# Newbie ?: HU....Which One?



## Wyldstyle (Sep 10, 2003)

Hello All,

I am still new to car audio, however I am learning quickly. I do not know much about amps or HUs, and all the other jargon so please be patient with me. Someone on the forums rated HUs in the order of SQ and I cannot remember the order so I need everyone's help. Here is what I am looking for out of a HU. I want the following:

1) Clean great SQ
2) Motorized, Slide-Down Faceplate 
3) CD/CD-R/CDRW/MP3/WMA 
4) Ease of Use
5) Satellite (preferred XM...only because Grandmaster Flash has a show on XM.)

I like the Eclipse, but would rather have a blacked out system. Silver does not look good!! Sony looks good, but not so sure about SQ. Nakamichi is looks plain...still not sure about MP3s ability with these units. 

To bring the whole picture together here is the SQL system I will be building:

Car: 1995 Nissan Sentra GXE - 4 doors
HU:??? (Any recommendations)
AMPS:??? (Any recommendations...must be 4-Channel)
Front Speakers: Focal 165v2 or Focal 165K2P

Rear Speakers:??? (I might just install Focal in rear doors...any thoughts?)

Subs: JL W7 (but I am open to other options.)

Thank you all for your time.


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## Punkrocka436 (Jul 8, 2003)

Wyldstyle said:


> Hello All,
> 
> I am still new to car audio, however I am learning quickly. I do not know much about amps or HUs, and all the other jargon so please be patient with me. Someone on the forums rated HUs in the order of SQ and I cannot remember the order so I need everyone's help. Here is what I am looking for out of a HU. I want the following:
> 
> ...



Alright. My first recommendation for Head unit, beacuse of your specifications..woudl be an alpine CDA-9813 or something along the lines of that. They can be had for about 300 dollars. They also have XM capability (need to buy tuner and antenna), as well as the CDR/CDRW/MP3/WMA capabilities

Now if your going for sound quality, why dont you consider just ditchign rear speakers all together and investing in a good set of component speakers for up front, and just a 2 channel amp to power them. the high end focals are good as well as Boston Acoustics. For an amp to power them look at Phoenix gold or Eclipse.

As for the sub, the JL W7 is a great sub, but it costs about a grand. if you are looking for good SQ...look into Adire Audio Brahma, Elemental Designs A series (SR20Demon has the e12a and loves it) or an Image Dynamics IDMAX.

I am sure SR20Demon will be around with his opinion, and it shouldnt be taken lightly. He is one of the biggest audiophiles on this board and really knows his shit.


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## sr20dem0n (Mar 19, 2003)

Everything Punkrocka said is good, Alpine is a very nice brand. Good reliability, good SQ, and plenty of features. Sony is crap, don't give them a second look. Everyone I've talked to with a Sony deck had it crap out on them within a year or 2, they have bad sound quality, not many features, just not a good deck to buy. Look into Pioneer, Eclipse, and Clarion as well, those are really the top headunit manufacturers out there right now.

I'll always recommend a single pair of speakers over fronts and rears, the rears just don't add anything to the sound (provided you have a sub). I mean you're actually paying a lot of money (for the speakers themselves, and for the larger amp to power both them and the fronts) for something that makes your sound _worse_. If you absolutely have to have rears, just run them off of the headunit and buy a powerful (100x2 or larger) amp for the fronts.

As for brands:
For speakers, Focal is good, as is Boston Acoustics, Diamond, Crystal, CDT, Adire, and more than I can't think of right now (it's finals week, give me a break )
For amps, Phoenix Gold, Soundstream, DEI, and Hifonics are all good budget brands. If you're looking to spend a bit more money you can get some really nice stuff, but these are definately good starter brands.
And for subs, the w7 is...well it's a nice sub, but I don't like it. Unless you put it in a tiny sealed box it can't play above 50hz to save its life, and in order to get any kind of good low end out of it in a box that small, you have to feed it some rediculous power (1500rms or more). In any other kind of box it just sounds muddy above ~50hz, which means in order to retain good sound quality you have to LP it at 50 and HP your mids in the same place, which means you need a VERY strong front stage to get any kind of blending going on. I would look into some more "flexible" subs instead, everything Punkrocka listed is good, check out the Adire Brahma, IDMAX, SI Magnum, RE XXX, Orion H2, or if you can wait the new eD Av2 line will be out and they look downright MEAN.

We'll be able to help you some more if you give us price ranges for amps, sub, components, and headunit, or just for the system as a whole. I like to spend around the same amount of money on every piece of a system I build (headunit, front speakers, speaker amp, sub, sub amp, etc), it helps to keep things balanced, so just keep that in mind.


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## Punkrocka436 (Jul 8, 2003)

Heh, i told you he would be around.


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## sr20dem0n (Mar 19, 2003)

hehe, I guess I'm too predictable huh?


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## Punkrocka436 (Jul 8, 2003)

maybe so....but your feedback is always welcome grandmaster audio


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## sr20dem0n (Mar 19, 2003)

awww, I feel so loved


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## Wyldstyle (Sep 10, 2003)

sr20dem0n said:


> Everything Punkrocka said is good, Alpine is a very nice brand. Good reliability, good SQ, and plenty of features. Sony is crap, don't give them a second look. Everyone I've talked to with a Sony deck had it crap out on them within a year or 2, they have bad sound quality, not many features, just not a good deck to buy. Look into Pioneer, Eclipse, and Clarion as well, those are really the top headunit manufacturers out there right now.
> 
> I'll always recommend a single pair of speakers over fronts and rears, the rears just don't add anything to the sound (provided you have a sub). I mean you're actually paying a lot of money (for the speakers themselves, and for the larger amp to power both them and the fronts) for something that makes your sound _worse_. If you absolutely have to have rears, just run them off of the headunit and buy a powerful (100x2 or larger) amp for the fronts.
> 
> ...


