Difference between the alpine head unit range

[redmugenjazz]

hey now that i have got my speakers installed but i would like to upgrade my head unit. i'm thinking of buying the alpine head units but i don;t know which one to choose from. Apart from the price differences, are there any major functional differences between the models: 9887,9886,9884, 9882? in other words is it worth getting the top of the range model?

[tron07]

Go read the specs... if no difference, then the price would be the same and it wouldnt be called different model names

[end7]

Some one at jb-hi fi said that the only difference might be in the feature and/or in the face plate. However the quality sudnt be different that much.

[tron07]

Low ends one usually have lesser RCA outs and 2v preout voltage.

[arverson]

Some one at jb-hi fi said that the only difference might be in the feature and/or in the face plate. However the quality sudnt be different that much.

well duh

redmugenjazz, have you made your decision yet or do you still need help deciding?

[redmugenjazz]

actually i found that aftermarket din cost 300 now, and 600 above for a decent headunit equates to 3500+ to complete my sound system, tooooo much, so i sold the parts and took some into my room running off the comp. at least i use it more often now. lol

[ooomaaa]

i owned the 9887 unit for a while and its preety much useless unless you plan on using imprint. Unless your running a really crazy system and want the best setup there's no point to imprint.

Head unit wise as long as u got 3 rca (rear, front, sub) you should be fine. Alpine is good in terms of reliablity, but theres plenty of other head units that can do a good job.

If your looking for specific features (usb, ipod, etcc...) then its a different story. In my opinion the only useful feature is usb, and you can now get that with basic units. With Alpine you generally can't go wrong as long as you are willing to spend $$$. Alpine grantees quality, but a lot of units are now very good quality so it's not really much of an incentive.

In the end its much easier to spend less and loose less then spend big and loose a lot more with crap that you don't need ( in particular 'imprint')

[MR_PEA]

after setting a few cars up with imprint, it definatly makes a diffrence with the audio.

however saying that the systems that we were setting up had priccy splits, subs and amps and the cars were sound dedened. so it made it more worth while..

if you are not going to go crazy. get 3x RCA's with 4V outputs and you should be sweet, time alignment is nice but not essencial. (but if the deck comes with it set it up!!). other then that most users want ipod setup, saves carrying round a load of cds...

just get the unit that ticks the boxes for you.

[davoh]

imprint is a actually very very very good thing.....super easy tuning ....beats listening to music for half an hour and still not getting the right tune....

imprint solves that problem for driver, passenger and also 2 rear seat....

sound quality is very good.....it even has a defeat mode which eliminates sound destortion...

[jaykan2k]

Hi All,

I love Alpine head units and ever since i was a kid i wanted one.... however i think these days the value of the units are being upstaged by their competition. I Still think Alpine makes the better looking units though =)

Dont get me wrong, i use an Alpine CDA-9855R and i stand by its performance.
However, in anticipation of Mr Rudd's stimulus package lol, i find myself looking to another direction.

Within their price range (eg CDA-9887 vs Eclipse CD-7200MKII) other manufacturers have matched Alpine's tuning capabilites and have also created a better value for money product. The eclipse unit has motorised face, 8V preouts, copper plated chassis, no internal amplifier to reduce noise (more of an SQ orientated unit) etc. On top of this the unit also has a built in bluetooth receiver for no extra cost. Sure its more manual than the imprint device Alpine uses but i would probably change the settings to suit my own tastes after listening to the computer aided settings for at least a little while.

I still stand by Alpine and all their products but i would still keep my options for quality / better value units for the same amount of cash.

[trism]

after setting a few cars up with imprint, it definatly makes a diffrence with the audio.

however saying that the systems that we were setting up had priccy splits, subs and amps and the cars were sound dedened. so it made it more worth while..

if you are not going to go crazy. get 3x RCA's with 4V outputs and you should be sweet, time alignment is nice but not essencial. (but if the deck comes with it set it up!!). other then that most users want ipod setup, saves carrying round a load of cds...

just get the unit that ticks the boxes for you.


no need for time alignment unless you want hectic SQ

[tron07]

if you dont wan hectic SQ, whats the point of installing expensive stuffs?