard myself... I'd never consider buying a car on looks alone, but find myself describing ICE audio by it's appearance! s:shock: :shock: s:shock: s:oops: :oops: s:oops:

Honestly, I do know more about my 2 (& other cars) than just the colour! s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Total budget for ICE is about £600... to be split between head unit & speakers considering the advice given so far... god I love u guys(&gals)! Where would I be without u?! In a 2 with 17" alloys that are the wrong size& weight 4 a start! s:wink: :wink: s:wink: s:D

s:D

GSB · May 10, 2004, 21:46

Buster!!!

Where is he?...

OK, Buster is our resident ICE person, he does it for a living and knows his stuff, and will advise you on the some decent candidates for your speakers, and, for the measly sum of 10 or 12 Pounds, will send you a set of his pre cut MDF adapters to fit the to your doors.

You're after set of 6.5 inch 2-way component speakers. That's a 6.5 inch mid-bass driver for the lower door, and a 1 inch tweeter for the top of the door. In between will be a passive crossover network to divert the relevent frquencies to the right place. Coaxial speakers (a midbass and tweeter) will fit, but the effect is pretty crap in comparison.

If you dont want to go for amp and sub etc. I recomend you avoid any future meets where theres a car with a Under Dash sub attending, It'll have you prying you're wallet out for pocket in no time...

MRMike · May 10, 2004, 22:03

No if you like glitzy displays that absolutely fine, and more power to you for saying you like them. I was just questioning the value your going to get out of a screensaver type HU. I'd say i'm a pretty average audiophile and I'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between say a Nakamichi (no glitz what so ever) and a Glitzy top of the range Pioneer in sound repro. Especially on average speakers. However just knowing that so much cost is associated with the display immediately makes me question the sound repro.

That Panasonic models spec seems pretty good, but there is a difference between the EQ you'll get on that and on an Alpine for instance. Personally I like messing around with my Khz's but this might not bother you.

For £600 you can get a nice set up if you go about 50/50 in terms of cost speakers. For that though your not going to a glitzy downloadable HU To get a really Glitzy stereo that you can download screensavers and images, to that will look good it will probably cost you that £600 alone. Though i've never seen the Panasonic, the screen looks terrible and I wouldn't count on the quality of the image being particularly good.

Anonymous · May 10, 2004, 22:06

I am still thinking of all the ideas that Buster came up with once he saw the size of the boot on the sillycar...I mean a 32" plasma was a bit much though.

I am definitely thinking about a hu with integrated satnav, but not just yet (finances)

Anonymous · May 11, 2004, 09:24

Quote from: "GSB"Buster!!!

OK, Buster is our resident ICE person, he does it for a living and knows his stuff, and will advise you on the some decent candidates for your speakers....

Having had a quick look through the forum, it appears Focal 165a's are the way forward (on a budget)... will see what the local specialist has to say... feel suitably armed with info, so hopefully won't get fleeced!

Still unsure on head unit as the Panasonic has 4x70 compared to the Sony and Pioneer on about 4x50 / 4x60 (As I'm not looking at getting a separate sub &amp, this might be a strong consideration?!)

Oh well, whatever I get is surely better than the standard one(looks&sound), and I've put up with that for five months! s:shock: :shock: s:shock: s:D

s:D

Cheers for all the advice...

Anonymous · May 13, 2004, 07:46

I got the Sony fx7700 (or something like that), and with the Focals it's pretty damn good, both sounding and looking. It's only 52w but it's loud enough even with the top down.

Good luck.
J

LeeUK · May 13, 2004, 19:18

Alpine look good:

Anonymous · May 15, 2004, 07:18

I swapped out my Sony for an Alpine a few months ago and I love it.
s8)

s8)

I bought the 9815rb for about £250 and it's great.

Unless you are planning to run front and rear speakers or extra amps, it will run happily on the stock power loom which cuts down the need to faf around running power lines to the back of the car.

