CDA-117 vs CDA-9887

[AllenH427 10+ year member]

Well I'm looking for a new headunit and I'm pretty focused on these two.

Which one would you recommend? Price really isn't a huge deal but the 9887 is $320 and the 117 is $350.

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[kyleorsini 10+ year member]

arnt they just cosmetic differences. there the same hu, i know forsure the 87 is active capable but not sure it the 117 is. thats about it.

 

[kubie 10+ year member]

Alpine CDA-9887 AM/FM CD/MP3/WMA/AAC Receiver(ALPCDA9887) and other affordable Head Units at 6ave.com.

Best deal for a 9887 here.

 

[AllenH427 10+ year member]

Just found out the 9887 isnnt USB capable, looks like I'll be going with the 117.

 

[cleansoundzz 10+ year member]

I have the 117 in both of my vehicles and I am never looking back. The burr brown DAC is excellent for sound quality and if you use the IPOD you get the burr brown chip through the USB port.

 

[cleansoundzz 10+ year member]

Click on this link http://www.caraudio.com/forum/head-units/464256-just-got-new-alpine-cda-117-a-2.html

 

[AllenH427 10+ year member]

AHHH Hopefully best buy doesnt drop Alpine and gets the 117 in, I have a $240 credit towards any headunit they have.

 

[hellouser 10+ year member]

I have the CDA-117. The usb port crapped out on me. Any usb drive I connect to it, or even switch to USB mode, it gives me 'Current Error' message.

The biggest problem with this unit is not that though, as I'm sure I just got a lemon, its the speed. Its almost as slow as a Sony. Scrolling through playlists or artists from the ipod should be the same incremental speed as on the iPod. It isnt. Its not smooth, and skipping from one track to the next gives a delay, feels like lag.

It gets worse....

Using any USB drive on this thing is basically a great example of one step forward, two steps backwards. If I connect any USB drive to the unit, be it a compact flash card via usb reader, or a USB key, it automatically looks for mp3s and 'Banks' them, putting them into an alphabetically sorted list, kind of like what you'd get from an iPod. It does this by reading the ID3 tags. Sounds groovy, right? Well, yeah...until you pass 1,000 songs that are banked. I tested the unit at a local shop and found out that Alpine completely butchers this logic. I came back to the shop with my flash card, this time with a lot more music and the folders were a little mixed up, I wanted to see how well it detects files and folders, incase any got removed, shuffled around or renamed. The unit went bonkers. Artists werent displayed alphabetically, the unit stalled at the 'Banking' screen. It gets even worse!

This whole process of 'Banking' is the most ridiculously stupid thing I've ever heard of. What it does, is searches for the first 1,000 tracks on a device and puts them into a 'Bank'. So lets say if you have 1,500 songs on an 8gb USB Key. What happens is that it finds the first 1,000 and sticks then into Bank 1 and the next 500 into Bank 2. So when you want to search for music with all your artists displayed and the artist you were looking for isnt there, means that it is in another Bank (the unit holds up to 20, so 20,000 tracks can be stored).

Worse yet, the unit REALLY slowed down after I tried adding 1,022 songs to this whole 'Bank' debacle. Scrolling through lists was painfully slow.

Its the year 2010. Why is it so difficult for the guys at Alpine, Pioneer, Sony, etc. to say to themselves;

'Hey, lets throw on a usb drive input on the unit and allow people to simply browse their files alphabetically as they would in a windows filetree structure!'

The most OBVIOUS thing, and the saddest part of all this is.....the only manufacturer that does this RIGHT is......JVC! Ive played with the KD-R800 and the R810 and as far as ive been told, the R900 also does it the simplest way. I say JVC is the only manufacturer that does this right because all the other guys sort files and folders on a USB drive by the creation date of the folder. So if you added a folder 'Michael Jackson' with a bunch of subfolders and mp3 files inside each, and after than added a folder called 'Beatles' the first folder in the list would be 'Beatles.' Stupid!!! Sony does this. Alpine does this. Pioneer decks do this too. It really boggles the mind and causes incredible headache.

Now, as for the USB connection on my unit not working, im almost 100% certain im gonna take this unit, return it and exchange it for the JVC KD-R900. The R900 is basically like the CDA-117 except on steroids. Also has 5v line outputs as opposed to the Alpines 4v. Sound quality im sure isnt that much worse (I do admit, the alpine did sound pretty good even on my stock speakers).

 

[cleansoundzz 10+ year member]

Here is the link for a professional review on the Alpine CDA 117

Performance Auto and Sound - The Girls - The Cars - The Life - Alpine CDA-117 Headunit

 

[hellouser 10+ year member]

Heres a video of how poorly the CDA-117 handles usb flash drives and the whole 'banking' issue:



THATS how fast it should be. My USB connection failed on me before I could really play with the iPod controls. Can anyone confirm if the CDA-117 is as fast as the CDA-9887??

 

[nineball 10+ year member]

arnt they just cosmetic differences. there the same hu, i know forsure the 87 is active capable but not sure it the 117 is. thats about it.

the 117 is not active.

 

[got-one-eight 10+ year member]

I have the 117 in both of my vehicles and I am never looking back. The burr brown DAC is excellent for sound quality and if you use the IPOD you get the burr brown chip through the USB port.

The 9887 has the Burr Brown DAC as well. Ive heard the CDA-117 lacks in features. The Active 3way ability being a big one although it does have USB. Give and take I guess.

 

[JayTDI]

Now, as for the USB connection on my unit not working, im almost 100% certain im gonna take this unit, return it and exchange it for the JVC KD-R900. The R900 is basically like the CDA-117 except on steroids. Also has 5v line outputs as opposed to the Alpines 4v. Sound quality im sure isnt that much worse (I do admit, the alpine did sound pretty good even on my stock speakers).

JVC will never sound as good as the Alpine. Who carries around a million songs on a flash drive anyway, bit rate must be awesome on them hey ?? Go buy a decent quality cd and then you'll hear that machine shine. Dynamics and staging on the Alpine will be way better...

 

[nineball 10+ year member]

JVC will never sound as good as the Alpine. Who carries around a million songs on a flash drive anyway, bit rate must be awesome on them hey ?? Go buy a decent quality cd and then you'll hear that machine shine. Dynamics and staging on the Alpine will be way better...

i have found quite the opposite. my jvc kd-sh1000 has better sq than most of the alpine headunits i have owned, and the rest (9887, 7998) i would say would are very similar. hell even the lower end kd-g820 i got as part of a large purchase sounded pretty **** good.

 

[guacho80 10+ year member]

Just FYI, kenwood does it too it sorts file alphabetically and lets you browse in folders. I had a x693 and upgraded to a x994, I won't go back to Pioneer or Alpine after this going to kenwood excelon. Oh, and they are cheaper too.