Car Stereo Search
Posted on: 08.27.2005
On my quest to find the best possible car stereo for me and my iPod, I’ve gone down many misguided paths…
Path #1 (CDX-F7700):
I’ve always been a pretty big Sony fan, but as of late their products are really starting to fade in regards to the feature set and quality of construction. I picked this head unit up about a year ago and I was pretty happy with it. It has a really nice display and you can insert/eject a CD without your car keys! The biggest downfall is that the sound quality(even with 4v pre-outs) is really not that good at all. Also, since Sony is in direct competition with Apple’s iPod (at the time of this writing) Sony is not going to offer a decent iPod cable anytime soon. Strike 1.
Path #2 (Alpine CDA-9855):
Everyone knows that Alpine makes the best sounding car stereo head units in the business. I thought that I couldn’t go wrong with the 2005 top-of-the-line consumer model. Boy was I wrong. Alpine decided that buttons were too difficult to use on a car stereo(did anyone ever complain about this before?) and thought that a touch pad/glide bar would be the best solution. They were mistaken. This glide bar, as they call it, is very, very, very difficult to use… so difficult in fact that Alpine even states in the manual that you should NEVER opperate the unit while driving. Wah? So I can’t use my car stereo while driving? And this is just the beginning of the horrid features:
- No simple bass and treble settings
- Does not save M.I.X. upon restarting car
- Can’t insert/eject a CD without sound skipping
- Ultra slow iPod listing
- Only 255 songs display in iPod list when searching
Sorry Alpine… that’s strike 2.
Path #3 (Pioneer Premier DEH-P770MP):
Finally, I decided to just go with my gut and pick a deck that seemed like it would be “my type”. I decided on the Pioneer Premier DEH-P770MP. So far I have no regrets. It seems like this takes the simple interface from Sony’s decks and combines it with the sound quality from Alpine. The best feature by far in the MultiControl Knob that lets you control 90% of the decks options with one 5-way rotary knob. Brilliant! I was also surprised to find such a large array of sound adjustments. I actually got my system sounding better than I thought it could. My meager Bazooka triangle sub and my Alpine 5-channel amp really work well with this head unit.
The only problem that I ran accross was that the iPod connector box requires separate power and ground connections to function (I’ve not seen any other HU need this with their iPod connections). So, I decided to just buy the Pioneer RCA input cable and a PocketDock along with a USB cigarette lighter adapter. These items are still on order but this will allow me to listen to and charge my iPod while driving. Since I’d rather control my iPod directly rather than through a car interface(even though the MultiControl knob is awesome) I think I made the right decision.
