Which Brand of MP3 Stereo for Best Sound Quality?

1103 Views 17 Replies 10 Participants Last post by dazultra2000, Apr 4, 2005

r44712

Discussion Starter · Mar 22, 2005

Without giving too much away, I'm going to be looking for a replacement MP3 stereo for my car, as its no longer 'imperitive' to have a Kenwood one (so the factory remote and changer worked), so which brand gives the best quality sound for about £150...? When I say quality, I'm not just talking about bass frequencies, I mean the entire spectrum for a good depth of sound and dynamism. Thanks!

I'm looking at Sony, Alpine and Pioneer units, perhaps any other so long as they do not look like "boy racer tat".

1 - 18 of 18 Posts

LoudnProud

· #2 · Mar 22, 2005

The Kenwood MP3 players are generally thought to be the best - especially low end models (sub £200). Stay away from Sony in car equipment, they may make good TVs and Playstations but their car stereos are very low quality. The only other major brand to consider is Alpine.

mattie007

· #3 · Mar 22, 2005

My Sony head unit is amazing although I was only used to Rover units before!
I have gone for kenwood speakers though as I heard Sony speakers were poor.

mulletboy2

· #4 · Mar 22, 2005

Best quality MP3 audio? Nakamichi/Becker/Alpine/Pioneer/Clarion ... Kenwood (UKDM atleast) markets come a distant 159th.

OblivioN

· #5 · Mar 22, 2005

My alpine HU is brilliant!!!! A love it to bits it gets 5 outta 5 from me. Yep sony is poo - my mate bought a new head unit off them recently and took it back because it just didn't deliver. I'd go alpine all the way

marko123

· #6 · Mar 23, 2005

why not get the kenwood 10 disc mp3 autochanger for the boot? you'll get one for <£150 and fitting should be a doddle as the wiring will already be there for the 6 disc job.

r44712

Discussion Starter · #7 · Mar 23, 2005

marko123 said:
why not get the kenwood 10 disc mp3 autochanger for the boot? you'll get one for <£150 and fitting should be a doddle as the wiring will already be there for the 6 disc job.

This would be an ideal situation - except for one thing. As I am on the verge of the property ladder, I needed to sell the ZT to give me more monthly capital to pay for it all. So I reckoned a decent MP3 player up front (in my ZR to be) would be an ideal comprimise, and as they don't have autochangers or remote controls fitted, then any stereo could be considered.

Thanks, anyway!

marko123

· #8 · Mar 23, 2005

uch: poor soul.

r44712

Discussion Starter · #9 · Mar 23, 2005

marko123 said:
uch: poor soul.

Its sad to see her go, but give me a few years, and no doubt I'll be itching to get behind the wheel of a ZT again!

jonspurs

· #10 · Mar 23, 2005

This thread might be a bit old, but has some useful info:

http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.php?t=24337

tommo

· #11 · Mar 23, 2005

depends on what quailty of mp3 you download

go for a very minimum of 192kbps,kazaa and winmx etc etc are really poor at 52-128kbps if you can even get a non bs download

alpine have always done me good

scottstead

· #12 · Apr 3, 2005

what is wrong with sony? my brother has a newish one and looks and sounds great compared to my kenwood alpine look ugly and i bet the rest will too or are expensive i also am after a mp3 player to replace the standard cassette player in my rover.

dazultra2000

· #13 · Apr 3, 2005

Sound quality is only gonna be as good as the worst component in the system.

So if you're running cheap speakers, it's not gonna make a lot of difference anyway.

However, if you go to some decent speakers (£100+ a set) then you really start to notice the crispness of the better HUs.

Sony, unfortunately, seem to pile all of their development into making the displays do all sorts of fancy crap that realistically isn't very useful anyway, as you should really be having your eyes on the road!

My mum has a £50 shark mp3 cd player off ebay, and it sounds just as my £190 alpine does in her car - but she has standard speakers, so not much ground for comparison.

When I asked my friends why they bought sony headunits, the standard reply i got was "cos they look cool".

Me and my car audio homies all have alpine, and with good reason. Sound quality where it matters!

I should be getting my new 2005 model alpine 9853R sometime on Tuesday - can't wait!

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r44712

Discussion Starter · #14 · Apr 3, 2005

Thanks for your replies everyone - I've gone for a Kenwood setup (again), MP3 10-disk changer for the boot, and a 5031 HU for upfront.

Now all I have to do is source the mounting braket/shelf-thingy for which the changer is hang from in the boot...

dazultra2000

· #15 · Apr 3, 2005

Just a quick note...just looked at your ebay auction.

I think £200 for buy it now is a little optimistic seeing as you can buy it brand new for £199.99!
I hope the reserve wasn't set too high!

scottstead

· #16 · Apr 4, 2005

right so a sony headunit is only as bad as the speakers it drives well i got a bubble rover standard speakers have two tweeters in doors rover ones and others in back will a sony be good for me or not alpine look very ugly no offence.

r44712

Discussion Starter · #17 · Apr 4, 2005

dazultra2000 said:
I think £200 for buy it now is a little optimistic seeing as you can buy it brand new for £199.99! I hope the reserve wasn't set too high!

This is something I've been meaning to address - I can't do it though until the auction ends and is relisted!

dazultra2000

· #18 · Apr 4, 2005

scottstead said:
right so a sony headunit is only as bad as the speakers it drives well i got a bubble rover standard speakers have two tweeters in doors rover ones and others in back will a sony be good for me or not alpine look very ugly no offence.

Yeah it'll be fine....but to be honest you should really look to upgrade the speakers too. I can't speak for the bubble, but the wedge speakers were awful. I mean absolutely terrible. Distortion is not a friend of mine, but those speakers dealt it by the bucketload!

I know that £100+ is a lot of money though..and so that's not top of the list. But even investing in something, maybe even just £50 speakers, will give you a world of difference.

and no offence taken

but I still have to ask - whats the point of a flashy headunit when you're sposed to have your eyes on the road?

1 - 18 of 18 Posts

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