$300 Audio Receiver Suggestions

[yellowkyd278]

I'm setting aside ~$300 for an aftermarket deck. I'm a pretty big audiophile, just not really the car audio thing. Can anyone give suggestions of what they'd recommend? It'd be great if it matched the interior of a 2g eclipse too! Double DIN suggestions are welcome as they'd fit better. Overall, performance over appearance though.

Thanks!

 

[dylan702110988]

I like alpine products

but there's still BOSE, Infinity, Kennwood (there decent), Ive also heard good things about pioneers decks

 

[InfiniteGSX]

Alpine rocks, but one major issue, you have to be a rocket Scientist to properly tune them. Clarion, ok but sucks on the tunning capabilities. RF, never played with their Decks, Pioneer rocks and great for Audio.

My favorite deck of all time, was a high end Panasonic Deck. Not the cheap ones, the high end ones, thier audio tuning properties are like the best in the buisness. I had a full Infinity Kappa Perfect System running off a Panasonic Deck and I could get a girl wet with the way that system sounded. Its soo user friendly on the EQ, and the LPF and HPF's. But like I said, high end only. My dad's ram has a low qual. panasonic deck and its a peice!

The one I had was a 8400U. Blue dials with blue customizable screen. I Suggest a high end Panasonic, or a mid quality Pioneer (Premier if you can) deck. However, I wouldn't give up my Alpine deck for anything in the world.

Find out something you like, Ebay is a great place for finding high priced stuff for damn good prices. Also the place I shop is called http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/, They are the cheapest by far!

 

[InfiniteGSX]

Here are some Receivers I HIGHLY Recommend for your price range:

Panasonic HD:
http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=14901
And his bad ass brother...
http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=14900

Pioneer Premier:
http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=16654
http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=18379
http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=16945

*Note: The differences between the Pioneer and Pioneer Premier models, the Premier is more of an Audiophile deck. A few more bucks for more powerful preamp outputs.

Kenwood Excelon HD:
http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=17158

Alpine HD:
Little Brother of my Deck:
http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=18480

Please Note, all the links I provided are price related, First link is the cheapest one, last link is the more expensive one. I recommend HD, I know alot of the radio stations are now swapping over to HD. My favorite channel, 104.7 The Edge is turning over to HD Slowly.

 

[NeMiZiS]

I would check your local craigslist, I bought a 800 dollar pioneer deck for 200, because the guy didn't have the wiring harness, then I bought a harness online. I would go with the panasonic or pioneer , if you find an eclipse deck cheap their real good also.

 

[InfiniteGSX]

I bought my 900 dolor Alpine for 200 bucks from a old buddy

 

[TrboANTsi]

i say go with a carpc. much more custom more capabilities. www.mp3car.com you can build a kit pretty easy. my setup is a 8in touch screen with nav. lots of memory has wifi and usb ports lots of room for expansion. heres a pic.

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[InfiniteGSX]

i say go with a carpc. much more custom more capabilities. www.mp3car.com you can build a kit pretty easy. my setup is a 8in touch screen with nav. lots of memory has wifi and usb ports lots of room for expansion. heres a pic.

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He has a 300 dolor limit. I'm a MP3car.com member also, I'm one of the guys with the high end systems. I have a x64 Asus Lamborghini laptop in a docking station in both my Jeep and my Eclipse wired into a 7" Motorized Thermaltec TS and a Dual Battery system with Iscolator. 5.1 DTS Suround Sound, GPS Nav, HD DVD. I dont use a front end anymore, I use Vista Media Center x64.

My last system that I had in the black eclipse was an older Shuttle XPC with a Xenarc 7" TS molded into the stereo faceplate.

SS of my old Front End:

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I'm the graphics designer for iMeedia (*used to be Mobile Media Center). But I don't use it.

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[Defiant]

The car PC has to be the ultimate answer. In order to help get there, I recommend $80 for now, at Wal*Mart. USB, SD, AUX, and MP3 CD, remote.
http://walmart.scosche-cars.com/products2/?sfID1=24&productID=1652&walmartProductID=4744710
And a $220 start toward the PC.

 

[selmerguy]

300 can get you a car if you dont mind doing alittle work. I built one for 180 but I had a old pc lying aroung. 100 for the ebay 8 in screen and 80 for the power supply. Worked well.

