Well heres my story... i bought a 9855 from work cuz my pioneer went bad and i was all happy with the purchase untill i played the alpine.. man let me tell ya it sounded like crap... the equalizer buit in is totally lame... i played with all the settings and could not tune the radio to sound good.. so i thought maybe i should exchange it? so picked up another one and the same story.. wow im disapointed by alpine.. one of their top of the like radios suck..please advise on what to get next guys...

 

return the alpine and go with eclipse.

 

I cant find any pricing for eclipse headunits how much is a good price for the cd8445 and the 5435

 

I have had 0 problems with mt 9833. Sorry to hear about your luck.

 

sorry to hear that....does the place you bought it from sell Pio's/Premiers? for an exchange...

 

I wish they sold anything better.. i bought it from best buy... im tring to figure out some pricing on the eclipse cuz everybody is tellin me they are king..

 

get another pioneer, their head units are awesome, espcially if u have a subwoofer, the subwoofer controls are awesome.

 

what he said.

 

Gotta agree with this one 110%

 

Coming from a pioneer to a brand spanking new Alpine top of the line unit and being dissapointed speaks volumes....I you liked your Pio's sound go back to them or give Eclipse a chance to earn your loyalty-

 

I had the same problem, i bought a 9835 alpine and had it in my car for 3 days! I sold it just like that and i bougt a pioneer 7700mp. Its like night and day. I thought that alpine was supposed to be awsome? It had some nice features on it but it sounded like poo in a coffee can. I sat in my car for about an hour trying to adjust it to stop everything from distorting and could not do it! I have a four channel amp with 60 watts rms going to each of my speakers. I got my pioneer and it was so so much better. Stick with pioneer, awsome adjustablity and the 7700mp is a really good looking head unit

 

why bother with alpine or pioneer.....

"do it right the first time, go with eclipse" Don

 

Eclipses are nice, but **** I get a hookup and I'd never pay for one when I can get a dam near comperable Pioneer for mch less. Eclipses sound nice when they work. But every one I've ever owned has had a short life, and I've seen lots sent back under warranty in my time.

Pioneer has come a LONG WAY in quality.

Don't hate or flame me, it's my opinion. But I would def trash that Alpine and get an Eclipse or Pioneer.

 

I love my alpine I will go with nouthing else for head units....maybe you just didnt wire it right or something, mines perfect

 

I am pretty sure that he wired it right. When I went from my previous Alpine setup to the CDA-7998 I was not impressed at all. The 7998 was their top of the line deck a couple years back, it was supposed to have better internal components than the lower models, but that was not audible when compared to my Alpine setup from the late 90's. The previous setup knocked the socks off of the 7998, and specially my 7894.

Give Eclipse a shot. I am very happy that I did.

 

The genral concensus agrees Alpine quality went to ****...is not a wiring isssue, its the product. You say that youll never change now, dont worry your still young..

 

Ive been a dealer for Eclipse for over a decade. They have least return rate over any of the other products I carry...Sony,Kenwood,Pioneer,JVC,Clarion,Alpine,et c..BTW I also sell more Eclipses than any others. If your 'hookup' has that many coming back, they may want to check into the person installing them, rather than the blaming the product.

 

I know I've thought differently after reading a lot of the posts here, and hearing the differences for myself. Need more proof? Ask 2 Da Max

 

In my old max I had a Alpine CVA-1005, DVA-5200, and CHM-1214 (i think). I never once had a problem with it, in fact it was the best setup I've ever had. As for quality, I'm not sure how good it is any more, but I must say that I probably wouldn't stray away from Alpine. IMHO I think that Alpine, Pioneer Premier, and Eclipse are the best.

 

I went away from Alpine because I was very dissapointed with their head units. I bought an Eclipse HU that not only blew away their top of the line unit from a couple years back, but it also cost a couple of hundred less.

I've bee running Alpine stuff for many years, but the time to look else where finally came. If they ever get back to making great HU's, I will give them another shot. By the looks of theri products this year though it looks as that is not their intention.

 

not to sound like D!ck or anything, but maybe you dont know how to use the crossovers and set the frequencies? i have a 9833 which only gives the numbers (freq.) and at first mine sounded like poop but after i fully understood every single number and freq. mine is so fine tuned its unbelievable. i would never go with anything else than alpine.

 

No offense taken here, but that was not a factor. I have been into car audio since around the time when you were about 3 , and using crossovers and such. That was back when all of those components were not included with the HU or amp.


Even when my Eclipse HU was not tuned, just first connected, I could tell it sounded better than my Alpine (the definition of the sound coming out of it).

