Great Unit
Written: Jul 15 '01 (Updated Nov 03 '01)
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Pros: Great sound, good simple looks
Cons: Button size
The Bottom Line: This is a great car cd head unit. It has excellent sound, just like all Alpines, and is a good entry level Alpine unit. Plus 2 preouts and detachable face.
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| sjg98's Full Review: Alpine CDM-7857 Car CD Player |
UPDATED 11/03/01
When I got my car, I knew I would need to buy a good CD player becuase the car had cassette only. I wasn't concerned with blasting my music through the neighborhood at volumes loud enough to break glass, and wake the dead. I just wanted good sound, good looks, and good build quality.
Let me tell you, if you want good sound, then you want Alpine. Every store I went to said this: if you are looking for pretty doodads go for Sony or JVC, but if you want good sound, go for Alpine, and maybe as a cheaper alternative, Kenwood. Alpine can be a little expensive compared to other brands, but its well worth it. I absolutely love this head unit. When people come in my car, they comment on how good the sound is.
Also, for those of you adding amps and the like, this unit has 2 preouts for that sort of thing. I could have gotten a unit almost exactly like mine, but without preamps, for less money, but I decided that I'd go for this one for its future upgradeability.
It also has a detachable face and comes with a little case to put it in.
Now I will mention my small problems with this unit. One problem to me is with the buttons. Most of the usefull buttons are near the driver, however, a lot of the most used buttons for me, such as volume change and seek buttons are the smallest buttons on the unit. One would think that the biggest buttons would be stuff like volume and seek, however the large buttons are things like turning off BBE (which is the sound enhancement...just leave it on becuase it sounds infintely better with BBE on), and the other large button is to change from cd to radio.
It seems kind of wierd. It is still very easy to use, and I rarely have to take my eyes off the road to use it, nonetheless, bigger buttons would have been better. My only other complaint really is a personal thing. All Alpines have the Blue/Green glowing color scheme, while my car, a pontiac has the red/orange scheme, so it kind of conflicts. It looks fine, it just doesnt seem to fit right in with everything else as well as a red/orange unit would have.
Bottom line, it is a great sounding unit. I recommend it.
UPDATE:
So I guess I am an idiot. I was reading the manual, and noticed that you CAN change the colors of the display. You can go from Green and Blue and Red and blue. Those are the 2 color settings. Now it matches my car perfectly, and will match most cars as well.
Word to the wise: READ THE MANUAL!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 237
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Epinions.com ID:
sjg98
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Member: Stephen Gomes
Location: CT
Reviews written: 49
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
College student into photography, electronics, computers and entertainment.
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