Great install video of Stinger Elev8 new radio

The guys over at Five Star Car Stereo down in Clearwater, FL have been talking about the new Stinger Elev8 floating head unit for a few weeks now. This seems to be an awesome unit that appears to beat out the Alpine Halo by quite a bit.

Floating 8” display
Physical knobs on both sides
Can be flipped for knobs on top OR bottom
Tons of inputs and outputs
CarPlay and AndroidAuto
Available Nav add-on
Four (4) camera inputs with blinker triggers for side-view cameras
And of course all the other goodies you’d expect in a flagship radio


Looks to be an awesome toy and I’m excited to see another big player getting into the headunit game. More competition means better products and cheaper prices for us!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wf9qRLPlRAI&t=427s

 

Agreed - definitely is refreshing to see a reputable player getting into head units. 4V outputs are nice, but I'd expect a lot more processing for that price point. At least it will perform some time alignment, but still a disappointing level of control for almost a grand. It'd be nice to see at least bandpass capability with the crossovers for the luxury buy-in point.

 

I think that might be asking a bit much. The Pioneer w8500 doesn’t offer bandpass crossovers, and it’s $300 more. I don’t believe the alpine flagships or kenwood flagships do either. All of which cost more (however I have not looked into this. Just not a feature I’m used to seeing.) The Pioneer also only has a 13-band EQ, and the Halo only has 9. Halo also has 4v preouts.

And I wouldn’t call $699 “almost a grand” and I would definitely place this unit above anything else at that price point.

But most importantly, this just means that other brands will have to step it up and I can’t wait to see what the next few years hold!
Not to mention it looks awesome in a 3rd gen!

 

Aah, there's retail and there's street price. Stinger lists it at $880.

You get network mode (with 3 way crossovers) starting with the Pioneer AVH 2330 NEX ($500 MSRP) and on most of the units above that IIRC. You're right though, the W8500 curiously does not.

 

I mean, it would be one more item on the list of features I guess. But in my 2 years of installing 10/20 radios a week, I can honestly say I have not one single time used network mode. It’s just not a deal breaker for me I suppose

 

Interesting. I'd have figured more people would take advantage of that. It certainly sets Pioneer apart in my eyes, but for someone just swapping a deck, it's one of those features they'll likely never use.

 

Saw that video this morning..was pretty excited about it. Waiting for those guys to tackle a Taco with a JBL setup in it.

 

Im interested to see what they plan to do with amps. They seem to like the audiocontrol acm amps (same amps I have) hoping they provide some good ideas on mounting.