I am deciding between the Kenwood Excelon KDC-X991 or pioneer DEH-P980BT. They both seem about the same as features and specs go. This is my first HU purchase and I do not have any exp with these brands.

I want best SQ and will be using Ipod with HU as well. I have not seen these in person yet and plan to check them out before i purchase.

Thanks

 

Kenwood Excelon FTW!!! ...if i had the balls to cut up my dash, i would have installed another Kenwood Excelon double din screen, instead i have my JVC piece of crap

by the way, nice color choice

 

MOST (IMO) people on this forum will tell you Alpine is the way to go, with Pioneer coming in as runner up. I would even go so far as saying 10% of the HUs that s2ks are running are Alpine 9885 or 9835.

 

I think that's partly self-reinforcing - people look to the forum for headunit
suggestions, see that other people have liked their Alpines, so they buy them
too. I'd guess that a majority of those Alpine users never tried anything
else. Alpine, Pioneer and Kenwood all make good headunits (and they all
also make some crappy ones).

 

I have used all three, and they are all fantastic.

 

My friend is a big Alpine freak but I'm just no into them. I was waiting for the new Eclipse CD7200 MKII but I don't like the fact the screen is not color. I guess I could just get the CD7100 I know some people are running them here. I plan on using an Audison amp, 10w6v2 sub and not sure what components I will buy yet. I can't seem to find an Audison dealer, should I take this as a bad sign? I thought audison was some good stuff. I am into SQ a lot, when i have time I will listen to the HU. Thanks

 

I think as long as you get a decent name brand, it will be hard to differentiate between sound quality with similar specs. I'd recommend getting whatever interface is best and easier for you to use by messing around with other HU's at a store. For example, the Ipod feature on my Alpine is a little better than my old Panasonic HU.

 

Audison is top quality product. Primarily a European Co. Check their website and click on dealers. They list (1) for USA with an e-mail contact. It's up to you if you want to risk the support issue possibilities from such a limited dealer network. Me...I would stay with a company better represented in our corner of the world. If you want to spend lots...try Butler Audio or Zapco.

FYI....In our cars you will NOT be able to tell the difference in sound quality "while driving" from these amps versus a good quality mainstream amplifier...IE....Alpine, Infinity, JBL, JL Audio, Kenwood, Kicker, Pioneer....etc. Just stay away from the crappy ebay amps that list thousands of watts and sell for cheap!!!!

 

Yeah I kind of figured that the sound quality would be corrupted while driving. I like the audison becuase of the 6ch and how you can split into 4/2 ohm 2x240 +1x470 I don't want to run 2 amps. I am not familiar with bridging and all that but this is the only amp i have seen so far that list options like that.

 

I found some friend in europe and they sent me Audison amp from there. I guess just try to contact somebody from EU on the forum and probably they might help.

I didn't know the price range because there is almost nothing about Audison's in the internet even when I tried to search on european ebay.
But I was surprised when they quoted mine LRx 4.5 for only $650

Also, if you really want it I'm going to europe very soon (hopefully in march), and can bring something back for you