nick1326's Full Review: Alpine CDA-9887 Car CD/ MP3 Player
I've been a dedicated Alpine user for over a decade. As a sound quality nut, I was an exclusive Nakamichi user for a number of years, however after they were bought out, only one vendor remained in the market who was clearly committed to the ultimate in sound quality, and that is Alpine.
I recently purchased a 9887 as a replacement for my Alpine 9815, in my BMW 330ci. The 9887 is Alpine's newest flavor of top-notch soundquality oriented CD player/tuner, with integrated features allowing the user to incorporate satellite radio and/or Ipod. Make no mistake about it: My 9815 ROCKS - however I finally gave in to buying a new headunit because I just had to have my Ipod in my car for longer trips. The 9887 is essentially the guts of a 9815, married to a new updated amplifier (50w a channel x 4/ 18Wx4 RMS) combined with extended functionality to incorporate Ipod, BlueTooth and Sirius/XM satellite radio, if desired. Connecting an Ipod requires an optional cable adapter that costs around 50-75 bucks, same for satellite radio.
One of the key features that sold me on the radio was the audyssey-based "IMPRINT" processing built in. As a rep within the CEDIA channel, I became involved with Audyssey's residential-based product a few years back as they were developing it. The system is incredible: Processing which can literally transform a dull-sounding room environment into a life-like and believeable sound stage. I can tell you from experience, I've spent countless hours experimenting and tweaking my 9815 for time-correction: I mean think about it- If you think a room-environment can be bad for sound, think of how NON-conducive a car's interior is for sound quality! You have speakers located all over the damned place, tweeters NOT placed near their corresponding woofers, so there's no point-source!!! everything is scattered around. The Audyssey system helps correct for these deficiencies and the best part is it does so automatically!!! All that is required is a trip to your dealer and a little programming on your dealer's part.
Before we really delve into the processing etc, I want to make it clear that even if you do not choose to have the IMPRINT calibration done on your system, the 9887 comes equipped with a host of its own time-correction and Equalization functions which are fully comprehensive AND exceed the capability of the predecessor-platform, like the 9815. Additionally, such features on the 9887 are easier to access and control- they require less button-presses to access and navigate. Control on this unit is a snap - buttons are clearly makred and located, and operation is fairly intuitive. IN fairness, it's highly worth taking a 20-minute read-through of the manual. If you're already familiar, even a bit, with Alpine's menus, then you're already in great shape to operate this head unit. Additionally, even if you're not, spending 20 minutes glancing at the manual should get you up to speed and you should be able to operate most of what's in there. If you're unclear on anything, it should take a few seconds to look at the manual's index and find the page to help you through the rest of it. In terms of ease-of-operation, I give this an 8.5 out of 10!
The 9887 is feature-packed, factory specs/features listed below
"FEATURES
General
* • Remote Control: Remote Control Included
* • Mute: Built-in Audio Mute
* • Audio Interrupt: Audio Interrupt Input
* • Remote Turn-On: Amplifier Remote Turn-On Output
* • Power Antenna Lead: Power Antenna Output
* • Dimmer: Dimmer Input
* • Detachable Face Plate: Detachable Face Plate
* • DIN Trim Plate: Detachable Trim Plate
* • Clock: Built-In Clock
* • Fader & Balance: Fader & Balance Controls
* • Bass & Treble: Bass & Treble Controls
* • Steering Wheel Control: Steering Wheel Control Ready
* • Auxiliary Input: Versatile-Link Ready
* • DAC: 24-Bit DAC
* • Bluetooth®: Bluetooth Ready
* • PreOut: 3 PreOut (4V PreOut)
* • Easy Navigating: Quick Search
* • Playback: MP3/AAC/WMA Playback
* • Illumination Buttons: Blue
* • Face Color: Gunmetal Black
* • Control Type: Rotary Encoder Knob
* • Display: 2 Line Biolite Display
* • CD Changer: CD Changer Control
* • Power Output: 50W x 4 High Power Amplifier
CD Changer Control
* • Repeat: Song/Disc
* • Music Control: Play/Pause/Forward/Back
* • Music Text Information: CD:Text Scroll Display, MP3: Text Information Display (ID3 Tag)
* • Multi-Changer Control: Multi-Changer Control Including MP3 Changer CHA-S624, (with KCA-410C)
* • M.I.X.: One/All (Shuffle)
Sound Tuning
* • IMPRINT: IMPRINT Sound with MultEQ Acoustic Correction (KTX-100EQ)
* • Crossover: Built-In High-Pass/Low-Pass Crossover
* • Equalizer: Built-In Graphic/Parametric Equilizer
