2 dope

I need to buy a new stereo and my budget is limited to around $300. I have a few choices in mind but i need opinions on the choices as I haven't bought a new stereo in 6 years.

CLARION DXZ765MP

or

PANASONIC MXE CQ-C7413U

or

any of the kenwood excelons.

Just keeping with these choices, which is the better option?

ChillPhatCat

I just ordered this one:
http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAu...roductID=17087

I was quite happy with the features and sound from it's older brother, the DEH-7700MP, but didn't want to reuse that head unit because it only had a Blue display and that got kinda monotonous. The 7800 has a full 16 Bit color screen and about a billion extra features.

I'm kind of a brand loyalist as the two Pioneer head units I currently own are still running strong, The 7700 which is 2 years old and an ancient 2200 that is 7 years old.

2 dope

thanks for the reply, but i don't really like the looks of pioneer models. I generally wish to keep it to a choice between the 3 brands as I've experience with 2 of them, kenwood and clarion. Although my older clarion isn't working properly now and I;ve only had a year and a half use out of it (It sat in a box for 5 years). I hear clarions are bad for ribbon cables crapping out?

Klortho

I know this isn't one of the choices, but I picked up an Alpine 9857 off of e-bay for I'm thinking around 325 or so with shipping. You can't go wrong with Alpine at all.

Jtufts

i to agree alpines are so nice and clean and easly setup

TheBandit

my panasonic is a couple years old and i love it.. sounds great.. and i like the looks of the panasonics :]

coynamy

The Kenwood's are also notorious for the ribbon cable crapping out.I had one with the Mask faceplate and in less than a year it crapped out.I had a Panasonic in my Civic SI and I loved it,shouldn't have let it go with the car.

Klortho

Biggest thing to look at is what do you want....longevity, clairty, functionality, quality.

I used to be a big Kenwood fan until a buddy at work turned me onto Alpine and between the two decks it was like night and day...

plus, you don't see many old Kenwoods or Panasonic, or Pioneer's going on ebay for close to what they sold for originally, for some reason Alpines hold their value which is wierd for a piece of electronics.

chadds

I'd vote for Alpine first, Pioneer second, but if I had to choose from your list I'd go with the Clarion.

2 dope

I bought the Panasonic CQ7113U, the store i bought it from had a limited selection as far as other brands, they had a couple of pioneers that were ok, no alpine, no kenwood.Basically it was clarion, panasonic, pioneer, jvc and sony. The clarions were sold out,so i opted for the panasonic. I hope i made a good choice.

1991ON20's

300.00 bucks is plenty! I went with the Jensen VM9311. I know it hasn't been around on the market for long and it's no kenwood or alpine. BUT FOR THE MONEY, you can complain here! They do make a touch screen VM9311TS for aprrox $100.00 more. Or if you dont want a screen I advise a JVC KD-DV4200 (plays dvd's but screens are separate). JVC KD-AVX1 is another great one!

2 dope

I have another question in regards to hooking up an amp to the deck.


It has 2 sets of preouts and 1 pair of subwoofer outs. Which set do i hook up to the amp to run my subs?

vipershark11

iTrader: (6)

you plus your racs into the pair of subwoofer outs. that way your HU can control the sub volume lpf and whatever else it does im not to sure about panasonic i know clarions and love them do death never failed me.

Iroctopless

Pioneer makes nice custom decks (a few other's do to) that are 1 1/2 DIN size so they fit perfectly without the use of an adapter kit. No gaps to fill and the face is nice and flush plus the display and controls are bigger too. And the black finish matches the interior as well.

I think the regular size 1 DIN headunits look like crap. They need a kit to fill in the gaps above and below the unit, plus they stick out, YUCK!

2 dope

and does that control both subs? On my old clarion i just used the preouts rather than the subout and it sounded nice. I notice that this deck, it don't get loud till around 25 on the volume, as my clarion would be loud at 17. Meh, different decks do different things, im just not used to it yet

ephebert

Only issue with the din + 1/2 from Pioneer is they aren't MP3. I own a DEH-P77DH and have had it in 2 cars over 6 years. Still running strong. Great deck from Pioneer.

vipershark11

iTrader: (6)

that will run whatever is run off the amp that the rcas are going to. if one amp is running both subs then yes it will control both. if they are run separate then you can run rcas off your amp if it has an output feature to another and thatll work too.