KiLLJ0Y

Dual.. i bought this head unit.. its a 2 stage motorized face. works awesome so far.. anyone else using it?

their website is www.dualav.com

spartyon

i dont know about the head unit but the sub looks like a red jensen one commonly found at wally world.

CaysE

The actual company "Dual" used to make turntables and other AV equipment. They went out of business in 2001. The name Dual was bought by Namsung in 2002, a Chinese electronics manufacturer. If it's cheap, go for it and tell us what you think. Personally, I'd look at more high-end headunits.

KiLLJ0Y

well i best buy is starting to carry their stuff.. while i was talking to a sales guy about it.. another installation guy came in and said he just put one in another car in the back.. so i went back with him and checked it out.. worked pretty cool, looked good, face is detachable, lots of extras on it..so i bought one. hooked it up.. sounds pretty good i think, doesnt skip at all either and my car ride is harsh having sportlines.. and my CD's arent exactly clear of scratches either.

i paid 170$ for the head unit.. and 4$ for the factory wire kit for the camaro.. i think it kicks ***.

CaysE

I'm not knocking cheap stuff, really; just thinking that there's better stuff out there. I have a Soundstorm Labs headunit that's been in THREE of my cars over the course of 4 years or so. It skips CDs on harsh bumps and can't put out very much power without distorting, but it has otherwise had no problems. I just wish it looked better and could play mp3s.

NEEDAZ

Dual is a name that did make good quality stuff, and now doesn't. Sorry but it's now low end stuff. Places like BBY sell them as a replacement for Jensen now that there out of business.

ddn69

Ya I wouldnt touch dual with a 10 foot pole but if your happy thats all that matters. For a little bit more then that head unit you could have got a decent alpine with subwoofer channel and tons more features. Id reccomend alpine or clarion with mp3. But those will be around 300.00. You get what you pay for though.

Nate

ScrapMaker

Dual is an almost direct replacement for Bestbuy's AIWA line of stuff.. their units are almost identical in features, and appearance...

dual = (AIWA+Jensen)/2

you'll be surprised though, the fastest track-to-track seeking I have ever experienced on an MP3 headunit was on my Jensen MP3510 h/u... then to sony.. meh, not much of an upgrade, not until I got my kenwood kdc-mp922... but now I can't look back since I have my pioneer 8600... holy crap are the only words I have...

spartyon

pioneers are great. i love my 7400mp from the 2001-2 year. i havent seen the 8600.

NEEDAZ

No. First Aiwa is not a “BBY line”. Dual is not a replacement for Aiwa. Aiwa is still around and they are part of Sony (that’ll tell you about Aiwa), not Jensen. Dual IS a replacement for Jensen as Jensen got bought out. So a lot of the stores (not just BBY) now have Dual as their bottom of the barrel.
So, Jensen (no longer around)=Dual
Aiwa=Sony (Aiwa being 1% JVC as they use a lot of their CD mechanisms)
I will add that I don’t remember all the ins-and-outs of the Jensen buyout, but they are no more. I don’t remember if it was dual (or some parent company) that bought Jensen.
And the 8600 is GREAT.

ScrapMaker

okay you're right now that I think about it, the AIWA really did remind me of the sony's... but the aiwa definitely didn't have good cd mechanisms... I had never heard a cd player skip so much as the time I road in a friend's car with the second generation aiwa mp3 cd player... good lord...

bah I still wish my 8600 had a pause or mute or attunate button SOMEWHERE on the unit!!! instead they made a dedicated "clock" button, that I, to this day, have never used, aside from the initial push of getting it to show the clock... what a waste...

at least the Automatic Time Alignment kicks serious ***...

NEEDAZ

I love it when that happens. I must admit it doesn't happen nearly as often as I think.

That has p1ssed me off about Pioneer for the longest time. How stupid are they? On most of the models they give you a pause button. In CD mode it will pause the CD, great. In tuner mode it does NOTHING. What's the point, why not have it mute the thing in tuner mode. Same affect as pausing a CD.
YO, Pioneer, WAKE UP.!.!.! And this is coming from someone that loves Pioneer.

ScrapMaker

yeah, I mean the 13-band eq ROCKS... ALL of the audio features are awesome too... the display is amazing (not like the sony, but oh well it had crap for features...)

if pioneer could get the button layout and user interface down, they would be the obvious choice for headunits..

I also wish it had a self-hiding faceplate, even though everyone seems to hate this, but I really like the way the faceplate is really simple (no screen) on those units (like the kenwood)... so they are cheaper to replace... pioneer really lacks in the security dept, but Sony loses the war on its new competition to my pioneer... the amazing lcd model... dunno the model #, but it has the video input... that model has no security at all, no removable faceplate either.. kinda lame...

