Alpine CDM7858

Author's product rating:   

How is the Sound Quality?	Excellent
Ease of Installation	Very Easy
How is the Look & Design?	Excellent
Range of Features	Diverse
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	stylish, alpine quality, amazing sound, clear display
Disadvantages:	cd text doesn't allow you to see the whole track title for more than 5 seconds .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Aftre driving around for a year in a very basic car with a very basic stereo i figured that i deserved something new, so being a music lover it had to be the stereo. After a few weeks of perusing the local shops and the internet for hours at a time i decided to go for an alpine due to reputation and looks and also because i had heard a couple in stereo shops and the quality was very good.

I carried on looking now having an idea of what i wanted and i came across this, the 7858RB brand new stock released that week and at £280 it seemed good value so i went to look at the spec...

Built in amplifier
4 x 45 Watts,
FM/AM Tuner,
CD Playback,
CD/R Playback,
1 Pre - Out,
Detatchable Face,
Blue Illumination,
RDS,
ISO Connector,
CD Changer Controll,
CD Text,
Bass Engine,
Versatile Link,
Optional Remote.

Fitting was very easy although i did need a new front facier for the dash due to size differnce which was £20 and a adaptor cable to change the ford cables into alpine connection which was another £7.50

Once it was plugged in the difference in quality was immediately noticeable, far more crisp, controlled, presence, bass, trebble all in one go it was just a totally different sound coming from the same speakers.

I was amazed at the amount of additional sound controll there is, 14 differnent levels for bass and 14 for treble, then you can turn the "loudness" on and off turning on gives a fuller sound, there's 15 steps of volume for a sub woofer wich can be fitted with an aditional amplifier and wiring kit. You can change the band of the bass and trebble to 4 different settings measured from 60hz to 200hz.

I have since added a pioneer 12" 600Watt Sub Woofer and an Alpine 300 Watt Mono - Block Sub Amp and now it sounds even better still.

The stereo itself is very nice looking in a matt black finish with a bright electric ble display and buttons to match, the bass and trebble control buttons are lit red for a nice contrast. Easy to read at night.

The only real draw back is if you have a cd with track names burned in to it they are displayed but they scroll accross for 5 seconds or so and then stop, if the track title is more than 9 characters long which they usually are then a lot of the name gets chopped off.

To sum up the stereo is amazing and very upgradable and i would reccomend it to everyone.