List Alpine's greatest SQ head units of all time

[CaliforniabOY5 10+ year member]

interested... i believe the faceplate motor design...mine had to be replaced out of the ******* box.... it played but the buttons on the faceplate didnt work!

edit: the 9855 was my ex hu.

 

[desertheat 10+ year member]

Exactly, the 9835 had a great motor design, I heard of a few very isolated random failures but the decks were used heavily and most issues were physical damage.

With the 9855 basically alpine gave it the glide touch deal, took away a bunch of other features and make it as cheap as possible and sold it for the same price of the 9835.

 

[envengineer 10+ year member]

The 9860/9861 + h701 combo is tough to beat. Not a one box solution but it sure does sound good. I'm dissapointed that there aren't more alpine decks with optical outputs (9861/w205 are it for the current models I believe).

 

[Babs 10+ year member]

I've heard the W205 / H701 combo.. I can vouch for it.. This was an IASCA competing SQ car on Buwalda's team.. It rocks. Clarity, imaging, soundstage.. it's all there. What's interesting is you don't see too many specs on the DAC's used by the H701.. I think they're using burr-browns. That's a beast of a processor.

I wish they'd get the silly CDA-9887 or PXE-H650 Imprint products on the shelves arleady. They would rank right up there I'd bet in the tops for Alpine.. Though the PXE is technically an OEM integration processor, rather than stand-alone head unit.