Why are new Alpine head units so crappy?

[2002XLT 5,000+ posts]

I just sold my 9853 and i can definantely tell a difference in sound from that to my jensen, but now i can watch movies.......

Never had a problem with the glidetouch either. Loved the motorized face though..

 

[ashtrey1212 10+ year member]

probably have to do a little with alpine being available in best buys and CC's. they have to produce more so they gotta find an easier way to produce them. their top of the line models are still good right?
probably make the good stuff for the audio enthusiasts like most of us and mass produce the models in cc's and bb's for the people that just want a pretty HU with fun colors.

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Thats exactly the reason. I was talking to owner of an indie car audio store the last time I did some shopping and he was saying that exact same thing. The Alpine merchandise you see in Best Buy and the rest of the chain stores is the only stuff they can get their hands on, ie. Type R, Type S, low to mid end head units etc. But you won't find Alpine's top notch stuff anywhere but a real car audio shop. Why do you think Rockford Fosgate went banckrupt? They tried distributing so much good quality stuff for so cheap that they went under and got bought out by the Best Buy corporation. I can't find any Rockford stuff anywhere except Future Shop and Best Buy now, and even Rockford's high end stuff isn't as good as it was 5 or 6 years ago. Alpine's just doing what they gotta do to survive. But I also have a 9887 and there no way that I could possibly love a human baby more than I love that deck.

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

As far as single din decks go, it didn't get any better after the 9815. I like the 9835, but would rather have the 9815. Too bad the 9815 I have sitting in my closet has a faulty CD loading mechanism. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/mad.gif.c18f003ab0ef8a0d9c27ca78d77a6392.gif


The old alpine decks just looked much nicer, too.

you know, alpine charges a flat $95 repair fee to fix their units //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[2002XLT 5,000+ posts]

you know, alpine charges a flat $95 repair fee to fix their units //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

really? i did not know this...

 

[WhoSayWho? 5,000+ posts]

To all the people saying "I just bought my first Alpine, and it doesnt feel crappy"..
Thats because you have been accustomed to crap. And you dont know what old Alpine is.

You would think that Alpine would be loyal to the true audio buffs out there, who own CDs and dont care about iPod connections or flashing lights.

"The five stripes in the Alpine logo were added in the 1990s. Originally light blue to contrast with the letters which were in dark blue, they were later changed to one colour. The stripes are each said to stand for different aspects of Alpine's philosophy which are:

 

* Engineering Excellence

* Manufacturing Excellence

* Marketing Excellence

* Service Excellence

* Partner Excellence"

Dam, Alpine has gotten away from the Five Stripe Policy??

 

[ashtrey1212 10+ year member]

Ok I'll admit that I've never owned an old Alpine deck, but what makes old Alpine better than new Alpine anyway? Where the older head units really heavy or something? I know they didn't have iPod adaptation. Were the EQ's better?

Thats accually one thing I did notice when shopping around for a new deck was that the more you paid for an Alpine the better the deck's EQ was.

I don't know. Pioneer decks all normally come with a decent EQ built in to them, but it is true that if you want a serious Alpine, then your probably gonna pay out your *** for it. Even still, after all the money I spent on it, it still isn't up to it's fullest potential. If I really cared for bluetooth or imprint or any of that crap I'd probably double the price ontop of what I already paid. I got everything I need in my 9887 though, I love the EQ. To be completely honest though, the bio-light display and iPod capability is just a bonus and not a nessesity.

 

[bad_trip 10+ year member]

as an owner of a 9883, i agree. stinks. looks nice though. but as far as performance, i almost wish i could go back to the dual that had been in my car since it's purchase in 95. Ha. Had it not been for the price of $80 on the alpine, i would not have it.

 

[bad_trip 10+ year member]

But, my older sister had an alpine HU when she got her first car about 6 years ago, and i loved it. Everything about it was sweet, from the looks, to function and performance. it looked really clean, as opposed to the ones today, that have huge knobs and lots of buttons and colors and all that. what happened to two volume buttons, six presets, and an eject button?

 

[mannyahles 10+ year member]

I only download high quality torrents.

Now that-s a good one!! I do the same!!!

 

[Fast1one 10+ year member]

I was always under the impression that the quality drop was a result from a shift in the manufacturing plants...Japanese to Chinese (or Korean?)...

I could be wrong, but thats what I heard...wish I could find my source...

Love my 7940 so far...sweet sounding deck...

 

[1991Brougham 10+ year member]

I had an Alpine AM/FM cassette HU back in 1992 and I have an Alpine 9873 today. Quality of build is the same. I guess somewhere between 1992 and 2008 there must have been a whale of an upsurge and then a dropoff in Alpine quality...LOL!

The consumer electronic device I see having cheaped out is the good ol' VCR. They used to be built like battleships. Now they're junk grade.

My Alpine has EQ adjustments and I further the cause with an Alpine parametric EQ for easy adjustments as I drive. It handles iPods at full speed quite nicely. The only thing I'm missing is the ability to add HD Radio and satellite in terms of sources but since I could care less about satellite and there's no HD Radio in Coos Bay, it's not a biggie. CD's play just fine. If this is the definition of a bad Alpine, then Joe Consumer is in GREAT shape. There's plenty more that has gone downhill in this world a lot farther. Who needs a motorized gizmo that is 100% likely to fail in the long run anyway? That was just a Bad Engineering design and anyone who thinks more mechanical gizmos are good should read up on the 1957-59 Ford retractable hardtops to see how this kind of stuff plays out. Half a century later it's still a Bad Idea to overcomplicate something in that fashion.

I'd love to hear an A/B comparison where everything was the same but the HU's and then see them changed out while a blindfolded listener tried to identify which Alpine was new and which one was old. It would probably wind up being the same story as the one about coathangers vs Monster cables...LOL!

Rick

 

[Kai Winters 10+ year member]

I have owned Alpine decks since my first am/fm/cassette back in the late 70's or early 80's...don't remember exactly hehehe...and I am just as happy with my iDA-x001 today as I was with that first hu way back then.

I also owned probably 6 to 8 other Alpine decks since then...anyone remember the first slide outs when you slid the entire hu out...ugh that was a pain...I had two of those.

I never had a single problem with any Alpine hu I ever owned. At the moment besides my x001 my wife, son and daughter all have low end Alpine hu's in their cars...thanks to dad hehe...and none have ever had a problem and are 3 to 5 years old depending on who's we are talking about.

I am happy with the quality of every hu I purchased. Perhaps I have been lucky but at 30 years of using Alpine I am content with my belief in their quality. Perhaps with the use of lighter materials they lose that "rugged/durable" feel but it is nothing I am concerned about.

I have noticed that the printing on some of the lighted controls has started to wear/fade on the low end units in my wife's, 5 year old hu, and son's, 3 year old hu but he is hard on his stuff, hu's but that is it. They work fine and the controls feel good.

I think Alpine has some of the more robust controls out there compared to some others I have gropped and fondled.

I am wondering if we are starting to see the demise of the cd's with the popularity of the ipod, mp3's and storage systems...usb, etc...and the x001, x100, x200 and x300 not accepting a cd. I have not been able to notice a difference between cd's and the music stored on my usb...mp3 324kps format...but that could be because my hearing, at 52 years old, is not what is was a decade or two ago...annual hearing tests show I have lost a small amount of higher tone hearing but average for my age. And perhaps more of an audiophile system than my modest system would make the difference more pronounced.