poineer Deh-6000UB Vs. Alpine CDA-9886 or CDA-9884

[eharri3 10+ year member]

IMHO the 9886 is a decent enough head unit in and of itself but when you compare it to the 9884 and the 9887 it seems like a gyp. Really, for over 100 dollars more you get an IPOD cable, which is a 30 dollar value, and 4 volts per channel, which most people on here will tell you won't make a difference in your sound quality and isn't the least bit necessary. All the EQ features that will really affect your sound have to be unlocked with a 150 dollar imprint kit. Even the frickin 5 band parametric/7 band graphic, the kind of thing you can find included and built into other brands of HU that fall in the same price range, can't be unlocked without imprint. OF course, no time alignment here even though there's 300 dollar pioneers and Eclipses that have it. And the 9884 happens to be IMPRINT ready too. So there really is no need to ever buy a 9886 as there is no meaningful, useful SQ related feature there that really sets it apart from the 9884. After the 9884 the 9887 is really the only worthwhile upgrade as it has decent EQ and time alignment built in without having to go with IMPRINT. But its also closer to 400 bucks retail, 450 brand new in some places. I think the Pioneer you got is a better value. The 9886 is a 200 dollar HU with a 300 dollar-plus price tag. It exists so Alpine can in theory say they offer something to fit the 300-350 dollar range like other manufacturers do, but that's only in price, not in substance and value. It's really just a stroked 9883/9884 with a prettier display.

Alpine is dumming down head units to suit chain store customers who care more about bluetooth and ipod than sound quality, figuring they can charge more and people will still buy it anyway just because it's an Alpine, without them having to invest in engineering all those features into the HU itself. Pioneer and others still have real content.

 

[Bruizer 10+ year member]

Alpine is dumming down head units to suit chain store customers, figuring they can charge more and people will still buy it anyway just because it's an Alpine, without them having to invest in engineering all those features into the HU itself. Pioneer and others still have real content.

You know, I love Alpine and they are the only HU i use, but I'm gonna agree here. I have a CDA-9886 and really like it, but I would take my old CDA-9827 that was stolen any day of the week. I miss my 9827. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

 

[GreenBook 10+ year member]

IMHO the 9886 is a decent enough head unit in and of itself but when you compare it to the 9884 and the 9887 it seems like a gyp. Really, for over 100 dollars more you get an IPOD cable, which is a 30 dollar value, and 4 volts per channel, which most people on here will tell you won't make a difference in your sound quality and isn't the least bit necessary. All the EQ features that will really affect your sound have to be unlocked with a 150 dollar imprint kit. Even the frickin 5 band parametric/7 band graphic, the kind of thing you can find included and built into other brands of HU that fall in the same price range, can't be unlocked without imprint. OF course, no time alignment here even though there's 300 dollar pioneers and Eclipses that have it. And the 9884 happens to be IMPRINT ready too. So there really is no need to ever buy a 9886 as there is no meaningful, useful SQ related feature there that really sets it apart from the 9884. After the 9884 the 9887 is really the only worthwhile upgrade as it has decent EQ and time alignment built in without having to go with IMPRINT. But its also closer to 400 bucks retail, 450 brand new in some places. I think the Pioneer you got is a better value. The 9886 is a 200 dollar HU with a 300 dollar-plus price tag. It exists so Alpine can in theory say they offer something to fit the 300-350 dollar range like other manufacturers do, but that's only in price, not in substance and value. It's really just a stroked 9883/9884 with a prettier display.
Alpine is dumming down head units to suit chain store customers who care more about bluetooth and ipod than sound quality, figuring they can charge more and people will still buy it anyway just because it's an Alpine, without them having to invest in engineering all those features into the HU itself. Pioneer and others still have real content.

The 6000ub though really doesn't have that much going for it either except the 7 band eq. over the 5000ub. I own a 6000; but I got it cause I know I won't be able to buy a new deck for atleast a few years, and I've always wanted a pioneer with the oel display. Other then the display & the eq the 2 models are exactly the same. For like 10 or 20 bucks more you can get the 7000bt and have built in bluetooth, but you loose the 7band.

If it wasn't for the flasy display I would have went with the 5000 & saved myself 50 bones. Not sure how much the op values eq, but most people I know with systems just use preset's, if that's the case it's best to just save the money.

 

[Flomaster 10+ year member]

so I got the 7K got it all hooked up BlueTooth works with my LG ENV2 but its having problems downloading my phone book over to the 7k : ( other than that I like it so far so good.

-=Jason=-

 

[eharri3 10+ year member]

My understanding and limited experience is this is more of a phone than a head unit issue. An Alpine rep also told me this when I first got my Alpine CDA 9883 and noticed none of the phone menus showed up in the head unit. Some phones won't work at all with anything other than the phone manufacturer's blue tooth products. Some phones will work with other products but you may not get all blue tooth features. For instance, the phone may be operable with your Head Unit's blue tooth but you may not get the phone book, dialed calls, missed calls, etc... to transfer. Some phones, you can set up with a head unit and everthing will download/transfer perfectly.

With my old LG phone and my 9883 I could receive calls without a problem but absolutely nothing transferred so I had to actually dial the number from the phone (somewhat defeating the purpose), so I could talk through the stereo. With my new Samsung everything in this phone transfers so I can literally find a number through dialed or received calls menu or the phone book, all through the HU, and make a call without touching my phone.

 

[eharri3 10+ year member]

The 6000ub though really doesn't have that much going for it either except the 7 band eq. over the 5000ub. I own a 6000; but I got it cause I know I won't be able to buy a new deck for atleast a few years, and I've always wanted a pioneer with the oel display. Other then the display & the eq the 2 models are exactly the same. For like 10 or 20 bucks more you can get the 7000bt and have built in bluetooth, but you loose the 7band.
If it wasn't for the flasy display I would have went with the 5000 & saved myself 50 bones. Not sure how much the op values eq, but most people I know with systems just use preset's, if that's the case it's best to just save the money.

Going by what you said either the 6000 or the 7000 still offers a crucial feature you cant get in an Alpine without spending extra cash. Going with the retail prices, the Alpine 9886 is 350, the 9884 is 230, the 9887 is 450. For any of them you need to spend nearly 200 extra for a bluetooth module. For a built in EQ beyond 'BASS ENGINE' and 'treble adjustment' you gotta go with the top of the line 450$ retail 9887. The 6000 retails for 250 and has a decent EQ. The 7000 for 290 has a Bluetooth built in. Hell for 230 I could go to Circuit City and get an Eclipse CD 3200 with a 3 band and blue tooth built in. Not to mention 5 or 6 volt pre outs.

IMHO time delay is a very valuabe feature, Alpine should have at least put in something like a 5 band EQ with time delay in the 9886 to make it worth its premium over the 9884 then done a 7 band and built-in blue tooth for the 9887.

 

[Steveopevo 10+ year member]

The 6000ub though really doesn't have that much going for it either except the 7 band eq. over the 5000ub. I own a 6000; but I got it cause I know I won't be able to buy a new deck for atleast a few years, and I've always wanted a pioneer with the oel display. Other then the display & the eq the 2 models are exactly the same. For like 10 or 20 bucks more you can get the 7000bt and have built in bluetooth, but you loose the 7band.
If it wasn't for the flasy display I would have went with the 5000 & saved myself 50 bones. Not sure how much the op values eq, but most people I know with systems just use preset's, if that's the case it's best to just save the money.

don't you know that a 3-band parametric is better than a 7-band graphic EQ

 

[eharri3 10+ year member]

No reason to bother with a 9886 over a 9884. Either way you need Imprint to unlock the real goodies. The 9887 is worth it though.