steve McCulloch

Anyone got any comments on this

The best value one for sound quality with at least two pre-outs and excellent cd quality -- not bothered about radio

Nak?
Rockford Fosgate?
Alpine?

Comments on a postcard

Luke

Steve
Give the Nakamichi a go. I use a Rockford and really like it,But that was due to the price I got it for. Remember that you get even better models in the states. than here in uk. Also how about the Mcintosh unit ???? Serious quality.

steve McCulloch

The Mac is probably a bit out off my price leauge

What sort of price did you pay for your RF

Whats a reasonable price to pay for a Second hand, but mint 8140 (£900 when new!)

Luke

Steve

I paid £200 new for mine as the shop was closing. I visited R/F to sort out a problem with an amp. The guy there showed me around.The series that i have is the one with the "UP/DOWN" volume control not the new rotary type . They are made by AC DELCO.

It is my opinion But as stated from facts most of ther new stuff just looks different. The original punch 40 amp has had 3-4 different casings !!!! I like it and the guy there rated that series more than the later stuff. A grand is a serious amount foe a head unit. Think of the total cost of the system !!!!! Me for that money would buy a Macintosh. You can get one for the money

The cheaper Nakamichi at £300 is a killer.
But check out the top flight stuff in U.S.A
Lookks weird and is a 2. part system with a great big rotary volume control in the middle

I would give you model numbers etc but I am layed up in Hospital here in Istanbul !!!!
be lucky


Luke


P.s what about that famous ALPINE with pre-out only. That is serious stuff. A shop called DH Electonics in Finchley ,London had a new one for sale a month ago for about £300

Could be worth a call....

Bagpuss

Not wanting to sound like a stuck record, but........if are thinking of spending a grand, you might want to consider the Empeg (or Rio Car Player, as it's now called).

Check out

kryten

Must admit that I don't rate the MP3's I've heard on a decent system. They sound OK on headphones or compared to a cheap CD player but on decent quality stuff I always found the CD sounding better....

As for which is best, there are a few things to consider. IMHO the difference between the top end player from Nak/RF/Alpine is pretty small. It all depends what the rest of your system is going to be? What amps/speakers will you be using?

Personally, I currenly have an Alpine 7969 which is excellent. The main reason for this choice was that I've had a 7939 (for sale, if you're interested ) for some time with a PXA-H600 processor which does time alignment/parametric EQ - I've not got used to the soundstage provided by a time aligned setup and didn't feel I could do without it.

Having said that, I very nearly went for the Nak CD700 unit plus a PG EQ232. Again a very nice setup and tweakable to get the sound exactly how you like it - as I said, I just didn't want to loose the staging I have and I couldn't see an easy way of getting my Dyn mid/tweeter far enough into the kickwells to align the pathlengths (not without moving the loud pedal, anyway).

I must admit I haven't listened to an RF unit for a while, but last time I did it was a top quality unit - very high voltage pre-outs as well, IIRC.

Steve, there's an excellent place in Cheltenham: Car HiFi Centre who are very much 'SQ' focussed. They've been in the business for years and are well worth a visit

wacko

You don't need to spend all that on a head unit... get one with as many pre-outs as poss. and spend the cash on a good amp.

steve McCulloch

I'm booked in at Cheltenham this weekend

System will be pretty basic though

1* 4 chaneel Genesis amp with bass fader (£600)(already in car)
1* Gensis 2 channel for amps (£600)

Fronts are Dyn audio with tweaters and soundproofing - (£400 for speakers + £100 for sp)(already in car)

Rear is just 2*M3 Diamond subs (in car) - but am looking at 3*M5 10 inch, with the car fully soundproofed!

Just need to get the head unit sorted - current one is cheaper Alpine (£280) with 2 preouts - and does the job!

I think Cheltenham is Nak biased!

I have just sold a top of the range Alpine unit - MD/CD player in one - retails at over £1k!

Not sure what the 7969 is - I will check!

rockin'Ru

Just give the Pioneer P1R a look before you decide.It's pricey,but can replace an external processor.Has 3 pre outs.

Scooby Doc

Steve

The Nak fits your needs. I have a cd45 and the cd is glorious. Radio reception is fine but it has the most irritating RDS - its crap to be honest. Then there is the auto eject of the front panel feature and the eject mechanism made from subaru electric window motors. But the CD does sound good.

Its pretty difficult to compare different systems isn't it?

Martin