nickr2184 Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 I have been looking at getting a new cd/mp3 deck for my vehicle. I noticed alpine's are very nice, but they cost a hell of a lot. whats your opinion? worth it or not? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronco91shee Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 Alpine decks r nice, but there r other decks out there just as good for less money. Now, if ur talkin bout speakers or amps. Their amps r the shit, well worth the money. Their speakers r pretty good too. Actually i have a set of Alpine type E subs for sale-12's if anyone is intrested. I run a sony deck, good bag for the buck. Just my opinion. Peace out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boonman Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 I run ONLY Pioneer decks, and Polk Audio speakers. Earthquake subs, and a Profile amplifier for the subs. They are good for the buck, but it you are competing, you ned the lowest class you can get in, so you would have to look elsewhwere. Orion is good, and so is U.S. Amps. I used to run U.S. when I was competing. Anyways, you only asked about decks, and I Highly recommend Pioneer. I have NEVER liked Alpine. They just don't hold up IMHO. I am sure there people who have had luck, but I have pounded my Pioneers through mud, snow, water, shocks, ALOT of off road and they work flawless. My Sony Mobile ES decks never held up when I tried them, and EVERY Alpine I have tried has been a waste of money. Clarion I won't even look at anymore, they disgust me. Eclipse are nice too, but I would take Pioneer over them.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Banshee crazy kid Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 I run ONLY Pioneer decks, and Polk Audio speakers. Earthquake subs, and a Profile amplifier for the subs. They are good for the buck, but it you are competing, you ned the lowest class you can get in, so you would have to look elsewhwere. Orion is good, and so is U.S. Amps. I used to run U.S. when I was competing. Anyways, you only asked about decks, and I Highly recommend Pioneer. I have NEVER liked Alpine. They just don't hold up IMHO. I am sure there people who have had luck, but I have pounded my Pioneers through mud, snow, water, shocks, ALOT of off road and they work flawless. My Sony Mobile ES decks never held up when I tried them, and EVERY Alpine I have tried has been a waste of money. Clarion I won't even look at anymore, they disgust me. Eclipse are nice too, but I would take Pioneer over them.... same here, my dad has a poineer deck JL AUIDIO midz, three JL AUIDIO 12" W6 subz, and he has the JL AUIDIO amps 500/1 going to the subz and 300/4 goin to the midz, and may i tell u his car THUMPS!!!!!!..........................Before he had all of this when he was like 30-38(age) he would run all alpine stuff. They are good but pioneer and alpine are the same company (i think) . The pioneer part is the better half and the Alpine is the cheaper half of this company. i wouldnt go with the alpine deck,but thats just my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
. Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 see, heres where I differ. I love my Alpine head unit. It cost me almost 800 back in the day and was the first to have a 4v preout to my amps and separate subwoofer preout. It doesnt have any watts for speakers coming out of it, just preouts. I still use it to this day and its been through 3 different vehicles. I have a 12 disc changer to go with it, an alpine digital synchronizer that time delays all my speakers to hit a microphone at the same time to set a stage, and a PPI pro650 6 channel amp running everything. My componets are 6 1/2 mb quart 3 ways and I'm running 2 12" JLW6's. The subs have seen their day and the components could be upgraded, but I plan on buying a 96 Impala for my system vehicle one of these days. I'll run my amp to my highs and 4 8's, and then get a separate sub amp that I'm going to run to 4 12"s that I'm going to put 2 of them in the front kickpanels and 2 in the rear. 8's will go in the center console. My alpine unit is still technology wise pretty current, so theirs been no need to upgrade. It's got a rotary knob for the volume, its simple, does its job, and has held up rather well for me. I had to replace the front buttons on it because I wore them out though. Which is no big deal considering the wear and tear it's gone through. It's only skipped on me 5 times in the 8 or so years I've owned it. I've been out of the game for a few years now so I dont know whats on the up and up now, but I know my system has withstood the test of time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WickedBanshee Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 alpine makes good shit. i have alpine speakers all the way around and they sound excellent. i have the panasonic day/night cd player, the first one to come out back in the day. i love it, my brother has a more expensive kenwood excelon and i dont like it near as much. it has alot more options but unless your competing in competitions its just shit that gets in the way and makes it more confusing to run. i dont like pioneer decks that much cause they are like the fuckin mustang of cd players. everyone has them!! eclipse are awesome but you will cough up some bucks for them. just my opinions, not even gonna get into arguing whats better w/ car stereo shit. too much stuff and i've been out of the game for the past 2 yrs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickr2184 Posted December 6, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2003 If you were going to buy a new deck today, which would it be, or what qualities would you look for? thanks for the help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogboystoy Posted December 6, 2003 Report Share Posted December 6, 2003 If you want a nice deck without payin a ton, look at Clarion. I know that name used to be kind of like sparkomatic, but they have some real good stuff now. I recommend the Clairon Pro Audio (its their competition series). Ill tell you what I bought one about 5 years ago, I just wanted a good deck, I paid about 300$. Damn thing came with a remote, (at first I thought a remote for a car radio was a little crazy, but you learn to love it). Also it had the ability to run dual 12 disc cd changers, and had a built in tv tuner all you needed was some extra crap and a monitor to make that part work. I am sure they have ones a lot better now but, that thing kicked ass. I highly recommend it. At least check em out. