Car-Sterophiles help needed.

[headchange4u]

Well the display in my old Pioneer car CD player died the other day. I had beed wanting to get a new one, but I had been putting it off because I spend most of my disposable income on headphone equipment.

So it's time to get a new CD player for my 91 Toyota pickup. I have a pretty vast knowledge of stereo, home theater, computer, and heaphone equipment (thanks to this site). My knowledge of car audio is a bit lacking as I was never that into car stereos growing up.

There are a few features that are a must have on my new unit. I trying not to spend over 200.00 on a head unit. Here is a list of the MUST HAVE features:

mp3 and/or wma amd aac playback
auxilary input either front or rear (most important)
XM ready
CD-RW
HD radio ready (not that important)
1 DIN

I am going to use the aux. input to pipe in audio from my iPod, MyFi sat. radio, and mini disc player. I may add an iPod control unit and XM unit later, but right now I will be fine with the aux. input.


I have been looking at 2 Kenwood units. The are the Kenwood Excelon KDC-X789 and the Kenwood Excelon KDC-X689 . The only difference I see between the 2 units is that the 789 has a 64 color display. The both look like the also have good pre-amp out options. The 789 and 689 sell for $349 on Crutchfield. I found them both on Ebay. I can get the 789 for about $225 shipped and I can get the 689 for about $200. I will pay the extra $25 to get the color display.

I am using the stock dash speakers (5 1/4 ) and a set of pioneer 6x9's right now. I am not currently using an amp. I will upgrading those at a later date.

If anyone has any other suggestions I would be happy to hear them. Comments on the Kenwood units would be welcome also. I am also open to buying a used unit if anyone has something that will fit my criteria.

 

[Mr.PD]

I have two year old version of one of those Kenwood Excelons. I love it.
It sounds good, and it has a setting for almost everything. I think it's pretty tough too. I once dropped the faceplate on the street as I was taking it out of it's case. It chipped the corner, but that was the only thing hurt. I've had it in two different cars, but have never set it up with an amp. So I can't speak about how it sounds with an amp.
The only complaint I have is about MP3 playback. The manual says the unit will play the songs in the order they were laid on the disc. This isn't true. It plays the songs in the typical alphabetical numerical order that almost everything else does.
I was turned off by Kenwood years ago with a couple bad quality units. Then I read that the Excelon line was good. I tried this one out, and I agree, this is better quality than the old standard line was. I would buy another Kenwood Excelon.
If one of those has all the features you need, get one.

 

[RedLeader]

not a big kenwood fan at all, and personally my suggestion would be to spend less on the HU and buy some fronts. I don't care how much you spend on a HU, if you're using stock 14-year old fronts it's going to sound like crap.

 

[headchange4u]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedLeader not a big kenwood fan at all, and personally my suggestion would be to spend less on the HU and buy some fronts. I don't care how much you spend on a HU, if you're using stock 14-year old fronts it's going to sound like crap.

They made be old but they still work. Right now the HU in my priority because my old one is dying fast. I have never used Kenwood products, but this unit seems to be a very good one from the reviews I have read.

I do plan on upgrading all of my speakers and adding an amp in the future, but I need to take care of the problem of a fully functioning head unit first.

 

[RedLeader]

well my personal recommendation would be alpine/pioneer, and if you're strapped for cash, panasonic. But you don't have to listen to me. Go somewhere like www.canadiancaraudio.com and ask them

 

[hceiv]

Hey,

I've got an alpine HU, and it's pretty nice. The best head units you can buy in terms of sound quality are eclipse. the new ones have an 8 volt preout as opposed to the norm of 4 or 5. also, there are many other sound quality features on this unit that put it ahead of the rest. the only thing is that they don't play aac files, only mps wma.

 

[RedLeader]

I would've said eclipse, but thats far outside his price range