Where have all the nice head units gone?

[ttocs]

I had to laugh a little bit at walmart last week when I went by the cd lane. I was happy to find inbetween all the beiber bullshit a couple of old cd's I needed to replace(pearl jam and beastie boys) for $5 each new....

[smgreen20]

As we all know, I'm all for Clarion. Their 702 looks fairly good for it's price point. Not so much the looks, but they do look better in peraon then on a screen.

http://clarion.com/us/en/products/2012/ ... 24064.html

I know it might not be the highest quality you're after Eric, but it's not to shabby.

[Eric D]

I am a big Clarion fan and would consider them as well. Clarion has always been more dedicated to sound quality than most of the other manufacturers.

I especially liked the older units, and that you can lock out the bass, treble, and fade controls if you wish. This information was not in the manual, but in Clarion dealer tech documents. If the new units still have this ability, I would be even more interested.

What really impressed me with Clarion was when I took a Clarion head unit I had on the shelf (1996 or 1997 era), which was last used sometime around 2002 and connected it up on my test bench to check and see if it worked. It still was tuned to the last station I had it on, and all my presets were stored in memory. Why the hell can't any other other companies do this? If I pull the battery on my truck for 10 seconds, I loose everything in my head unit (Kenwood).

I really wanted to swap out the Kenwood deck I have in my test bench for a Clarion, but sadly I sit below the deck, and the displays in all the Clarions I have are not viable from this angle.

[STROKD]

DRX-9255... If u can't find get a DRZ even though they are uglier.

[Lance_S]

The new pioneer 80 looks solid. I am surprised that it doesn't all for lossless though. That is disappointing.

[rc10mike]

IMO, the P99RS is the only way to go for high-end head units. It does everything.

My last HU was a 800PRS. It was great but usb option sucked horribly. The P99 does everything I could ever want. Sadly, In this day, you NEED a digital media option on a HU. The P99 works great with USB. Right now I use a 64gb thumb drive with WAV files and its great, Havent tried a HDD yet. I only wish it would play FLAC...

[SLICK]

I use a JVC Arsenal KD-A925bt in my rig , Works for what I need it to do ,

I still have a Alpine 9815 hanging out though too lol

[jbob0124]

Anyone ever use or have any input on the Parrot Asteriod? The wife saw it in one of Crutchfields magazines and wants one in her car. She likes all the bells and whistles that it has.

[nutxo]

I check daily for the cz702x to be released. I thought was having issues with my head unit overheating but it turned out to b a bad connection to a relay and every time it got warm my sub amp would shut off.....

Now i have to find an excuse to replace the thing :-p

[Pillow]

I would add that the now old Kenwood X-995 and/or new X-996 would be a great option!

Time alignment
3 sets of high output RCAs
internal amp bypass!
Features galore!!! I especially love the crossover capabilities!

The bad is that the display gets completely washed out in sunlight glare.

The only alternative IMO for a current model is the Pioneer listed before.

... Old decks the Eclipse 7200 series would be hard to beat.

[Francious70]

My OEM HU is built by Clarion, and I have to say it is SO much better than every other stock HU I've messed with. Granted, it's still a stock HU but I like it, for now anyways.

I have a Pioneer DEH-P7400 that I've had for years and years and plan on using again. All these new HU's out there offer less flexibility for more money,

[Drock]

My favorite h/u was a sony es CDX-c910 very hard to find now. But this deck was incredible. I believe it was the best h/u Sony ever built.