**The Quest for the Perfect Head Unit: A Review of Three Options**

In the world of car audio enthusiasts, the perfect head unit is a holy grail of sorts. It's a device that can make or break the driving experience, and opinions on what constitutes the "perfect" head unit vary widely depending on individual preferences and needs. In this article, we'll take a closer look at three options - a $50 Pioneer head unit, a middle-of-the-road option for $300, and a high-end Kenwood model for over $700 - to see which one emerges victorious.

**The $50 Pioneer Head Unit: A Stepping Stone**

For those on a tight budget, the $50 Pioneer head unit is a great starting point. It's not going to blow you away in terms of features or sound quality, but it'll get the job done at a price that won't break the bank. The screen looks nice, and resolution is good, but there's no real wow factor here. However, this unit does have Bluetooth connectivity, Apple CarPlay, and Android Auto - although you'll need to plug in your phone to use these features. Overall, it's a solid option for those who just want the basics.

In terms of sound quality, the $50 Pioneer head unit is adequate, but not spectacular. It can get quite loud, which is important if you're driving alone and don't want to be distracted by background noise. However, at max volume, it starts to show its limitations - it gets a bit quiet, especially in windy conditions.

**The Middle-of-the-Road $300 Head Unit: A Leap Forward**

Moving up the price ladder, we find ourselves with a head unit that's significantly better than the Pioneer. For $300, this unit offers a huge leap forward in terms of features and sound quality. The screen looks nice, and resolution is very good - it's clear that this unit has been designed to be visually appealing. But what really sets it apart is its clickability - swiping through menus is easy and intuitive, making navigation a breeze.

In terms of features, this head unit has Bluetooth connectivity, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and wireless capabilities for both. It also supports gauges and radar detectors, which may not be essential but are nice to have nonetheless. The biggest feature of all, however, is the ability to move to wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto - a game-changer for those who want the convenience of hands-free control without being tethered to their phone.

**The $700 Kenwood Head Unit: A High-End Experience**

For those with deep pockets and a desire for the very best, the $700 Kenwood head unit is the ultimate option. This device looks stunning, with a gorgeous screen that's easy on the eyes. The sound quality is exceptional, with clear highs and deep bass that'll make you feel like you're right in the midst of the music.

In terms of features, this head unit has everything you can think of - Bluetooth connectivity, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, wireless capabilities for both, gauges, radar detectors, and more. The sound quality is impressive, with minimal distortion even at high volumes. It's clear that Kenwood has poured its heart and soul into creating a top-notch audio experience.

**Sound Quality: A Critical Factor**

For those who prioritize sound quality above all else, the Kenwood head unit may be the winner. While it's not without its limitations - particularly in windy conditions - its overall sound quality is exceptional. The $300 middle-of-the-road option also delivers solid performance, although it can't quite match the Kenwood's level of clarity and detail.

**The Verdict: A Decision that's Not Rocket Science**

So, which head unit emerges victorious? For us, the answer is clear - the middle-of-the-road $300 option is the best value for money. It offers a perfect balance of features, sound quality, and price, making it an ideal choice for those who want to upgrade their audio experience without breaking the bank.

Of course, this decision ultimately comes down to personal preference. If you're willing to shell out top dollar for the very best, the Kenwood head unit is undoubtedly worth considering. But if you're on a tighter budget or just want the basics, the $50 Pioneer head unit may be more than sufficient.

