Blaupunkt Alaska

Price Paid:  $199.00

Summary:
I replaced my factory-installed cassette player with Blaupunkt Alaska so I can listen to CDs. I chose Blaupunkt Alaska because it looks very clean. I can't comment much on its sound quality since I don't have any other CD players to compare it against. Radio reception is good and I like the Travel Scan feature. It does skip on CD once in a while (perhaps once every 5-10 hours of play time), with no apparent relationship to the condition of the road or the CD being played. Display is hard to read in daylight (similarly priced Blaupunkt Nevada is better). The unit gets very hot during use. While it's nice to have the clock being set by the radio signal, there's no option to turn that feature off. A station in my area broadcasts the wrong time in its RDS signal and keeps setting my clock to the wrong time. I end up having to avoid that station although I liked its music. Overall I rate this as an average receiver/CD player.

Strengths:
clean faceplate layout; wheel-style volume control; good radio reception

Weaknesses:
skips once in a while; display hard to read in daylight; no option to turn off RDS time

Similar Products Used:
OEM receiver/cassette player

Price Paid:  $180.00

Year / Model Reviewed:
 Alaska I

Summary:
After accidentally toasting my old Blaupunkt Memphis tape deck, my unhappy ears were full of silence. I started looking for a new deck only to discover that most Japanese decks look retarded and only offer big sound, no nice options. I'm sorry, but I'd rather have usability and features than be able to rattle my tire iron in my trunk. Finally I made my way back to Blau and found the Alaska.

Now, I must warn you that I bought my Alaska from a fairly shady car audio dealer in my area, so it's possible that my experience is based on a "factory refurbished" model. I got it cheap so I'm happy. I just looked at my (handwritten) receipt and it says Blaupunkt "Nevada", so I doubt that I'll get any service from them...

The Bad:
So you hear people talk about the display, and yes, it's bad. I hear the Alaska II is better. The main digits are visible in most daylight, but all other icons are basically useless. In direct sunlight even the large digits are invisible. This doesn't really bother me, I know what I'm listening to. But hey, it's easy on the eyes at night...

Other people talk about skipping cds, but my CDRs seem perfectly fine. Of course, my cds aren't scratched, so... Initially the unit was flawles, but I too have noticed it will occasionally skip unrelated to road or CD quality. I think it may be related to a voltage drop, but who knows?

Unique problems to my unit: I haven't heard other people with these problems, so it may just be my unit. I sometimes worry when I'm ejecting the faceplate that I'm gonna snap off some plastic thing in there, but I haven't yet... It just feels like too much pressure.
My display gets burning hot. Seriously. After driving for only 30 mins my display will be so hot that you can barely touch it. Hrmmm... Seems to work ok though.
My CD won't eject without encouragement from a gentle (and sometimes not so gentle) slap. It has to do with two retaining pins that hold the CD in place, they just don't seem to want to retract smoothly anymore. So you press the button and it grunts a little bit, and nothing happens. Worked fine to begin with but acted up after maybe three months.

The GOOD: First of all, it LOOKS good. It's clean, refined and mature. Less is more, I don't need/want dolphins in full color swimming to my music. The buttons make sense, and once you configure it for your listening needs, you can mostly forget the extra features. Yes, there are a lot of buttons, but when I hit a button I know exactly what it will do and I never have to take my eyes off the road. The buttons are well thought out (if a bit tiny at times, the ">>" button can be frustratingly hard to hit).

No, you can't get full functionality out of RDS yet in the US, but I like it. Support for RDS is increasing, up from 4 to 9 stations here in the last 6 months. And I like the other thoughtful features, like the power button doubling for MUTE, ignition independent ability with auto-timer, CD auto resume, stereo/mono auto switching without loss of quality, CD naming, radio presets galore, an AUTOclock feature that will automatically set the correct time from your local PBS station, the ability to "turn off" AM when you are switching between preset banks and some other stuff that I'm forgetting.

Bottom Line:
I like it, even if my deck does have its quirks. This is a deck for a music lover, not a radio lover. It doesn't look like much (which is GOOD), but set it and forget it. Enjoy the music, enjoy your driving and stop fussing with your subwoofer, nobody cares anyway.

Strengths:
Intelligent, ergonomic design with smart and useful features, and good radio reception.

Weaknesses:
Poor display. Buttons and volume control at times unresponsive.

