Car audio question

Captain Slow IRL

What do you look out for when picking a cd head unit to ensure good sound quality? I'm not on about the top of the range units; middle to lower pirced units is what I'm looking at.
A lot of units feature a power output of Mosfet 50W x 4 - what does the mosfet refer to?

Eric Cartman

Captain Slow IRL wrote: »

What do you look out for when picking a cd head unit to ensure good sound quality? I'm not on about the top of the range units; middle to lower pirced units is what I'm looking at.
A lot of units feature a power output of Mosfet 50W x 4 - what does the mosfet refer to?

mosfet is a solid state amplifier, very very few car stereos would have non mosfet amplifiers , normally the best way to tell the quality of a car stereo is brand and wattage , the output wattage is quite obvious but normally a brand awareness goes a long way , ripspeed (halfrauds defacto brand) sound terrible and are built poorly , Kenwood, pioneer, sony - companies that also build home audio equipment make fantastic car stereos ,

at the end of the day youll just have to listen to the stereo's in a shop and see what sounds best to you, the only exception to my brand awareness that ive ever found is the silvercrest stereo lidl sell, for the money you wont do better (69.99) and it has fantastic sound quality , but that stereo is the exception that proves the rule, you get what you pay for.

Atlantic Dawn

Eric Cartman wrote: »

Kenwood, pioneer, sony - companies that also build home audio equipment make fantastic car stereos ,

Agreed, you could add Clarion and Blaupunkt to the list. I'd imagine for €150 you would get something pretty decent with good sound. I'd avoid the low end makes as they are poorly designed for the user and will only wreck your head with their layout and sound quality. I'd insist on getting one that supports MP3 playback from CD's and also no harm in getting one with an iPod input if you have an iPod.

GTE

Its a very subjective area.
There is no right or wrong in what speaker/amp combos sound good or not though there is a very good chance you would prefer a sony unit over a stock lidl one for example.

A good way to test would be to take a CD from a band or artist you like, listen to it on your own sound systems at home, ones you like. Get to know a track or two and then once done go to a car shop and ask them to play the songs or songs and listen carefully.

That way the source material you are listening to is very well known to you so you know how it should sound.

Never let them just play whats on the radio as a demo.

Captain Slow IRL

Eric Cartman wrote: »

mosfet is a solid state amplifier, very very few car stereos would have non mosfet amplifiers , normally the best way to tell the quality of a car stereo is brand and wattage , the output wattage is quite obvious but normally a brand awareness goes a long way , ripspeed (halfrauds defacto brand) sound terrible and are built poorly , Kenwood, pioneer, sony - companies that also build home audio equipment make fantastic car stereos ,

at the end of the day youll just have to listen to the stereo's in a shop and see what sounds best to you, the only exception to my brand awareness that ive ever found is the silvercrest stereo lidl sell, for the money you wont do better (69.99) and it has fantastic sound quality , but that stereo is the exception that proves the rule, you get what you pay for.

Ah! I'm a Pioneer fan so am hoping to get one although I'm looking at JVC and Clarion units as well. My current stereo Pioneer deh 3000mp looks similiar on stats to my old unit deh p55bt but the old unit had excellant sound quality and a much more customisable sound.
I'm planning on buying online so listening in a shop isn't really an option.

colm_mcm

you can still listen in a shop and buy online though!

Eric Cartman

colm_mcm wrote: »

you can still listen in a shop and buy online though!

blaupunkt and clarion are definitley in the reccomended list , overall i think it depends on your requirments :

top end navigation/touch screen/DVD - kenwood and pioneer make the best headunits

mid level ipod control/bluetooth/cd changer control - alpine/pioneer/clarion shine through

low end - single cd/usb or mp3 cd , no subwoofer pre-outs but a decent sound - sony/blaupunkt/JVC make budget conscious well made head units

Captain Slow IRL

colm_mcm wrote: »

you can still listen in a shop and buy online though!

Some of the units I'm looking at have been discontinued and am buying them off fleabay! The most important thing is that it has an amber display, so it doesn't stick out against the amber interior lighting in my car:o All the units I'm looking at have fully customisable lighting. Good sound is immediately second with bluetooth being a preferable feature.
I've it narrowed down to a few now:
Pioneer deh-p55bt
Pioneer deh-p65bt*
Pioneer deh-p5800mp*
Pioneer deh-p5900mp*
Pioneer DEH-5000UB
Clarion CZ109ER
Clarion DXZ748RMP
JVC KD-R701
JVC KD-R801*
JVC KD-R511

The ones with the * beside them are the most appealing so far, still looking!