I know very well how to use the crossover function of the Alpine unit as well as how to set the frequencies . Everything was the same from my nice Alpine setup when I changed to their newer setups, crossover frequency, slope, and time delay. It sounded great with the older setup, just not with the newer HU's, and I am using similar settings with my Eclipse HU, and it sounds good. So through out all the settings have pretty much been the same except the sound from Alpine's current line.

When you play around with other stuff like Eclipse you will see what everyone is talking about . Like Don says, you're still young.

 

i have been to bigger and better things. i just have found my place with alpine. i actually had an older eclipse 2 years ago it was ok i just dont on alot of their like how they dont have detachable face and that. i hae had pioneer sony, clarion kenwwod, jvc and was the happiest with my alpine. everyone has their own opinion i guess. and also i wasnt talking about you when i said you dodnt know how to use the freq. i was referring to maranelo who started the thread. i figured you werer an old timer if you knew how alpine was great back in the day. so i figured you had an idea

 

dude you are 18....no offense but I highly doubt you've had 7 different brands of HU's in the last year

Bottom line - a good HU will knock your socks off the second its turned on with everything flat.

Someone that actually tested both an Eclipse 8455 vs an Alpine 9855 back to back and sent the Alpine back-with pics to prove it
http://www.caraudio.com/vb/showthread.php?t=96643

 

I've had my Alpine decks since about 2001 and have noticed that slowly but surely they are diminishing in quality. I've been considering moving on to something different and definitely better for the past couple of months now. It's not the fact I don't like my current setup (Alpine 7977/Alpine 5755) but these decks take up my double din slots and since I'm looking to add a monitor to one of those slots, it's time to either get rid of one or get rid of both. Eclipse is looking more and more better as we speak.

 

well im 19 and i have had 8 different cars with 9 different headunits, age has noting to do with that

 

Man, must be nice .

 

werd when i had my alpine my dam rca preoutputs werent working, i send it to the company and they sent me a new one and same sheit happened again. i will try eclipse though because the alpines are too much for the feautures. i mean your just buying there name. i bet jvc is better.

 

avi why bother posting when you contradict yourself??? you were doing so well until the JVC comment.

 

lol come on Rich you know i cant make a good post

 

no comment...

 

i hate how people bring age into evrything. oooooo i am only 18 well actually 19 so its so impossible to have seven different decks. you ever heard of ultimate electronics 30 day no ? asked gurantee. i will show you my return reciepts biotch. i wasnt happy with the decks so i returned them after a couple of weeks. the only one i did not buy from them was the eclipse which i got at my local shop. then sold it cuz i did not like it then got my alpine. dont hate on the youngins who were fortunate to come from a wealthy family. its not like you get to pick your parents word 99blkgle thanks for the backup

 

biotch ???

I said " no offense, i doubt...." Looks like I hurt lil' mans'feelings, as your
maturity reflects your age.I see the silver spoons not only provide you with nice transportation,but also a great edumacation.

 

Tone it down there a bit young man. No need for namecalling and the hostility

 

I'm still planning on picking up a 9855 here pretty soon. Along with my Focal KP 165's, JL 10W7, JL 300/2, 500/1, and bulk kit of Hushmat. It'll sound good...

 

It will sound better with an Eclipse HU .

 

i went from a pioneer premier deh 960 to an eclipse av8022 and the sq is amazing compared to the pioneer. me and my buddy at the shop tested all the aspects of the preouts of the pioneer and it only put out a true 4volts, where as the box stated 6v. we tested the eclipse and sure enough 8volts. the increase of voltage was almost linear with the volume control too volume 10 = 1volt, volume 20= 2volts, etc. cant wait to get in my DLS iridiums and ID maxes

 

I had my self talked into buying the Alpine 9855, but then going into best buy and trying the glidetouch, i had second thoughts. Maybe it was just people messing with it too much and got it all fawked up, but i definately did not like it. I coudln't ever get it to do what i wanted. So i decided that i want to find a 9833. Same technology as new 05's (kind of sad), but cheaper and don't have to deal with stupid glidetouch. I do respect Eclipse, i know they make great products. But i've had g/l with alpine so far, plus i don't really like how the eclipse hu's look. That's my 2 cents..

 

who cares how it looks, you dont buy a headunit because it looks good and sounds liek crap. at least i dont. i would rather it look plain and less appealing to steal and sound insane

 

True, but the alpine i've had in the past has not sounded like crap. And i'd rather get something i know to use than getting something with a whole new interface. When people say that the alpine headunit sounds like crap (or the eclipse sounding a lot better), are they talking about the internal amp? I would hook all speakers up to an amp anyways.