Alpine = Quality
Written: Mar 01 '03 (Updated Oct 23 '03)
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Pros: Features, power, appearance, sound quality
Cons: none
The Bottom Line: Don't buy a head unit, without at least taking a look at this one!
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| rbr28's Full Review: Alpine CDA-7894 Car CD/ MP3 Player |
Clarion has always been my number 1 choice for car stereo head units, but I decided to give Alpine a try in my new 2003 Chevy truck. There were just a few things I thought that the Alpine had above the Clarion units in the same price range so I took a chance. I definitely wasn't disappointed. The sound quality of this unit is awesome. The power output is most likely overrated at 60w max, but regardless, it does have a good bit of power, and does a good job of powering my Infinity Kappa's without an extra amp. Many installers won't run the power to the battery, but I ran mine to my distribution block with 10 gauge wire (4 gauge from the battery to the block). Make your installer run thick wire to the battery if you want to get maximum power from the unit. It's a simple fact that the more power you draw and the longer your cable run, the thicker wire you need to minimize voltage drop. This unit draws enough power to require reasonably heavy gauge wire as Alpine recommends.
The built in crossover is nice, especially the high pass for the front speakers. I set mine at 80 or 120HZ depending on the music and it makes a world of difference at high volume. It's a lot better than having to put bass blockers on and I like the fact that I can not use the filter when it's not needed at low volume. The sub crossover might come in handy for some, but it's a 12db/octave crossover which isn't really good enough for a sub. I use the 18db/octave crossover on my amp instead. The blackout feature is nice, the time correction does work wonders, although it takes some work to set for best performance. The cd read performance is great with regular cd's or mp3's. No skips (even in my ZR2 truck with very stiff suspension), and it does a good job of reading cd's that are scratched. I am not sure what others are talking about with the mp3 playback. Mine reads MP3's fast as can be, as fast as regular cd tracks are accessed. I think they are doing something wrong in the burning process. I average about 140-150 songs per cd, but I use many high bit rate mp3's (160-256), since the sound quality difference is noticeable on a good system. The best thing about the unit is that all the features they cram in are actually useful features, rather than toys or gimmicky stuff. I really like the adjustable bass center frequency, and range, but I'm less impressed with the media expander. It does make some 128 bit, or worse, encoded mp3's sound better, but I record mine at high bit rates, and I don't think it only distorts a high quality signal, by adding unnecessary equalization. The more you use the unit, the more you get used to using all the features, and the more you realize how well laid out the buttons and functions are. Overall I would say it's the best head unit I have ever owned and I have owned quite a few good Clarion units, and a few others. I only paid 289$ for mine, so I really feel it was a bargain. I do worry to about the motorized faceplate, but so far I have had absolutely no problems with it, and no problems with inserting or ejecting cd's. Anyway, I would say if you are considering a head unit anywhere near this one's price range, definitely try to listen to one, and actually use some of the features. There really isn't anything in it's price range, that is as high a quality, sounds as good, and has so many useful features.
I'm updating this after almost a year of use. I noticed some reports of reliability issues with this unit, and I just wanted to say that after almost a year of heavy use I have had none of the problems that others have mentioned. The unit absolutely never skips, and exactly one time it gave me a scare by refusing to eject a CD. The CD was inside but it acted as if there was no CD there. I had to do a reset of the unit and restart the vehicle and then it worked fine. Again this happened once and it definitely doesn't seem to be a reason for concern. Overall the unit still exceeds my expectations every single time I listen to it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 289
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Epinions.com ID:
rbr28
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Reviews written: 16
Trusted by: 1 member
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