I needed a new HU as my Panasonic wouldn't eject a CD; it's motorized face worked well, but wouldn't move all the way down in order to eject.
So I bought a new Alpine CDA-117 expecting a straight-across replacement, but whoa! the SQ is better. It's much more clear, detailed and richer sounding, with noticeably more midbass and far less of a tinny sound, with no other changes to the system.
They both had decent pre-out voltages and 7 band EQs so I thought it was apples to apples. I'll never leave Alpine (for HU's) again.

 

Nice.. Lookin to buy a more sq hu.. Whats good out there for decent price?

 

I don't feel qualified to answer you bud- I don't know if its a toss of the dice, or what. I know higher voltage pre-outs are great but beyond that until you get to copper plated chassis and dual or quad D/A converters I don't know how much difference there is. I personally would look at Alpine, Clarion and possibly Eclipse.