I'm typically a Kenwood individual. The type of unit I would like should be comparable to the KDC-X991, but I do not need an OLED screen.

A friend had a Craigslist'd Alpine for his Accord, and we were both fond of the build quality, but this particular unit still had that sort of "low-end Pioneer" sound to it, sort of a muddy/distortion sound. I'm sure the upper Alpines are not like this, and would like to try one out to give them a good name again.

I know fcm advocates Alpine over near any other head unit, and await a chime in from him. Until then, I am doing my own research of course and will erase/update this thread if I find anything worthwhile before I receive replies.

Just a few concerns: Must have 3 pre-outs at 5 volt each, USB support, and MP3 CD support. A good equalizer is standard from what I've seen. I would not like a DVD player, and would prefer to not have a flip-up screen. This will be for a single-DIN 1996 Civic.

Edit: Do Alpine head units even have 5-volt pre-outs? If not, that'd be fine.
Edit2: Actually, the Eclipse CD7200 looks to be about what I need, and at a price I'm willing to pay.

 

What is your budget? 94

 

$100 to $500 is my budget, as I come from the KDC-X991 and am eyeballing the Eclipse CD7200. Very interested to know if Alpine has some audiophile-level equipment. I've been browsing their site and have seen decent units that I'd be willing to pay $200 for, but thus far no crazy "amazing sound quality" units.

 

IMO Alpine has some of the best sounding HUs for the buck on the market and I would put Alpine HUs up against any other HU in the same price point. 94

 

Excellent. :p With that said, do they have some audiophile grade head unit that I just haven't encountered yet?

 

I prefer clarion to alpine but to each his own.

 

Yeah, I definitely have my biases as well. But, my group of friends is pretty much exclusively "Kenwood head units are best", and I want to break off from that and prove there is something better out there. I just don't know what it is yet.

 

alpine????? low end pioneer sound? are you kidding me, man alpine owns!!! i have a cda-9805 in my integra and a cda-9807 in my accord, i would never own any other brand! both those hu's are from 2003 and still hold up just fine, never EVER skip.

 

I have an Alpine slide in my Typhoon right now... But I am not impressed with Alpine anymore.. In the late80's to mid 90's I think they were great. Kenwood Excelon will be my next purchase. Better warranty for one. IMO the Excelon is a much better HU. Kenwood Excelon is Kenwoods upper end product line. And resonable in price than most comparable stereos out there.

 

^Yeah, I found a lot of people have been saying that with the new Alpine products. I only came upon this when researching my newly purchased Alpine HU.

Even looking at the specs of the older Alpines they are impressive compared to what you get today with their new products.

 

Go with Alpine, mos def. I'm so happy with mine. I actually did the less-glare DIY too. I have the CDA-9884. It came with the iPod connect cable, so I can control my iPod through the Alpine head unit, and the iPod is hidden in the little storage space behind the parking brake handle. $199 from Crutchfield, with all that extra free crap.

 

http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/prod...category=AV_HU 94

 

do they still make the alpine F1 status stuff?

 

I browsed through there already when I started this journey, and found nothing that blew everything away.

 

No, but you can still find it. 94

 

OIC, you want something that will blow everything else out of the water, then as mentioned, find an Alpine F1 HU...
http://cgi.ebay.com/Alpine-F-1-CDA-7...3A1%7C294%3A50 or maybe a McIntosh HU.94

 

bump, Alpine stomps everything else in the nuts.

 

I had my share of Alpine HUs... around 3 or 4 of them. My last one was the DVA-9861 and that died on me and then I gave up on Alpine :D I had it hooked up to the PXA-H701 Digital Processor with optical output.

The sound was great, no noise or anything, I had previously hooked it up analog and there was alot of noise but once I bought the DVA-9861 and use the toslink optical output... The sound was just blissful...

but now I'm back to Eclipse again, and I don't think I'll ever go back unless Alpine steps their game up again and produce HUs like they use to. Otherwise... these new models just don't cut it anymore. That's why the CDA-9835 is still considered by many the best HU Alpine ever made, not going with the DVA or F1 Status of course.

 

I had a CDA9xxx and absolutely loved it. even before I amplified the speakers, it sounded amazing. The highs and mids were running through the 6.5s (front and rear) (with 4channel amp) and lows were coming from 2 subs (2 channel amp). Everything was crystal clear. F "being at the concert", it sounded like "on stage"
As a comparison, it sounds just as good as my pioneer Avic-D2 with alpine v12 amp.

Overall, i definately recommend Alpine. very good choice

 

nice pick ....