My priorities are a HU that is asthetically complementary to my car and sound quality. Further, I only require single CD and am/fm radio. I initially plan on only replacing the stock speakers with those with superior quality, but am open to suggestions on how to achieve decent sound quality with a minimally invasive installation (5" rear speakers may not cut it.)

So far, I am considering the following head units:

1. Nakamichi CD400 (Love the looks and sound, but am worried about durability and customer support. Can anyone comment from recent experience?)

2. McIntosh MX406 (Kinda looks like the stock Becker Mexico, which is a plus, sounds great and built like a tank. Horribly expensive and requires amps)

3. Pioneer DEX-P9 (Only big corporate HU that doesn't look like Times Square on New Year's Eve. Expensive with a lot of bells and whistles I may never use. Adjustability [eq, x-over] may come in handy if I end up with only four speakers)

4. Becker Mexico 4337 (Drop in replacement looks the part, but may fall well short in sound quality compared to above. Any comments?)

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

Evan

Hi Evan.

Try this link http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?threadid=76200
for more choices.

In my experience,I have noticed that if a manufacturer
has been around for as long as those that you mentioned
you need to have high quality products otherwise you
just won't last.

Quality wise the 3 first units are all high quality,high end
products and are from manufacturers that have proven
track records.Also their customer service should be
of the same high quality and I think problems are rare
but not impossible.

I have no experience with becker units but since
MB uses them you would think the are of good
quality but I don't think they can be compared to
an aftermarket unit.

Louis.

Hi Louis,

I see you are in NJ as well. Do you recommend any dealers/installation shops in the area?

Evan

Hi Evan.

Where in NJ do you live?

I live in Lyndhurst,Bergen county,close to the
meadowlands and continental airlines arena.

I do all my own installations.BUT
I know off one really good one(I haven't been
there yet,but I've seen their decals on cars in
Rockland and Orange counties,NY)
it's called mobile innovations and it is on Rt. 46
in Lodi,but I'm sure that they are not cheap.


Louis.

Louis,

I'm in the Summit area. I don't think it's worth spending alot of money if I'm not willing to hack up the car. If I only do drop in replacements for the existing speakers, I shouldn't expect too much. I may consider bigger speakers for the rear deck, but there's not much I can do about the front speakers (I think they are 3 1/2 or 4 inches). Any suggestions?

I really like the Nakamichi, its only $350 and can power 4 speakers. I'm just concerned about the reliability issue.

Evan

Evan.

I wouldn't worry to much,Nakamichi has
quality gear.
Sofar I haven't heard about any kind of
problem.


On the front speakers,you could have
custom footwell kickpanes made.
The can be color and fabric matched to
your interior.

I have attached a picture.

1st) is a universal one that can be used to
make custom ones.
Together with fiberglass copies of the OE kickpanels
and these universal kickpanels custom ones could be
made.

2nd) is in a chevy truck and shows you what it
would look like(it's specific to this car,only for
the C-class do they have specific ones)

This would give you the possibility to have 6.5"
or 5.25" components or coaxials in the front.

This is the route I'm going but I'll have to completely
make them from scratch because I'm using 6X9s".

Louis

Attached Thumbnails

 

I'd go for Becker Monza CD/MP3 player (I think it is model 7228)

Retro style (two round dials left and right) dot-matrix display, CD-R/RW ID3 tag reader, perfect colouring of display... 4x30W RMS (not Japanese or Chinese Watts) and 5ch output for amp. Can drive CD shuttle... can be found for ~350USD on internet

Just a click away: www.becker.de