Anyone else have shafty luck with kenwood cd players? what brand would you recomend

So a guy goes out, spends $500 on a decent deck only to have it shit the bed a year and a half later... any audio guys know what to replace it with?

 

i had a kenwood flip face go out after about 3 years.i now like alpine or pioneer

 

I've never had any issue with Kenwood decks, and am a fan of them. Though I haven't installed or purchased one in several years now. I am a fan of Alpine and Pioneer stuff. I have never owned an Eclipse deck, but have had friends with them and I like them as well. To me, the Pioneer decks are fairly easy to use and are good quality. Alpine has been a bit less user friendly for me but are still very nice.

 

ive owned 3 different tacomas and in each ive put a pioneer deck in. ive never had to replace one. the last two i owned i went ahead and put an ipod interphase on and they work GREAT. my 07 is sporting one now. no complaints what so ever.

 

Same here... But this is only my Second Taco

I have always done Pioneer!!!

I also did a deck w/Bluetooth handsfree Phone and audio..

 

awesome info, thanks for the replys.

 

BTW, was the deck out of warranty or what?

 

alpine all the way.

 

I liked the pre-Fujitsu Eclipse decks, the new ones don't hold the same appeal, nor have the same focus... unless things changed in the last 2 years.

The controls on Planet Audio decks are nice and simple, but I think there are better products

I had a Sony CDX-CA860X (made before they started going off the deep end crappy) and it gave out after many years.

Kenwoods always look overcomplicated

I had a Pioneer Premiere DEH-P690U (I think that's the model). Worked magnificently, remote could have been designed much better. Wish it had easier mute functionality. The new ones have a flimsier multi-wheel that is too easy to push in a wrong direction, which makes me sad. Hard to jog through tons of songs, but worked with any USB device (I used a 60GB laptop hard drive, but took 20 seconds to boot).

Just got an Alpine iDA-X100, which is working very well. If you listen to the radio at all, it's a must to have the steering wheel controls control the presets - Alpine, for whatever reason, buried this. No easy mute control, but there's a pause button. It doesn't like my USB hard drive (starts at same song, only shuffles 20 songs or so), but works great with the iPod. Screen is amazing, of course.

never was a clarion fan

couldn't find a nakamichi to try, but they looked enticing.



My experience is that you find some leading brands, then find the easiest to control. The less weird and complex stuff they put in, the better. You will notice that the better they get, the easier the controls are and there's less stuff packed in (well, for the most part). For instance, one of the super high-end decks out there has no internal amplifier, a VERY basic screen, no iPod interface, and doesn't support MP3s if it can help it. It costs a freaking $800, and yes, you are partially paying for the name.