danfromobx's Full Review: Alpine CDM-9803 Car CD Player
I had always heard good things about Alpine car stereo units, and had always wanted to own one. So when my OEM radio/CD player went on the blink, I purchased the Alpine CDM-9803 to replace it. I have been using the Alpine for a few months now, and now I wish I had just spent the money, instead, on having my old OEM unit repaired.
On the positive side, the Alpine unit installed easily enough, it does play CDs nicely, and the sound it produces is excellent.
However, the CDM-9803 has many features I find quite annoying:
The illuminated function buttons are light green with white writing on them. These are hard enough for me to read in the daylight, but at night, next to impossible.
Instead of having dedicated function buttons for most functions, most buttons are multifunctional, depending on various use sequences. This, in my opinion, introduces an unnecessary level of complexity to have to deal with while driving. Even the power on/off button also functions as a signal "source" button, so powering down the unit requires holding the power button in for 3 agonizingly long seconds.
I find the AM reception and noise rejection horrible, regardless of mode (DX/DX seek/tune). Same antenna and same vehicle, yet my OEM radio never had this problem. And yes, I DID install it correctly checking to make sure that the antenna input connection was solid and that both the antenna and the unit were properly mounted and grounded to the vehicle.
I find the multifunction MODE/rotary encoder knob much too short and hard to grasp.
Occasionally, when I press the mute button, instead of muting, it just blanks out the screen for a few seconds but does not mute.
Also, the user has a default choice of either routinely displaying either the clock or the radio station/CD track/playing time, but both the clock and either of the other cannot be displayed at the same time without using a button to toggle between them from the default setting (LOL-if you think this written explanation is confusing and awkward, try dealing with this at 55 MPH).
All of the above is just my experience and my opinion, but, sorry to say, I truly expected much much more from Alpine.
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