Mr.Spacely

I've got a Nakamichi CD400 in the daily driver that I want to swap into the 964. Bought it for it's simple understated looks, performance, and its use of an actual volume ****.

Goughary

I also went with the Nakamichi CD400....but would like the vintage looking becker porsche radio. I like that one alot....Anyone have a link to where it can be bought in the states?

dkcaims

Yeah... the becker's look right, but sound mediocre at best.
Of course if you listen mainly to talk radio, it doesn't matter too much.
The Nak's sound great, but the cd drive mechanisms are known for reliability issues... if it's still working, you're one of the lucky ones.

You have to decide...
Do I want audiophile sound quality or bluetooth, IPOD, GPS, etc... features?
You can't have both !

Goughary

yeah - but the sound is challenged in the 964 anyway - it's never going to be like sitting at home with a McIntosh tube system, playing Lp's through a set of Proac D25's...

so for me - I want to go with something that sounds "good enough" - I am looking to do a very small under the seat subwoofer, which may help a bit....

dkcaims

Absolutely right !!!
... no car will ever sound as good as a properly set up 2 channel system at home.
For some people, features trumps sound quality, others not so much, and still others have no radio at all. There is no right or wrong...

Goughary

"a properly set up 2 channel system at home"

thank god someone else understands....

racemor

Nakamichi CD 500, for the same reasons listed above. Not sure if it has problems with the cd drive, I've never used it. All my music and podcasts are sourced through an iPod.

dkcaims

If only I could have my turntable in my car !!!

I too usuallly use my HiFiman PMP as the source in my car, but only use uncompressed files.
Low birate mp3 files sound terrible, at least to my ears !

hamah

I searched and searched last year for a head unit that would give me the classic look of the Becker or older Blaupunkt combined with a 24 bit DAC, 4v pre amp output, Bluetooth (for the phone) and iPod support (that allowed control from either the front panel of the HU or the iPod). Best I could come up with was the Kenwood KDC-X995. I can dumb down the colour on the front panel to get a reasonably low visual impact but it still looks out of place.

I combined that with Hertz MLK 165 in the doors (a gift from my brother...what a guy) , an Audison LRX 6.9 amp under the passenger seat (yes...it can be done) and a pair of JL 8w3v3-4 subs in the back foot wells in some Car Audio Innovations enclosures.

A very stealth install with great sound. I can now actually hear decent music at highway speed with the top down (when I'm not listening to the 3.6 behind me). This setup sounds so good I'll sit in the car for hours listening to tunes (ok maybe partially because I'm escaping household duties or wife aggro).

Still wish I could find a HU that allowed me the sound quality and functionality I have with a more classic look but I'll take this setup for now.

Goughary

"...but only use uncompressed files."

I do the same thing. There was a good article years ago in Sterephile magazine, that I think is available online about getting the most out of an ipod as a transport. and they compared the mp3 at various levels of compression to aac and apple lossless...this was with the earlier ipods, but still holds true...

One thing that has always been the case, is that if you plug into the base of the ipod, rather than the headphone jack, you bypass the volume control on the ipod and that simple change makes a huge difference....

all that said - if you play mp3 files, dont bother spending money on the rest of the system, cuz the compressed files are so bad you may as well open up the middle-top of your dash and install an old-school mono speaker in the hole there left over from the sixites....

hamah

meh...I went through this AAC lossless vs. MP3 at a variety of bit rates and CBR vs VBR etc story many many times on some VERY $$$ kit. Bottom line is I have everything on my transport at home in FLAC on my NAS and convert to MP3 VBR somewhere between 230-300ish Kbps for the iPod and I can't tell the difference at home let alone in the car. Interestingly the faster I go and the older I get the lower the bit rate before I can hear the difference

dkcaims

Nice setup... unfortunately car audio companies stopped making really high end head units in around 2003. The public wanted "features" like bluetooth, ipod compatibility, etc...and sacrifices to sound quality were made.
Many car audio installers have told me that the manufacturers were not making much profit on the high end units, so they stopped producing them.

dkcaims

I can hear the difference at home, but only at times. In a car, it probably does not matter much with all the other noises going on...
...bottom line is, whatever sounds good to you.

I mainly listen to talk radio in the car unless it's a long trip, and then a transistor radio is good enough for me.

hamah

true that

I struggled for sooo long trying to find the magic place where I could balance sq (compressed vs non-compressed) and space (bit rate). Then I realized that really space was more important as the environment wasn't all that conducive to sq anyway. Now that I got over that I have a BOATLOAD of stuff on my 160 GB iPod Classic (which stays in the glovebox..always). It sounds great (to my old ears ) and I have 1 tiny bit less stress in my life.

Goughary

yeah - honestly - i find my C4 so accoustically challenged that sound quality is completely irrelevant at this point....I gave up after replacing the speakers and head unit - all high end (ish) stuff, and the end result is horrible sound - and in the summer, I dont use the AC, windows are open, so the radio is off anyway cuz the inside is so noisy you cant hear the radio at all...

BUT - what I do that is fun, is my daughter sits in back, she still fits thankfully, and plays movies on the ipad, and we plug that through the stereo so for her it's like a huge surround cinema experience...even though there is virtually zero stereo or front to back separation...but she LOVES it...