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Rating Reviewed by: Michael A. Hughes(Unregistered User)
(Audio Enthusiast)
Review Date May 12, 2007
Overall Rating 1 of 5
Value Rating 1 of 5
Used product for More than 1 year
Visitors rate this review 3.42 of 5,
12.00 votes
Review 1 of 10
Price Paid:
$35000.00
from M&C Audio
Strengths: Time Correction feature
Weaknesses: Two volt pre-out
Equilizer
Crossover
Lack of simple controls
Ejecting motor mishaps
Not user freindly
Need an engineering degree to operate
Summary: I had an existing deck in my car (2001 Honda Accord) that sounded great, but was about six years old. It had started showing it's age somewhat, so I went to a local car audio retailer to inquire about a new deck.
I had hoped to find another Eclipse deck, but Eclipse is hard to come by in this area; for only one store that I know of carries it and I refused to go because of a couple of bad experiences in the past. I settled for going to M&C Audio. Upon entering the store, I quickly picked up on the fact that they "specialized in", or "pushed" Alpine. I wasn't browsing too long before the owner of the small retailer approached me and began his Alpine endorsing rhetoric. I had convinced myself that 'I had to get a new deck', and while I had a little time to play with the different decks, the Alpine CDA-9853 seemed to interest me a little. To make a long story short, the owner/salesman, was glorifying Alpine, hyping up their sound quality and saying things like 'Alpine has always been about the sound quality' and then told me about the features that this deck had. He told me about the built in equilizer and crossover, and how the sound could be tuned precisely....blah, blah,blah.....
He ended up selling me on the deck and it's qualities/features. I had it installed and while I wasn't totally comfortable or confident for that matter in my purchase, I tried to make the best of it. An example I can give is the fact that this deck lacks any simple audio controls (ie: bass, treble, even subwoofer volume). It didn't sit well with me either the fact that this deck has 125% LESS voltage output than my previous deck (a powerful 5 volt Eclipse) but, the retailer convinced me that "the built in equilizer and crossover in the Alpine CDA-9853 would make up for the less voltage" and that "the voltage doesn't matter because...." He then told me why with all of the "car audio" jargon that 90% of the general public doesn't understand. I also didn't like the fact that this Alpine deck didn't have a subwoofer volume control or even a simple bass control. I was told again that "it wasn't needed" with all of the other features. Baloney.
I will agree with a couple of the other reviews about this deck with the complaint regarding the ejecting of cds. At least three seperate times I inserted a cd and the face remained open for several seconds and the cd ejected PARTIALLY, went back in, came out partially and went back in finally to stay and start playing. This happened within the first few DAYS of owning this deck. It didn't happen enough to really bother me, but I definately filed it away in the back of my head.
I thought the 'TILT' feature was a joke, it gives you two or three different tilt angles and forget about it benefiting you in any way. The tilt angle is so severe, even in the first position it made me wonder why it was even an option. It took me a while to get the deck back to the normal position and I never used the tilt feature again.
I will also agree with previous reviews regarding the poor visibilty in the sun. You have to shade the deck face with your hand to even see what you're looking at.
Now regarding the "Glidetouch" bar that everyone seems to dislike. I didn't have that much trouble with it, but when my father was in the car, trying to change the radio station presets, he said just about 100% of the time that he thought the deck was "a piece of junk"; primarily because it isn't user friendly at all. Which brings me up to the bread and butter of this deck: The glorified "equilizer and crossover" features.
These features were the two that pretty much sold me on this deck, but I wished I knew I had to be an engineer in order to understand A.) How to operate these features and B.) To adjust them effectively. I couldn't believe the complexity in these features on this deck. I consider myself to be pretty smart and can understand something after I study it enough, but not so with this. I read, reread and messed around with the equilizer and crossover and came to two conclusions: 1.) Stick with the 'Factory" equilizer programmed already and 2.) These two features totally destroy the sound when applied. What a huge disappointment this was to me. I settled for this deck because of these two features and they, in my opinion ; were totally useless and made enjoying the deck virtually impossible.
The ONLY feature worth anything on this deck was the "Time Correction" feature. This enables the listener to actually "delay" sound coming from the car's speakers to basically arrive to your ear at the appropriate time. You have to literally take a tape measure (at least I did) and do a math equation (provided in the thick owner's manual) and when the equation is figured out all six different times (for six speakers) you adjust the time the sound comes from the speaker. It actually seemed to make a difference, but maybe it was just my thinking/ hoping for a silver lining in what I will always consider; a bad, uninformed purchase.
The other thing that was very irritating for me (although maybe not for everyone) was the ease at which this deck would 'skip' going over what I thought were harmless bumps. This deck would sometimes skip driving over a manhole cover. I always knew when it would skip when approaching certain bridges, holes in the road, frost heaves, etc. This deck, out of the four that I've owned, was THE WORST performer.
