Alpine 9887 vs Pioneer DEH-P9800Bt

[blacksatsc2 10+ year member]

Title says it all which would you recomend? Pros and cons of each unit? For a little background info I drive a 02 Saturn SC2 and right now i have Boston SL60 components in the front and boston SX65 coaxials in the rear with a JL A4300 4 channel amp. I currently do not have a substage but it will probly end up being the JL 10W6, with a comperable amp. If you have any experience with both units, or one individual unit please give me your oppions good amd bad please.

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[hemi=22s 10+ year member]

both a re great units

i got the 980bt premier

pioneer has a way better display if u like that,

great adjustability, as far as audio

the bluetooth is great to have,

downlaod ur own pics for screensaver

only con is its not active xover like the 880prs

never owned the alpine just seen it only heard good things bout both

 

[05gliguy 10+ year member]

I'm happy with my 9800bt! I would recommend it to anyone...

 

[93EXT 10+ year member]

I love my alpine, great SQ, Only had it since last friday but, like I said I like it, been a fan of time alignment decks since my premier P1R ( I LOVED that deck and regret selling it all the time)

 

[DreamNofR1]

These are the exact two decks I was looking at as well for the past 2 weeks. I went ahead and bought the Pioneer after researching and searching more. I don't know why, but I just thought the color screen was more attractive and it was a better way to go. However, I am disappointed with the speed of the iPod, which is one reason why I bought it. I would have gotten the Alpine but I hated how you had to buy the bluetooth seperately, and I really don't like their displays. I honestly don't know if I made the right decision or not. If I were to be able to compare the bluetooth, then I could be of better help. As far as iPod functionality, I would go with Alpine. It's incredibly fast and you can't go wrong. I was told by several people that if bluetooth matters to you, Pioneer is the better way to go because they have the Japanese spec bluetooth and it's a little better than Alpine's. Also, on the Pioneer, there is an enormous list of customizations you can do. I don't even understand half of them. All in all, I would rate the Pioneer as a 9 out of 10 on a scale. If this head unit had full speed iPod, then I would rate it a 10 out of 10. But since you have to buy the brain instead of just the USB cable, it makes searchng through music very slow.

 

[blacksatsc2 10+ year member]

Thanks for all the comments, and more are welcom, but does anyone have any pictures of either one of these installed?

 

[DreamNofR1]

I would put some up, but I just took my car into the shop. It'll be a few days before I get it back....

 

[blacksatsc2 10+ year member]

Alright thanks a lot. I'll be looking forward to them.

 

[tcguy85 10+ year member]

i have pics of my pioneer 7800 which i lke very very much, i'm pretty sure the faceplate is the same....

 

[twrx808]

Aloha All,

I own both...I just recently installed the the Alpine in my car and after the Imprint 6 point calibration and adjustment, I played the stereo with the same CDs and ipod and it sounds terrible. Absolutely terrible. I've tried to adjust the crossovers and all of the other settings but I can't get the unit to play well. It sounds really muffled and the highs are not very clear. NOT GOOD. UGH. I'm very confused and frustrated by the unclear instructions and unclear adjustments. The Alpines sound adjustments and usability is incredibly difficult to use. Sometimes a button will work and sometimes it won't depending on what features you have on or off, but these features are just things like bass and treble. The Alpine is very difficult to use compared to the Pioneer. The only thing that I care for on the Alpine is the ipod interface, its very quick, easier to get to the "middle" of the artists and song lists. Much easier than the Pioneer, this feature, however convenient will not make me keep this unit. I value sound way more.

I removed the deck and replaced it with my older Pioneer Premier 880PRS and the sound is amazing! Same CDs, same Ipod same tunes, the Pioneer hands down sounds simply amazing compared to the Alpine. The settings adjustments are also way easier to set on the Pioneer. I'll give a user complexity of 7 to the Pioneer and a 9 for the Alpine. The only thing I don't care for about the Pioneer is the ipod interface, it takes way to long to scroll through the artist lists and songs lists. So I guess I'll just have to make better playlistss. Cause I value sound waaayyy more than I value convenience for the ipod.

