I'm looking to upgrade my Toyota Celica's audio, starting with the headunit. I've been a fan of JVC for a while and was going to buy a KW-XR810 but then they discontinued it! That was initially good news because the price dropped to around $150 on various sites. That's only a few dollars more than I paid for the KW-XR610 in my wife's WRX.
Now my problem is that I paid attention to the replacement model, the KW-R900BT. It has a few more bells and whistles that, honestly, I don't care about. What did catch my attention about it is the higher preamp output voltage. It is 5 volts instead of the 2.5 volts the XR810 puts out. The R900BT is $250.
If the preamp voltage is the only difference that matters to me, is it worth 66% more money? That's $100 I could otherwise increase my speaker or amp budget with. Is sound quality going to be that much different?
FWIW, I plan on building a high sensitivity and relatively low watt system. My focus is quality not volume and my budget is low as well... $500-$600.
Now my problem is that I paid attention to the replacement model, the KW-R900BT. It has a few more bells and whistles that, honestly, I don't care about. What did catch my attention about it is the higher preamp output voltage. It is 5 volts instead of the 2.5 volts the XR810 puts out. The R900BT is $250.
If the preamp voltage is the only difference that matters to me, is it worth 66% more money? That's $100 I could otherwise increase my speaker or amp budget with. Is sound quality going to be that much different?
FWIW, I plan on building a high sensitivity and relatively low watt system. My focus is quality not volume and my budget is low as well... $500-$600.