The cda 9886

[BennyLava]

It would appear to be the general consensus here that Alpine make the most reliable, best sound quality head units. And as such I have settled on buying an Alpine cda 9886. But I have a couple questions for those of you out there that own one, or maybe if you just are familiar with them. It'll just be easier if I number them.

1. How do you like it? Are you impressed with it?

2. Is the user interface pretty painless to use?

3. What all do you have to do to get the thing to read music from a typical USB flash drive? I do not have an Ipod and I will not be buying any MP3 player. I just want to put all my songs on a like a 4gb usb thumbdrive and have it play them off of that. Is this even possible? Do I have to buy anything to make this work?

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[jbizzle 5,000+ posts]

1. I loved it, but it was pretty basic.

2. Yes.

3. All you do is search for a file, or folder. I put each of my play lists in a folder, and just picked the folder I wanted to listen to at that time.

 

[bigaudiofanati2 10+ year member]

1. I loved it, but it was pretty basic.
2. Yes.

3. All you do is search for a file, or folder. I put each of my play lists in a folder, and just picked the folder I wanted to listen to at that time.

X2 same here I just traded him for his and it is the best and I have only had it for a few hours. I might upgrade to the 9887 for going active but not right now.

 

[BennyLava]

Ok got another one. The USB cable on the cda 9886 would appear to be very short. Too short, in fact. So can you just get any old male to female USB extension and have it work? I would like to run it back behind the dash and have it come out in the glove box. But I don't want to pay a ridiculous price for a simple USB extension cable. Can you just use an el-cheapo extension from wal-mart?

 

[Johnny Law.Lulz 5,000+ posts]

X2 same here I just traded him for his and it is the best and I have only had it for a few hours. I might upgrade to the 9887 for going active but not right now.

you could just imprint and go active with the 9886 i think.

I love mine, i am selling it and going to the 7897, Super easy to set-up and adjust and everything. I dont know about the thumb drive thing cuz i used my ipod but i highly recomend it. And you can buy mine for a little less. find my thread.

 

[Johnny Law.Lulz 5,000+ posts]

Ok got another one. The USB cable on the cda 9886 would appear to be very short. Too short, in fact. So can you just get any old male to female USB extension and have it work? I would like to run it back behind the dash and have it come out in the glove box. But I don't want to pay a ridiculous price for a simple USB extension cable. Can you just use an el-cheapo extension from wal-mart?

IIRC, the USB cord is like 2 or 3 ft. I know the ipod cord is.

 

[BennyLava]

Well if you look at the crutchfield website, they show a pic and it looks like it is about 6 inches long. That, and I was at my local car audio shop the other day and the guy said that if I wanted to be able to use my flash drive I will have to get a USB cable extension. He named off some alpine product number, that I'm sure they want $35 for. So I need to know if a simple USB cable extension will work. It should be the exact same thing...

 

[power-fanatic07 5,000+ posts]

you could just imprint and go active with the 9886 i think.
I love mine, i am selling it and going to the 7897, Super easy to set-up and adjust and everything. I dont know about the thumb drive thing cuz i used my ipod but i highly recomend it. And you can buy mine for a little less. find my thread.

i heard the imprint isn't the thing to use if you're trying to get loud as i have the 9886 also and was thinking about buying the imprint but i've heard that the settings would not allow you to get as loud db wise.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

i heard the imprint isn't the thing to use if you're trying to get loud as i have the 9886 also and was thinking about buying the imprint but i've heard that the settings would not allow you to get as loud db wise.

I've heard the Imprint doesn't turn the sub as loud if you go with the auto EQ. What fun is auto EQ anyways? I like to set everything myself. If you get the Imprint for the 9886, it's basically a 9887 with the volume knob on the other side of the buttons and a regulated 1 bit DAC instead of the 24 bit DAC.

EDIT: You can turn the gain down on your sub amp, run the Imprint, then turn it back up to where you get the correct output voltage for the power your amp is capable of if you really want to use the auto EQ.

 

[DB-Audio 10+ year member]

Ok got another one. The USB cable on the cda 9886 would appear to be very short. Too short, in fact. So can you just get any old male to female USB extension and have it work? I would like to run it back behind the dash and have it come out in the glove box. But I don't want to pay a ridiculous price for a simple USB extension cable. Can you just use an el-cheapo extension from wal-mart?

id asume so because my old head unit the vr3 i did that to it and it worked fine

 

[350zspl 10+ year member]

i use a this head unit

happy with it

 

[Johnny Law.Lulz 5,000+ posts]

I never said the imprint would get you louder. He was talking about going active. So i dont know where the loudness thing came from. But i love my 9886.

And yes, any usb cable thing will work.

 

[BennyLava]

And yes, any usb cable thing will work.

Freaking awesome. Of course the car audio guy was trying to sell me something for 3000 times higher than I should be paying...

 

[BennyLava]

He was talking about going active.

What do you mean by going active? Did a search but only came up with a million threads talking about doing it, none actually said what it was.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

There's a really good sticky about active vs passive.