The best part is that it plays WMA/MP3 so I have been able to chuck out my CD changer as well can get about 10 - 11 albums on one disk at 192kbs

Im running Focals and a Pioneer active mini-sub and sounds great. I wont win any sound offs with it but there's plenty of noise and quality to please me :-) :-) :-)

Regards,

Peter

Anonymous · May 17, 2004, 08:35

Quote from: "Matthews"
Quote from: "GSB"Buster!!!

OK, Buster is our resident ICE person, he does it for a living and knows his stuff, and will advise you on the some decent candidates for your speakers....

Having had a quick look through the forum, it appears Focal 165a's are the way forward (on a budget)... will see what the local specialist has to say... feel suitably armed with info, so hopefully won't get fleeced!

Still unsure on head unit as the Panasonic has 4x70 compared to the Sony and Pioneer on about 4x50 / 4x60 (As I'm not looking at getting a separate sub &amp, this might be a strong consideration?!)

Oh well, whatever I get is surely better than the standard one(looks&sound), and I've put up with that for five months! s:shock: :shock: s:shock: s:D s:D

Cheers for all the advice...

Best to get the headunit in quoted RMS and the units may have a higher peak but a lower RMS ratio!

My advice is to stick with alpine or pioneer deal with them all the time and never have that many problems with them. As you got £600 for a buget and about £150 will be taken up with speakers, spacers and dynomat. it leaves £450.

Get a headunit with a adjustable EQ and RCA out as these will help for future upgrades.

got to local ICE dealer and do a deal for speakers and H/U, and if he's nice even fitting. could get speakers and h/u all wireing and dynomat intsalled by a ICE dealer for £600 easy

Jap GT300 · May 17, 2004, 11:44

How about one of these?

£500 from w www.tgincar.com w and 4x50W amp

Pretty good value I think

heathstimpson · May 17, 2004, 14:07

Quote from: "Jap GT300"How about one of these?

£500 from w www.tgincar.com w and 4x50W amp

Pretty good value I think

That looks very good value. What do you know about the quality/ reliability etc of these babies s:?: :?: s:?:

Jap GT300 · May 17, 2004, 15:59

I'll tell you tomorrow as I've just ordered one.

I believe it is made by Pyle who are a budget US company who make reasonable quality goods. I suppose they are similar to Goodmans or Euro company Senergy. Similar Budget Double Din DVD All in ones are £900!

The screen is an amazing 1.4 mega pixels. Most things in this range are 280k pixels.

Anonymous · May 17, 2004, 16:32

you will pleasently suprised on this one adam, for the money you cant buy better.

it's obviously not up to alpine screen standard but it very good for the money, gets a little hot tho if not using the RCA's

Jap GT300 · May 17, 2004, 16:58

Quote from: "Buster"you will pleasently suprised on this one adam, for the money you cant buy better.

it's obviously not up to alpine screen standard but it very good for the money, gets a little hot tho if not using the RCA's

s:shock: :shock: s:shock:

I actually know someone who bought one of these for his fiesta and found it didn't fit. He stuck it on ebay with start price of £1 and it sold for £630.

ps if you ring TG Incar for your order you also get £50 off!

Anonymous · May 19, 2004, 13:13

good find s:wink: :wink: s:wink: like the money off bit s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

Anonymous · April 25, 2005, 10:00

Hi adam i was wondering what this was like when you got it fitted as im looking to get probably a new head unit and this has got a dvd in it aswel.

Can it be used with sat nav aswel as im looking at a sat nav system

This was posted a year ago now so is there any better for the money. The price now is £440

philster_d · September 26, 2005, 14:22

£350 now s:)

s:)

Anonymous · September 29, 2005, 17:31

ive an alpine 9835r head unit in my fto, nice looks, ( see, LeeUK's photos above) but the sound is the best ive heard of any cd unit for this price i paid 750 euro, as i said sound quality is excellent, powerful too 60w x 4 s:lol: :lol: s:lol: