How good of a brand are they?more specific ,How good are thier head-units?.Co-worker of my who works part-time with a Car Stereo Installation company seems to think thier crap and kenwood and pioneer are god-like.


He has always seemed fairly knowlegdable in this department and I'
ve regarded his opinions very highly untill his recent comments about Alpine, as it seems to be a popular choice on this board and many other car forums.

 

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that his company doesn't sell Alpine, but does sell Kenwood and Pioneer. I really like both of my alpine head units and haven't heard anything bad about them.

 

Alpine, Pioneer, Kenwood and Panasonic are on my top list for head units. It depend on what you want from your deck to perform, spend 300 - 400 bucks and you'll get some amazing deck with lot of control function.

 

alpine is rated #1 for ipod compatibility. or at least being mose user friendly. I have had alpine my entire life and i have never had one disappointment. Right now i have the ida-x001 and i love it.

 

Personally, I dislike alpine. I love my kenwood. I had the option of going alpine, but it was my third choice. Most of my friends dislike alpine as well.

 

I have both Alpine and Kenwood...

I got the Alpine 9856 for the S2000. I love the speed of the unit; but navigating through the menus is a pain. Get an Alpine with a multi-line display if you decide on getting an Alpine. I also just got a Kenwood DNX7100 for my Xterra; it is AWESOME, Ipod control is even faster than the Alpine (it uses one usb cable, one audio, and one video) and since it is a double din touchscreen it can fit lots of info and function buttons on the screen. If Kenwood's other models have as nice an interface as the DNX7100, then Alpine may have been dethroned as the king of the Ipods.

 

I used to have Alpine head units in my truck (CDA 7995 and a 9815). I still have the 9815 in a box somewhere...

I now run Eclipse (CD7100 in both the S and my truck) and I'll likely never run anything but again (8V pre-outs ftmfw).

As far as sound quality goes, Eclipse is with very little doubt the best on the market (read just about any comparison review).

Alpine, Kenwood, and Panasonic are all essentially equivalent.

When shopping for a head unit (if sound quality is important) it is imperative that you take along a CD of classical music or any other genre with a very wide range of frequencies (jazz, blues, etc). Pop in the CD, play the same exact track on each of the head units using the same amp/speaker combinations (I also suggest switching between speakers/amps on each head unit to pinpoint what distortion is caused by the head unit and what is caused by the speaker/amp combos).

A little known fact with audio is that what components a manufacturer uses and how everything is wired in causes certain frequencies to be amplified/distorted. In the case of Alpine it happens to be a harshness in the 3k-5k range (which is why I moved from Alpine to Eclipse - more accurate sound reproduction). Keep in mind that amplifiers often have the same effect (why I moved to Audison - cleanest sound reproduction) and the effect of both together will be compounded - i.e. an Alpine deck with an amp that is harsh in the 3k-5k range makes the harshness that much more unbearable (trust me, I've been there, I know....lol).

 

Exactly why I can't stand Alpine HUs. I had the EQ pushed all the way down around those frequencies to try to dial out the distortion, but the music is just off when you do that.

Pioneer does not suffer this problem.

 

Not to get over the top but this is a convertible after all. I installed an Alpine 9857 with Boston Z06 speaker and a Boston GT24 amp - overkill but I got great deals on the equipment because they were last years models. I wanted a good I-Pod interface so that my wife could listen to the I-Pod when we are on the road. I mostly listen to the engine, transmission, and tire noise.

 

Eclipse has a great Ipod interface (have to buy the module + head unit).

The CD7100 model has a USB drive port (8GB flashdrive on the keychain ftw)