# Pioneer vs Jensen headunit sound quality??



## illnastyimpreza (Oct 25, 2006)

Front stage will be JBL GTI 608 components. 

I'm looking @ the jensen VX7022 Jensen VX7022 Double DIN Multimedia Touchscreen Navigation Car Stereo

Is this going to produce as nice sound as say a Pioneer nex 4200??

Anyone use the Jensen? How is the audio processing quality?


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## Lycancatt (Apr 11, 2010)

most will say no way can that super cheap brand have as nice of sound as the pioneer, and they may be right..but in this price bracket imo they all sound similar and a lot of the time we don't put nice enough source materials in to hear any difference, spottify, mp3s, Bluetooth streaming etc..

my bigger concern would be that the build quality on the gensen would be way behind the pioneer and therefore make the pioneer a better buy. alwayshead the old saying, buy once, cry once.


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## Ziggyrama (Jan 17, 2016)

If it wasn't Jensen, I'd say the specs look great: 95db s/n, 6v preamps, all major features included, all $300. The problem is, I don't trust that brand being honest about those specs. No such thing as free lunch. Some makes just plain old lie about their specs.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

The 4200NEX has a 24bit da and reads FLAC IIRC.
it also has TA and 10band. 

The pioneer most likely will sound better once tuned.
The Jensen has a single 1bit da and 3 or 5band eq no TA
And will read MP3. 

Apples to oranges IMO


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Ziggyrama said:


> If it wasn't Jensen, I'd say the specs look great: 95db s/n, 6v preamps, all major features included, all $300. The problem is, I don't trust that brand being honest about those specs. No such thing as free lunch. Some makes just plain old lie about their specs.


It's a 6v preamp because it doesn't use a preamp. 
It's a LOC (line output converter) built in that feeds the RCA outputs. 
So it will measure 6v sure but so will any hi-low that's off a 10v post-amp deck power.


The cheapo pioneers use a LOC as well instead of a preamp.
All the AVICs has a actual pre amp that I am aware of. 
But this is info that was told to me during a sales presentation for kicker so IDK how much merit there is to it, but I have seen some decks use a LOC instead of preamp built in.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

&#55357;&#56883;Never heard anything like that?
Can this be true?


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## Ziggyrama (Jan 17, 2016)

oabeieo said:


> It's a 6v preamp because it doesn't use a preamp.
> It's a LOC (line output converter) built in that feeds the RCA outputs.
> So it will measure 6v sure but so will any hi-low that's off a 10v post-amp deck power.
> 
> ...


Thanks. This just confirms that there is no such thing as free lunch. The specs looked suspiciously good. Now we know why.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

capea4 said:


> ��Never heard anything like that?
> Can this be true?


It's true  

Look at the sides of pioneer boxes . 
You'll see a bunch of icons resembling the features that that deck may have like 
BT audio, sxm ready, HD radio, yadiyadiya ...there's also one for pre-amp . 

So you can tell which ones have a true pre amp. 

And it's weird how the crappy 49$ cdmechless 280bt measures like 5v out

Yeah the kicker training rep was trying to convince us that hilevel in is the best. 
 (whatever) be he brought it to us about the LOC in basic decks thing after some of my own testing it's true. 

Besides pioneer , I don't know which decks actually use a LOC instead of a true pre-amp but I would imagine the 160$ Jensen nav decks probably don't go out of there way for anything fancy when we all know those decks are all being installed in some ****box in the ghetto.


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## Hillbilly SQ (Jan 26, 2007)

Don't have personal experience with Jensen but my experience with a JVC Arsenal single din vs Pioneer AVH1700 double din was night and day. With just a simple headunit swap with everything flat going to a processor the Pioneer flat out sounded better. The JVC was a cheap headunit to get me by until I got the nerve to do the necessary cutting in the dash to get a double din in there. Took me two weeks to get pissed off at the JVC. 

I've never heard the "buy once cry once" saying. I always heard "buy cheap buy twice" and another one I like is one supposedly by Ben Franklin. "The bitterness of poor quality will be remembered long after the sweetness of a cheap price".


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