Alpine CDA-9830

Price Paid:  $550.00 from India, Bangalore

Year / Model Reviewed:
2005 9830/9833

Strengths:
clean music from midrange

Weaknesses:
bass needs lots of bass to get going.
almost useless after a year of good use.

Summary:
I started with 9833. All was good for one year.. then alternator noise crept in.. firt i changed amp thinking that is the problem.. but the problem persisted.

then i thought the components have gone skunk..,. but to my real real surprise, it was 9833 causing the problem.!

The shopowner had only Pioneer (which helped filter out HU to be problem) so I went to another shop.

This time I got 9830. and to my horror same problem was there :(

India has very unfriendly market. Once you open the package, the thing cannot be returned back.! Esp for imported items.

So, I am stuck with two junks costing nearly $1000 :(

I fail to understand that cheap HUs like Pioneer can play same thing well in exactly same setup, but Alpine is causing alternator noise and tonnes of distortion at slightest of volume..

Feel like throwing all the wires out. Its almost sickening. I should have been content with cheap Sony/Pioneer/Kens/ etc.

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $279.00 from Visions

Year / Model Reviewed:
2004 Alpine CDA-9830

Strengths:
-Instant sound quality increase -Triple 4V Pre-out -Motorized face -Media Expander -Its Alpine

Weaknesses:
-A little hard to learn all of the features without reading the manual.

Summary:
This deck replaced my old kenwood and blew me away. the instant increase in sound quality is amazing. with triple 4v pre-outs you can't ask for much more when powering speakers with an external amplifier; the bass hits harder and the treble sings with my infinity sound system. the deck looks good and performs even better. the motorized face is sweet and the unit is very well built; i've driven over bumpy roads and didn't hear a skip. the only downfall is the complexity of the deck. overall i am very pleased.

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
2.00 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $270.00 from American

Year / Model Reviewed:
2004 CDA-9830

Strengths:
Highly customizable sound options Motorized face Good radio tuner Plays MP3's Nice MP3 search feature

Weaknesses:
Motorized face Over-complicated Over-priced No Loudness (are you kidding me?!) No dimmer

Summary:
I would say that this receiver is overpriced. Its got the same amp as the less expensive models. One of the features you pay for is the motorized face. Its neat for the first 5 minutes, but gets lame fast. It takes longer to eject CD's. The multi-color display isn't that great either. At this price point, you'd think it would have a dimmer, it doesn't. I really don't like the EQ controls on this receiver either. I like to be able to quickly adjust the bass and treble with different songs/types of music. This receiver has a complicated (but highly customizable) equalizer. OK, lets say you want to bump the bass up a couple notches. Press menu, select P-EQ, press Band until you find the right frequency, turn the dial to adjust level, press and hold 1 to save the setting to memory, press menu and hold 2 seconds to exit. That's a big pain in heavy traffic. How about something positive? The time correction feature is nice. It allows adjust the delay of each speaker so that the sound from all 4 speakers reaches your ears at the same time. This dramatically improves the soundstage. The radio tuner is excellent. It is very sensitive and can pull in weak stations. Overall, not that great. I'm seriously considering selling this one and getting a Pioneer.

Similar Products Used:
Pioneer, JVC