I've got some questions about double din navigation units, looking for double din only as I hate the way the screen bounces if you have a single din pop out screen.

The xm and bluetooth functions aren't really a big deal to me but I have to have an ipod control and the navigation aspect is extremely important to me.

I am trying to decide if the Avic-D3 is good enough or if I should get the Avic-Z1 or Z2 (Like I said, I am not super into the bluetooth, xm, or voice command) Is the navigation the same on the d3 and the z1 or are there differences?

I am also interested in the Eclipse AVN5510. Does anyone know which product does a better job at navigation/ipod? I would like to get this narrowed down if possible.

Any help would be appreciated.

The Avic-D3

Avic-Z1

Eclipse AVN5510

 

I have a Pioneer avic n2 and i believe the nav software is the same as a D3. i like it and it is rarely wrong. I do not update the software due to the fact I like watching movies as I sit in traffic......

 

I say eclipse from experience, but the AVIC-Z1 is pretty nice too. I just like how the eclipse also has the 5V Preout, and it can have the drivers speaker only have the instructions for the navi and play music through the rest.... Ive heard some of the pioneers and they cut out the music completely to "speak"

 

My Pioneer does have left, right or left and right voice. But ya can't argue with a 5 volt pre-out!

 

whats the advantage of a 5 volt pre-out? Sorry...not too sure, I do have an alpine amp and a jl audio sub...runs fine off of my alpine cda-9851...
would I benefit from this 5volt pre out?

 

actually, even my avic-n1 does not mute the music just to give directions. it has that option that you can either mute the music or not when direction is given. surely, later model than my n1 should still have this feature.

 

5 volt outputs equal higher power out of the amp. Simply put, the bigger siganl you get to the amop gets amplified more than say a 1.5 volt preout. The old Orion amp used to have 9 volts out if I remember!

 

I am not too impressed with the avn 5495. even though it is marketed @ 5 volts, the SQ is no where near i expect eclipse products to be.
.
The Pioneer Z series in my opinion are 10x better from past experiences. and well worth the cashola

I don't have any comments on the 5510, or 6610 so I can't compare them to other products

The D series Pioneer products still has an above mediocre output but nowhere near as good as the Z series... considering all the features packed in and the price they go for, they are an absolute steal. A lot better then the eclipse AVN units (at least of the past.)

The pioneer units offer more visually appealing aesthetics, both through the interface and through the physical unit IMO as well

you should be able to hear a difference say from a 2.5 to a true 4 volt jump.
your sound should be a tad clearer, and there should be less use of the level control on the amplifiers. unless you can push that much more out of your amplifier and speaker setup.

what this translates to is that your equipment should play louder and/or cleaner with proper tuning.


good luck

 

delete

 

the guy I work with has the Z1 and it is a bad a$$ deck. the Pioneer is easy to use and feature packed. Eclipse isn't the most user friendly radio out there.

the D3 is nice, especially for the price. I would say either one of the Pioneers will be a good choice.

 

Do any of these have built in 6 disk cd changers by chance? LOL, thats the one thing i'd hate about switching out to nav myself, the 6 disk changer up front....

 

Straight from eclipse's website:

 

i like eclipse

 

well with those 3 choices there are all different, u got one that is right around a grand (avic d-3), and one that is around 1500 dollars( eclipse AVN5510BT) and u got one for more than 2 g's (avic z-1) of u can get the avic z-2. it matters how much money u are willing to throw down. if u want to throw more that 2 then go with the avic z'2 me personallly i have the avic z-1 and i love it, i like bc it has a built in hard drive to store mucis and phone numbers and it remembers routes i take home so i dont have to pop in the cd. well i havent really played with the eclipse all i know is the 5 volt pre out which always nice if u are running amps. and the pioneer avic d-3 is good, it nice bc its non movable so u don t have to worry about it. and it goes along to match ur dash so it looks like it cam with the car. but there isnt a hard drive so if u want to use ur nav and ur listening to a song ur goin to have to change the cd but a lot of people have ipods so they plug that in. They are all good decks but i mean its a matter of how much u want to throw down i think!!!

 

I have the Eclipse and I'm happy with it. . . no issues whatsoever.