It's my first post, folks, so be gentle!

I'm trying to get a radio for my 01 Accord, something that will play CDs, MP3s and have some kind of input for XM radio, preferably something like Pioneer's PBus.

Yes, there are all kinds of boxes on the market that will do this, I'm currently running a Pioneer 7600, with that OLED display. A nice radio...but....there's no way I can see the display clearly, especially with my polarized sunglasses on. My IDEAL display would be a simple LCD one such as came in my factory CD player.

I've searched high and low and haven't found anything like that. Does ANYONE here have any suggestions as to a box that does the above, but can still be seen in bright sunlight?

Many thanks...this looks like a great group!

 

Have you checked out the Alpine 9856? It has all the features that you are looking and is easy to navigate.

 

Alpine CDA-9835 (04-05 model) , Alpine CDA-9857 (2006 model) .. these have Biolite Display, which imo has a good daytime display.

 

Akai CSV2001
Jensen MCE4810W

I have those in 2 of my cars, both play mp3 CDs and can be seen in the daytime, however they do not have XM capabilities.

I know what you're talking about though...I had a Pioneer Premier deck at one point in time, and it was pretty hard to see during the day sometimes.

 

The 9857 does indeed appear to do what I want, I guess I'm just looking for assurance that the biolite display is indeed visible in broad daylight. Another question is that my prescription sunglasses are polarized. Have either of you seen the biolite display through something similar? I can almost read the Pioneer display without my glasses, but I think it's the polarization that gives me the most problems. When I put them on, it vanishes completely.

Locally, I've heard several car stereo shops knocking the Alpine, especially the model (last year, perhaps?) that had the slide control. One sales type (who actually sold them) said he had pulled out more Alpine over the last year than any other brand.

Given the documented problems with the 9820XM, and the fact that Alpine has so far refused to publicly admit issues with this unit, this doesn't exactly give me a great deal of confidence in Alpine.

I guess it's too bad that Consumer Reports doesn't do car stereo!


Modified by Mike Nassour at 5:05 PM 5/23/2006

 

trust me Alpine is very reliable and I would not worry about have issue about with it.