Kenwood X693 vs Alpine 9887

[gunz4me2 10+ year member]

The only turnoff to using the Kenwood is that Kenwood's crossover only appears to high pass the front and rears. I am full out active in one of my vehicles and the 9887 is the only HU that fit the bill. My other options were the Eclipse 7200 mkii or the Pioneer 800PRS which both required an additional interface controller to use an ipod AND are slower when accessing the actual content on the ipod.

I remember going to the different shops with my very own ipod to test the HU controls over it. Shockingly, a couple of the B&Ms didn't want to let me test out the ipod controls with MY ipod because I had over 4,000 songs on it. In fact, one of the B&Ms had 2 songs on their demo ipod connected to an Eclipse HU. When they said I couldn't connect my own, that threw up a BIG red flag.

 

[jwth2005 10+ year member]

I have owned a few headunits today. My first was a really cheap sony xplod. My second was Alpines CDA-9856, and my most recent was Kenwoods Excelon X993. The alpine to me was an overall great unit. The only things that really lacked in my opinion was the lack of a full EQ. having only bass and treble was a major pita. Also some of the iPod menus such as Genres were not available.

The X993 is a very nice piece. It took me a while to get used to the interface for sure. But having the EQ and all of the iPod controls were extremely nice. The other end on the BT function was not always good.

I am basically stuck in this situation as to what HU to buy. I have since sold my last vehicle and did not have a spare HU to put in so the X993 went with it //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif . I was not a big fan of the BT function as i feel i really dont need it. But i love how alpine HUs are set up.

My question is with the newer 9887 have they fixed the ipod issue? Also are all of the EQ bands accessible without Imprint?

 

[nineball 10+ year member]

You're saying that the 9887 doesn't have as good of an ipod control as the kenwood? I think the Alpine's actually better and easier to use. Both units are great, I just wouldn't spend the extra to get the 9887.

I never said that the ipod control was better or worse. The 9887 requires you to purchase an extra cable for ipod use, the x993 does not.

The X993 is a very nice piece. It took me a while to get used to the interface for sure. But having the EQ and all of the iPod controls were extremely nice. The other end on the BT function was not always good.
My question is with the newer 9887 have they fixed the ipod issue? Also are all of the EQ bands accessible without Imprint?

What problems did you have? I am going on 6 or 7 months with my x993 and the BT is flawless with my 3g. As far as the 9887, I will say it once again - you do not need the imprint kit to tune the system - everything is built into the 9887. The only thing the imprint kit does is auto-tuning which sucks.

 

[1hawaii50 10+ year member]

As far as the 9887, I will say it once again - you do not need the imprint kit to tune the system - everything is built into the 9887. The only thing the imprint kit does is auto-tuning which sucks.

Yes, everything is built into the system, but without using the Imprint, you CANNOT unlock any of the adjusting features. The head unit is "locked" from the factory. So you will at least have to rent it, to unlock the adjustment features of the unit.

 

[jwth2005 10+ year member]

Mainly people on the other end of the converstaion could never hear me other than that no issues with the BT just getting it set up was kinda a PITA. Has anyone used either the X693 or X993 with a iphone 3Gs? Does it charger it and let u still use the phone(not using BT)

 

[nineball 10+ year member]

bummer. everything works perfectly with my 3g - bt, bt streaming audio, corded playing and charging. as far as the last question you just have to select the audio source on the iphone - phone or phone's speaker.

 

[cleansoundzz 10+ year member]

The Pioneer DEH-P880PRS is the answer to all of my prayers. It has adjustable hi-pass, low-pass crossover, adjustable BBE, 5 different EQ presets on a 16 band eq, great looks, made durable and pretty fast IPOD controls. My Alpine CDA 9886 kept eating up IPODS for some reason. I went through 3 IPODS on that head unit for some reason. One IPOD last 2 weeks before it never came back on again. Kenwood head units are nice as well. I used one last year for a few months. I am an Alpine man but Alpine has been a dissappointment for the last few years. Hopefully they will improve on the 9887 and 9886 series otherwise they will be out of business soon.

 

[jbizzle 5,000+ posts]

The Pioneer DEH-P880PRS is the answer to all of my prayers. It has adjustable hi-pass, low-pass crossover, adjustable BBE, 5 different EQ presets on a 16 band eq, great looks, made durable and pretty fast IPOD controls. My Alpine CDA 9886 kept eating up IPODS for some reason. I went through 3 IPODS on that head unit for some reason. One IPOD last 2 weeks before it never came back on again. Kenwood head units are nice as well. I used one last year for a few months. I am an Alpine man but Alpine has been a dissappointment for the last few years. Hopefully they will improve on the 9887 and 9886 series otherwise they will be out of business soon.