Similar Products Used:
None

Price Paid:  $267.00

Year / Model Reviewed:
 2000

Summary:
I Recently installed a Blaupunkt Alaska II into my car. Despite so many other favorable reviews, I was not happy with the result. I would recommend buying a quality name in the same price range instead, giving up Blaupunkt's many features (of questionable value) for sound quality.

For some very necessary background on my system, please skip to the end of this review.

I replaced a two year old Sony deck with the Blaupunkt. I wanted better radio sound, an easier to see screen, and higher pre-amp output. I was very disapointed with the CD sound quality of the Blaupunkt. It was unclear, the highs sounded fuzzy and the subwoofer was very very lacking. Further the Blaupunkt, which was supposed to have 3 volt output, wouldn't play as loud as my old 1.8 volt Sony. The sub was also muddy, and had no snap.

I'm not saying the music sounded horrible. It was not bad. But in this price range it should have sounded at least as good as the old deck.

There are many tuning features to the Alaska, including two filters (essentially a two band equalizer). So, you can adjust two frequencies up or down in output. This did help, but not enough. I tuned this thing a lot, and no joy.

The radio did play decently, but not any better than the deck I replaced the Blaupunkt with, despite the much lauded Digiceiver. The screen was very easy to see in all conditions.

After I had it, and was unhappy, I spent a lot more time poking around the internet. I was surprised - must people seem to like this deck. But, there were a several people who didn't, all experiencing similar problems. I noticed that most happy people were not using external amps, but where relying on the internal amp. One person even said that the pre-amp section was the problem, and he was happy running his amps on the speaker level outputs. I believe that is a compromised solution. I believe the happy people were mostly first time after market buyers upgrading truly bad factory systems. Of course they are happy, and probably will remain so.

Perhaps the Alaska would be successful for someone with a VW Beetle. The colours match, and even the overall design mimics the standard Beetle radio, with two large round objects left and right on the deck. One assumes the sound quality will be much better than from a factory deck. So that person might not be unhappy. But I still wouldn't do it.

I replaced the Blaupunkt with a Kenwood KDC-X715, and I am very happy with that. It was only about $100 more, but it soulds WAY better in all areas of CD. The radio sounds just as good, and it looks much better. It also has many many more features.

To conclude, I would not recommend the deck considering it's fairly high price. In Toronto, it listed for $500 and I bought it for $400. the cheapest I ever saw it was $350 plus tax and shipping from a Canadian mail order house. For $400, you can get several other decks of decent quality, like an Alpine, an Eclipse, or a Kenwood. I even talked one shop down to $400 on a Sony M650 - the new one with the dot matrix double sided face plate!

Bottom line, if you have external amps and several hundred dollars invested in your system, the Blaupunkt is just too expensive to have even a hint that your sound quality might be compromised. Buy something else.


The necessary background. My car is a 2000 Nissan Altima. It is a very quiet car. I have two Clarion APX amplifiers, a component set in the doors, 2-ways in the package shelf and a 10" subwoofer in the trunk. The APX 200 watt 4 channel amp drives a Clarion Pro Audio 6" component set in the doors, with the tweeter in a custom bracket in front of the mid driver. The door locations are not bad - dirctly at the front and not pointed down. The tweeters are angled up behind the speaker covers in the custom bracket. The 2-ways are Pioneer and mounted in the standard package shelf location. The APX 200 watt 2 channel amp is bridged and drives a Kenwood sub in a sealed, larger enclosure. I have seen favorable reviews of both the amps and the subwoofer in major magazines, and the amps won the Grand Prix award last year, the year they came out. I would say the amps are above mid quality but not absoute top of the line quality. I use 4 gauge supply wire to the dist. block and 8 gauge to the subs and for grounding.

Strengths:
Looks match current VW's

Weaknesses:
Sound quality.

Similar Products Used:
I've compared it to an older Sony deck and a new Kenwood deck.