* • Time Correction: Built-In Time Correction
* • MediaXpander: Built-In MediaXpander
* • Treble Level: Treble Level Adjustment
* • Treble Center Frequency: Treble Center Adjustment
* • Bass Level: Bass Level Adjustment
* • Bass Width: Treble Level Adjustment
* • Bass Center Frequency: Bass Center Frequency Adjustment
* • Subwoofer Level: Subwoofer Level Adjustment
Disc Player
* • Easy Navigating: Quick Search
* • M.I.X. Mode: One (Folder)/All (Random Play)/Random (CD Only)
* • Title Memory: 18 Disc Title Memory Display (Disc Only)
* • Playback Control: Play/Pause/Forward/Back
* • Music Sensor: Scan/Repeat
* • Digital Servo: Digtal Servo
* • Zero data Mute: 0 Bit Mute
* • DAC: 24-Bit DAC
* • Music Playback: MP3/AAC/WMA Playback
* • Disc Playback Type: CD/CD-R/CD-RW
* • Disc Type: CD Player
Satellite Radio
* • Portable Compatibility: SIRIUSPlug N Play Devices (Adapter Required)
* • Music Information: Category, Artist, Song
* • Easy Navigating: Quick Search
* • Preset Memory: 3-Bands (6 Per Band, 18 Channels Total)
* • Satellite Provider Capability: SIRIUS or XM Adapter Required
* • Connection: SIRIUS or XM
* • Built-In or Ready: Satellite Radio Ready
Connection for iPod®
* • Easy Navigating: Quick Search
* • Information Display: Artist, Song, Album
* • Percentage Search: Percentage Search
* • Available Selections: Playlist, Artist, Album, Song, Podcast, Genre, Composer, Playlist
* • Music Control: Song Up/Down/Repeat
* • M.I.X. (Shuffle) Capability: Song, Albums, All
* • iPod Compatibility: Full Speed Connection: iPhone, 4th/5th Gen. iPod Video/Photo, iPod mini and iPod nano
* • Source Type: Dedicated iPod Source
* • Connection: Full Speed Cable (KCE-422i)
* • Connection Type: Full Speed Connection for iPod®
Bluetooth®
* • Streaming Music Control: Streaming Music Control
* • Streaming Music: Streaming Music Playback
* • Phone Book: Phone Book Transfer
* • Hands Free: Hands Free Calling
* • Connection: Alpine KCE-300BT Required. Features may differ between phone model and service providers.
* • Built-In or Ready: Bluetooth Ready
HD Radio™
* • Multi-Casting: Multi-Cast HD1, HD2, HD3
* • Signal Switching: Automatic Digital/Analog
* • Status Indicator: HD Radio Satus Indicator
* • Connection: Alpine TUA-T500HD Required
* • Built-In or Ready: HD Radio Ready
INSTALLATION: THe 9887 is the same standard DIN fit that most other car-audio head units are built around. Installation is as easy as any other DIN unit, although certain cars may be a little more difficult than others. Accordingly, I don't think it's fair to talk too much about installation, since it is highly dependant on the person doing the install and their knowledge, much more than the radio! A WIRING-HARNESS will make ANY install much-much easier! So i suggest purchasing a wiring harness, especially if you're attempting the install yourself. A harness allows you to tap the factory wires easily (colors are standardized) and then simply "plug-in" directly the the back of the unit- rather than striping/tying wires with confusing random colors. If you're uncertain if you're qualified or ready to do the install, be smart! Let a pro do it! In fact, just about every car-audio dealer provides installation AND some even offer discounts on the labor charges if you buy your equipment through them- so inquire!
TUNER and CD PlAYBACK / CONTROL: The unit operates typical of most current head units, in terms of storing FM and AM presets. There are 3 banks, each of 6. 2 FM and 1 AM- they're assignable and nameable. Interestingly, the unit also has the ability to name 18 favorite CD's and store in memory whenever you play them back - it remembers titles and names. CD transport control and AM/FM tuning are controllable through buttons on the face, or easily through the remote. The included remote is small, but not "micro" - so it's easy to hold and work, and also stows away pretty easy in any console or cupholder. The 9887 also allows for 18 satellite radio presets in 3 banks of 6, and they're tunable/accessible through the same buttons or the remote as well. Volume control is a nice knob, instead of an up/down toggle. After all this time, I still highly prefer a volume knob, especially in a car.
Equalization/Time-Correction features: As I mentioned earlier, one of the best features of Alpine's top-level receivers (like the 9887) is that in addition to a comprehensive full-spectrum 24-bit BurrBrown DAC array, the digital-processing built in is extensive AND can help correct some serious sonic deficiencies typical of most car interiors. Not only is the 9887 packed with such features, BUT, they're even easier to access and adjust now, due to a menu-revision for this generation of receivers.
