if u ask me, pioneer wins my vote any day ....for normal usage and long term usage, its durable and will most probably work for many years even under heavy usage before dying ......the discs u use like self burned ones CDRs or CDRWs or pasar malam ones also can use no problem.....

i used clarion (forgot wat model, normal entry level HU) and my current pioneer 3850 (both models can play mp3 discs) and boy im impressed with the pioneer ......why if u ask me would be the pioneer one can change and play mp3 tracks faster than clarion one.......the clarion one takes up like 5-8 secs per track to play next track since it need to read the ID3 tags and process them then display compared to pioneer one which does all that in 1-2 secs only ....i know its not much off difference there but if everytime u fwd ur mp3 tracks then u will get irritated with it...

another thing with that clarion HU is that it tends to skip (or ur audio track like kind of sangkut sound) when u drive over a rough road, same thing no problem with pioneer ......as for clarion, im sure this problem only persist with low level models only, top model shud be OK laa....

as for pioneer, for beginner and normal users like u and me, its good enuff la .......but ppl who listens to music like with vocal and background music clarity would say pioneer entry level sounds rough and bassy ....this might be true also since entry level HU is just for normal everyday usage and doesnt pack a lot of features but does its normal job quite OK...hehehehe...

for panasonic and JVC, i cant comment anything on them cos i nvr used them or have anyone known using them...

pioneer one shud be OK ler ......it does its required job quite OK also...most of the time the HU shud not give huge problems ....im using 3850 which in terms of difference between 2850 and 3850 is just a seperate remote control...hehehehe...

i think those problems i mentioned about clarion one maybe just effect the lower end model lar ....mid level and high end ones shud be OK....last time i got this clarion kangtao from frens working there ......factory stock which they want to clear as couldnt distribute anymore....got it for RM300....