In conclusion, finding the perfect head unit can be a daunting task - but with careful consideration of features, sound quality, and price, it's definitely possible to find a device that meets your needs. Whether you're a seasoned car audio enthusiast or just starting out, there's a head unit out there for you.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- You've probably found yourselfshopping for car stereosmaybe browsing Amazon or Best Buy.And you may have noticedthat there are somethat are super expensive,some that are super cheapand there are plenty right in the middleand they all kind of offer the same thing.So how much is the rightamount of money to spend?Well, I don't really know.So today, I bought three different stereosthat offer pretty much the same optionsand wildly different price points.And we're gonna install themin the Miata and figure outhow much is the rightamount of money to spend.We'll look at userinterface, features, soundand how they feel overall to determinehow our money is best spent.I'm Zach and this is Money Pit.Let's make some noise.(upbeat music)Okay, so when I bought theMiata it came with thisvery terrible head unit, it doesn't work,the screen doesn't turn on.And it turns off completelyafter about 15 minutes.So hopefully today we're gonna finda new good replacement for it.So we're gonna be lookinginto three head units today,starting with this cheap one.But while we look at them,we're gonna be kind ofgrading them on a few things,how they feel, in general,like kind of build quality,the features that each of them have,the usability, how the user interface is,sound and how each of thesesounds compared to one another.Then we'll just kind ofdo an overall summaryand an overall kind ofconfusion level with each.So without further ado,let's open up the first one.I got it on eBay and it was $50,expectations are kind of low.Oh, we got a whole list of features.Look at this, seven-inchtouchscreen, 1080p video format,MOSFET amplifier, FM radio, mule function.Mule function, what does that mean?This thing weighs like, nothing.It feels like it costs 50 bucks.It gets a big fat F in thein the field category so far,but let's, you know, let'sgo install this thingand see if it works,see if we can figure it outand if it makes any music.Alright, so the first thing we're gonna doto get this $50 head unit installedis remove our $23 head unit.And then we've got to figureout how to make this workwith our new stuff.So if you just got a head unit,whether it's a $50 one or a$2,000 one or whatever you got,it's gonna come withsome sort of pig tail,or pig tails like these.And what these do is connectto the back of the head unit.So here you can see in the Miata,what we've got going onhere is the wiring harness,the pigtail that came with the head unitis then spliced into thisvehicle specific wiring harness,which is actually these two piecesthat connect straight into myfactory Mazda connectors here.We're gonna re-use thisMazda connector portionof this wiring harnessbecause it's still good.All we need to do, cutthis old harness off,and then we'll reconnect to our new stuff.Then I'm gonna cut all ofthese right here, okay,so that I'm just saying Withthe OEM connector style harnesson this side, 'cause Ineed to re-use these,all day I need to re-use these.Alright, so we got theharness for the first,the cheap head unit.(birds chirping)Alright, so we've got the.(birds chirping)We've got the harnessfor the first head unitall ready to go.So far, the confusion level is pretty low.The only thing is that they never told mewhat this brown wire was for.So I don't know,lets plug it and see what happens.Okay, so right now I'm justmaking some connections,we're connecting thespeaker wires at the moment.So now the only thing we gotto do is connect our ground,sweet, and now we shouldbe able to plug it inand turn this puppy on.Welcome, it's the mostsatisfying part of all,are you ready?Hey, you know what, at first glancethis screen doesn't looklike complete trash, I mean,it's pretty clear.Okay, let's see here, Bluetooth.I want to connect my Bluetooth phone,how do I go back home?It is slow to the uptake onthe clicks that's for sure.Damn, this is annoying.Plenty of typos in this thing.Actually speaking of which,I figured out what themule setting was, mute.Confusion level increasing.Maybe it's already attempting to pairand I just don't know it.Let's see what's going on here.Car BT baby, there she is.You know what,sometimes the deviceknows better than you.Clicked it, paired immediately, sweet.Now it's time to see what it sounds like.Christ,(upbeat music)Okay, so we've beenmessing with this thingfor a few minutes nowand here's our findings.So it definitely feels cheap.The knob when you turn thevolume up feels very cheap.When you click the touchscreen,it takes a minute for it to registerand sometimes it doesn't at all,The font is ridiculous,It looks like Times New Roman on here,which, honestly, it wouldjust drive me crazy.The only way it could beworse is if it was Comic Sans.But, you know what, thefact is, it was 50 Dollarsand it does turn on, the screen work, so,in that sense, it's sort ofan upgrade from this old one,which the screen didn't work at all.But there was one weirdquirk with the music thing,which is that, you have tobe on the Bluetooth screenfor it to be playing music.So we're here, now wego to the home screen.You're home and it stoppedplaying your music.But then you go back,and it starts again.How annoying is that?The next thing I think weshould do as far as testing thisis try to give somebody a call.See how the hands free calling works'cause that's kind of important.(upbeat music)All right let's give ol' Nolan a call.Hey, can you hear me now?