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2004LEBanshee Posted December 6, 2003 Report Share Posted December 6, 2003 If you were going to buy a new deck today, which would it be, or what qualities would you look for? thanks for the help There are alot of varibles that play into that. For example do you want a cd player to play stock speakers or what. That will change the amount of watts that you want. If you are trying to run a component system or other bigger types of speakers then you might want to get one with no out put and run a nice amp to them. Other factors are what type of vehicle do you have and where do you live. Exe: convertible and High theft maybe a cheep one, one with a detachable face, or a hard to see face like the JVC Elcamelion. Another factor is you dont want a cheepo in a truck or a Jeep or any thing that you plan to run a lot of bass in, the skipping will drive you crazy. But for a general deck to be used in a car with stock speakers I would get a Sony, JVC, Clarion, ect... about 45 or 50 watts is ideal and detachable face. I good way to judge is anything over $180. You pay for what you get. Good luck, 2 JL W6's and a MATTS amp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InFlames Posted December 6, 2003 Report Share Posted December 6, 2003 No dude, Other decks arent "just as good as alpine" for the same price. I run a alpine head unit they are the Yamaha of the cd players. Vdrive 60W X 4 5 4 volt pre outs ect...jmo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raxen Posted December 6, 2003 Report Share Posted December 6, 2003 Some equipment I've got or have had in the past. NICE HU higher end Sony's (Doesn't skip with tons of bass, decent quality) Any Alpine (Great quality skips when CV Strokers start to kick hard) Nice Sub Amps MMATTs (hellous power, more noise) Positives-type D amplifier, never gets much above 25 degrees C. Nice Mid Amps U.S. Amps (Great quality output, could cook eggs on it) NICE Subs MMATTs Juggernauts (Nice bass, capable of nose bleed productions) Cerwin-Vega Strokers (Nice bass, capable of nose bleed productions) Older Precision Powers before wussification (Hit hard without pain) Earthquakes (Nice but can't hang with the 3 above) Nice mids Older Precision Powers before wussification Alpine Tweets Again older Precision Powers before wussification Qualities to check for in a HU OUTPUT power and number of outputs Signal to noise ratio Power Consumption at peak output Remote controller I personally like my 6-disc in dash standard din size HU Color of HU, does it come close to matching your dash. So you won't have an eyesore. Does it have lots of nice games built in like many of the Clarion HUs have when you are in need to pass time while your significant other shops in the mall for hours. Check for support of auxillary audio inputs for those of us who like having X-boxes in their car with good audio. Does it even have amp outputs? I have seen Sony's without it. Removeable faceplates are nice. There used to be a company that I dealt with a long time ago called Carmedia1. They are a good bunch with great prices. I highly recommend doing business with them when you make a decision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IrideA250R Posted December 7, 2003 Report Share Posted December 7, 2003 I've tried quite a few different brands of deck's, Pioneer, JVC, Clarion, Kenwood, Panasonic, and Alpine.... Alpine is hands down the best deck I've ever owned...and I wont hesitate to buy another one again...they may not be the coolest looking, but the work and dont break! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boonman Posted December 8, 2003 Report Share Posted December 8, 2003 I guess y'all have had better luck than I with Alpine units. I have had nothing but problems with them. All my pioneer units have been nothing but good. Put them in, and they never have to come out. I don't know about the Mustang of CD decks, but I am sure there are alot of them out there. I had nothing but problems wit hthe SOny Mobile ES unit I had, skiping all the time with Bass, and it wouldn't play burned CD's. Put a Pioneer in there, problem sonved. Alpine units always fell apart from wheeling. They don't handle 5' + jumps at all, or the rattling/vibrations from off-road from my personal experience. I guess it's just a mtter of personal preferance. I am sure that most anoyone will be happy with whatever they buy. There is a deck for everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trayfoe Posted December 8, 2003 Report Share Posted December 8, 2003 I have the CDA-7897, it is a bad ass head unit. Its plays MP3's and you can also sub divide them into folders on the cd and it will recognize the folders. And if you have an extra $250 you can buy some little box thing and the head unit can be your mobile phone. It has a send, end and all the number key like a cell phone. Also I have almost always bought Alpine, I had a Kenwood (not a bad unit) but stay away from sony, had big problems with the one I had... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WickedBanshee Posted December 8, 2003 Report Share Posted December 8, 2003 strokers are good for SPL but for SQ they suck. im a JL man myself. had rockford and about every other kind and love jl bass. jmo. you can get some 15 inch w0's and throw even a little amount of watts to them and they pound. and they can handle a ton more than they are rated. to me i dont think you'd even want any more bass than what they can do w/ a big amp in an suv. i was impressed seeing that they are their entry level sub. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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