Alpine CDA-7842

Price Paid:  $320.00 from Circuit City(never s

Strengths:
great sound, great FM sound, looks cool, 4v outs, BBE, works better than anything with my JL subs,comps, and amps.

Weaknesses:
Its really sad than my brothers $149 8 year old pioneer plays any CDR and my 4 year old alpine cant

Summary:
It would be the best CD player I ever had if the eject would work all the time and not when it feels like not working once in a while,and if it would play all CDR''s.I cant understand how a CD player played every CDR I ever made, and then one day "blah" I would have a better chance of seeing GOD than to get a CDR to play now. go figure.other than that it has great sound, great FM, great looks, but the + and - buttons are to small.

Similar Products Used:
Pioneer

Price Paid:  $318.00

Year / Model Reviewed:
 1999

Strengths:
NIce display, not flashy but just right..

Weaknesses:
Wish it had more sub control

Summary:
The sound quality is amazing.. Crystal clear.. Much better than anything else I've heard for the money..

Similar Products Used:
other alpines in the past.. Kenwoods as well

Price Paid:  $200.00

Strengths:
great sound

Weaknesses:
takes forever to load cdr's.

Summary:
everything about this unit is good except that it has a hard time loading and playing cdr's. tried different cdr media (gold, silver, generic, brand name) none seem to fix the problem. since i listen to cd's quite often, what a waste of money.

Similar Products Used:
None

Year / Model Reviewed:
 1998

Strengths:
this unit really sounded good when it worked. In shop for same problem that. other reviewer had. it would not take cd in or out.

Weaknesses:
after 1 1/2 years unit died suddenly. it worked fine then the next time i drove car it would not do a single thing except barely eject cd that was in it.

Summary:
not very pleased with only 1 1/2 years of use and its D.O.A. not a good value for 450 plus head unit. i am very disgusted and probably won't ever buy another alpine especially since they obviously are now worried more about looks than the sound quality. has anybody else noticed this besides me? you now have to pay 550 to 600 to get 4volt preouts and they have done away with the mdac converter. they seem to have jumped on the pioneer and kenwood band wagon!

Similar Products Used:
other alpines and pioneer unit. I have used alpine units for some time now. first one i have ever had problem with.

Price Paid:  $300.00

Strengths:
Great Sound Quality, clean display, nice knob, 4 v pre-outs, BBE is much better than LOUDNESS

Weaknesses:
only two preouts. does not like CD-R's at all. Takes about 20 seconds to find the beginning of each track on CD-R; won't read 80 min CD's at all. Probably gonna get a new head unit because of this.

Summary:
If you do not own many CD-Rs, or if you plan on using one of the new changers which are CD-R compatible, then get this head unit. You will not be disappointed. If only the laser was a little more tolerable, this would be fantastic. Oh well.

Similar Products Used:
Alpine 7828--- same great alpine sound quality, but 4 volt is way better than old 500 mV