Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Audio I'm upgrading my system - what you think?

What's the thickness of the adapter?

I think it might not be enough for the Attitude 6.5" woofer as it's got a 3 3/16" mounting depth.

Good point. I'm not sure..

I'm not bashing sony here but I did personally have the worst of luck with an av reciever I bought years back. In about 3 years I had to bring it back to circuit city around 8 or 9 times. They would never replace it because the same part had to break three times in one year. Anyway, I never personally had any experience with their line of car audio, but I have heard some of my friends stereos with sony HU's. Some of them sound pretty good, but nothing "I" would consider great. I think for the price you'll pay for the sony your looking at you can get a better HU. You could go with nakamichi, clarion pro audio, eclipse, or alpine. All better in my opinion. What do you guys think?

My first Sony AV receiver blew monkey balls. $300 wasted. But, it was an uneducated buy at the time. Their comsumer grade DE line (sold at BB, CC and the like) has serious quality issues. But I think their quailty is on par with every other company for most of their products. They just sell so much crap that we hear about it more often.

All of the brands you mentioned are certainly better than Sony's low end, but I'm not sure if I would consider them any better than the Mobile ES line. IMO, the Sony CDX-C90 is still the best HU on the market. Of course, you can't go wrong with any of the brands you mentioned. They are all very good HUs.

I tend to agree with Dave that the high-end Sony stuff out there (top of the line Mobile ES) is some fantastic gear.

But, the stuff that the average Joe buys from BB and CC is on the low end of the decent stuff in the $150-$300 range.

Sony is just using their highly recognized and respected brand name to push their stuff in liu of high quality equipment. I'm not saying it's bad, but IMO you can get better quality stuff for the same $$$ from Alpine, Nak, JVC, Clarion, KW, etc...

No, you can't.
:p

Take that!

I don't mean to interupt but....

first, I would never buy Sony for a home system or theater. Their consumer lines suck. HK or Naki for sure there.

However, I think sony's car audio is alot better. I've had good experience with sony. the first stereo i did was a sony xm-395 with a x-70 eq. into a brand new '79 escort ss. i've had probably 15 cars since then and didn systems in 14 of them (couple more then once for about a total of about 18 systems). they've all been sonys except for the clarion that i put in a used honda civic si (it still works and for the $$$ was better then any sony in the range). but i've always loved the sound of the sony es line. for $550 bones i haven't found a sound that's better then the CDX-M770 ES. one of the Naki's ws close but i liked the look o fthe M770 better. I also love the uni-link feature with sony, which makes the install and use of cd changer so seamless. The M770 has thee CD text features which works great with the Sony 400 CD jukebox i have at home.

If there's a better, in sound and features, HU then the CDX-M770 ES for under $600 what would it be. I can't stand the look of eclipse so they're out. uh, keep it short, k?

my biggest problem was speakers and you guys have really helped with that. Thanks

Although I'm not a big fan of its looks, I'd consider a KW eXcelon KDC-X917 ($500). Tons of features for tweaking just about every aspect of sound from each speaker. This type of flexibility on a HU is incredible. You can even shut off the internal amp for less noise when using an external amp. It's also got just about every bell and whistle.

The JVC KD-SH99 with mp3 playback also looks very nice for $400. It's a great looking deck too. Also, lots of bells and whistles to play with.

But, my next HU will be the Clarion Pro Audio DXZ815M. It costs about $400 and has mp3 playback too. It's also got great expansion capabilities - TV Tuner/DSP/EQ controls, XM-ready, 3 sets of 4V pre-outs, auxiliary input.

Anybody want to buy my KW eXcelon PS-709???