So Santa brought me a 200$ gift certificate for a local car shop here in Halifax. I currently have 300$ in GC's for this shop and i want a new deck. They mainly sell Alpine, Panasonic, and Kenwood. I'm looking for somthing with sub control and i would prefer an mp3 deck actually i want an mp3 deck. I know Panasonic has a deck to these requests that i could afford but i really want to try an alpine because im sure i would own it longer than the panasonic.
So i guess what im asking is does Alpine have a new MP3 deck out that I could get for between 300-400$? Or is Panasonic a trusted name when it comes to decks and their performance? I only really have experienced with a sony xplod POS so i guess any of these would be a plus.

 

An Alpine deck in that range would probably be a 9830-9831.
I had the 9831 for a couple of months. The ability to change colours on it was pretty cool, but overall I wasn't too impressed with it.
A good pansonic deck in that range would be the 8300. I've used that as well and I prefered it over the Alpine. Nice big lcd screen on it, sounded good, and had plenty of features.
Again it's all just personal preference, and that was mine.

 

I also like the looks of that Panasonic. On the panasonic website all they have shown is the 8400 with a MSRP of 499$. Now i havnt been in this store that im gettin the deck at for a while and not sure if they have the 8300. Is it a good possiblity that they would carry the 8300? and what do you think the price would be?

 

The 8300 is the same as the 8400 just that the internal amp is "50x4" and the 8400 is "60x4" (Obviously those are max power ratings). Also the 8400 has some radio dsp thing or something I have no clue what it is.
Anyhow, yes everywhere around here has the 8300.
It's a good deck, and I would imagine the deck to be somewhere around 350-400, maybe less with these end of the year sales. I paid $400 for mine from futureshop in May I think it was.
Hope that helps.

 

Alpine all the way!

When it comes to head unit price/performance ratio, it is damn hard to beat Alpine. They really know how to build good sounding and reliable HU.

Your best buy for sure would be the 9833. It is the same deck as the 9835 (the top-of-the-line for this year models except obviously the F1 status at $4500!) except for the display but around $100 cheaper.

We could get it for around $430 + tax here in Montreal.

I know this is a bit over your budget but if you can find the extra dollars, you will be largely rewarded. This deck could do absolutely everything you could want and more. It has the Bass Engine Pro (really something in terms of sub control), time alignement (it made a huge difference for the quality of soundstaging), and a lot more bell and whistle to name and it play MP3 as well.

But the most important thing to consider is the sound quality and reliability and industry reputation.

Compare them and let your ears decided.

 

thanks guys...any more advice? Im gonna go in early monday and look at some prices.

 

If they sell Kenwood as well, have a look at the Exelon decks, the KDC-X679 should be right around your GC limit...in which case you can save your cash for something else...

HTH

 

Never was a big Kenwood fan. Owned one once and one day a cd got jammed in it and wouldnt come out. Im leaning towards the 8300 or the 9831. Whichever one they got and whichever one i can get a better deal on.

 

YOU CAN CHANGE COLOURS?!
That 9831 is a sweet deck is if you use crossovers in pro mode.

 

i would buy kenwood or alpine, panasonic is all show and no go.