Alpine 9886 or Eclipse 5030?

[BassAddictJ 5,000+ posts]

eclipse all day

 

[birdwatcher 10+ year member]

I have had both and here are my two cents:

1) The Eclipse will blow away any Alpine in terms of sound quality and built in features.

2) The Alpine will blow anyone away in terms of IPOD control and a screen that you can actually read in the daytime with the sun shining.

3) The Alpine Imprint (automatic) tuner is aweful.

4) The Eclipse has the worst screen for reading on the single dins.

* Side note - my Eclipse couldn't handle running Sirius and the IPOD control at the same time, older version though 2005.

If we could take the best of Eclipse and Alpine, we would have the best HU IMO.

 

[bartolo 10+ year member]

Why do you say that you can't use Sirius because of Imprint? I have a brand new install and am having problems with Sirius and I have Imprint???

Well I have the Sirius using the Ai-Net. So I can't hook up the Imprint.

 

[reclessantics 10+ year member]

see thats the same problem i have. i really like the appearance of the 9886. its bright clear, and just great looking. the 9887 i don't like the way it looks, buttt i do like its features. and if it wouldn't be too bad, id much rather get the 9886, then buy imprint. but i have a basic pioneer HU now, and all mids and highs go through and audiocontrol 3.1, so most of the tuning, such as high pass and what not is already done. but i havn't decided if i want to get rid of the audio control.. i might just use it for tweets or something. i duno

 

[birdwatcher 10+ year member]

OK, my Sirius problem was related to the Sirius module. I have the Alpine IDA-X305 running IPOD, CD Changer, Sirius, Imprint and Bluetooth with no issues except making it sound as good as my Eclipse did. I got the IDA-X305 for the Ipod control but if you don't care about that I would say the competition comes down to Alpine CD-9887 or Eclipse CD5030. Go to a dealer that has both and play with them. The display is key.