its only 17w rms though, thats your constant. 52w is your peak, you dont often hit that peak power. and you are going to pick up more distortion with that radio. its not a bad price for the radio, but you can pick up the alpine 9847 for about the same price and get a little bit better quality.

 

so in a price range of about $230 which is the better choiceioneer or alpine?

 

Where did everyone pick up the Alpine CD-9855 from? $320 shipped is good. Do you like the new slide button or whateva they call it? I heard it's a pain to get used to and control the ipod with.

Does anyone like Pioneer?

 

edit... Pioneer, alpine, sony, audiobahn...whtever u can think of

 

I just had the Alpine 9853 installed last week. I have been pleased with it so far. The colors can't be changed, but I like the way the blue looks. The 9851 looses only a couple of features (glide touch) but very close to the same unit ($70 less). They both are "close to" 300.

 

Panasonic 7301U or the Pioneer 7700MP would be the units I'd g with in that price category. You can pick them up at Circuit City and they have free install as well.

 

the panasonic and the pioneer are good if u dont mind the blue lights.

 

pioneer is by far one of the best audio head unit makers i know. only thing being is there headunits are blue. but i recall seeing a clarion headunit all red. right now im in the same boat ready to get a headunit unsure of which one to get. because i always been a pionneer man yet i need something that can easily use with my ipod thats coming in tommorrow.

 

pioneer does make good stuff and their ipod adaptor works very well! sometimes you have to say," yeah the lights dont all match but i got a bad a$$ radio!"

 

I agree I just don't know which pioneer to go with. The DEH-P8600MP seems to match the interior but it's a bit pricey. What pioneer model are you guys going for?

 

there is the dehp80mp and if that is too expensive the dehp7700mp is one step down but very similar.

 

a friend of mine had the 8600mp and he had a lot of probs with it.

 

The DEHP80MP is sweet...just the display is a bit smaller than the others.

 

yeah the display is smaller but if you dont plan on running amplifiers you can wire the radio directly to your ignition harness and there is a switch on the radio where it will run at 60watts. my friend got rid of his 8600 for an 80 and it sounds good.

 

Why do you need to connect it to your ignition harness?