Alpine 9851 vs. Pioneer DEH-P6800M

[KaPPaBaLL 10+ year member]

I'm debating between the two. which is better?

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[taosd 10+ year member]

I can't find the 9851 on alpines site, but, I'd guess that that Pioneer is better. Seems Alpine really went to sh!t these past couple years, and you barely get (IF you get) what you pay for with them.

 

[KaPPaBaLL 10+ year member]

i was looking at few stats on the bestbuy site and looks like the pioneer had a 16 bit digital to analog converter where as the alpine 9853(not the 9851) only had a 1bit. what does this digital to analog converter do?

other than that the output volts are just .2 difference from each other.

 

[taosd 10+ year member]

the 9853 is an older model Alpine, from 2005.

I believe both have 1-bit DACs, the Alpine has Glidetouch, which a lot of people hate, including myself, but if you like it, then thats fine.

The Pioneer puts out more power per channel than the Alpine.

The Alpine (in my opinion) looks better than the Pioneer

The Pioneer has a better Equalizer

The Pioneer has an Aux input on the front

I personally like the Pioneer better in terms of quality, the only thing for me the Alpine has going for it is the looks.

 

[KaPPaBaLL 10+ year member]

ok. do you know what the DAC does? whether it be 1 bit or 16 bit.

 

[taosd 10+ year member]

How Stuff Works[/url]"]What a 1-bit Dual D/A converter does is allow the digital-to-analog conversion to happen without the need for all those extra resistors. Essentially, this type of DAC does not use a bank of resistors operating in parallel. Instead, it creates a carefully modulated signal from the digital. The converter relies on noise shaping, a phenomenon that takes advantage of the human ear's inability to notice noise when it occurs in higher frequencies. Basically, the human ear is most sensitive to noise at 5 KHz, and is almost unable to detect it at 20 KHz.

yeah...