Looking for head unit that will read my cd's...
 

I bought and installed a used alpine head unit from a friend of mine. The CDA-9835... he never had a problem with it reading his disks. I installed it fine... but I have problems with it reading my burnt cds. It won't read 90% of my cds... it will either say "ERROR" or it will just skip the living hell out of it. I have no clue what the problem could be. Does anybody have any suggestions on an excelent head unit that will read anything without problems? I'm looking to spend $200-350... but if necessary, I will spend a little more for a better model. Thanks.

Do you use CD-Rs or CD-RWs?

try usning a slower burn speed, possibly errors on the disk. Happens to me with my 80mp, i make more frisbies at 52x but the house player plays em.

I use CD-Rs.

Possibly the CDA-9847? About $200, and looks to be pretty nice. It's the headunit I plan on getting...

Any deck that new should be playing burned CDs just fine. Now you see why Don dropped Alpine. Get an Eclipse.

Dude, no need to be rude. You asked for suggestions on possible replacements, he was giving you one. Geez

Ohhhh. Damn, I thought he was asking if the head unit I had was the CDA-9847. Sorry, it's been a rough night. Sorry DarkScorpion... I'm trying to stay away from another Alpine head unit, seeing as this one has given me nothing but greif. Hopefully you don't run into the same problems.

That thought has crossed my mind... they're hard to come by, know of any sites?

Buying Eclipse online results in losing your warranty and theft guarantee. I dont know any sites. Try SoundFX in West Warwick.

The 3 year warranty you get from Eclipse is worth the price of installation by an authorized dealer too.

Hmm... I will definitely take a more serious look into an eclipse head unit. Maybe I'll take some cds to SoundFX and see if it reads them. Thanks for the help guys.

At the risk of making this sound like a Pioneer commercial... Look into Pioneer (Premier) line. I've owned top of the line Alpine and Eclipse units and always found myself coming back to Pioneer. I'm yet to see a head unit handle burned CDs and MP3 CDs better then a Pioneer deck. I'm actually selling a Premier deck here: http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=447075 By no means you have to buy mine, but definitely give Pioneer a look. From the experience I've had with them, they didn't skip as much, had almost no problems reading just about any burned CD I threw at it. And for the money, their top of the line units have considerably more features then others.

Premier would be my next recommendation behind Eclipse. To each their own. I just love Eclipse's preouts and tuning capabilities(of the higher end models)

I actually found my Pioneer unit not reading less than nice CD's that well. I am now using those same CD's again with my Eclipse HU.

I feel the same way about Eclipse, so I came back to them :).

Odd, while Eclipse was by far the cleanest sounding deck I had heard, much like the Alpine, it was very picky as to which CDs it would play. Granted, this was a couple of years ago, so if Eclipse has gotten better about burned CDs, they would certainly be worth a look as well.

Become a dealer for both and youll see why my customers choose Eclipse. ;)

Now your headed in the right direction.

DarkScorpion....youll be posting sooner or later than your getting rid of your Alpine..;)

Well sir, becoming a dealer for Eclipse is a whole different ballgame :) Still though price to features, me thinks Premier has them beat. I do have to give it to Eclipse though, those are some good sounding decks. And if I recall correctly their dealers get some nice perks :)

Interesting. My friend has a pioneer head unit and has similar problems. Maybe it's just the low end pioneers? I will take a look at the elite's when I go shopping for head units. Thanks.

That would depend on which features....

Yes I do. :D

try burning the disc at once instead of track and once and finalize the cd. Also burn it at a slow speed thats what my rockford needs for it to work

I have an eclipse JDM model double din e5503CDi deck brand new. It will play CDR CDRW with mp3 and wma and also has a memory card slot for sony memory sticks so you can play files off that too... 3.3inch TFT screen, 9 band equalizer all the goodies
lots lots more if ur interested $300+ship

How about the tuner?

Haha, well if it truely is that bad, than I guess I'll steer away. Seems like eclipse may be the way to go, but what's the price range on a decent HU by eclipse? And I gotta find a seller in houston, too...

how 'bout this?

http://www.cartoys.com/Default.cfm/p...MFM_CD_Player/

there's a car toys that's maybe 10 minutes away from me, and I'm sure they carry this

Or is this one worth the extra money?

http://www.cartoys.com/Default.cfm/p..._CDMP3_Player/

(btw, sorry for thread jacking)

I would go with the 5415 for MP3 as well as the 3rd set of preouts...