If anyone can offer any solid tips to how I can improve my sound from the Alpine, then please, please send me the tips. I would love to keep the Alpine but as its going right now it sounds like I'll be keeping the Pioneer.

Hope this helps: I'd get the Pioneer.

Mahalo!

The rest of my system:

DLS Iridiums 6.2

JL 300/4

JL 500/1

JL 12W6

 

[Sugrat 10+ year member]

I have the 9800, it looks excellent at night and as long as the sun it not shining directly on the unit it looks great during the day also.

The sound quality is excellent and installation was a breeze.

I've never had the other unit so I wouldn't know the plus or minus between the two.

 

[nismos14 5,000+ posts]

Aloha All,
I own both...I just recently installed the the Alpine in my car and after the Imprint 6 point calibration and adjustment, I played the stereo with the same CDs and ipod and it sounds terrible. Absolutely terrible. I've tried to adjust the crossovers and all of the other settings but I can't get the unit to play well. It sounds really muffled and the highs are not very clear. NOT GOOD. UGH. I'm very confused and frustrated by the unclear instructions and unclear adjustments. The Alpines sound adjustments and usability is incredibly difficult to use. Sometimes a button will work and sometimes it won't depending on what features you have on or off, but these features are just things like bass and treble. The Alpine is very difficult to use compared to the Pioneer. The only thing that I care for on the Alpine is the ipod interface, its very quick, easier to get to the "middle" of the artists and song lists. Much easier than the Pioneer, this feature, however convenient will not make me keep this unit. I value sound way more.

I removed the deck and replaced it with my older Pioneer Premier 880PRS and the sound is amazing! Same CDs, same Ipod same tunes, the Pioneer hands down sounds simply amazing compared to the Alpine. The settings adjustments are also way easier to set on the Pioneer. I'll give a user complexity of 7 to the Pioneer and a 9 for the Alpine. The only thing I don't care for about the Pioneer is the ipod interface, it takes way to long to scroll through the artist lists and songs lists. So I guess I'll just have to make better playlistss. Cause I value sound waaayyy more than I value convenience for the ipod.

If anyone can offer any solid tips to how I can improve my sound from the Alpine, then please, please send me the tips. I would love to keep the Alpine but as its going right now it sounds like I'll be keeping the Pioneer.

Hope this helps: I'd get the Pioneer.

Mahalo!

The rest of my system:

DLS Iridiums 6.2

JL 300/4

JL 500/1

JL 12W6

Did you have it in an active setup? Or passive? Are you sure you had the tweeters hooked up to the tweeter output and the mids to the mids? (If you ran it active).

 

[adam71 5,000+ posts]

The only thing I don't care for about the Pioneer is the ipod interface, it takes way to long to scroll through the artist lists and songs lists. So I guess I'll just have to make better playlistss. Cause I value sound waaayyy more than I value convenience for the ipod.

Speaking as a purist I would say if you love SQ then ditch the Ipod and ALL compressed music formats altogether in favor of CD audio.

But if you insist on MP3s and don't much care for the Ipod interface of the 880, I would suggest maybe burning MP3s onto a CD-R. Use EAC with the Lame ecoder via the Ubernet standard for some really good sounding VBR mp3s. They sound great for MP3s.

 

[grampi 10+ year member]

"Speaking as a purist I would say if you love SQ then ditch the Ipod and ALL compressed music formats altogether in favor of CD audio."

What he said.

 

[nismos14 5,000+ posts]

Whats eac and lame ecoder?

Speaking as a purist I would say if you love SQ then ditch the Ipod and ALL compressed music formats altogether in favor of CD audio.
But if you insist on MP3s and don't much care for the Ipod interface of the 880, I would suggest maybe burning MP3s onto a CD-R. Use EAC with the Lame ecoder via the Ubernet standard for some really good sounding VBR mp3s. They sound great for MP3s.