Alpine CDE-9845 Head Unit Review
07-15-2005, 06:21 AM
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Alpine CDE-9845 Head Unit Review
Alpine CDE-9845 Review:
I purchased this head unit along with some JL Audio XR-650 CSI’s the day after I bought my car. I wasn’t too impressed with the sound from the start but figured that once I added subwoofers and amps it would sound better and it did.
My complaints about this unit have nothing to do with the sound. You have to really work on it and get all your crossovers set correctly because it really sounded sounds terrible out of the box but that could go for any stereo head unit.
No, my complaints about this unit are the incredibly stupid interface problems. For instance when you are browsing CD folders for disks with MP3s it shows the folder and file number. Who cares about what folder it is! I want to know the SONG TITLE! You can of course set the display to show the song tile but it still shows the folder and file number first for three seconds. That may not seem like a lot but it is when you are trying to find a song on a disk with hundreds of mp3s.
This is what it’s like trying to find a song:
<press next> <one thousand one> <one thousand two> <one thousand three> <song title> Nope, that’s not it <press next> <one thousand one> <one thousand two> <one thousand three> <song title> Nope, that’s not it<press next> <one thousand one> <one thousand two> <one thousand three> <song title> Nope, that’s not it<press next> <one thousand one> <one thousand two> <one thousand three> <song title> Nope, that’s not it…. Etc.
Now imagine you are going 80mph in traffic. That’s not only annoying, it’s dangerous.
Next are the equally annoying silences it forces you to endure when it does things. For instance when you first turn on the car the stereo plays for a few seconds then goes silent for a few seconds then comes back on. Also when you eject a CD, even if you are just listening to the radio, it mutes the radio for about 2 seconds.
It’s like the engineers that built this radio never actually used it.
Also I have a constant flashing “Antenna” message when using Sirius. This is probably the antenna cable being crimped or shorted but that’s not really what I’m complaining about. When it is flashing “Antenna” it is actually working fine but I can’t do anything with the tuner. I have to manually fast-forward to the channel I want as I can’t just press the station buttons now, I can’t save new stations, I can’t see the station name, etc.
So again it is an interface design decision by the manufacturer that is annoying the hell out of me.
To some these would be little things but these are exactly the kinds of things that annoy me to no end and make me really hate the radio.
Oh, and the user’s manual does not explain what some of the radio’s settings mean and how you should set them.
Speaking of settings, when you unplug the radio it loses all the settings you took all that time configuring! Have they never heard of non-volatile memory?
Conclusion:
While the stereo may sound good when it is finally configured it takes an inordinate amount of time to tune the system’s sound to your car; and don’t even think about doing it while driving. When you finally do have all your “levels set” you had better not unplug the unit or car battery as you will lose all that hard work.
The interface is so bad it is almost unusable and will force you to be distracted for way too long almost making using the radio and driving mutually exclusive.
Review Scores:
Sound Quality: B
Usability: F-
Aesthetics: B
Value for Cost: C+
Reliability: N/A (Haven’t had it long enough to give an honest opinion)
Reviewer Slant: F-
Overall (not an average): D-
I cannot recommend this head unit and will be upgrading mine this very day.
I purchased this head unit along with some JL Audio XR-650 CSI’s the day after I bought my car. I wasn’t too impressed with the sound from the start but figured that once I added subwoofers and amps it would sound better and it did.
My complaints about this unit have nothing to do with the sound. You have to really work on it and get all your crossovers set correctly because it really sounded sounds terrible out of the box but that could go for any stereo head unit.
No, my complaints about this unit are the incredibly stupid interface problems. For instance when you are browsing CD folders for disks with MP3s it shows the folder and file number. Who cares about what folder it is! I want to know the SONG TITLE! You can of course set the display to show the song tile but it still shows the folder and file number first for three seconds. That may not seem like a lot but it is when you are trying to find a song on a disk with hundreds of mp3s.
This is what it’s like trying to find a song:
<press next> <one thousand one> <one thousand two> <one thousand three> <song title> Nope, that’s not it <press next> <one thousand one> <one thousand two> <one thousand three> <song title> Nope, that’s not it<press next> <one thousand one> <one thousand two> <one thousand three> <song title> Nope, that’s not it<press next> <one thousand one> <one thousand two> <one thousand three> <song title> Nope, that’s not it…. Etc.
Now imagine you are going 80mph in traffic. That’s not only annoying, it’s dangerous.
Next are the equally annoying silences it forces you to endure when it does things. For instance when you first turn on the car the stereo plays for a few seconds then goes silent for a few seconds then comes back on. Also when you eject a CD, even if you are just listening to the radio, it mutes the radio for about 2 seconds.
