Aftermarket Car Stereos, Is There Really a Sound Difference if...

[Josh O]

...you rely soley on outboard amps to drive your speakers? Barring features, controls, video screens, etc, if you had a Kenwood, Alpine, Pioneer and JVC in front of you, all are around the same pricepoint and they all offered say 4-5V preamp outs (front, rear and subwoofer) and you ran the frequency response on your head unit close to flat, is there really a noticeable sound quality difference between say the Alpine over the JVC, etc?

I currently have a JVC that I want to upgrade to something with better iPod/iPhone interface controls. Will I actually get better sound quality if I go with say a Kenwood or Alpine?

[pedalcr8z]

Think of it this way. If you're ONLY going to use an Ipod as your source, probably not HOWEVER if you are going to listen to CD's also then yes there will be a difference. Think of a home cd player. There are definite sonic differences between players.

**Disclaimer, people that think "well it's digital they all sound the same" please don't blow up this thread.......remember the world is not flat either!

[playsarobin]

If you use an actual cable (not the headphone out) and you run apple lossless compression or so, I think it would sound the same as a cd.

iPods are not evil. 128k mp3s are. I, honestly, don't believe there would be tons of difference has in my experience the amps/speakers play a large role in the final product. I like kenwood/alpine though.

[Josh O]

My main music source is iPod/iPhone via direct connect vice headphone out at 128K rip.

[Woodenfish]

Sound quality is source, reception, stereo separation, staging and tone. I think you will be more pleased with higher end Alpine and Pioneer than the others. An experienced local car audio installer can demonstrate their products best. Bring your player and listen to the music you enjoy and let your ears decide.

[Dr. Tweedbucket]

My car came with a Bose system, but I installed an Alpine head unit ADS amp and polk audio speakers and it's amazing! Just the features alone make it worth while, but it's got some balls now! I say do it.

[Josh O]

I currently run a JVC head unit with Diamond Audio amps, Diamond Audio speakers and a JL Stealthbox. It's loud and clean without being too thumpy. It's always in the back of my head could it sound even better if I went with an alpine or pioneer head.

[vds5000]

My deck doesn't even have a cd player. It's an Alpine with a USB cable in the glove box, hooked up to a 16G jump drive. I'm hoping to swap that out with a 32G sometime during the summer. I'd highly recommend this deck to anyone in the market.

[captain_bob]

Originally Posted by vds5000

My deck doesn't even have a cd player. It's an Alpine with a USB cable in the glove box.

I have a Kenwood with a USB to my glove box as well... but I can't imagine not having a CD Player!!!

Sure I love playing my iPod through my deck, but there are days I like to pick up a new CD and just play it without having to upload it to my player.

[dimpler]

didn't know people were still driving around 1978 monte carlo's and grand prix's...

[21stcenturykid]

Originally Posted by Josh O

My main music source is iPod/iPhone via direct connect vice headphone out at 128K rip.

You'll want to start ripping at higher quality to notice any difference. In my experience, the better the speaker the more obvious poor quality mp3's become. I'd go 256AAC minimum. It's about the same file size as 128mp3 too!