In my opinion, this deck is not worth the money, time, or trouble unless you want a challenge in trying to figure out slopes, high pass filter, Hz, crossover, and other car audio jargon. Over the years, I always heard that Alpine was excellent, but I disagree wholly. I just had this deck removed after over a year of disappointment, and wisely bought a USED Eclipse CD4000. Eclipse had won me over before and they certainly have again. Eclipse is HANDS DOWN a better overall deck, sound quality, very user friendly, much more powerful, and very durable, unlike the overrated Alpine decks.
Similar Products Used: Most complicated deck ever used, cannot compare it to anything I ever bought/used
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Rating Reviewed by: Roy Redd(Unregistered User)
Review Date May 1, 2006
Overall Rating 5 of 5
Value Rating 5 of 5
Used product for Less than 1 month
Visitors rate this review 1.00 of 5,
1.00 votes
Review 2 of 10
Price Paid:
$220.00
from BestBUY
Year / Model Reviewed: 2006 Alpine 9853
Strengths: Everything
Weaknesses: none
Summary: IM running this with a kicker L715 its awsome alipine has best Headunits hands down i break windows on a weakly bases and iv only had it for a month wait till i break it in.
Similar Products Used: Eclipse has great headunits
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Strengths: 2 or 3-way active crossovers, mp3 wma capable, id3 text, time correction. This deck looks hot. Great sounding unit. I am going to list glidetouch as a strength, but I think it depends on the user whether or not they like it or not. It is all personal preference. Parametric or graphic equalizer is another great feature. There are many great features that this deck offers, check one out locally. You might get one cheap as they are now last years model.
Weaknesses: Face glare in the sun, although the electronic tilt face does help a bit. Low pre-out voltage. There is a bit of a learning curve.
Summary: I've had this deck for about two months and I love it.
People slamming on this deck likely got one of the early production models which did have some software issues which have been subsequently corrected. Any decks made before April 05 may have issues with cds getting stuck inside and glidetouch not working properly.
The deck definitely has a sharp learning curve, but when you want the newest technology, you've got to be willing to learn how to use it. If you want a simpler, more user friendly head unit, they are definitely out there, but none with anywhere near as many features as this unit. As I said, it really isn't that hard to learn, but I guess if you are one of those people who can't operate a VCR, this may not be the deck for you, but if you are willing to take a few hours and learn your new equiptment, I promise you, you will not be sorry. Even if you don't want to learn all the functions this deck is capable of, there are also functions you can set and forget, such as the eq presets.
Some people complain they don't like the glidetouch, but as I stated earlier, most of these people likely got an early unit with software issues. Not that it is okay for a new product to be sold with known issues, but, Alpine has fixed the issue. I have not had any issues with my unit at all, and I personally like the glidetouch feature alot, but will admit it took a week or so to get it down pat, since there are so many functions to learn with this head unit.
This head unit is probably more geared toward someone who is into tweaking their equiptment, and who wants a ton of options to play with and get their system sounding just right.
I love that it has built in crossovers, and is also capable of two-way or three-way, meaning you can use the front and rear pre-outs to run your highs, and the sub-out for the lows(2-way), or you can use the pre-outs to go highs, mid-range, and lows(3-way), done with a flip of a switch on the top of the deck.
I could have dealt with 4volt pre-outs instead of the 2volt pre-outs the deck comes with, but I also think some people put way too much importance on this one feature. If you must have 4volt pre-outs, go with the next model in Alpines's line, the CDA-9855, which is between $50-100 more, depending on where you go,and only has the higher pre-outs and biolite display to justify the higher cost. Not worth the upgrade IMHO. I will say that I wish Alpine had included the biolite display in the CDA-9853, because there is a little glare in bright sunlight, but it isn't too bad.
The sound from this deck is everything I have come to expect from Alpine, fantastic. Very crisp and clear.
I don't know why Alpine's decks are all rated at 18rms when their competitors are all at least 22rms, but again, this is something that doesn't make too much of a difference,as most people who will buy this deck will be running external amps, but it would have been nice to have a bit more power in the internal amplifier.
I think the time correction feature is great, and one that I could not live without now that I have had it. It makes you feel like you are in the midst of the musicians playing your music in your car for you.
When I first made the decision to upgrade my deck, it had been a long time since I had last done so, and I didn't do any research before I purchased one, and ended up getting one that didn't have all the features I ended up deciding I needed after reading up on several audio forums after my purchase. I had first purchased the CDA-9851, the CDA-9853's little brother, and it lacked time correction, internal crossovers, glidetouch and bass engine pro, and was only $50 less. I think that between the CDA-9855, 9853 and the 9851, the CDA-9853 is the most cost effective for what you get for the money.
I just wanted to write a favorable review for this deck, as I noticed that just a few of the reviews were rated ridiculously low and were not representative of the majority of the people who own one of these.
Similar Products Used: Kenwood 228, 428, 528
Alpine CDA-9851, TDA-7547
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