Recommend a upgrade/replacement to ageing Alpine CDA-9887

[CrossFired 10+ year member]

What happens when you hotswap RCA's on pioneers?

Nothing.

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

I can not find a 80PRS anywhere in this city to try out. Can find DEH-P8400BH and I do not like it. But not fair to judge the 80PRS based on a lesser model.

I am concerned with the quality of the LCD on the pioneer. Alpines is easy to read in any light and has excellent viewing angles. The Pioneers I have seen are really cheap looking and the plastic squeeks and feels horrible. Is the 80PRS any better?

Also anyone know which is easier to search through Ipods and USB storage? My CDA-9887 is a painfully slow to scroll through Ipod lists.

 

[kramer_212 10+ year member]

80 prs

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

Went and played with the CDA-117 for a bit. Not impressed with it at all. Faceplate feels nice but the interface is the same as 9887 and lacking some of the features that made the 9887 awesome.

80PRS is all that is left.

 

[whitemax 10+ year member]

It's pretty sad the way things have gone with single din units. Luckily Pioneer is still putting nice units out. I would give the 80PRS a shot.

 

[CrossFired 10+ year member]

I am concerned with the quality of the LCD on the pioneer. Alpines is easy to read in any light and has excellent viewing angles. The Pioneers I have seen are really cheap looking and the plastic squeeks and feels horrible. Is the 80PRS any better?

Nope! the 80 is worse then my 880, and the 880 was worse then my 860. The 80 has hit an all time low as far as materials, I'd guess it's 90% plastic, and it feels cheap as F*CK!! But it sounds better then my 880, and the 880 sounded better then my 860. All three sound better then my old Alpine 9815, but the Alpine was a high quality build! Better then anything I've ever had. But I'm buying my car audio for SQ not build quality. I'd like to have both, but it's all about SQ.

 

[matt_bennett05 10+ year member]

Is it just me or do these new headunits that keep coming out look like garbage cosmetically? Just looked @ that Alpine CDE-HD138BT and for $350 that thing needs a damm facelift something serious. And I was always a Pioneer guy (980BT, whichever model the dual face Premier was) but when I went Alpine I could hear a difference between the fullness that the Alpine had compared to the Pioneers. Guess when I get ready to upgrade I will HAVE to go w/ the 80PRS if mine gives out... but I feel I have quite a while before that happens.

 

[TheUnderFighter 10+ year member]

Went and played with the CDA-117 for a bit. Not impressed with it at all. Faceplate feels nice but the interface is the same as 9887 and lacking some of the features that made the 9887 awesome.
80PRS is all that is left.

Just don't pay attention to the 117 in the least... you'd need another couple hundred dollars of add-ons to get what the 80prs offers out of the box. And it probably does have a cheaper feeling and looking face, but the SQ and features are there.

Also, I don't know if anyone has suggested this or if it's applicable in your situation, but you might try grounding your RCA's to try to fix the whine.

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

I thought it couldn't be a ground loop issue. As the amps are separated from the rest of the car electrical when the ignition is off but I remembered the ground wire that goes straight to the alt. So the HU's internals are not grounding properly creating the whine. I discovered this more so when I hooked up my phone through the AUX in while also having it charging off the cig lighter port... lots of strange noise. Unplug the charger and its quiet. Stupid ground loop.

Time to get off my lazy *** and run proper power wire to the HU.

EDIT: I just remembered little over a year ago my sub amp blew. Wonder if that blew the HU shield ground. But then you would think I would hear the internal CD and other stuff as well. Alt whine isn't that bad either.

I need to stop thinking about this and just run better power wires to my HU. And definitely do this before I install the 80PRS if I get it.

 

[Shinju 10+ year member]

the cda 117 is a discontinued model , no more high end alpines will be made .also to get the alpine as good as the pioneer you'll need an imprint unit for it.

No more single din high end decks, they are going for the double din market now.

And you do not need imprint to compete with pioneer, the CDA-117 and CDA-9887 stand alone just fine. Now if you are talking the 99rs or the P9 combo then yes you would need the PXA-H701 processor to get a true 4 way system like those pioneer units have.

Imprint is a non adjustible processor and is ment for easy tuning with a mic. You cannot adjust any setting after that atleast with the original imprint system.

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

Ok I ran seperate power and ground to my HU (as can be seen here http://www.caraudio.com/forums/wiring-electrical-installation-help/542667-where-should-i-run-my-power-wires-head-unit.html). A lot of various noises went away and SNR is much better when playing CD's. But the whine is still there. I am going to make a new thread about this.

http://www.caraudio.com/forums/wiring-electrical-installation-help/542813-help-ground-loop-issues.html#post7993654

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

Ok whine issue mostly resolved. And it wasn't the head unit. EMI coming from my sub amp.

Now do I go ahead a buy the pioneer anyway? Digital ipod connection, built in auto TA, 5v pre outs... lol