 

[InfiniteGSX]

Wow, I wish I find these amazing, out of this world deals. I got my screen for that price with a broken controller board and no harnesses or anything. Cheapest I have ever spent was a tad under a grand total. There is no way you can properly build a car pc for 300 bucks.

If you scouted around on the MP3car.com classifieds, every now and then you might find a fully built system for a minimum of 400 bucks plus shipping. An old system!

 

[DGajre777]

I vote for the Pioneer Premier DEH-P880PRS.

Ipod connection, Auto EQ, Auto time alignment, Burr Brown converters, BBE processing, compression, the list goes one. I have the older version of the one above and I love it.

 

[talonalex92]

All my votes are for Pioneer PREMIER decks.

 

[TrboANTsi]

he said hes setting aside 300 i just figured if hes such a big audiophile maybe it would be worth it to set aside a little more for something that would be more appealing and sensible. now if he said limit then i understand.

 

[InfiniteGSX]

He said he's an audiophile but isn't into car audio that much... Whatever that means!

 

[zero97tsi]

Alpine FTW

My Alpine deck is fulfills all my audio needs. Just get a good one.

 

[InfiniteGSX]

you ever have an issue needing to constantly change the eq? Every song that plays, I have to change my eq cause there is either too much bass or treb or this or that... I can never get it perfectly set.

 

[yellowkyd278]

Thanks for the responses so far guys.

He said he's an audiophile but isn't into car audio that much... Whatever that means!

What it means is that I appreciate and enjoy well reproduced music -- it's just not something I do in a car setting. For example, my headphone setup cost $300 for the headphones, $600 for the headphone amp and another $100 for the high-end cabling. I would have no problem spending $3000 on a pair of towers if the sound quality justified it (and that's just 1/8th of a proper setup).

However for me, my car -- especially my GSX -- is built strictly to go fast and perform. By no means am I saying I don't understand car audio or why people are into it, it's just that it's not what I use/build my car for. That means if I had $2000 set aside for my car I would definitely rather spend it on the set of JIC coilovers I wanted instead of a $2000 car stereo setup. My car profile is testament to this. Between the ridiculously loud 3" turboback system + testpipe and the lopey idle of the cams, ANY kind of high frequency and quality mids are drowned immediately. Regardless of how great my sound setup is, it would be difficult for me to truly enjoy quality sound in a heavily modded car unless the motor was completely turned off. That's the bottom line -- our human ears can only go so far. In addition, subs and stuff are weight I do not want to carry around.

Anyway, hope that explains things a little better. The main reason I'm upgrading is because my stock speakers are pretty much completely blown. Since I'm doing replacements, I'm okay with spending just a little bit of money for a DECENT sound system. If I wanted anything crazy or an eargasm, I'd just have it at home.

InfiniteGSX, how do you feel about this setup plan:

Fronts MB Quart PCE216 $169
Rears MB Quart PCE216 $169
Amp AudioBahn A6004V $135
Kenwood DPX-701 $300
(exclude cables, labor)
TOTAL: ~$800

I like the idea of the DPX-701 because it's double din and the reviews I've read on the product are good (minus the SAT radio which I never will use). The reviews for the other components are good too. Is there anything you would swap for something different and if so why?

Guys, if you're going to give different suggestions for this setup, please please please stick to the total of $800. Obviously this isn't going to sound as stellar as some of the $2000+ setups that were listed above but that's not the point. The point is to stick to the budget provided and to offer suggestions if you feel there are better alternatives. Stick to the topic!

Thanks again. I appreciate the help.

PS: I will not get subs. Not 12", 10", 8" or even 6"... Jesus himself wouldn't be able to convince me so don't bother

 

[NeMiZiS]

To me it looks like you got it all figured out, what do you need us for?..But seriously your setup sounds nice.

 

[yellowkyd278]

I compiled the list just through quick research. I'm sure some of the guys that posted can give more insight and experience based opinions .

 

[InfiniteGSX]

The setup you chose seems really nice. I don't like Double din cause I hate to give up that extra storage space, I like to put a cell phone there or whatever else I might wanna use it for in the pocket. But if thats what you like, go for it, reviews are always a plus.

As for Subs. I know what you said. For a proper and well built system (for a true audiophile like you who loves sound quality), atleast a small sub in a nice small enclosure is very much needed, trust me.

When you tune the amp and the stereo to the specs of the speakers (call MB Quart and ask them to walk you through it while playing with your head unit and amp to properly tune things for those speakers, trust me!), there wont be any bass what so ever in the system. All you will hear is treb and mids. It just doesn't sound right, I mean at first you'll love the clarity, but you'll wish you had just a little properly distributed bass.

