hey mate. i am building a new car system and i am looking for a high end head unit and i have no budget in my mind. as long as it is good enough to play with SQ and mp3, and i buy it. what high end head unit do you recommend? and why? thanks so much

Cheers
PHD

You do realise that High end headunit rarely accept mp3 and if it does it may 'show' those poor encoding. Eclipse high end, Naka, Denon, Alpine (7998, 9855R, F1), Clarion (HXD-2), Macintosh (one model can accept mp3 i think), Pioneer P9.
I really like the sound of my entry level Denon, much2x better than the old Pioneer P9700R. Some people with more experience should be able to tell u more.

PHD, if you had bought the AVH-P7650DVD instead of the 5650 you would have got all the DTS and Dolby Digital and 5.1 control you had wanted

However if you've really got money to spend, you could buy a Nakamichi CD700 MKII for $3999...

Or a much more sensible option would be to buy the CD700 MKI for sale in forums for $1000 Well looked after and reputable seller....

How much do you really have to spend? P90RS combo? There are very expensive combinations available, budget and functionality is the key...

And as said, if you're THAT serious about SQ, you won't use MP3

theres plenty of people who are serious about SQ, but sometimes just want a cd full of beats to play, at no hassle.

or perhaps want a stacker, with a couple of high-def, a couple of mp3 file boxes, etc

Aux in :- MP3/DVD player into your nak headunit;) Best of both worlds

My vote for Alpine F1 status DVI9990+PXI-H990 . It will play anything you throw at it, including a DVD-R full of mp3 and DVD vdo. the peocessor have more tuning tools than you will ever need. will kill P90RS any day of the week. I own 2 of them. It is the best HU I ever own since I started with this hobby and I have own/ experienced nearly every hi-end HU on the market.

Yeah i'm with all the guys above. If you are serious about SQ, you won't use MP3. It's not as if MP3 can't sound good though - a friend of mine has a HTPC and I heard him play some MP3's on it. He sampled his MP3's at a ridiculously high rate and had some outboard DAC which I have never heard of. The SQ was very close to the CD original!

There are a couple of high end HU's for sale in the FS section. ICACHA is selling his Nak CD700. I am selling my McIntosh MX-406. Unfortch neither will do MP3. Both are going for about $1000.

i dont know how anyone could justify spending $3000 on a head unit, what is the difference between that and say the top of the line JVC which is what $1500? or any head unit around the 1k mark.

You cetainly can't pick the difference in a moving car.

The diifference from a really good, $800 CD player to a really, really good $3000 CD player is so slight, you're better off to spend the $2200 on better speakers.

Phil

exactly. Home theatre sure i just cant see how one could be 300% better.

It's all about the 'wow' factor, once u spend that much, your brain will automatically 'reproduce' the music at higher quality .

lol

not too many highend headunit plays MP3... but on top of my mind is Nakamichi CD500... i don't have to tell you about how good nakamichi is coz i guess you know how it is... if you can get rid MP3 outta your list, consider Denon and HXD2... i have both of them and i love them so much... Alpine F#1 is superb, but yet it is extremely costly... i wouldn't recommend P9R... the price doesn't match the sound quality...

can kenwood xxv-oo1d and k-cd01 do the job? i have seen a lot of review and all of them has good result or eclipse CD 8455 or CD8445 would be better?


PHD

The difference between a $1500 headunit and a $3000 headunit is Magic fairy dust .

George

not just ANY fairy dust mind you

that top quality crap.

That's true, if you decide to spend triple the money on a CD player or $1000 on a set of RCAs you've already convinced yourself.

Virtually no-one ever performs a double blind, back to back test on their own system after these kind of changes.

Your system sounds awesome, you spend $3000 on a CD player, sit down for a listen.....guess what, your system sounds awesome.

Phil