I've been shopping around for a decent Alpine HU. At the time, I decided not to upgrade my stock HU and only worked on upgrading the speakers and amps until I had more funds and additional research to select a HU. I was really thrilled about the CDA-9835 back in 2004, but at the time, the $$$ wasn't there. In 2005, I looked around again, but no retailers were selling the 9835 anymore. The CDA-9855 (successor to the 35) is maligned with overheating and reliability issues. I'm hoping Alpine has taken their '05 line criticisms and have a plan to release better HUs for '06. Anyone have any info on their new line? Retailers say they will be announced in Jan. and will be generally available by Feb/Mar.

Thanks!

 

Other than hearing they will be adding Bluetooth to some pieces, I haven't heard anything... they usually show it at CES on the 5/6/7/8 of this January.

I was going to go but the store move is behind so I can't rationalize it...

 

I'll be at CES. The Alpine booth is near the top of my "must see" list.

 

Theres a few changes being made, hopefully for the better on Alpines part. At least I can say they listened to their customers and got rid of their Glidetouch crap...

 

I'm going to CES too -- and I have a very good idea about what's upcoming in future alpine headunits, I just am not allowed to say

 

Its not much of a secret that cant be found without searching for the most part.

I would be attending this year as well, with the exception of having my newborn twins...

 

Are they comming out with A DD unit, they had one about two years ago in Japan called the INE-W099 which was touch screen, DVD, MD, and HDD Nav. ?

If you guys are attending can you post pics of units from Eclipse, Alpine, Pioneer?

 

Alpine, ugh. Their cr@p has such a horrible interface and poor reliability. No more Alpine for me ever again.

 

poor reliability????? ..i never had problems with my alpine systems

 

Jinx!

 

I did. Every piece I had had a problem. I will stick with either Pioneer or Eclipse. or Kenwood!

 

lol...i always purchased alpine head units ...but keeping the stock infiniti set up as is to avoid the jinx

 

I just heard that the upper end (not just the top of the line) of the Pioneer lineup will ALL feature bluetoth integration and HDDs.

CES is next week!!! Damn, I haven't been in about 6 years!

 

No just the DEH-P9800/980BT
IIRC

 

I have had a number of Alpine head units, amps, etc.

I have always liked the sound, but I have had reliability issues with them since the late 80's. I find that each of their head units lasts a bit over a year for me. I drive about 40-50K per year, so I do get a lot of use out of them.

I have a 9835 now that is a little over a year old and the volume jumps up and down as I turn the **** in either direction, luckily the remote still works.

I had a CDA-W880 that the cd changer stopped working, I replaced it with a CDA-W882, used it for a while before the display backlight went out.

I had one of the ones the face slid out and popped up - I don't remember the number - CDA-7998 maybe? It's CD player stopped working. I was surprised I thought the motorized face would be the failure point.

I still have a CDA-7878 sitting in the garage that I really like, but the CD-player stops working after it gets hot. I need to toss it, but it is a really cool radio.

I had many other alpine head units, the best quality in my opinion were the early pull out cassette players with the vacuum flourescent displays.

I have had good luck with the reliability of their old V12 amps. I have a couple MRV-F400's in my wifes car that have been in use (bridged) for probably more than 10 years of daily service. They have outlasted a number of cars.


My big problem is that I have tried some eclipse units, some pioneer units, and the OE units that come in whatever vehicle I buy at the time, and I always go back to the alpine for a good mix of features and sound quality. The only decks that I have found to have better sound quality (in my opinion) were the eclipse CD players. When I compare them side by side, the alpine looses a little in sounds quality, but wins out in features by a mile. I have not liked the pioneers. They may sound good, I can't tell. If I can't figure out how to change crossover points, or equalizer settings without studying the manual I am not going to use it. I had two different pioneer units, The only way I would buy another pioneer is if it was one of the AVIC models.

I would like to try the newest eclipse equipment, but now I have an alpine I-pod adapter, and Alpine CD-Changer, an Alpine amplifier interface along with the MRD-M501 sub amp. I don't want to buy a CDA-9855 because I know it is close to end of life. I will probably either get the DVA-9965, or whatever the replacement is for the CDA-9855.

Something worth noting here also is that in each vehicle I wore out the OE head unit before replacing it, so the Alpine quality does actually appear to be better than OE toyota or nissan/infiniti.