I had the Pioneer 880PRS and now I own the Alpine 9887. I do not regret one bit switching to the Alpine.

I had the 9886 as well and had NO issues with ipod, maybe yours was faulty...

 

[chaunb3400 10+ year member]

I like my 9887 better then my 880 //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif and Im an pioneer fan

 

[jbizzle 5,000+ posts]

I like my 9887 better then my 880 //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif and Im an pioneer fan

x2

But i'm an Alpine fan //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[Bass911 10+ year member]

alpine sounds alot crisper to begin with.alpine + alluminum or plastic tweeter= headache for some people.

i listen to them at work all day trying to compare and figure out the differences.

heres what i came up with.

pioneer vs alpine vs kenwood

headunits:

pioneer have very impressive bass reproduction very smooth, but lacks crispness and highs.so it gives you overall smooth sound.

alpine is great sound very crisp and detailed even with internal amp, but lacks bass

there is bass and very good quality just less than u get with pioneed or kenwood.

kenwood i belive is somewhere in the middle between those two it has decent amount of bass and lil more control over highs.

heres why:

my car setup

95 integra with sps-171a components and 4 channel alpine amp

jlW3 sub

headunits i had

deh-p8600mp great sound very smooth bass , but i did not find a right setting for treble as long as i owned it. got stolen

i went with alpine cda-9833 sounded amazing with same setup really brought sound to life, very clear treble but the opposite from pioneer i could not find a sweet spot with bass i had to always tweak it.

kenwood kdc-x592 th eonly reason i got it is because i needed usb

turns out to be pretty good unit also and is somewhat between pioneer an alpine

has tonns of sound controls but sounds a lil dead kinda.

all 3 had 24bit D/A, pioneer had burr brown, alpine had bass engine pro.

so in short

the sound i enjoyed the most

1cda-9833

2deh-p8600mp

3kdc-x592

as far as features for the money itsa different story that i think everyone will agree with me

1 kenwood

2 pioneer

3 alpine

I've heard all of these, and Alpines does not lack bass! The Alpine is the better deck. I have owned decks with more features than Alpine, but not one of them sounded better than Alpine.

 

[cleansoundzz 10+ year member]

I had the Pioneer 880PRS and now I own the Alpine 9887. I do not regret one bit switching to the Alpine.
I had the 9886 as well and had NO issues with ipod, maybe yours was faulty...

The Pioneer has many more features than the 9887. To get the same from as the Pioneer, one must buy the imprint tuning kit. All of this is already contained in the Pioneer 800 & 880. You can like something better but it doesn't necessarily mean the 9887 is better than the Pioneer 800. Sound quality wise there is no comparison. The 800 owns the 9887 without the imprint. With the imprint I can not answer that question.

 

[Bass911 10+ year member]

The Pioneer has many more features than the 9887. To get the same from as the Pioneer, one must buy the imprint tuning kit. All of this is already contained in the Pioneer 800 & 880. You can like something better but it doesn't necessarily mean the 9887 is better than the Pioneer 800. Sound quality wise there is no comparison. The 800 owns the 9887 without the imprint. With the imprint I can not answer that question.

No it doesn't! I've heard both in different cars. The imprint does nothing but tune the system for you. The 9887 does not lack without the imprint tuning kit because the PXA-h100 is already built into it. I've even heard 2 SQ cars with the Pioneer Premier DEX-P1R and it still didn't sound better than Alpine or Eclipse IMO.

 

[1hawaii50 10+ year member]

No it doesn't! I've heard both in different cars. The imprint does nothing but tune the system for you. The 9887 does not lack without the imprint tuning kit because the PXA-h100 is already built into it. I've even heard 2 SQ cars with the Pioneer Premier DEX-P1R and it still didn't sound better than Alpine or Eclipse IMO.

If you don't buy/rent the Imprint kit, you cannot unlock the simple bass/treble settings...you must use the parametric EQ.

 

[Bass911 10+ year member]

If you don't buy/rent the Imprint kit, YOU CANNOT UNLOCK THE SETTINGS IN THE HEAD UNIT. The unit is "LOCKED" out of the box, you must use the Imprint unit to unlock the unit.

I know what I'm talking about. I ran one for over 2 years. Call Alpine, maybe you'll believe them. The pxa-h100 is already a part of the 9887, and does not have the imprint name so that part of it is not locked up.