I used to have the 8400 and it was great. It gives you a good amount of control for how you want to hear your music. It plays mp3s too which is always a good thing!! The only reason I got rid of it was because I now got the 9400 :naughty: :naughty: (working at best buy has one good thing going for it, but that's about it) Anyways I am not going to dispute the fact that alpine, eclipse, and the other name brands listed are better than pioneer. The have incredible sound due to their signal to noise ratio among a couple other things like the shielding they have on their internals, etc. compared to a pioneer. But pioneer is no where near a bad company. Jensen, audiophase, and a lot of the sony products I consider low end. Pioneer is the best head unit that best buy carries. They are better than most of the kenwoods I have seen. A couple excelons beat them out but not many. Now granted we don't carry alpine for the simple fact that they are too high end for best buy. Best Buy in general is low to middle end at best.Some people like a headunit to look nice as well as sound good too. Now its not everyone's taste to do that way and usually the great head units are very plain in appearance. Not everyone needs the best of everything though. Everyone needs something that suits them. Sure alpines usually sound better than pioneers but unless you are a audiophile you might not hear the difference or even care for that matter. But to get back to the point I think that sumaccordguy94 should me a little more open minded. Now I am not trying to start a fight or anything, everyone is entitled to their own opinion like I have my own and I respect everyone else's opinion. I personally don't think alpine is THAT much better than a pioneer considering the difference in money you might spend sometimes. In my opinion head units make a big difference in your sound but the most important thing is your speakers. If I were you asnbiggboi, I would get the 8400 cuz I highly recommend it and then get some really good speakers depending on how important sound quality is to you. Find some speakers that you like and def upgrade the wires you use to connect everything. If you already like whatever speakers you pick, you will like them even more when you hear them with better wires and cables!! Man, sorry about writing a book but I am bored in class. That was my very long .02:thumbup: :fawk: :thumbup: