HU's that are better and cheaper than NIB Alpine 117's.

[TaylorFade 10+ year member]

Pioneer DEH-80PRS Audiophile CD/MP3/USB Car Stereo w/ Bluetooth

Clarion CZ702 In-Dash CD/MP3 Car Stereo w/ Bluetooth & USB Port

http://www.caraudio.com/forums/head-unit-classifieds/566449-alpine-cda-9886-w-aux-cable-remote.html

http://www.caraudio.com/forums/head-unit-classifieds/566519-clarion-cz702-complete-used.html

http://www.caraudio.com/forums/head-unit-classifieds/563558-pioneer-880prs-sale.html

http://www.caraudio.com/forums/head-unit-classifieds/563894-alpine-cda-7998-old-school-3-way-active-head-unit.html

et cetera.

Click to read more...

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

Alpine CDA-9887 is a solid HU and is active capable

 

[TaylorFade 10+ year member]

Sorry... this was a bit of a troll post to prove a point.

Still good info though. Lol

 

[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

Im going with the Kenwood X996..

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

I like Kenwood eXcelon HU's. I also like Clarion. I love and prefer Alpine - there are 15 years worth of great head units sitting out there looking for good homes. However, if you want the latest and greatest connection features, Alpine can't help you as others can.

 

[alec14 10+ year member]

I like Kenwood eXcelon HU's. I also like Clarion. I love and prefer Alpine - there are 15 years worth of great head units sitting out there looking for good homes. However, if you want the latest and greatest connection features, Alpine can't help you as others can.

Do Alpines tend to not have good connection capabilities?

 

[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

I always had alpines and loved them but they are so **** expensive and don't have the same features as cheaper headunits. My car had a kenwood 794 in it and I now prefer kenwood. I hate my pioneer and hate my friends pioneer too.

 

[d77543020 10+ year member]

i love alpine to but to find one thats nice with built in bt and a rear usb and cheap is a hard find

 

[MutantDreams 10+ year member]

I have a pioneer deh-6500 bt, I love the features, but i hate the 8400 just because of the click tab. The only thing i dislike about the 6500 is that it only has 4 pre outs, but imma run a processor so its no big deal

 

[nateberrier 10+ year member]

Do you know how hard it is to find an XM capable head unit with USB and 2way active + sub? ITS FREAKING IMPOSSIBLE. Clarion has that active unit, but its only -6db and -12db slopes....

 

[zako 10+ year member]

DEH-80PRS is pretty awesome. The only thing that you could add to improve it is parametric equalizer.

 

[Bettr n' Revrse 5,000+ posts]

9855 and 9835

 

[RANDY P 10+ year member]

I just dumped an Alpine CDA-9885 I owned forever for a Kenwood KDC-BT948HD in my truck. Night and day difference in SQ. I just got done installing Polk Db6501, Punch 150@2, C10 kicker behind seat all passive xovers off amp and couldn't get the harshness out of the system.

Finally gave up, swapped out decks and man, so much smoother. I had hours tuning the speakers / phasing, capping tweeters, who knows how many gain adjustments and never got it right with the Alpine. Kenwood? 15 minutes. Done, no listener fatigue, no screeching mids, no flat dead sound.

Improved so much, I got rid of the Alpine in the car and a KDC-x794 is in there now. I never noticed how bad it was since I've had Alpines so long. Not going back.

If you are hell-bent on buying an Alpine, get a good one with a decent DAC and some good tunability. A screechy bright system ***** on a long road trip. That's what prompted me to tear into this. Couldn't listen to the new system in my truck because of the deck. Ears would ring after an hour. Sad

 

[MillerSHO 10+ year member]

Once amped up, my x996 and the wife's 701 kenwoods sound amazing without much tuning (I still mess with them quite a bit though, that's one of the reasons I love the kenwoods).

I have a friend who goes through alot of different equipment and is very open minded about trying different stuff and he claims out of all the head units he's heard in his life my x996 sounded the best right out of the box.