Best options for car cd players.

What would be your recommendations on a car cd player for around $350 or less? The main thing I care about is the sound. I dont care about all the bells and whistles but not opposed to them . I just want good clear sound on a unit that is not hard to use or that you cant see the display in the day time or that is to bright at night.

Thanks in advance.

 

Pioneer is probably your best bet. If you really care about the sound you'll be wanting an amp too.

 

ALPINE
That's all they do is car audio.

Not like Yamaha Pioneer etc
and Panasonic that make all kinds of other stuff.

Alpine has a good internal amp and more flexibility with settings. Plus I think they sound the best.

 

Second Alpine.

 

Alpine thirded!

 

When my 6 CD changer in my 05 Honda Civic died last year, I replaced with an Alpine that also has Bluetooth. It was around $300 installed and sounds fantastic and I now have hands-free phone capability in my car.

 

alpine is not what they used to be. pioneer is the premiere mobile audio manufacturer in the world. the deck in the link below is spectacular...
DEH-80PRS - CD Receiver with 3-Way Active Crossover Network, Auto EQ, and Auto Time Alignment

 

Ive heard complaints about Alpine being to bright at night and that you cant turn the brightness down. I was also looking that the Pioneer DEH-80PRS but a lot of reviews say how complected it is to use and that there is not a lot of power but they do say its very clear. Its hard to find the right one. I have searched best of list on Google and they all have different players , no one agrees on anything . Frustrating.

 

I do agree the display is bright if you choose the wrong color. I am using what is somewhat of a reddish orange and doesn't bother me.

 

If you run "active" the DEH 80 can be complicated but not that difficult - I have the big brother DEX P99rs and once dialed in it is fantastic. If you run conventional mode (full range, non active) it isn't difficult at all.

 

I would actually recommend a CHEAPER unit. You think may think I'm crazy but after many many years in automotive audio doing product planning and testing, let me explain.
- The best sound requires external amplifiers. Period. All built-in amps regardless of brand or power rating are little chips of roughly 12 watts per channel actual power and not a great damping factor. The 12 volt car system is the limitation, as is the crammed space in the head unit. More expensive head units will not improve this most basic facet. Heck, your factory unit may be usable. Maybe.
- To REALLY have the best sound you MUST have time delay in the car. Period. Drivers sit off-center, so arrival times are wrong, and the sound is just screwed up. Adjustable time delaywill let you ameliorate this problem, though it requires external processory (despite my best efforts I don't *think* this every made it into a head unit). This can get expensive though (used might be one way). Oh, if you are driving a McLaren F1, this doesn't apply, but do stop by and take me for a ride please.
- Fancier head units may tout a better DAC blah blah blah...small potatoes. Again, limited by the space in the head unit and the noisy 12V supply of the car. An external processor is really the way to go if you can.
- Good bass in a car really needs a subwoofer. Even loaded by the small car enclosure, the road noise profile of almost all vehicles requires an upwardly sloping bass response to compensate, and little 6" woofers are just not enough. The sub doesn't have to be huge.
- Depending what your car came with, better speakers may be required.

Amps and subs and speakers don't have to be too expensive, especially if gently used.

If you change the radio, DO get Bluetooth for convenience of talking on the phone, and be sure there is an AUX in. These days I would really want CarPlay and Android Auto based on some experience in a Chevy Volt.

Now, if you want help with car audio questions, it would help if you told us what make model and year you are driving! And what radio is in it
You might also try the very nice and very knowledgeable folks at
https://www1.crutchfield.com/car/carselector.aspx?lp=/Car/outfitmycar/mycar.aspx
as well as specific Car Audio forums (though you may well get too many and too rabid opinions).

 

Thanks for all the replies. The car this would be used in is a 2003 Nissan Maxima SE.

 

I like my Kenwood XXV-01D - Anniversary edition with all the stops pulled out, Burr-Brown converters, 110dB SNR, separate 4 channel parametric EQ for front and rear, and 4.1 crossover with adjustable slopes. Digital time correction, good for making one listener get optimum sound where the speakers just disappear. Plays MP3/AAC on CD-R. It has car size correction and listener position correction (setup still is incorrigible after reading the documentation).

It supports external SiriusXM module and Kenwood CD changers, and even the external Kenwood Music Keg "media server" (all of 10gb of space for mp3s).

Only thing - it's the best CD player HU probably ever made, but we've moved past CD. No USB/SD card playback or bluetooth or other modern flair.

I just use a line input for mp3 player or phone.

 

I've been into car audio off and on since the 1990s. I've owned and installed quite a few brands (Kenwood, Clarion, Alpine, Pioneer), and I will second this wholeheartedly: Pioneer DEH-80PRS.

I bought one when my Alpine CDE-HD148BT head unit suddenly, and without explanation or obvious cause, simply stopped recognizing my iPod. My inquiries to customer service were met with, basically, "Buy another one," so I did: A Pioneer.

I bought the Pioneer DEH-80PRS receiver and matched it with a Pioneer PRS-D800 amplifier (It replaced a modified old-school Linear Power 952iq) driving a pair of vintage A/D/S component speakers in the front doors with 125 watts per channel. I used the internal amp of the DEH to drive another pair of vintage A/D/S components in the rear deck.

The front soundstage sounds amazing. Wide and deep, and just about dash level (it's a bit lower than the dash, due to the placement of the speakers in the doors, which can't be avoided). The DEH provides amazing sound, and almost infinite control of the setting of crossovers, equalization, time alignment, and so forth. I am about to replace the PRS-D800 with an Arc Audio XDi 600.4 amplifier because the DEH doesn't provide enough power to the rear speakers, but that's a failing of my system design (Pioneer specifically recommends against using both the internal amp and an external amp simultaneously, but I did it anyway. Oops.)

Do yourself a favor -- get the Pioneer DEH-80PRS receiver and a four-channel external amp. Dialing in all of the settings of the DEH can be tricky, so if you don't have patience (or aren't inclined to do it), a quality shop will set it all up for you.