I was in a shop just yesterday and i stated what HU i was looking at and it was a pioneer, he suggested a Clarion deck instead; both entry/mid level players.

So i was thinking, nup i wanted the pioneer he is just trying to sell what he has in stock. But we went into the listening room thing and listened to the same song with the same Boston speakers (rally's i think). Now, i could hear a slight hiss in the pioneer HU and the clarion sounded marginly crisper... but it is hard to compare because it takes time to change the CD and you foget what you heard.

So my question is, would the clarion unit have a significant SQ advantage over the pioneer, or is it a marketing set-up for the shop to sell Clarion gear as being better than the pioneer (with dodgy wiring, crap amp etc).

The Pioneer was the deh-4560MP
and i the Clarion DB346MP

Both would be pretty line ball I would assume.

I have not heard any problems with a hiss emitted from a Pioneer DEHP4650MP.

It may have been a dud deck I dunno.

I have used a Clarion b4 and SQ was good.

The problem is/was it skipped like an eight year old girl and had very low output to what I considder would be reasonable.

I haven't had the same problems with Pioneer.
SQ was very good anti skip ditto and had heaps of output.

To be fair though I was/am comparing a DXZ715 and a DEHP9450 the Pioneer would have been released about a year later.

The most obvious differences between the wto would be that you listened as different output levels, and/or there was some form of EQ applied to the either deck that may have altered the sound between the two.

I would suggest choosing the deck which offers the features, looks and price you prefer foremost - as outright SQ between head units is not obvious until you start spending into the throusands.

I've owned 2 Clarion units in the last year.
The 835MP and now the 945MP.

Both have never skipped a beat in my daily driving (this is in a car with low profile tyres and lowered aftermarket springs) and the SQ is awesome.

I won't take anything away from the pioneers though...they're pretty good units. Most of my friends have them.
But in my experience, I'd still recommend a Clarion over them.

However, in the end i think it's getting the one with the features u'll need/use that will make the final decision for you.

Its good to see people who are brand loyal to Clarion- most of the time you only hear the Alpine Boys Choir!!!

Clarion DXZ835MP

Daily dirt roads, most pretty cut up. never skipped.

I've used Clarion, Pioneer and Alpine units, they were all great and I have no loyalty to any And they were all top line decks too.

So as Damon said, choose the one with the features you like best because they will sound very similar and both of decent quality.

so true not many ppl give a 2nd look to other HU's particular the clarions there just as competive as the alpine's if not better

from a happy customer of the Clarion DXZ835MP :hehe:

Yep I'd take a clarion over any of the others mention any day only complaint with my DXZ735MP is the colours only red and green bloody hard to see in daylight.

Both Clarion and Alpine are car audio specialists. This is a fundamental reason why their head-units are generally so good, sought-after and highly regarded.

Other consumer electronics manufacturers such as Pioneer, Kenwood, Eclipse and JVC make excellent high-end units that are hard to separate, but quality varies with the middle and entry level models.

However, at any level, it's much of a muchness.

Stick with an established brand and select on features first, price second, looks third.

Do Google research and bargain hard.

I like the consistancy and quality of Alpine. The button and knob control system is akin to Nokia phones in terms of instant familiarity from model to model, year to year. However, any good brand can sway with me with a killer line or product. Take the Clarion HXD2...mmmmm

ive got a clarion deck, and it leaves big brown stains all over my mate pioneer, but you would be much better spending your hard earn cash on a top class set splits... really i must attribute most of the SQ of my deck to my little sound processor buddy, hehe... what a freebie the dude i bought my deck off pulled this puppy off the demo board and said mate you want this... it runs with your deck..... sweet... anyway my point... it isnt really the deck that results in SQ (although it does play a part, both the mention brands and almost level pegging through their respective range) anyway your best bet is to go with what you like the sound/look/ease of use etc...
good luck
cheers craig

hell yeah HXD2 )

i have no "real" brand preferences. all the headies at the "sub-$900ish" mark are quite similar in specs/performance. for this money, you'll usually find some sort of eq (usually parametric) and little features you might find useful.

keep your eye out for higher-spec dacs. clarion's 24bit jobbies and jvc's nice 24bit resolution dacs spring to mind... but alpine seems to have always succeeded with their single bit...

at any rate, you'd be better-off spending $400 on a headunit and $600 on splits than $800 on headunit and $200 on splits. try to balance it all out. having a megabuck headie is nice, but unless you have equal performance from your amps, speakers, installation, signal processing, wiring, etc... you're wasting money.

d

Yeah, if ur workin on a fixed budget, give a bit more to the splits. U'll be hearing them more than anything else.

I run a Clarion DRX-9255 (old school eh?) and i LOVE IT. Even the latest high-end gear is hard to compare to this baby...

people often bitch about it skipping (wont skip if installed properly) and not reading CDR's (reads them fine if you burn at lower speeds, ie, not 52x hehe.

I absoutely hate junk decks with more rice on them than you can poke a stick at. they're useless garbage. give me an analog volume dial and a pause button and I'm fine.

Hey PULSSSAR I'm thinking of getting a DRX-9255 when I see one for a good price have you found any particular CDRs won't work or some that will at different speeds most of my cds are burnt at 6* or less since I only recently got a faster burner and are datastream CDRs don't suppose if you know if these would work? Thanx for your time.

hey Marlin, yeh I burn them at 4x, they seem fine, I've used verbatim, sony, cdr's etc...

You wont be dissapointed, such a great sound

They're good enough for me to place an order for my HX-D2 last week as an upgrade from my also very good DRX-9675z.
I had a listen and play with the new DRZ-938R touch screen (NZ gets the Euro models with RDS)today...very nice as well and so easy to use.

check the specs for each unit out in detail as well. always givves you a good indication

i've used two clarion decks and using the 835 currently...no complaints from me