Yourgrandma 10+ year member
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I'm casually perusing the options out there in HU's. Im currently running an Alpine thats a few years old. (Cant recall the model). I mostly listen to lossless files from my iPod and have grown quite acustomed to having about half of my (350gb) music library with me all the time.
So, from what I can tell, the Ipoods biggest limiting factor is its cheap DAC chip. Im seeing a few models out there which claim to bypass the ipods dac and use their own. Problem is, I cant decide on one.
ackground: The car is a fully dynamatted 02 Bonneville SSEi with 6.5" Boston Pro 60's in the front doors, and a pair of IDQ10s. FWIW I plan to mount the subs in 'glass enclosures in the rear deck and the door panels will be modified to aim the speakers better and to supply them with enclosures.
Anyway, I'm looking at a couple options. Since I know a DD video HU will fit, I'd like to explore that option. Clarion's VX709 interests me because it has all the goodies and Clarion has a rep for good SQ. It is rather pricey, though. I like the option to play video through the iPod, too. Nice touch, though I dont put video on it because I have to much music.
The second option is the JVC AVX720. I guess I don't know of anything that sets it apart from anything else. It doesnt appear to have Burr-Brown DACs, not that B are the only good dac chips, but I dont know whats in this one.
Then theres the Alpine X305. Lacks CD player. That's dumb. Not that I use mine a whole lot, It's nice to have. I like the ability to switch backlight colors. My dash lighting is red, so the blue that 90% of decks have looks stupid. I'm worried about the brightness of the screen here. I rutienly open my faceplate to darken my cabin while driving at night.
Matter of fact, that's something I'd like to know about all these units. Can these screens be powered off at night?
Last one is the Eclipse CD7200 Mk2. I love pre amp only decks. Why spend the money on an internal amp if I'm not using it? The thing looks about 14 years old, but as with Clarion, they have a great reputation and I haven't heard much in the way of bad vibes from them.
If you've read all this, thanks. I'd love to hear your input on any or all of these as well as any others I should add to the list.
So, from what I can tell, the Ipoods biggest limiting factor is its cheap DAC chip. Im seeing a few models out there which claim to bypass the ipods dac and use their own. Problem is, I cant decide on one.
ackground: The car is a fully dynamatted 02 Bonneville SSEi with 6.5" Boston Pro 60's in the front doors, and a pair of IDQ10s. FWIW I plan to mount the subs in 'glass enclosures in the rear deck and the door panels will be modified to aim the speakers better and to supply them with enclosures.
Anyway, I'm looking at a couple options. Since I know a DD video HU will fit, I'd like to explore that option. Clarion's VX709 interests me because it has all the goodies and Clarion has a rep for good SQ. It is rather pricey, though. I like the option to play video through the iPod, too. Nice touch, though I dont put video on it because I have to much music.
The second option is the JVC AVX720. I guess I don't know of anything that sets it apart from anything else. It doesnt appear to have Burr-Brown DACs, not that B are the only good dac chips, but I dont know whats in this one.
Then theres the Alpine X305. Lacks CD player. That's dumb. Not that I use mine a whole lot, It's nice to have. I like the ability to switch backlight colors. My dash lighting is red, so the blue that 90% of decks have looks stupid. I'm worried about the brightness of the screen here. I rutienly open my faceplate to darken my cabin while driving at night.
Matter of fact, that's something I'd like to know about all these units. Can these screens be powered off at night?
Last one is the Eclipse CD7200 Mk2. I love pre amp only decks. Why spend the money on an internal amp if I'm not using it? The thing looks about 14 years old, but as with Clarion, they have a great reputation and I haven't heard much in the way of bad vibes from them.
If you've read all this, thanks. I'd love to hear your input on any or all of these as well as any others I should add to the list.
