Need some help with finding a really good headunit

[ppia600]

Are you talking about the bass being up on the deck? A good idea would be to adjust the bass way down on the deck and then adjust the bass amp to bring it back up. That way there is no strain on the deck and the highs aren't trying to play low notes.

[jol50]

I'm telling you, deck power will suck if you run $2,000 bose home speakers off of it. Spend $30 and get a used quality 2x30-75wrms amp sent to you off ebay or whatever and you will be way, way happier. An amp runs way more voltage to your speakers than a HU, even a smaller one will. It is just way more capable no matter what wattage ratings a HU has. If you need to turn a HU past half way, you need an amp.

Otherwise the best you can do is what Ppia600 suggests and it will never perform that well.

[Flyin11]

Yeah but I don't have a amp for highs so that won't work If I use the High Pass filter at 120 or 160 on the HU it sounds better up front but I can't use it on through cause it kind of baffles the bass up front when it comes through. Arghhh...Takes too much time to fine tune stuff and it's very hard to do different things during the work week LOL

[jol50]

Maybe there is something wrong with it or the wiring. You could adjust my HU and EQ all over and when I got a mile down the road I'd have it set perfect, for the particular music that was playing anyway. Ok, well it might take longer to get the parametric just right with my IB setup but I hardly need to mess with that once it is set.

[Flyin11]

Ok..The Alpine CDA-9885 did not work out. I tried everything I could with settings this past weekend, even putting the amp on the seat and driving down the interstate adjusting the settings as I go to try and get it to where it would sound good but it didn't. I could never get it to sound good. I sent it back to Crutchfield for a refund today. Here's the funny part...I stuck my old Kenwood KDC-MP4028 back in during lunch at work and man, this thing outblasts the Alpine easily!! I couldn't believe it. I was so happy though cause I missed my bass I was really jamming coming home and it was fun watching the interstate signs bounce up and down cause of all the bass So ok...I have tried the Alpines and I'm not saying they are bad headunits cause they could be outstanding with amps on your fronts and your subs...but it was not to my liking at all. I found it totally weird that a Alpine HU hooked up to a Alpine amp, sounded like total crap!! I think I do need the mid bass adjustment on a HU. That is the only thing that I see really lacking. So, more than likely I will have to stay with Kenwood. I am however waiting for my Clarion to come back from the Ebay store I got it from on Ebay, whether it's going to be a repair or a exchange for a new one remains to be seen, but it sounded damn good with 6V preouts but then again, it doesn't have mid bass adjustments. I was getting pretty use to the sound of it though with the High Pass filter on and it blasting out the bass so hard it was amazing!! It just had some cons with it that I wasn't happy about. I will see when it comes back and might try and put that in WITHOUT ANY ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AMP cause that is right on now!! It sounded great like that last time anyways....but will see how I like it then. I have 3 options now and atleast I can think about them for a while and not jump it anything harshly right away but here are my final options:

1: Keep the Clarion when it comes back and not sell it.

2. Get a Kenwood KDC-X891 with 5V preouts and still have the mid bass setting I need and all. I just don't fancy the display too much

3. I found a seller on Ebay that has my current headunit and I can get it brand new again pretty cheap and already have everything set and hopefully it will solve my internal amp problem. Only thing is, yeah, it's hitting hard enough now, damn hard, but it would still be 4V preouts so nothing to have it hitting harder.

So as you can see, I still have some things going and to think about but I'm VERY HAPPY to be jamming again now!! I thank everyone for all their help and suggestions and will keep you posted I'm just waiting for this to be all over so I can enjoy my music and concentrate on other things...

[ppia600]

Get the Kenwood, you can change the display. It has several options.

[skooter]

I know some will bash it but I got one from a local shop used and I love it. Touchy on scratched disks but pics up stations way better than my JVC. Got a decent amout of options to tune with and has 4V outs X 3. I run my volume at 16-20 depending on music.