WHAT IS TIME CORRECTION AND WHY DO I NEED IT?!?!?!
A very good question indeed... Without going into a tecnical tyrade, I'm going to try and sum it up quickly: Have you ever gone shopping for home speakers? If so, it's quite likely that as the salesperson is talking to you about speakers you're listening to, suddenly the salesman is moving speakers around- changing where they are placed and where they are AIMED... Such changes also may have made a huge difference in how the speakers sound to your ears. That's because sound is directional AND is effected tremendously by the environment it is in.
Now think of this example- inside a sound-parlor, where you are auditioning speakers: It's quite likely that you are sitting RIGHT IN BETWEEN the speakers - symetrically, left-to-right. It is optimal for sound imaging for you to be directly in the middle- because stereo imaging works almost like an audio-illusion: you have a left and right ear connected to your head, yet if you're getting "proper imaging" you're not hearing two completely seperate left and right channels independantly! They work TOGETHER, and when it's done right, the result is you have a realistic "image" of sound right in the middle of the room- directly in front of you... the better the image is, the WIDER it extends.
The ideal goal of this is to be able to reproduce what a band sounds like either A) in the studio as if you were the engineer on site, listening right in front if them OR B) to a concert goer, sitting right in the "money seats" inside a concert hall -- Sitting right in about the 10th row or so, dead center, you hear the whole band on front of you, left-to-right, on stage. To be able to reproduce this (whether in a house OR a car) is called creating a realistic image or realistic sound stage.
WHY IS THIS SO HARD TO DO INSIDE A CAR?? The reason it's inherently difficult to create a realistic image in a car is quite simple: no matter where you're sitting in the car, unless you are sitting in between 2 bucket seats, you are likely NO IN THE VERY MIDDLE of the left and right speakers! n the example of the driver's seat, you're located much closer to the front-left speaker, and much further away (comparatively) from the front-right speaker. This difference (or delta) in distance-from-speaker of left-vs-right means that physically, the sound from the left speaker will hit your ears BEFORE the sound form the right speaker - as the left speaker has to physically cover less distance to get there! The reason the ALpine units create a SUPERB image, is that you can adjust the time-delay for EACH individual speaker - so again, in the example of the driver's seat, you can delay the left speaker's output, so that it reaches your left ear exactly when the sound coming from the right speaker reaches your right ear. THIS is what time correction is, and that's why it works so well - Alpine's time-correction technology is without a doubt, the best and most comprehensive system out there to allow you to correct for such environmental deficiencies, at least from my experience -- And I've used all sorts of products from just about every major brand on the market.
EQUALIZATION: The 9887 comes with an impressively extensive set of equalization features, including an EQ which can be opreated as a parametric OR a multi-band graphic. Just like on the 9815 and its generation, the EQ is comprehensively fully adjustable- all paramters in including slope, scope, span, level etc are adjustable, and again, thanks to the menu and operational-revisions made, it's now even easier to access the EQ partition of the unit and requires less button-presses to adjust.
BUILT IN CROSS-OVER NETWORK!!! YES: The Alpine 9887 still incorporates one of Alpine's best features ever, the presence of a built-in fully adjustable crossover. While it's true, all 'seperates' type speakers and coax's have their own crossovers built in, it is still very important to be able to adjust crossover settings through the radio - like in the following example: I use MB-quart 2-way 6.5" and 1" seperates in the front doors of my BMW. YES- the speakers have their own seperate analog crossover BUT, since the woofs are not installed inside an actual sealed "back-box" they're firing in the door chamber as "free air". Accordingly, despite the presence of Quart's own crossover, if I send subwoofer frequencies to the woofers, they WILL try to play down to those levels. This might cause such woofers to "bounce" since they're in free-air. With Alpine's internal x-overs, I can set a subsonic filter up for the front- so that I can limit response and avoid sending super-low bass to the woofers, and instead, only send that to the subwoofer, where it will be resolved much more clearly- allowing my fornt woofers NOT to bounce, and to operate much more efficiently - same for my amps!
Ditto for my rear-deck speakers. I use 6x9 style quarts back there- and they play plenty low- rated to around 48 or so cycles... Nevertheless, I roll them off at about 55 cycles, and adjust the slope to super-steap- which allows me to let my rear speakers NOT bounce the same way my fronts would, if they were trying to resolve sub-bass.
