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What do you guys recommend for a head unit?

I have a Nakamichi and like it a lot. It's simple, sounds good, and has a display I can read in direct sunlight. I tried an Alpine, but wasn't impressed.
 
My friend has a Eclipse in his ricer and I am really jealous (of the head unit, of course). I plan on installing a Eclipse when I get the money.

FYI my current head unit is a Sony. Stay away from Sony automotive electronics. They like to get hot and overheat. None of my Sony "Explode" stuff has overheated but have heard of other people's stuff overheating and causing all kinds of damage. But it gets so hot that you cannot touch, like my AMP. When my head unit gets hot, the LCD screen just freezes up and sometime the display is in a random mess. Now when I first bought it, It was awesome, the sound quality, it never skipped CD even over the nasty potholes. Now it is completely opposite of what I just said. It is a P.O.S.
 
I would have to say Eclipse with Alpine coming in a close second. I have been running Eclipse units and amps with Focal components and JL subs for several years and I am spoiled on the sound quality. It sounds great on all types of music and the clairity is awesome. May be a little more than you want to spend but it is well worth it.
 
i swamp my truck to often im afraid, that money whould be better spent on rock rails right now lol ... i got an external Sirius set up ... thats where its @ lol
 
bigjeep6303 said:
check out the elcipse head units, once you use one, you will never go back!
Click to expand...

Actually, I'm not so much a newer eclipse headunit fan. They sold major time when they went on over to being mass-produced by being sold at circuit city and some other major electronic strores. Back in the day, the older models were top notch and had everything you could need and then some. Now a days, their headunits have taken a huge dive in quality and price. For the same price you can get an alpine, pioneer, or even a keenwood that would work better. I was huge on eclipse's older head units but the new stuff is killing me. I have an Ipod so I went with the Kenwood x891 and man, it's cherry all the way. It's a high speed ipod unit with a fully motorized face and detachable as well. it has all the fixins like 3 pre outs at 5v (you dont really need much more than that especially on an XJ). I'm still into the older eclipes like I seep saying, but it takes more add-ons for those to do the things that all the newer headunits are doing. even the newer headunits too.
 
can anyone esplain so even I can undertand, what is bluetooth with regard to head units. Also, what does a flash stick or flash player do for a head unit. What head units do you guys recommend? m and, what about Blaupunkt?

Thanks!

BOB
 
I have an Alpine, can't wait to replace it!

I don't like my Alpine's EQ range settings, never got it to sound even half as good as my old cheap Sony Explode did right out of the box.

Not to mention my Alpine plays mp3 disks in the ORDER BURNED, sucks, If I want to hear an album in order I'm forced to burn it as a regular CD, or play games with iLame, I mean iTunes, to get it to work. :(
 
BOB said:
can anyone esplain so even I can undertand, what is bluetooth with regard to head units. Also, what does a flash stick or flash player do for a head unit. What head units do you guys recommend? m and, what about Blaupunkt?

Thanks!

BOB
Click to expand...

basically the bluetooth for headunits simply turns your car speakers into your ear piece for your cell phone. hit the call button and its like you have surround sound for your cell phone.

and im not a 100% but im pretty sure the flash stick is just like any other mp3 player... you stick it into ur player and place ur music you stored on the memory card.

TunaSoda said:
I have an Alpine, can't wait to replace it!

I don't like my Alpine's EQ range settings, never got it to sound even half as good as my old cheap Sony Explode did right out of the box.

Not to mention my Alpine plays mp3 disks in the ORDER BURNED, sucks, If I want to hear an album in order I'm forced to burn it as a regular CD, or play games with iLame, I mean iTunes, to get it to work. :(
Click to expand...

i've never used alpines eq settings, i do my own setup, and i've never had a problem with my alpine cda 9883, but i just recently bought a cheap cheap cheap panasonic from best buy for i think 80 dollars and i absolutely love it. way better than i expected.

and my alpine plays my ipod flawlessly =) sorry bout ur trouble...
 
basically the bluetooth for headunits simply turns your car speakers into your ear piece for your cell phone. hit the call button and its like you have surround sound for your cell phone.END QUOTE

Holy crap, just think of it this way..When the wife calls yelling at you, it will sound like she is in the dam jeep...This scares the crap out of me, don't need bluetooth
 
scottmcneal said:
basically the bluetooth for headunits simply turns your car speakers into your ear piece for your cell phone. hit the call button and its like you have surround sound for your cell phone.END QUOTE

Holy crap, just think of it this way..When the wife calls yelling at you, it will sound like she is in the dam jeep...This scares the crap out of me, don't need bluetooth
Click to expand...

lol and my fiance over here's just laughing. X2 on no bluetooth for the jeep stereo =D
 
I have a blackberry that carries my music onboard. It hold 8gb. Bluetooth will let you play the music through the headunit without a physical connection. Kinda handy. if you do not want to mess with a Ipod or CD's.

I chose the Pioneer model from Walmart. Cost about 200 but looks cool, sounds great, and will do everything I plan to eventually have in the MJ (multiple speakers, amp, subs, ect).
 
Depending on your phone it can do several things, from act like a headset/mic to streaming audio from an other bluetooth enabled device. My Jensen that I bought 2 years ago strictly does the cell phone, it's in the TJ, it has the mike built into the face plate, works OK until wind noise gets up there. My JVC BT1 which is in the XJ has a seperate mic that I mounted over the top of the steering wheel with a velcro dot in front and offset from the odometer, that one does the phone but it also streams audio from my Motorola V750, works OK, the USB plug will play from a memory stick and it will also power and play from a 80gig laptop drive in an external drive holder. Crutchfield has a good selection and they come with the wiring kit adapter so it turns it into plug and play after 20 minutes putting the wires together. Personally, I would not buy a head unit without Bluetooth.
I can't remember the last time I stuck a CD in the JVC one. I move my music from my PC to the phone with bluetooth then play it from the phone. Though it did take some slight mods on the phone to get that feature 're enabled' after verizon crippled it that involved a data cable and some seam edits. Still working on how to move my custom ring tones to the V750 from my PC, so far no luck, they have that seam buried somewhere and nobody has found it yet.
I would have bought the Pioneer but every time I went to get it Crutchfield was sold out
 
I've always like the Clarion and Pioneer stuff. I've got a DEH-2900MP currently, and 4 Kicker DS series speakers. No Bluetooth (need a module and cable that's another ~$100 if you can find one), but I can plug the headphone adapter/mic from the cell, into the receiver's aux input on the face, and use the Aux mode for calls. I don't think I have $250 in everything, if you omit the 10" amp and sub that I scavenged from my last car. It's redneck, but it's worked well so far, and it's so simple as to be foolproof.
 
Been doing some research lately on newer decks.. and I am disappointed. The quality on most is not there. The RMS is low, and most just plain suck. For stuff you can buy for decent price in pretty much any store I would say Pioneer/premier on the low side. And Eclipse on the higher side. Otherwise, I love blaupunkt. and I really like the older alpine stuff that actually had some power. The 789x series is one of the best decks that plays MP3s that you can get.. 27 watts RMS. If you plan on runnig an amp for your speakers then the output does not really need apply.
 
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