Alpine CDA9815 Review

[1sty]

I finaaly finished my dash and got the 9815 in last night.
Looking at this deck in a show room does it no justice. At night this is simply the sexiest deck I have ever seen. I got wood, it was bueatiful.
As I am slowly peicing together my system, the only thing playing are the rears which are 6.5" JL VR series components that are running off the rear channels of the deck. SOUNDS GREAT for a head unit although the JLs being some of the best speakers I have come across doesn't hurt either. The deck will begin to throw distortion to the components at 25 but the RCAs will be clean to 30.

The on board crossover is amazingly simple to change on the fly and very effective aswell.

Alpines long mentioned week point was the tuner but this deck is grabbing AM signals my other decks never could.

Just don't change your tuner area or you'll loose your presets!

(thumb)

 

[JAC]

It is very sexy, nice choice .

 

[got wake?]

i almost got that one too but i found a good deal on a JVC KD-SH9750. and from past experience JVC's don't skip, and will play CDs that look like you've taken sand paper to them

 

[JAC]

i almost got that one too but i found a good deal on a JVC KD-SH9750. and from past experience JVC's don't skip, and will play CDs that look like you've taken sand paper to them

That reminds me of my old pioneer, DEHP-3200 I think: it had some features, nothing fancy, but it never ever skipped during the time I had it and trust me, I tried. It too played ****** up CDs as if they were new, great bang for the buck.

 

[Rider69]

I love the looks of the deck and the features but I do not like the volume knob!

 

[Pants McGregor]

1st,

Whats a unit like that go for in the US ? I have the local Mazda dealer telling me that my Kenwood has to be pulled and sent back to be repaired and could take 1 to 4 weeks. That to me sounds more like 6 to 8 weeks.

If I was to go out to buy one is $679 CDN too much for that deck? Is that deck more than a non-audiophile needs?

Appreciate your opinion.

PM

 

[Pants McGregor]

Oh s***, did I just hijack your thread? Is that what people are always pissed about?

Apologies if I did, and if so please return to the originally scheduled programming.

PM

 

[Alexatwork]

I have an alpine7894 and am seriously considering upgrading to the 9815, even though mine is only 8 months old. A friend of mine just put one into his S10 xtreme, and I'm so jealous

The display looks amazing!

 

[The_Flamming_7]

Great choice dude, I'm looking at buying a different deck as well because mine doesn't play mp3's, kind of pissed me off. The Alpine looks great but I agree with Rider69, the volume knob isn't my cup of tea because it doesn't stick out quite far enough and it's spaced in too far from the left of the deck, none the less, it's a great deck(my friend actually put one in last week) have fun with it!

 

[1sty]

That reminds me of my old pioneer, DEHP-3200 I think: it had some features, nothing fancy, but it never ever skipped during the time I had it and trust me, I tried. It too played ****** up CDs as if they were new, great bang for the buck.

I still find that Pioneers and Eclipse can handle the worst looking discs, then the alpines and the kenwoods SUCK at it.

 

[1sty]

I love the looks of the deck and the features but I do not like the volume knob!

WHAT!!!!
The knobs the best part (thumb)
Thats the heart of Alpines ergonomics. You can quickly get to the volume but also the Sub-woofer control, the bas, treble, balance and fadar.

I don't think I would ever get a non knob radio at this point.

 

[The_Flamming_7]

yeah dude, i agree that a rotary knob is the best part, i'm saying that i don't like the Alpine knobs, and thats probably what Rider69's problem too.

 

[1sty]

1st,

Whats a unit like that go for in the US ? I have the local Mazda dealer telling me that my Kenwood has to be pulled and sent back to be repaired and could take 1 to 4 weeks. That to me sounds more like 6 to 8 weeks.

If I was to go out to buy one is $679 CDN too much for that deck? Is that deck more than a non-audiophile needs?

Appreciate your opinion.

PM

No worries on the thread jacking, your commonts were close enough to topic and I am not a hardass in this area as you guys to a great job of keeping it organized and informative.

The 9815 is $500 USD.
The 9813 for $400 is only missing the I-personalize feature and the display, otherwise it is identical. The 9811 for $330 has most features anyone will actualy need.

I'm sure other will advise you can find it online cheaper though I will not recommend that as warrenty of these decks are VERY important. Motorized faces are hardly fool proof.

 

[Rider69]

I like rotary knobs too, it is just on the Alpines the know is not tall? enough. It does not stick out far enough from the radio that it will fit my big paws comfortably. The Pioneer has a much better volume control knob. But I really do like the HU. I also like the 7995, what is your take on the differences between the two units? I just might have to make the sacrifice of the volume knob for a better HU than what I have.

 

[JAC]

I like the volume knob on the alpines better than the pioneers, it feels much more sturdy and you can search the files and folders with it. I also love the mp3 loading times for the alpine (basically there aren't), in my friend's pioneer you have to wait like 5 seconds or more for the damn songs to load, super annoying.

 

[1sty]

I like rotary knobs too, it is just on the Alpines the know is not tall? enough. It does not stick out far enough from the radio that it will fit my big paws comfortably. The Pioneer has a much better volume control knob. But I really do like the HU. I also like the 7995, what is your take on the differences between the two units? I just might have to make the sacrifice of the volume knob for a better HU than what I have.

The big difference between the 7995 and the 9815 is the V-drive amp. The 7995 has no internal power.
Other then that the 9815 has the I-personalize feature, a quicker MP3 searching feature, more extensive crossovers and better time correction. The 9815 internal amp can also be shut off. Basicly the 9815 has Alpines Bass engine Pro and the 7995 has Bass engine Plus which is now on the Alpine CDA9811 for only $330 retail.

 

[King Kong]

I have the 7995...It's great...Runs cooler then the decks with V-Amp...Does the 9815 have Hard Drive capability??

 

[1sty]

yes

 

[1sty]

yes, it has interface capability with the soon to be released hard drive and the internal amp can be disabled to aviod heat issues. Although I run the rear channels off the deck and this deck runs cooler then my last 2 alpines that had no internal power.

 

[PeaB0dy]

I am currently using an Alpine 9807, the low end of the MP3 players from Alpine, and the thing sounds great, and works really nicely too..

Picked it up for around $400 Can after tax..

Rewritables all the way..

The knob is great, coming from a sony cdx-5050x, I tryed a jvc, and another sony, both were crap, and then ended up with this alpine, nice unit, and handles the bumps amazingly..