LOOKS / ASTHETICS: As I mentioned, the backlit buttons on the ALpine are color-adjustable and there are a host of settings built-in to do this. They can be blue/blue, blue/green, blue/orange, green/orange or blue/red. Bottom line: no matter what color your cars display/gauges are, there will be some setting in the radio that makes it agreeable, if not perfect. One side not- my older 9815 had a real nice feature which allowed me to tilt-adjust the face plate, via an internal motorized system built into the headunit. This feature is GONE on the newer units. Apparently Apline was shooting for less internal moving parts for better reliability. As an aside, I never once had any problems with my motorized face, AND I rather liked the ability to tilt it up just a touch. While I miss the feature a little, it's not a major objection. The enhanced color-adjustability on the 9887 more than makes up for this small shortcoming in my opinion.
SOUND QUALITY / USER EXPERIENCE: I'm extremely impressed with my 9887 and it is a clear step UP from the 9815, which was already an amazing headunit for SQ. The 9887 seems to play more authoritatively in the bass department, and overall, seems to stage a bit better. It's been my exerience that clearly Alpine changes some of the curves in the time-correction section, because while the adjustments give me plenty of ability to make the stage right, they also seem more 'forgiving' than the time-correction on my 9815- so I'm quite happy with this improvement. As for fit and finish, it's hot looking, and easy to control- again, I like the volume control knob over any toggle.
The unit has a ton of built-in EQ curves for different genres etc- so while you can go truly nuts and try to tweak up the EQ to finite levels, you can also do it the lazy-persons way and just listen to all the different curves built into the radio. There are quite a few, and they all seem to sound quite good- so its more a matter of preference. There are significantly more "preset" eq curves in the 9887 over prior generations.
IPOD/XM/SIRIUS CONTROL AND PLAYBACK: Alpine has an intuitive 2-way cable which allows the headunit display all info from your ipod AND control it, comprehensively, even if the ipod is located in your glovebox- where it probably will be. point is, no more clumsy fumbling with the Ipod- no more hap-hazard looking appearance in your car- where as other Ipod-intergration devices have you mount the ipod somewhere visible in the interior, Alpine lets you hide it- you need not see it NOR touch it, since you can control it directly through the head unit AND/OR remote control for the head unit. There are a number of settings for how song/artist/playlist etc info are displayed on the faceplate, so again, this is where a 30-second quick-manual reference can make the difference. Once you find the facade/readout info setup that you prefer, you will probably never want to change it- so spend a few minutes going through the radio to get to know it and the menus, and you'll be good-to-go! As fr bluetooth, I have not used much of those features as I don't see a need to incorporate my current technologies into my car stereo. I'm happy to know however that the features are there, in case I want to.
RELIABILITY: Just a quick word on reliability; a I've mentioned, I've been using Alpine head units exclusively for over a decade- this equates numerically to 4 radios in 9 vehicles! Needless to say, I have literally not a had a problem with ANY of them - and since I've sold 2 of them during this time to friends, I think it's important to mention that both friends are still using these head units and do not have any problems with them. That's a damned good track record to me- still livin long and strong!
CD PLAYBACK: The full array of 24-bit Burr Brown DACs in the 9887 seem to be even a little better then the slightly older-generation ones in my 9815. I have a select few discs to really hear transients and crispness of response- a few of those include Joe Sample's "Sample This" album, Michel Camilo's "Through my Eyes" and "Triangulo" discs. During my initial listening I literally sat back and let Sample This play from begining to end... NO KIDDING! So I guess that should say clearly that I'm quite impressed with the sonic stamp of the 9887's CD palyback ability. Again- clearly a step-up from prior generations, and proof positive that Alpine is not resting on its Laurels here, but pushing furter and further as new technologies emerge (such as the new DACs!)
IMPRINT software and Implementation: Again, while the architecture for Audyssey envornmental correction is present in the receiver, it must be brought to your dealer so they can set it up and configure and EQ your car for you. Once this is acheived, you can still revert back to any of the aforementioned config's for EQ/time correction- even if it means disarming the IMPRINT and going back and using the hard-data time-correction features: meaning physically measuring disatnces of speakers to driver's ears, and plugging the numbers into the unit. Over the past few weeks, since i just got my IMPRINT configured, I've found myself going back and forth, using a few different configurations. Happily, they're all easily accessible and reasonably untuitive to get to in the menu, so I like being able to go bakc and forth and I find myself doing so throughout listening sessions.
FINAL WORDS: The 9887 is a worthy candidate for Alpine's highest rated CD player / tuner/receiver with Ipod and Satellite integration. UNdoubtedly a set up (or two) from my already excellent 9815, I'm quite happy having spent the money for my 9887, because it's even better in terms of SQ than what i had AND i get to use my Ipod and XM! If you're in the market for such a head unit, I'm confident that once you shop around and look at all your options, you'll agree that the Alpine is certainly in your top-2, if not your favorite!
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