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audiophile headunits???? where did they all go???


Nsomnia

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I have been researching, researching and researching the last few weeks on how to get good sound quality.

here is what ive found.

first and formost, if you do not have a quality source (ie. lossless files, or at a minimum all 320 mp3s, but good ear will hear mp3 flaws), there is no point proceeding from any deck on the market. if the data isnt there it wont come out the other end sounding good.

second, the source you are playing from, apple products, android, cd or sd, or even hard drive. this input determines where to go from here.

the things that are for sure. you need a dedicated digital processor. Audison bit 10 or bit10d, bitone, mosconi 6 to 8, rockford 360.3, etc. this is where the magic will happen and most headunits will never come close to comparing. the 80 prs is a great choice for the price. and i would say it has sound quality aspects but there are parts that are certainly lacking and it doesnt really go the extra mile, but for 350, 280 most places, its not a bad choice for an all in one that does everything fairly well.

you need quality speakers and locations. speakers on right planes. in some cases a properly set up 2 way can sound just as good as any 3 way out there.

quality speakers wiring and amps will have the least effect but are important in their own categories.

if you are looking for a deck. 80prs hands down for the price. if you are looking for sound quality and money isnt an issue, audison or any other fully digital sound processor is the way to go.

if you have an i product, ipure20 is a good way to get digital out of the ipod iphone ipad to a toslink cable which you can input into most high end processors. only issues becomes charging the device. but thats a good 1500 just to get the signal processed right

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^^ for the most part I agree with this. Really SQ is a lot about speaker placement and tunning. The headunit COULD get in the way of that, but you are going to get most of the way there with any 2-3way active capable head unit these days playing good source material. The main issue with Pioneer for me is the crossovers are crap and I am not happy with the menu structure. They make simple things difficult for not reason.

Also another option is running a iBasso or FiiO player that supports FLAC/OGG and other lossless format and has audiophile Digital/Audio converters as well as headphone amps.

I was looking into running a iBasso DX90 which has a coax out that you can run to a DSP, Alpine HX800/Mosconi/Helix. But thats a pretty pricey option. The ESS chips are really nice though. One problem with this is that you would most likely have to run a external headphone amp or some kind of pre-amp.

The simpler your setup the better it will sound most likely.

Another option you can look into is a alpine or old school eclipse head unit to a audison amplifier. Then you can run active off the amplifier and the audison amps have a lot of versitility and don't muttle the signal like some amp crossovers do.

To be perfectly honest a decent crossover on amp should be fine but most manufactuers seem to build the crossover as an afterthought I feel like.

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Im running the Kenwood Exelon DNX9980HD with no problems whatsoever.

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you do not need a dedicated digital processor for sq that is just plain wrong!!! it just makes life so much easier

quality speakers is a loaded statement who defines what quality is? you need a good wide frequency response with out break up from a speaker that's all in the specs.

My wifes car has less the 200 paid for all her mids and highs and after hours of tunning and on the RTA i will put it against 90% of all the vehicles on this site.

I'm going to leave now thinking of all the wrong in this thread is making my head hurt

Have you ever had your woofers blown?

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