What's the best HU for $400-$450??
 

I'm considering the alpine cda-9815.

can anyone think of something that can top that one for that price? oh btw, it needs to have a detachable & fold down face.

thanks!

I have that alpine...Its sick...Depending where you are located I can get you a deal on it...It runs around $500 where I am at in NJ, I paid $350...Lemme know

good hu. I see it for 415. where you get it 350?

I have a friend that owns a Car audio store...Gets them for the lowest cost and cuts me a deal...

thanks bro, i'll keep that in mind.
First I wonna check what price Don can get me on that HU.

No prob...Its a great HU..Especially if you read into all the features it offers...I havent been able to actually get into all of them yet...But from what the manual and people say its sick,....Lemme know what you decide...Good luck...!

I was going to get that deck, I have a 7892 right now (green+black, no mp3/wma, 50x4). I have to say that it is the sickest head unit that you can purchase.

Alpine makes great stuff too. You can't go wrong with an Alpine.

if you have a 4th gen, get this deck. It plays DVDs, so you can add a screen from Redmax later on.;)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=32825

There are a lot of buy-it-now auctions on ebay for the Alpine CDA-9815 for around $350, some even as low as $338. I think that head unit is a little overpriced for only 4V pre-outs.

pioneer premier DEH-p850mp.... i have the 840 version which is the same just last years model and man was i happy with it, i got it for 385 and i think that's the best bang for your buck, totally chaged the sound of my sytem, but if i didn't get that i'd get the alpine 9815.... that's a beast too.... i dont like kenwoods b/c i wasn't satisfied with my kenwwod excelon 959....

Or if you have the money, get the Eclipse 8053. That baby has 16V outputs when used in conjunction w/a balanced line driver. Of course the whole setup might cost you $750 or more, not including the quadrillion sets of RCAs you need to hook it up. :)

Kenwood Excelon 869.
Its less that 450 and almost top of the line.

Eclipse 8443, It doesn't have the detachable face but it does have ESN which IMO is much better and safer. It also offers 8v preouts(twice that of the Alpines) and much nice SQ, all for a reasonable $420.
http://www.eclipse-web.com/products/...op.html#cd8443

Where can you find this unit for $420?

Tweeter
http://www.tweeter.com/product/index...94&cp=.1247217

The Eclipse is a better HU IMO. The Alpine is also a great deck, just be careful where you are getting it from....They are both highly restircted lines. Eclipse..No online sales, Alpine Only Crutchfield.

--Don

Where at? Name?

--Don

HiFiBuys is a large dealer for Eclipse and apparently they have their products displayed on www.tweeter.com. I didnt know that before..

Yes Tweeter is an Eclipse dealer, but they do Not sell online. Like I said Eclipse doesnt allow online sales.

--Don

I have the Alpine CDA-9813 (somewhat older cousin of the 9815, forgot what features it doesn't have) and it ****ing rocks. :)
I paid $280 for it on eBay (brand new), even though its MSRP is like $400...

Excellent H/U, always impresses friends/coworkers, works very well, never skips (ok, it might have skipped a total of 5 times over 4 months in my old Mazda, but it's NEVER skipped in my Maxima...), good features for tweaking it (active crossover built-in, which I use as my only crossover--I don't bother using my amps' crossover), etc. I also like the display, as it seems that they use LEDs for the display, not an LCD display with backlight... so the contrast is very good.

Only problems I have:
1. Display's rather dim at the angle it sits in the Maxima. This wasn't a problem in my Mazda, as the headunit sat horizontal and somewhere level to the shift handle. The issue here is that as you look at it from above, it's very bright, but if you look at it straight-on, it's not as bright (especially with glare). Not an issue at night.
2. Faceplate gets rather warm after an hour or so of usage. Never had it fail on me, however... and keep in mind it does have a thermal protection circuit, especially for its V-Drive 60Wx4 internal amp (for powering interior speakers). I don't use the V-Drive at all; I use all its 4V preouts to amps in the trunk (Pioneer GM-X364 4-ch amp for interior speakers, Pioneer GM-X262 2-ch amp bridged for the subwoofer)
3. Interface seems a tad complicated; you have to read the owner's manual to know how to navigate around (some buttons you have to hold for a second or so, some you have to hit them once and then hold them, etc.)
4. Volume control doesn't seem to have enough... "grip" to it. If they made a volume control knob that protruded farther out and had some rubberized plastic all over instead of solid plastic in the center, it might be easier to use.
5. Buttons are the typical cheapish plastic you usually expect from aftermarket headunits; they're not as well built (and don't feel as nice) as the stock Bose headunit's buttons. They're also not as big, but that's to be expected with a 1-DIN aftermarket headunit...

u can set the controls to the alpine cda 9815 online, and download them to your computer and burn them to CD and when u put it on your cd player, it'll set all your setting for you, that way it isn't as confusing as spirilis just said, i heard the 9813 and 9815 is hard to adjust the settings if u don't do it this way....

Yeah, it's slightly confusing, but once you get the hang of it, it's not a problem.

Don't get anything but the Alpine, It has the equivelent of a $500 processor inside. The Time alignment is worth it's weight in gold. And has x-over, XM controls, MP3, etc. nothing can touch it.

So then explain to me what it has the Eclipse does not. O and if it gets stolen, Im sure Alpine will send you a new one right?

--Don

no......