I was thinking about getting a dual xdm 6820. Havent heard much about these, are they reliable?

 

they are not reliable. I have replaced about 4 of those unit in the last month and a half. What is your price range? post up and Ill give you some choices. Prob around a hundred will be good quality and nice fetures. Look at Pioneer DEH-P1900, JVC KDG-230

 

I also was looking at the 1900 pioneer also. I was hoping to go for 130.00 maybe from crutchfield.

 

the 1900 is like $100 and the 2900 is like $110. i would def go pioneer or jvc, don't waste your money on dual

 

+1 on that. DUAL = crap

 

I've found through experience that Pioneer is a good way to go if you're not gonna spend muchmoney on a deck. My dad & I went the $115 Pioneer deck route for years and found them to be great receivers. Newer model JVC looks okay for the money, although, personally i think they're as bad as Dual (from what i've seen anyway).

 

hmmm, I install for a living, compete, and i run a JVC deck. I love pioneers but they have a design flaw stemming from an rca ground issue.

 

Well i'm not tryin' to stir j1 from JVC or anything, its just me and from my experience with JVC and its more so with the older models so it doesn't really apply here I guess. I've never given the newer JVC a chance really because of this history, but nowadays they seem to give a lot more for not a lot of change (kinda like higher end panasonic) plus you obviously have more experience with their decks than meself. Me or my dad never had any issues with our pioneers (seems we were lucky).

 

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Don't get the Dual. I have one right now, it's complete garbage.

 

I love pioneers, and until about a year ago, i wasnt a big fan of JVC. Pioneers have an issue when you plugin RCA's that all of the sudden, you get horrible ground noise through whatever is connected to them. Its just a design flaw and bad soldering. I have a JVC now, I love it, except that it doesnt have a HPF, which to someone who doesnt amp their interior speakers, becomes a problem with louder volumes. WHen you turn you system up wihout a HPF, your interior speakers try to reproduce that bass, and thats bad when they start to distort terribly.