I really don't know why some manufacturers do some of the things they do... especially when cost is not much of an issue because many other manufacturers already do these things...

oh well kinda off topic

spartyon

my 7400mp doesnt pause in tuner mode but it does the "att" thing or i can turn the mute on. that is good enough for me.

NEEDAZ

It's there in the "mode 2" display on some of the models to. Just seems to me it should be there on ALL the models.

chio987

my clarion is soooo nice with controls....the *** on the left is vol (up/down) seek (left/right) and mute/pause (push in) it's soo easy

KiLLJ0Y

hey that was the same clarion head unit i had on my old 95 Z28 back in 1997. yeah that was a good head unit.


i must say though guys this head unit, reguardless of if its cheap or whatever, is awesome! it acts and functions a lot better than my alpine i had. (granted it was from 1996 model era), plus its made my speakers sound a little bit better too. its cleaner and i hear a lot more of the acutal instruments than before, its crisp.

anyways, yeah i like it (till it breaks and then i'll rip on it)

Sitting Bull

Here in Calgary the Alpine 9827 CD/MP3 head unit is selling for around $275 INSTALLED!

The Canadian dollar is now worth about 80 cents US, so you guys can get one of these great Alpines for around $230 installed. Surely that has to be THE best deal on the market right now, considering that it does everything you could possible want except launch your car into orbit!

ScrapMaker

this seems too good to be true!!

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-HxlbThA...*zn*DiiZK-DSxi

especially from crutchfield... how is this so cheap? it must be really poorly designed or something...

CaysE

That's pretty annoying that it has ALPINE emblazoned on the deck underneath the face. [sarcasm] What was the point of removing the face again? Oh riiiiiiight... deter thieves. Showing everyone you have a $1000 headunit is the latest in auto security, I heard. [/sarcasm]

ScrapMaker

they want you to steal the hdd, and pay for a $500 replacement drive?

CaysE

Touché

OldOneEye

Jensen is still around. Jensen's parent company (Recoton, used to own Stinger as well) went under. Audiovox bought Jensen.

In the mean time, the guys who made the Jensen products in Asia (Namsung I think) decided they were going to start a new company and go after the former Jensen accounts (like Wal Mart), figuring Jensen was dead.

Jensen is still around, there is alot of revalry between them and Dual (they know each other, some guys jumped ship, some stayed).

Dual is about on par with Jensen for the most part.

Sony owns Aiwa (look at some of the remote controls for example, and the lettering used on Aiwa decks)

Juan

aaron7

iTrader: (7)

Sorry, but ick. Not only does that thing look tacky, but Dual makes total junk...

KiLLJ0Y

iTrader: (1)

talk about bringing this back from the dead...


funny thing is.. this unit is still going strong, and has much better quality and sound than my Sony Explode..

ScrapMaker

typically sony is of higher quality... but it depends on what yo get... if you get a comparable unit, the sony will usually work better and last longer.

84 1LE

iTrader: (9)

Just bought this on ebay $205 w/shipping,brand new,no refurb/return,etc,05 model.Looking at the manual i noticed no mute function,duh.Still like though & i havent even installed it.The volume button doubles as a joystick.Even the remote has it too!

ScrapMaker

that's the new 'value' line from pioneer... it runs $199-$249 at best buy...

the new 'good' one is the p80mp or the 8p...

all three of them are not very good compared to the 8/9600mp if you ask me... just compare the interface, and the features... and you'll see what I'm talking about

I'm thinking of renewing my 4year warranty on my pioneer so that a new good one comes out to best buy, I can have it swapped out... because my 8600 is having problems...

nibleT

What problems are you experiencing?

I have the 860 and mine has been skipping with alot of data mp3 cd's. And now its starting to skip with regular cd's and just the other day the screen went blank. And also my cd's get stuck every once in awhile.

ScrapMaker

nah, apparently when bestbuy installed it, they somehow blew the RCA fuse.. so I have to ground it externally..

the only thing I can complain is that sometimes it just sits there before a song plays... for like 3 seconds... but then you can come back later and it doesn't do it... kinda weird.

unbonyr

pansonic all the way $193 from sounddomian like 5 dollars shipping 7 band equalizar 25rms watts per channel, 5v preouts i dont know why there so under rated no bodys flamed them but know buddy has them

ScrapMaker

yeah, I've seen some good looking stuff feature-wise from Panasonic... like the new unit that has 35RMS per channel... that's friggin' extraordinary... yet no one seems to have it...

Javelin3o4

ive installed a few dual products, amps decks, their fugly bandpass box with the curved plexi. Ive installed alot of those decks like the one you got.

The problem i seen the most from them is the motorized face breaking and not moving.