It’s like the engineers that built this radio never actually used it.
Also I have a constant flashing “Antenna” message when using Sirius. This is probably the antenna cable being crimped or shorted but that’s not really what I’m complaining about. When it is flashing “Antenna” it is actually working fine but I can’t do anything with the tuner. I have to manually fast-forward to the channel I want as I can’t just press the station buttons now, I can’t save new stations, I can’t see the station name, etc.
So again it is an interface design decision by the manufacturer that is annoying the hell out of me.
To some these would be little things but these are exactly the kinds of things that annoy me to no end and make me really hate the radio.
Oh, and the user’s manual does not explain what some of the radio’s settings mean and how you should set them.
Speaking of settings, when you unplug the radio it loses all the settings you took all that time configuring! Have they never heard of non-volatile memory?
Conclusion:
While the stereo may sound good when it is finally configured it takes an inordinate amount of time to tune the system’s sound to your car; and don’t even think about doing it while driving. When you finally do have all your “levels set” you had better not unplug the unit or car battery as you will lose all that hard work.
The interface is so bad it is almost unusable and will force you to be distracted for way too long almost making using the radio and driving mutually exclusive.
Review Scores:
Sound Quality: B
Usability: F-
Aesthetics: B
Value for Cost: C+
Reliability: N/A (Haven’t had it long enough to give an honest opinion)
Reviewer Slant: F-
Overall (not an average): D-
I cannot recommend this head unit and will be upgrading mine this very day.
Last edited by Kaitain; 07-15-2005 at 06:37 AM.
09-25-2005, 09:21 AM
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I just had my 9843 installed yesterday. I am not a car audiophile preferring to spend my money on performance and avoiding any weight gain. I got the 9843 to replace my POS Sony that cost more than the Alpine and was installed just so I could have a single din unit that would make room for my TEIN EDFC.
Sorry to hear about your problems but I love my Alpine for 3 reasons:
1. An actual volume **** (no pushbutton or flimsy rotary dial)
2. A simple user interface relative to volume, seek/scan, and presets (my sony you had to use the remote to change channels)
3. Previous ownership and trust in Alpine (I also prefer Eclipse)
The Alpine unit has what I consider better sound quality than the Sony...the Sony had more power but in terms of clean sound clarity the Alpine has it beat for an out-of-the-box head unit.
Sucks that the feature interface blows for you and I don't know if you have previous experience with other makes that have a better interface for MP3 playback. Hope everything works out for you but for the money on mass market audio units I will never stray away again from Alpine or Eclipse.
Sorry to hear about your problems but I love my Alpine for 3 reasons:
1. An actual volume **** (no pushbutton or flimsy rotary dial)
2. A simple user interface relative to volume, seek/scan, and presets (my sony you had to use the remote to change channels)
3. Previous ownership and trust in Alpine (I also prefer Eclipse)
The Alpine unit has what I consider better sound quality than the Sony...the Sony had more power but in terms of clean sound clarity the Alpine has it beat for an out-of-the-box head unit.
Sucks that the feature interface blows for you and I don't know if you have previous experience with other makes that have a better interface for MP3 playback. Hope everything works out for you but for the money on mass market audio units I will never stray away again from Alpine or Eclipse.
09-25-2005, 07:41 PM
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Wow an Alpine with a bad review. Thats the first. Watch out, the alpine ***** may burn a cross on your lawn dude.
I like alpine and all, but I think as a company they are WAY over rated.
I like alpine and all, but I think as a company they are WAY over rated.
09-26-2005, 11:54 AM
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Just did my install today. The install was a freaking nightmare! I will never install another stereo in a Z again. Oh, I left a CD in the stock player and was too lazy to reinstall everything to take it out.
Overall impression:
Love the headunit. The sound is soooo much clearer. It's easy to use (IMO) from what little I've played with it. I haven't driven it around yet but hope that when I do that it's still as easy to navigate.
Overall impression:
Love the headunit. The sound is soooo much clearer. It's easy to use (IMO) from what little I've played with it. I haven't driven it around yet but hope that when I do that it's still as easy to navigate.
09-26-2005, 02:05 PM
#6
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I bought an Alpine 9853 a couple months back and it was the most horrible HU I have ever owned. The usability was awful so I sold it. I hated it! I used to have 9833 and I loved it. Wish I would have never sold the thing. I may go look for a used one on ebay or something now.
09-26-2005, 03:00 PM
#7
Good review! I know Alpine has a cult-like following, but I have always disliked their HUs simply on aesthetic grounds. They are not the best-looking units out there (will they EVER change that whole "angled buttons to the left of the dial" look?) and there are several others that perform just as well, and look a whole lot better, at least for my taste.
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