Hows the 06 line of Alpine's looking?

[bjfish11 5,000+ posts]

Was in a shop today looking at the new alpine h/u. I know the 05's sucked, but how are the 06 supposed to be? Are they supposed to be any better. I havent heard much about them yet so thats why im asking. I almost picked one up. The CDE-9852. How is it supposed to be? I just want something decent right now. Let me know if its worth 200 bones. Thanks

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[spudracer326 10+ year member]

05's sucked??? I have a 9855 and am very happy with it. I havent really heard much negative about the 05's.

 

[Ingleside 10+ year member]

yeah.... '05 was not Alpine's best year IMOH.. although i do have a 9855 and am moderatley satisfied with it.

I like the 06 models as far as features go but im not really feeling the way the buttons are laid out on the unit. i guess im just used to the buttons being on the left of the rotary encoder.

i think for $200 its a decent deck. i would also look at the kennwoods.

 

[bjfish11 5,000+ posts]

05's sucked??? I have a 9855 and am very happy with it. I havent really heard much negative about the 05's.

yea, people bashed the weak preouts, as well as that glide touch featuer thingy, and baiscally just the overall quality of the '05's. I was just wondering if they stepped back up in 06.

Ill take a look at the kenwoods.

 

[danteBirosel 5,000+ posts]

Eclipse Ftw!!!!

 

[bjfish11 5,000+ posts]

i know i know, i just sold my 8455, hated to, but i needed the cash. Maybe ill look into one of their middle of the line units. any reccomendations of those?

 

[chadillac3 10+ year member]

yea, people bashed the weak preouts, as well as that glide touch featuer thingy, and baiscally just the overall quality of the '05's. I was just wondering if they stepped back up in 06.
Ill take a look at the kenwoods.

The "weak" preout thing was from 03, not 04 or 05.

 

[bjfish11 5,000+ posts]

in 03 i thought they still had the 4 v preouts, and last year they went to 05. someone correct me if im wrong.

 

[chadillac3 10+ year member]

The units that people were *****ing about were the 9813 and 9815. The 9835 had an outboard DC-DC converter, as does the 9855.

 

[Ignatowski 5,000+ posts]

the preouts are weak,most have 2v = lame

 

[Chevyaudio 5,000+ posts]

The 05 line is not weak. Yeah the 9853 had 2 volt preouts.. but the 9855 has the out board DC DC converter, and you get standard 4v preouts. the glide touch takes a little getting used to but, now I prefer it over the old rotary encoder style. The 05 line was by no means weak

 

[bjfish11 5,000+ posts]

how come there was so much talk on the board about the 05's. seemed as if everyone hated them. So that 06 deck i pointed out is a pretty good deck, even with the 2 v preout?

 

[SuperBlack350z 10+ year member]

I work at Best Buy (the bane of this forum, and of car audio as a whole, I know) and we just got the new 06's in and put them out on display. My thoughts . . . eh. They're ok. It seems like since we started carrying Alpine (ie, 2005) the quality has decreased from year to year. I have a CDA-9835 (when I bought it the guy at Sound Advice told me that if I'm going to buy an Alpine, buy the 35 because the new ones coming out weren't nearly as good . . . glad I listened to him) and my girlfriend has a 9855, and mine just feels a little more solid. The buttons feel a little more secure when you push them on mine, compared to the glidetouch on the 55 which feels flimsy and cheap. Also, the shinier look they gave them looks kinda cheap. The 06's I'm not really understanding their thought process on. If all you want is a CD player, no DVD or anything, the best you can get is the 9857, which has the biolite display, but 2v preouts and from what I can tell, none of the crossover/EQ features that the 55 and 35 have. If you want anything with 4v preouts and biolite, you have to get the $1600 DVD deck, which admittedly is pretty **** cool looking, but you're stuck with the glidetouch. Also, for those who care, none of the CD decks for 06 have the color options on the buttons like the 35 and 55 do. Overall they've really dropped off as far as features go. The fullspeed connection for the ipod is awesome, and I wish I could use this on my 35, but that really looks like the best thing they're bringing to the table, which is disappointing.

 

[freightdriver 10+ year member]

my 9856 is lookin pretty nice in my dash //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif installed it tonight it seems like a decent deck. no badass eq and 2v preouts but that can all be fixed... zapco eq and a line driver can correct both other then that i'm lovin the deck only got to play with it for like 2 minutes but the screen and black chrome face is baddass //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eyebrow.gif.fe2c18d8720fe8c7eaed347b21ea05a5.gif

 

[BodegaBay 10+ year member]

...Also, for those who care, none of the CD decks for 06 have the color options on the buttons like the 35 and 55 do. Overall they've really dropped off as far as features go...

Don't forget, they also dropped the Swingface motorized faceplate and leaving just a drop down faceplate (!) for all their new 2006 single DIN units. Alpine really cut back this year on features; this is surprising because they have historically dominated (and market) features. I am very curious what their product strategy is for 2006. Maybe they want to test the market this year. I'd like to think that if there are a lot of negative feedback, they'll change for 2007.