Thank You for such a detail response to my original post, "Newbie ?: HU....Which One?"

In a nutshell I am looking to install or have installed a better sound system (good-better-best-Greatest). I am willing to spend about $1500.

While being a newbie to the whole subject, I have been asking just about any and everybody about car audio, including going to shops and listen and playing with HUs, Subs, coxicals and just about any and everything. So here are few recommendations I have received.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- -
System #1
HU:Nakamichi CD-400 OR Eclipse CD 5444
Front Speakers: Focal 165V2 
4 Channel AMP: JL Audio OR Zapco 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
System #2
1) 2 Channel AMP 600w (300x2) into 2 OHMS
1) 2-farad Digital capacitor
1) 4 Channel AMP 800w (200x4) into 2 OHMS
1) 1000 cold crank Optima Battery (Gel Cell)
1) Phoenix gold high output Altenator
1) Dyno mat/ Spray foam
1) Power converter/ Battery isolator (135 AMP)
1) Auxiliary Battery kit

Diagram: ----- = conection
HU---Parametic EQ----Epicenter subs-----A/V Unit

Setup
HU:
Speakers: (Front )MB Quart 3-way
(Rear) Titanium plated 6 x 9
Subs: Two (2) 10in Ported box thru rear deck
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
System #3: 
(My idea - based on others suggestions)

HU: Clarion DXZ835MP http://www.thezeb.com/detail.aspx?ID=1239

Speakers: Focal 165K2P (Front)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As you can see I have tooo much information to make any type of decision. Now someone is suggesting a PPI 480 @$199 OR a Helix. and now all the hoopla over the JL W7s......I might just settle for stock and call it a life. Anyways I could use your help, and what do you think about the above systems. 

Thanks again!!


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## sr20dem0n (Mar 19, 2003)

Haha, I know the feeling, trust me. It can be really overwhelming at times and you just don't know what to pick. Hell just a couple of days ago I was facing the same dilemma trying to pick an amp for my front stage, check it out:
http://www.caraudioforum.com/vbb3/showthread.php?t=186654
All of those are retarded nice amps, but it's just so hard to pick one

Really what you need to do is give yourself a few criteria to search on and then be very stringent with them. For example, for headunits it would be something like:
1 - faceplate has to be removable
2 - mp3 capability
3 - has to have built in time correction

Or something like that, then you go through all these products and you cut the ones that don't meet what's on the list. Eventually you end up with a few, and then you just have to pick one. Takes a long time, takes a lot of work and patience, but it will pay off in the end I promise.

Out of what you have listed...
System 1 - I'm not a big fan, for the budget you have you can get better speakers, and unless you have some sort of external EQ the Nak headunit won't be a good choice. The Eclipse would work as long as you like it. As for the amps, both of those are very nice brands, but you really need to ask yourself if you want to spend all that extra money on a 4ch amp (and it really is a lot, check out the 2ch version of those amps with similar power). IMO If you want rears, the 20rms or so that a headunit puts out will be more than sufficient, and your money would be better spent on either a higher power 2ch amp or better speakers and a similar power 2ch amp.

System 2 - No need for a cap, battery, or alternator. That's only a 1000 watt setup (the 4ch won't be running at 2ohm, so it would really be putting out 100x4), your stock electrical system will be fine as long as you upgrade the magic 3. Front speakers are good, providing you like the way MB Quarts sound (highs are too harsh IMO, though they're very detailed) and you're willing to spend the time and money that is required to install a 3-way setup properly. Rears, I really don't know, I'm not sure what those are. Sub setup is alright, I really think you should decide on the specific sub you want before how many of what size you want. There are 15's out there that will slaugter 99% of all 10's in both sound quality and output, you just have to know which ones they are.

System 3 - Looks like a nice start, Clarion makes good heads and those are excellent speakers. Make sure you're satisfied with the features the Clarion has first though, I'm told they have good reliability, sound, and appearance, but they lack a little when it comes to tuning and processing features.

PPI amps are nice, they've gone downhill a little as of late, but they're still solid
Helix amps are the shit, but they're SOO expensive. A good 4ch Helix amp to power your front stage would cost more than your entire $1500 budget would allow.

$1500 is actually about what I spent on the system that I have now and I'm pretty satisfied, though if I had to do it again with the same budget I would most likely get better front speakers and a different headunit. Right now I have:
Pioneer Premier DEH-P750MP headunit
Avionixx 400.2 amp
Focal 165v2 components
Avionixx 800.2 sub amp
Elemental Designs e12A sub

I spent a little more on the sub/sub amp than I probably should have considering the system it was going in, and as a result my front stage simply can't keep up. Here's a system I recommend for you:
Alpine CDA-9831 - $270
Boston Acoustics ProSeries 6.5 - $260
Zapco Reference 350.2 - $300
Boston Acoustics FX6 or FX92 (depending on if you have 6.5" or 6x9) - $80
2x Adire Audio Shiva - $250 total
Phoenix Gold Tantrum 600.4 (bridged to each sub) - $215
Wiring - $75
Box Supplies - $30
Total: $1480

Those subs do need a lot of breathing room though, if you want to use a smaller box then you could go with a single IDMAX 12 or SI Magnum D2. Of course if you did you would have to switch the amp too, but that's not a big deal.


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