Just Me? Or Is This The Best Looking Cd Player?

[sound_xtreme]

past 2 cd players in my alero have been high end JVC's they've both been great.ive had pioneer and they just dont do it for me.

[johny_boy32]

Originally posted by FormulaNERD@Feb 14 2005, 04:43 AM
oh, and it automatically mutes when it hears your cell phone ringing

Honestly, ^can you beat that^?

[sound_xtreme]

Originally posted by johny_boy32+Feb 14 2005, 11:47 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (johny_boy32 @ Feb 14 2005, 11:47 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-FormulaNERD@Feb 14 2005, 04:43 AM
oh, and it automatically mutes when it hears your cell phone ringing

Honestly, ^can you beat that^? [/b][/quote]
my clarion i bought almost 8 years ago did that, nothing special.

[mike2002]

soundextreme, how was the radio reception compared to stock?

this is the jvc i like the most, last years model, was $400

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-FH31Im8fgtj/c...00&I=257KDA5000

I also like this deck. i havn't liked sony in a long long time since my old mobile ES deck, but this one is the kind of look that i like

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-OB2cZ4oGH5f/c...300&I=158F7715X

I like the JVC more, but its just rated to get horrible radio reception, sony's always been pretty good

and again...im NOT USING THE DECK POWER, i know that thats were these lack in comparison to alpine/pioneer, but i could care less, already got a 5 channel amp

[sound_xtreme]

sony sucks. my jvc's reception isnt bad, about the same as stock.

[mike2002]

alright, its official.........after alot of looking, im 99% sure this is the HU im ordering

http://www.clarion.com/usa/products/2004_p...s/DXZ745MP.html

its last years model (this years are ugly unless you get the 855's or 955's) so i can get it for $200 new (originally 400), shipped if i look real hard. im just going to wait a week or 2 as my brother is picking up clarion in his shop, i may be able to get a even better deal through him

anyone have anything good or bad to say about clarion? i used to have a 7375z back in the day....nice deck for its time (like 5 years ago)

[mikegett]

Mike2002, Go with what you want in a HU. I agree with you that allmost all decks look pretty bad. My eclipse, Alpine, and Panasonic look way to flashy. Bright lights, black and aluminum, lotts of alpine buttons. Not what I call style. The only thing I can say about appearance is that OEL displays will never be in my car. Besides the fact that I prefer a well reproduced sound over a floating dolphin, they just suck in daylight. There is a reason that VF displays cost nearly three times the amount. They may not look as good, but they have the highest contrast and brightness of any display on the market. Another suggestion is to stay away from touchscreen. I had a '88 eclipse cassette deck with touch screen DSP. It was cool for about one week.
After that I became frustrated with all of the finger prints. Try to imagine what is the first reaction to cleaning finger prints. Do not use glass cleaners or any other car chemicals. The plastic coating over the display will dry out and eventually crack.

my buddy has that JVC in his trans am, the5000 one, last years model, and it's an AWESOME deck

we just got those in at Best Buy...I'm not too impressed with them..I installed one yesterday in a Honda Accord and I think it looked like garbage.

[mike2002]

i saw the silver one that best buy has. looks like its about the same, only silver. im really unimpressed with how dim the display is, maybe it just got washed out. i havn't seen any of the NEW jvc decks, the high end ones at least. but it did look alot better in the pics

i did see the other deck, the clarion dxz745mp at M&M car audio, and it looks really nice in person, it has a very high quality look and feel to it. the knob feels very solid, opens fast and ejects cd's very quickly, overall looked better in person. so im pretty set on the clarion deck, just waiting for the dealer price list and my tax return

mike2002...why would u want to get a deck to FLOW with the car? jsut keep it stock! the whole point of getting a deck is to make it look better then it does stock...well, thats what *I* thought anyway. u do mods to make the car look hotter...or am i just dreaming and not making any sense?! lol

[mikegett]

It depends on what is more important to you. Flash or sound quality. If you only want looks, then buy a new deck that you like. If you want sound quality but dislike flash ( I don't like it either) then look for a decent HU that tries to be a HU.

[Schimmel03]

ok, ok. I like the cd player that FormulaNerd showed, But I just can't get over the lack of design on the left side of it. Its just so plain. Anyhow, I do however like the Pioneer deck thats a step below that one.


I just bought this one for my fiance for her birthday. Shes been complaining about it for a while now and she saw me looking at this one and got all googly eyed. Anyhow, we'll see how this one is when it comes in the mail.

mike i remember u saying u hade the eclipse 5484 and the 5444 whats the best dif between the both and whats <vf> display????

[mikegett]

I have owned a few units. The eclipse 5303R produced around 97. The best sounding deck ever. Period. The E5510MDT. A Japanese Minidisk unit with built in five disk changer. Very nice, but I couldn't get US stations. The Eclipse 54430. My favorite design in a HU. I loved this radio. I looked exactly like the Mini disk but was black. And currently the cd8454. The cd5444 is the unit below the cd8454. The main difference is that the cd8454 adds parametric eq's, a digital input, eight volt preouts, and the vf display. The vf display is the primary reason that I went with the 8454. It looks the same as the other units lcd with the exception of being white characters. The contrast and brightness of a Full-dot Vacuum Fluorescent (VF) Display is the highest in the industry. If you are concerned with seeing the display in daylight then buy a unit that uses one of these. I have used this HU for over six months and have the contrast turned to 60 percent with zero visibility problems. If you live in a area where sunlight is not a large factor, then concider saving some money and going with a lower unit. The parametric eq's are nice but I still prefer external controls. Eight volts sound cool, but most amps you find on ebay will only except four to five without inducing noice. If you realy want sound quality look at the output signal’s impedance and not voltage. Eight volts give you 55 ohms just like the five volt units. These two eclipse models still have the lowest impedence of any US HU. Even the alpine F-1 carries a 75 ohm impedence. If you drop down to the 2.7 volt eclipse the impedence shoots up to 330.

i must say u really know your eclipse... well thanks im looking into another head unit and found the 8454 drop price for 500 and they have no units in good guys so they offering to sell the store display for around the same price of the 5444

[mikegett]

Sounds good. You may try and see if they will go down to 450 for the demo. That will still give them a 150 dollar profit on the unit.
CD5444 $225.00
CD8454 $300.00
It all depends on how bad they want to get rid of the deck. The other thing you can concider is paying 500 and have them instal it for free.

[mikegett]

Here is the 5303r. Hands down the best sounding deck I have ever owned. The display was the killer. It was the first HU to offer a large flip down lcd display. The contrast was horrible and virtualy impossible to see in the day. It was a preamp only model featuring the first five volt preouts.

[mikegett]

This is a picture of the 5509. The eight volt version of my 54430. I still find this to be my favorite style. It had a very clean look to it. The sound was amazing, just like the 5303r. The problem with this year was cd skipping with cd-r's. I was lucky to be one of the few to aviod it. It took nearly a year for eclips to discover exactly what was causing the problem. Turned out to be two intermittent problems. One was bad memory modules. Another was the power supply. It had to have a constant 12 volts or errors occured. Some older cars only supplied 11 -14 volts. I never should have sold this unit. Hands down my favorite.

[mikegett]

This is the E5510MDT from Japan. It looks exactly like the 54430 only mine was silver instead of black. The deck contained a five mini disk changer. My supervisor removed the tuner and placed a av input in its place. This made it easy to input my 54430 into the minidisk unit and out to the amps. I still find minidisk to be the best compression alternative. Everyone that had been in my car found the sound to be as good as cd and in some cases seemed better. Now I just need to let my wife put it into her new car.