Alpine CDA-9851R > Reviews > Pump up the jam

Author's product rating:   

Advantages:	Best sound quality in its price range
Disadvantages:	Ugly as sin

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The ultimate in ICE (in car entertainment). ALPINE!
A big name for many years in the automotive industry delivering some of the best amplifiers, headunits and speakers available.

The CDA range definately does not dissapoint. Featuring all of the classic alpine qualities including the old alpine look with the 4 buttons to the left of the round volume control (which now functions as a whole lot more).

Its an absolutely ugly headunit as all alpines are, a pig to operate and I dont think there is anyone in the world that has mastered every option on an alpine unit since they first started producing them, but from the moment you first power it up you fall in love with the depth, warmth and clarity of the sound reproduction. My favourite trick is to leave the eq exactly as it comes from factory, but to increase the subwoofer output level a little. From this you get a gorgeous reproduction with some hard hitting bass that sounds great.

I'd be tempted to suggest its easy to get confused with the alpine units, and if you do fiddle with the set up it is very difficult to get a great sound, but if you are a complete music freak on a budget then its the unit for you.

The only thing i found that made me change was the fact that it couldn't handle a 7v input through the aux in and the head unit fried :(

I really miss the alpine, but have since moved on to much more expensive, better things, though to be fair value for money... the alpine was a quater the price what i got now and the difference was never worth that amount of money.

Instruction manual will confuse you as much as the unit itself, but its handy to keep as a reference now and then.

Installation of an alpine unit is very simple. They use an ISO standard wiring loom so near enough plug straight in to the majority of cars, though its worth remembering that sometimes it will not store memory settings but thats just a simple swap of 2 connectors.