New head unit

Okay, so my Clarion DX425 head unit which is in for repairs, has been declared unfixable by the warranty company. The dual RCA pre-outs have never worked, so they're going to give me a replacement head unit. The girl said that since there may not be a Clarion available with those exact features, I may get another brand like Sony, etc. Since I want my next head unit to play MP3s, and have a subwoofer pre-out, she said I can probably just pay the difference and upgrade to a better head unit.

Right now I just have 100W going to a 10" in a very small sealed box... I may eventually get a 300 - 600W RMS amp going to a better sub and use the 100W for my 6.5"s... either way I still want a good head unit.

My first choice was Alpine... I may also just do Clarion, or Panasonic... any suggestions please?

I am VERY pleased with my new Kenwood 7028. i was on a tight budget but if ur looking for something better, i'd say go a model or two higher, like the 900 series. IMO they're easy to use, look tight, and nice quality.

I don't really want to go for Kenwood myself...

i like alpine, eclipse, pioneer, and panasonic

kenwood clarion and jvc never really did much for me.. seen a lot of problems with these companies

and then i suppose higher end sony stuff is ok but i dont knwo if its worth it..

Yeah... see I could just go for a Clarion or Pioneer with MP3 and sub output... or I could spend more and get an Alpine... just wondering how much of a difference it would really make.

Having MP3 would be pretty damn cool though.

well dude the reckon pioneer make the best head units...then would come kenwood followed by sony. At present i have a kenwood head unit in my car and it rocks...only problem is the face plate turns around and the strap attached to it (some sort of wiring thing) wares out...i got the head unit in 2002 so i assume they have correct this fault with there latest models. I had a sony explode and it craped out...not impressed with sony...so it would either be pioneer or kenwood

I'm not really a fan of Kenwood... Pioneer is pretty cool, I really should go in and look at the Alpines they have right now. I've heard bad things and good things about that glide touch strip.

Okay they just called me, it turns out they decided to just repair the unit instead of replacing it... so supposedly they fixed both front and rear pre-outs. Oh well... I just hope they actually work this time.

good luck with the fixed clarion.

I wouldnt go with kenwood, in the one deck i had from them the rcas went out 2 times. That was within 2 months. Will never buy kenwood again. I like alpine and pioneer.

Yeah hopefully the RCA's will work... don't you have an Alpine imtheoneandonlyD? How are you liking the glide strip?

that little glide strip thing is kinda silly .... and VERY confusing at first because it will start randomly flipping thru the functions for no apparent reason until you get used to it

I just tried out the glide strip yesterday, it would definitely take some getting used to. I was thinking about upgrading to an Alpine, but damn they're expensive, I think it was $549 for the highest one which was the CDA-9855 if I remember correctly. The cheapest one was not as expensive but only had one set of pre-outs.

Anyways they ended up repairing the head unit, the volume knob was not functioning occasionally, so it looks like they put another used one on there. As for the RCA cables, they're the exact same cables. It says on the sheet that they fixed a bad ground in the head unit. They also wrote "please check your amplifier" which makes me wonder how well they fixed it... I tried a different head unit, different amp, different RCA cables, different subwoofers, so I'm positive it's the head unit RCA's that are busted, and not just my amp.

I don't know much about RCA's, is it possible that it was just a bad ground? I'm going to put it back in and test it out, hopefully it works this time.

bestbuy has the 9853 for like $360

I'm in Canada, by the way, so CAD.

I live in southern US .... so canadian exchange rates mean nothing to me

If you still want opinions on decks: I would go with either panasonic or pioneer. these two are the best "bang for the buck" IMO. alpine is good too, don't bother with the glidestrip model unless you really want to. the lesser models are just as good and are less $$$$$$. Sony is a good company but, with the exception of the MD units, i hate their car products. I don't want to, but i've heard and seen too many cases of blown subs and crappy decks. If you insist on getting a sony, buy one of the Active Black Panel models. kenwood and clarion don't have that great of build quality, and JVC is okay in some aspects. Any other brand you should probably stay away from. What brand amp and sub do you have?

I have a small Pioneer amp right now... but I wanted to keep myself covered incase I upgrade to a better one. I don't have a sub right now.

I have a small Pioneer amp right now... but I wanted to keep myself covered incase I upgrade to a better one. I don't have a sub right now.
I got a pioneer amp too. I like it cuz it provides just enough power to make the Kenwood subs sound terrific.