I had a Pioneer head unit in my car for a very long time. It was the nicest car stereo of all that I’ve owned. Nice enough, that when I moved here to PR in the late 90s, I brought it with me for use in a future vehicle. It’s ancient at this point, but in its day it had features that no other brand seemed to be interested in. Most notably, the direct access panel numbers on the front went from 1 to 0 (10) as opposed to competition’s 1 to 6. That made direct inputting a particular radio station a breeze, especially if it was in a fringe area and wouldn’t be picked up during auto-scan. It also allowed for direct selecting a particular track on a cd. It had a remote control too, which was a nice little bonus. Later, here on the island, when I sold my truck and bought a motorcycle, I gave it to my friend who had recently had her car broken into and all her stuff stolen.
I also had a great pioneer car amp that I bought new in the late 80s - a GMH-100. It survived many iterations of my car stereo evolution throughout the 80s and 90s. I gave it to my neighbor’s son when I lived in the mountains a few years ago. To the best of my knowledge, it’s still in use in his car. That was a heavy beast! LOL
As for Yamaha, I’m kinda partial to their stuff because of my experience with their older equipment. Aside from my CR-1020, I’ve got three Yamaha turntables, and a few models of their orthodynamic headphones. Everything Yamaha I’ve had has been a pleasure to own (even though I’ve had to do some minor repairs). That new receiver (S801) linked above in the thread would definitely be on my short list in the event I’m in the market in the future. For consumer grade, I think they make some really nice stuff for the money.