- Yeah, I could,I could definitely tellyou're having to yell,oh, lot of engine noise.- Yeah a lot of enginenoise, can you still hear me?- Not super clearly actually.- Can I get a rating?- Well, I wouldcertainly give it a seven.- Oh all right, allright, all right, cool.Well, hey, we'll take a seven for sure.I'm sure whoever madethis thing would be happyto have received a seven from Nolan.So that's cool, that gives us a benchmark.Yeah, I guess that's the lasttest really for this one.We're gonna go back to the house now.And give the second one a rip.(upbeat music)Okay, for our second head unit,the middle of the road one.This is from Pioneer, it'scalled the DMH 1500 NEX.Right off the bat, thisthing lists some featuresthat the last head unit didn't have,of course, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto,last head unit didn'thave those, this one does.An extra set of pre outscompared to the other one.We got three sets here.This is ready to be controlledby your steering wheel.That's the kind of stuff thatI probably wouldn't hook upbut yeah, it's cool in case you want to,otherwise you can connecttwo phones to this head unit.Alright, let's pull this thing out.Oh my God, instructions,I forgot what those looklike right off the bat,as far as features go,it seems to have a pretty longlist compared to the last oneand feel, it definitelyfeels a lot better,it feels like a muchnicer piece of equipment.So, that all bodes well.What'd you say we say we install it,see if we get a nice click here,and I'm pretty sure we will,yeah, nice click, sweet.All right, let's see if she turns on.Shut up, so the first screen up,choose our languagelet's go with, English.Speaker mode settings, do notuse the unit in standard mode.There goes the stool.All right, well, so right off the ripthe screen looks a little brighter,it looks a little crispier,it looks a little clearer.A little more highdefinition, if you will.Okay, Oh no, not French, please.I'll never know how to go back.Okay, there's our home-screen.Hey, that looks pretty nice.What we got here?All right, the first thinglet's try to connect a phone.Damn, there she is, ready to grow.Just starts playing.(upbeat music)That's way louder than the last one,so loud, in fact, I didn'tdare to turn it all the way up.Oh my God, yeah, I didn't even think abouthow the sensitivity on the screen iswhich is exactly what you want.I didn't have to think about it.When I click it knows itand it does something.Let's do CarPlay lets seewhat's going on there.See if it just works when I plug in.Ah, hey, now there we go.Sweet, well, CarPlay pulls upand then you got the oldmap so I can use some navwhich is nice for going placesand getting where you're trying to go.Alright, let's go to Bluetooth,we'll play some music.All right, now let's go to the home-screenand see if music keeps playing.Oh, that's cool.You can go away from the Bluetooth screenand it keeps playing musicjust like exactly like whatyou would want it to do.In other terms of sound.I don't know how it soundson a phone call yet.So why don't I drive around the blockand bug Nolan some more.Thank you.So it's probably worth mentioningthat the Pioneer head unitdoes come with a Bluetooth microphonethat you can put wherever you want,but that's what you getwhen you spend more money.- Oh, I think itsounds so much better.- Heck yeah!So that said, can you give me a rating?- I'm gonna give this a nine dude.- Nine.- Say 8.5.- Okay, all right, I'll take it.Nolan said he could not believehow much better I sounded.He gave me an 8.5 out of 10.He started with a nine and I saidnine, where do we go from here?(upbeat music)We are on to our final.Our third and final, ourmost expensive head unit.So, this is made by Kenwood.It cost me over $700.And it does have pretty longlist of features it looks like.Namely, the first thing I noticed is thatyou can do CarPlay andAndroid Auto wirelessly.So this one actually does havea CD player and a DVD player.So I mean honestly in 2020,I don't really care about thatbut I guess if you do thenthis has that so there you go.Let's open it up,let's see what we gotgoing on inside the box.This is the heaviest box by far.(whistles in amazement)All right.Okay, cool, well, that's aboutall we're gonna be able to tellby looking at it.Now let's install it, see how she does.Ah, a nice click.We've got some spaghettigoing on back here.This makes me.Alright, she's powered up,let's see what's going on.First off just looking at it.And honestly it looks,well it looks similar inscreen quality to the,to the Pioneer, but thefont is a little lesspleasing to my eye so far.So first thing we're going to try to dois try to get my phonepaired up to the head unit,get the wireless CarPlay workingand then we'll see how it sounds.Bluetooth, maybe that.Add the phone.Well so far this is the most confusingto get my phone hooked upto, which isn't saying muchbecause the other two are so easy, butthis one seems to begiving me a little trouble.Alright, so it took alittle bit of figuring out,this so far has been kind ofthe clunkiest user interface,in my opinion it's been kindof difficult to figure outhow to get everythingconnected just right.But it is connected now,we've got our wireless CarPlay working,which is pretty cool.That's a pretty cool feature.No plugging it in, andCarPlay is up there.So now we've got that working,let's see how it sounds.(upbeat music)Damn, sounds pretty good.Although, and honestly,that was max volume.And that was not as loud as the Pioneer.Sound quality at a normal volumeis equally good to the others.So in terms of feel and the waythe touchscreen works andfeels, it's pretty good.I mean, it is definitelyon par with the Pioneerwhich is what you'd expectfor a more expensive unitbut it's definitely notbetter than the Pioneerin any appreciable way.It feels the same actually, Ihave less luck with my swipingthan I did on the Pioneer, ittakes a few tries sometimes.Now the last thing that we need to dois give my boy Nolan a calland see if this thingsounds like 700 bucks.So Nolan, how do I sound?- There seems to be more buffetingthis time than the last time.- More buffeting, oh,and I can't hear you.I have the volume all the way up.- There's a lot of buffeting now.How fast are you going?- Now I'm going 30,last time I was going faster than this,and you could hear me better,I could hear you better.I have the volume all the way up nowand that's all I got.So can I get a final judgment?- Yeah, I'll give it a score,I'd give this like a 6.5.- 6.5 Okay, so--- The buffeting isjust too much, too much.- All right, so you heard it from Nolan,it gets a 6.5 or maybe a seven.That's not very good for a $700 unit.So let's go back to the garage,tally it all up, we'llstack these things upagainst each other and make a decision.Okay, so we've spent the daycomparing three different head unitsat three very different price points.So let's talk about the cheap one first.The cheap one cost $50.And in terms of feel, itfeels like it costs $50.This screen doesn't look great.And the clickability ofthe screen is pretty bad.On to features,it has next to none, so that's nice.It does have Bluetoothand that's the biggestfeature I was looking for.Because I wanna be able to Bluetooth musicfrom my phone to my car while I'm driving.The user interface on thecheap one was pretty bad,although we still hookedup our phone pretty quicklyand if you know what you're doing,it's just kinda ugly to do it.It was the quietest of the threeby a pretty big margin thoughand that's not okay for mebecause I need this thingto be as loud as I canto combat all the wind noise.And lastly, in terms ofBluetooth call quality,the quality was pretty good.It just has a built in microphone,wherever it is on there.You heard it, I think Nolan gave me what?A six or a six and a half.He was pretty pleased with itand for 50 bucks, that's not bad.All right, moving onwardto our middle of the road price point,$300 for this pioneer head unit.In terms of feel, this was a huge leapfrom the 50 dollar unit.The screen looks nice, theresolution is very good.And the click ability was great.Actually, the clickabilityon the $300 piecewas probably the best throughout.Let's talk about features.So we do have Bluetooth here.This also has Apple CarPlayand Android Auto, wired,you know, you got to beplugged into your phone,in my opinion, that's the biggest leap.User interface on the head unitoverall, was also very good.It was very easy to useconnecting my phone was very easy.Everything was pretty intuitive.This one, this $300 unitwas the loudest of the threeand that's really what I'm looking for.I want as much noise out ofthe speakers as I can getso I can hear them over all the wind.So I think Nolan gave me whatan 8.5 on call quality on thisand I gotta tell you,8.5, that's pretty good.Now let's talk about the bigdaddy, the 700 plus dollarhead unit from Kenwood.The screen looks very nicethat clickability is very good,you know, swiping I had someissues every now and thenbut overall it was pretty good.However, there wasn'tmuch of a leap upwardsover the middle of theroad one in terms of feel.So now, features, thisthing is pretty loaded.I honestly didn't evenknow how many featuresI had when I bought itbecause I was stillcombing through featureswhen I'm swiping through the menus,stuff that's not even listedon the box or the website.Like you can add gauges to this somehow,you can add a radar detectorto this thing somehow.The biggest feature in my opinionis that you get to move upto wireless Apple CarPlayand wireless Android Auto,which is really cool.It's a little bit fiddlyto get it figured out.But once it's figured out, it's doneand that's very convenient.Now lets talk about sound.Sounded great at a normal listening level.At max volume it was a littlebit quieter than the Pioneer.So the last thing that wegot to talk about on thiswas the Bluetooth sound quality.And I went out, I drove, I called Nolanand he said it sounded worsethan the middle of the road one,said he heard more buffeting.And this one also hasa Bluetooth microphonethat you can put wherever you want it.And I put it in the sameexact spot as this one.And I drove the sameroute at the same speeds.So with all that said,all that taken into accountfor me and the Miata,the head unit that it'sgoing to have to beis of course, the middle one.It does what I want for thecheapest amount of money.That's exactly what I'm looking for.Okay, so now that wefinally got our decision,and I mean, come on, let's be honest,we knew it was gonnabe this one all along.But now that we'veactually made the decision,we've done the workwe've made the decision,the only thing left to dois to permanently install it in the car,but you've seen me do that.And if you don't remember how to solder,check that video out in the link,wherever it decides to put it.If you wanna know moreabout how we ended upwith music in our cars,then go check out this,my favorite episode ofwheelhouse of all time, trust me,you will not regret doing it.Thank you so much for watching.Make sure you subscribe to the channeland you have the notification bell rung'cause we're putting outshows every single day.If you want more meat, you canget it @zachjobe on Instagramand make sure you'refollowing Donut, @Donutmedia.I almost forgot to say,you know the sweet, awesomesong I've been playing all day.Did you love it?Of course you did.We're also making afull length music video.So if you have any footagethat you think belongs in a pop-up,up and down the headlights music video,then send it to us and we'll put it in.