I'm picky when it comes to bass. I hate overwhelming bass. I hate it that it drowns out all the rest. Cause I'm also an audiophile. I have HD Audio in my Vehicles and home. Meaning Digital Optical Cables(spdif), YUMMY SHIT ! The sound of HD audio while listening to an Enhanced CD or DVD Music is just mind blowing!

So you don't have to take this advice/suggestion, But I'm still going to make it. Elemental Designs is one of those High End speaker companies that is just like Eclipse and crap like that. They have a 6" 200/400w Sub that requires the space of a shoe box. And it sounds insane! It isn't overpowered like I dislike, its perfect for a small quality driven system that just needs that little bass to fulfill the proper notes of the music.

So my Suggestion if you do decide to atleast get a small sub for that proper sound, is the ED 6" found at this link, they are very cheap to! Under 100 bucks.
http://www.edesignaudio.com/edv2/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=33

Here's a Scion TC with 32 of those lil suckers, estimated at 12wRMS per sub which is almost blowing the windows out.
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But if you do decide against it still, thats fine. The setup you chose looks VERY nice.

 

[InfiniteGSX]

One more thing, about the quote:

please stick to the total of $800. Obviously this isn't going to sound as stellar as some of the $2000+ setups that were listed above but that's not the point.

I had a Panasonic 8400U stereo which was 60wRMS per channel, hooked up to 4 Infinity Kappa Perfect Components and the tweeters, tuned properly inside the stereo, no external amp, and an external amp and small 8" Bandpass Pioneer Sub and people confused it with one of those high end 2000 dolor systems, it was amazing.

Plus, my computer alone is 3500 bucks, that doesn't include the screen thats in each vehicle (*385 each) and the speakers and amps that are in each vehicle. Thats just the computer that runs the amps and speakers off of the screen.

 

[Defiant]

What it means is that I appreciate and enjoy well reproduced music -- it's just not something I do in a car setting.

Well, can it really be done in a car? Surely not in a noisy, squeaky, raggedy DSM.

Guys, if you're going to give different suggestions for this setup, please please please stick to the total of $800.

Where'd the $500 come from? You off a guy or something?

 

[roadrunner2176]

Why spend anything, just take those headphones, an ipod / ideath, and blend in.

But seriously, it sounds to me that you've made up your mind on components and are more interested in what their going to sound like. I'd say go to an actual stereo shop, not best buy or circuit city, and have them set up a demo, if they don't already have the components set up.

Your worried about weight, than just replace the tweeters, or relocate them, and rears, forget about the doors. Their side firing and aren't doing that much for you anyway, lower inside the car and are drowned out by road noise; baffling would help. As for bass, Subs, pass their too heavy if you actually wanted one that sounds decent. I would suggest looking into a pair of 6x9 if you have the brackets for them. Their not subs, but a good pair will satisfy, and theres no extra wires or amps to run. There are bass shakers which are 5 inches and mount underneath the seats, but their more for feel than sound. You could use a passive radiator or flat coned subwoofer if you really wanted too. You could always put the small subwoofers that InfiniteGSX suggested inside the doors.

Just about any headunit, excluding screens and dvd, will satisfy the sound your looking for, in that price range its more about features, bluetooth, mp3, animated displays, and whatever else you really don't need to have in your car while driving.

Just my thoughts, but personally I think it would be more beneficial for yourself to go into a stereo shop and get a better ideal, or atleast hear them before you buy them. Anything can look good on paper, and shiny outside the box, but after thats, its all personal preference.

 

[yellowkyd278]

Well, can it really be done in a car? Surely not in a noisy, squeaky, raggedy DSM.

Of course! As long as the motor is off... Then it's no different from a really small boxed off room. Aside from the metal all around you... and the wheels... and mirrors...

Where'd the $500 come from? You off a guy or something?

The ~$500 came from...

Fronts MB Quart PCE216 $169
Rears MB Quart PCE216 $169
Amp AudioBahn A6004V $135

Obviously it's not $500 to the cent but just an approximation. I figured that post made it clear that the rest of the system had been incorporated to the initial $300 and that line about keeping it within the price range was talking about the entire incorporated setup. The "deck" I asked about is still the $300...

So to answer your question, I guess I wasn't a guy off initially -- but a set of fronts, rears, and an amp?