Price Paid:  $325.00

Year / Model Reviewed:
 2000

Summary:
I received my Alaska RDM 168 already installed in my car as part of a trade for the chevy truck that I had with an Alpine set up in it. After a little tweaking with the equalizer section of the unit I could not believe how much more revealing the sound quality was over the Alpine, (clearer hi's deeper bass extension, just more natural sounding to me. I must be honest though,this head unit is backed up by a 200 watt H-K amp that really make this thing smoke. I also have the vw speaker upgrades as well. I am very happy with my unit and have not experienced the skipping problems that seem to be so common in the other reviews I have read. I guess that beauty IS in the eye of the beholder, but having previously owned an Alpine 852 , I do recognize a very large sonic difference, with my preference being the Blaupunkt. As I said earlier, I did not pay for my Alaska it came with my new car, but I did go to the Blaupunkt dealer here in Anchorage to check out the price, about $325.00 as opposed to the Alpine at $350.00 from Shimek's (also in Anchorage). The 852 has a cool display and loads of power but not very revealing in the details. On the other hand the Alaska has the same power rating, a real equalizer, and super detailed sound, and the display matches the instrument panel of my car so it looks like it belongs there.

Strengths:
I like the way the light matches the display lights in my 2001 jetta glx the sound resolution and detail of the music is very good.

Weaknesses:
None that I can really tell of.

Similar Products Used:
Alpine CDAD 852 (Still have a review there.)

Price Paid:  $199.00

Year / Model Reviewed:
 Blaupunkt Alaska RDM168

Summary:
I replaced the stock AM/FM/Cassette with the Alaska in October 2000, in a 1993 Pontiac Grand Am 4-door. The rear deck speakers are Pioneer TS-A6969 4-ways driven by an Alpine 3527 amp, bridged (75w x 2). The front speakers will soon be replaced.

I am very satified with the Alaska as an "entry level" receiver, although at first I was tempted to return it because the CD player skipped, about once per CD. The problem has since become rare, occurring perhaps once every dozen CDs.

First, I will explain the CD-skipping problem. My observation is that the problem is rooted in the electronics or firmware, perhaps with the anti-skip audio buffer, since the problem is unrelated to mechanical vibration. In fact, I drive 15 miles of a very rough, rural highway daily, one that others have complained makes their CD players skip. On this highway my Alaska has never skipped, even in below-zero temperatures. However, it did skip once while sitting still in a parking lot, and another time at 20 mph! The problem in not because of amplifier-induced voltage drop. Nevertheless, the problem has almost completely subsided.

Audio reproduction is good, although not necessarily up-to-par for audiophiles. I like the precise volume level which ranges from 0 to 66 in single increments. The amplifier produces clean output, without clipping, through its entire range. However, even with the "loudness" feature adjusted to its highest level, frequencies under 250Hz are very weak at low volume, and for whatever reason, adjusting the bass at these levels has almost no effect. You might be tempted to use the built-in low-pass EQ to boost, say, 63Hz but this will viciously overdrive the bass at high volumes. Keep in mind, the Alaska is under $200.

I drive in both rural and urban area around Chicago, and must remark that the FM tuner is spectacular. Selectivity from the SHARX feature is superb. I am not only comparing this to other similarly-priced units, but to a Sangean ATS909 AM/FM/Shortwave receiver as well. The receiver suffers within a couple miles of 50,000-watt FM stations, but everywhere else the tuner is excellent. Compared to a friend's receiver, I can listen to stations, quite clearly, that his Pioneer Supertuner III cannot receive at all. The "Digiceiver" tuner is not just marketing hype, it really works. Although not as spectacular, AM works fine, too.

Other pluses and minuses. The display has some dark-blue annunciators (CD, repeat, random, local/dx, etc.) that are nearly impossible to see, day or night. The "important" digits are not quite as difficult to read, and are visible in all lighting conditions. The buttons have a stiff feel and have to be pressed quite hard, but are not easily "double-hit," and are spaced well for big fingers. Some features of the radio are quite complicated; you will spend a day with the owners manual figuring out how to "program" the Alaska (as an programmer, believe me, you will need the manual). Another plus, CDs can be inserted without flipping down the removable face. The RCA outputs are weak; I fed my amp with the speaker-outputs instead.

The bottom line. If you are an audiophile fishing for a head-unit at a low price, take a pass. However, if you are dissatisfied with your stock unit and want to upgrade your system on a budget, this receiver is a great value. If you listen to FM in areas where the band is congested, you will not be disappointed.

Strengths:
Very good FM tuner
Uncluttered controls
Amp has good dynamic range

Weaknesses:
Display illumination
Stiff buttons
Weak bass at low volume
CD player skips, although rare

Similar Products Used:
Stock GM receiver
*Pioneer DEH-P77DH (* in another car; compared FM tuner only)