Alpine 9886 sounds horrible ?!?! help

[mark5825]

i recently bought the 9886 to replace my eclipse 5425 because the display was fading, although i like the ipod adapter the quality is not even comparable to the eclipse on the ipod or cd playback. iv gone through every setting, read the manual and set everything but the bass from my subs is nonexistent unless its all the way turned up basically. i have the sub amp turned up twice as much as i did when i had the eclipse and im getting less then half the volume, even the speaker amp doesnt sound as loud when i had the eclipse

settings iv fixed:

system 1 and 2 for the sub - i used system 2 because it said the sub would be louder at lower volumes

the sub volume - i have it on 15 out of 15

the loudness button - i have on

regular bass - i have at +2 because it mainly deals with the speakers anyway

i have 3 settings on the sub amp and all are turned up twice as much as when i had my eclipse

is there anything i can do to get my subs to sound like they did?

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[mobeious 10+ year member]

the new decks **** other then the 9887

 

[Pioneer~Saturn 5,000+ posts]

Mine sounds just great //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif...have you tried out the usb?...I use that a lot and everything sounds good

 

[mark5825]

i havent but the same cd's i used in my old deck should still sound the same in the new one lol, i understand how some songs on the ipod dont have as good quality thats y i tried the mp3 cd's i previously used

 

[gunz4me 10+ year member]

the new decks **** other then the 9887

When I purchased a 9885 for each of my cars, it actually was better than the 9887 at that time with regards to iPod connectivity. Now I am getting ready to replace the 9885 in the mustang with a 800 PRS.

 

[DBBOOM 10+ year member]

I've run the 9886 with no problems, you might just have one that was bad from the factory.

 

[eharri3 10+ year member]

i recently bought the 9886 to replace my eclipse 5425 because the display was fading, although i like the ipod adapter the quality is not even comparable to the eclipse on the ipod or cd playback. iv gone through every setting, read the manual and set everything but the bass from my subs is nonexistent unless its all the way turned up basically. i have the sub amp turned up twice as much as i did when i had the eclipse and im getting less then half the volume, even the speaker amp doesnt sound as loud when i had the eclipse
settings iv fixed:

system 1 and 2 for the sub - i used system 2 because it said the sub would be louder at lower volumes

the sub volume - i have it on 15 out of 15

the loudness button - i have on

regular bass - i have at +2 because it mainly deals with the speakers anyway

i have 3 settings on the sub amp and all are turned up twice as much as when i had my eclipse

is there anything i can do to get my subs to sound like they did?

I have a 9886. How did you set your gains? I tried mine at 4 volts to match the head unit output which works fine on my mid-high amp but with the sub amp it meant the 10 inch sub was barely even moving when the rest of the system was quite loud amd clear. Then I read a string of internet posts indicating these and certain other Alpine HUs have a history of making weak voltage at the sub outputs.

I re-checked with a DMM and didn't get the desired voltage until the amp gain was set somewhere around 1-1.5 volts. The sub now hits hard and stays clean all the way to max undistorted volume. So I would guess the problem may be with weak sub outputs more than anything else. I just set my gain using a DMM and it sounds perfect so I didn't worry about it after that. Sub level is on 15, bass and trebble boost on zero on the amps and the head unit . Beyond that on the mid/high amp remember you have a 4 volt head unit now, not 5, so the gains will probably have to go up a bit on that too but it shouldn't be as far off from matching the HU voltage as the sub is. At least mine isn't.

I had these issues with both my 9886 and my 9883. The mid/high amp was fine when adjusted to match the head unit voltage but the sub amp's gain dial was usually at about 1/4th the head unit's rated output before I could get linnear output and volume from the sub.