Head Unit Q?? Experience Needed!

[Ju5t_B3at_Me2005]

ok i see what you mean now. but at this point the money just isnt there to go ahead and get speakers as well as a new HU or sub. thats why im going to be doing it in stages. more than 3 ppl have told me the stereo should sound better with a new, quality head unit.

btw, the v8 guys are saying alpine is still one of the best HU out there. 96, do you have any feedabck on the model im talking about?

[96firebird311]

Originally posted by FunkZ:
Just didn't want to see you give your money to some shop to install something that wouldn't sound any better than your current system.

Then we have a common goal. :D It's just that the thunderform is expensive and sub-par quality. Both at the same time. Ju5t_B3at, do you have t-tops? Are you willing to give up your storage area back there? You plan on building the box yourself? These are a couple questions you should answer before you start buying subs or sub boxes. At any rate, Subthump is where to buy. On that note, FunkZ, I could nearly do TWO 10" of superior quality for $499. Take the stealth deal from subthump for $206 and check out the recommended subs. I give props to the Alpine's and Elemental K-series. $150 for two Type-R's (S's are cheaper) And an amp similar to this. BAM! $554 for a MUCH louder/better sounding/more realiable setup. (please note I owned the HX2's and buddy owned the CVR's, not recommending either for the stealth)

Next, Alpine 9831. My brother has had the same Alpine head for, god, 8 or 9 years now. I have installed several of the newer Alpine headunits for friends. All of them love em'. Still have not heard a single complaint from them....actually quite the opposite. Many compliments. Never owned one myself, but I can clearly see they are extremely feature packed for the price. Probably more so then ANY other brand out now. Oh and if you decide to stick with Alpine, here's the 9831 a tad cheaper. ;) But one quick note on that. I strongly recommend stepping up to the 9833. For $30 more, it will step you up to all the Bass Engine Pro features. May not be a ton of use to you right now, but who knows what the future holds. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ November 14, 2004, 01:01 AM: Message edited by: 96firebird311 ]

[T-Punk]

i have now had 5 different bad experiences with alpine between me and my 3 friends. several swing mechanisim problems and two displays that have burned out. not only that but eclipse offers better sound quality imo. http://www.eclipse-web.com/ . also if you decide to do the rest of your system take a look at elemental design. You can get a system with your components, the amp to run them, a k series sub, and the amp to run it for $635 http://www.edesignaudio.com/combo.htm it is combo #4.

[user1101]

Originally posted by 96firebird311:
My brother has had the same Alpine head for, god, 8 or 9 years now. I have installed several of the newer Alpine headunits for friends. All of them love em'. Still have not heard a single complaint from them....actually quite the opposite.

Since I'm the one who's always railing on Alpine, let me expound:

The Alpine that I bought in 96 (8 years ago too!) was a ROCK-SOLID head unit. It was built like a tank, skipped once during the seven years that I owned it, pulled down radio stations like nobody's business, and played nearly every crapass CD-R/RW that I through at it. Bottom line - it was a top notch HU. I was always happy to recommend them and ended up intalling quite a few in friends' vehicles over the years.

Fast forward to a year or two ago. I buy myself a new Alpine HU. Unit one is DOA. Unit two works fine for two months then shorts out. Ok, so maybe a bad batch from the factory, right? Unit three gets put in and seems to work fine. Then a few months later, it turns into a cookie monster - CD's go in but don't come out. I ship it out to Alpine's repair subcontractor. The unit comes backa month later with feedback from the repair tech. It said in no uncertain terms that they deal with this warped loading assembly problem all the time. Because the casing is so weak, the installer has to be extremely ginger when installing the unit. F that.

Add that to the lackluster radio reception, the tendency to skip over minor potholes, the LED that burnt out, and it's habit of turning on while forgetting to wake up the internal amp, and I think I've got a pretty good case for condemning the brand.

[96firebird311]

Fair enough. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. Although, user, you have to admit that a 3 month life span is just plain flat out not the norm. If every Alpine lasted only 3 months... regardless, I'm not pro-Alpine either. Just never seen many problems with them. Eclipse had always been thought of a high end company. Be it headunits or subs. Compare two similar units from Alpine and Eclipse, I'll take the Eclipse any day of the week.

[user1101]

Originally posted by 96firebird311:
Fair enough. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. Although, user, you have to admit that a 3 month life span is just plain flat out not the norm.

Agreed. I'm sure neither of us think that the typical Alpine HU fails out the door. What I'm claiming though, is that either their build materials or assembly QC methods are unacceptably subpar. For reasons outlined previously, I think that it's a legitimate claim.

Of course, it could be the case that I had a terrible string of bad luck. But from a probability standpoint, that's a reach. The repair tech's note tends to confirm my doubts, since (s)he's been exposed to a much larger sample of the Alpine HU population. T-punk's experiences only strengthen my claims. In any case, I am no longer an Alpine customer. To each his own though.

Is this horse dead yet?

[Ju5t_B3at_Me2005]

just about. [img]smile.gif[/img]

ok, i have made the decision that due to finances i will only be looking at a head unit right now. however, everyone who has contributed to this thread has provided extremely valuable information. thanks a lot guys! ill make a new thread to let u guys knwo how it turns out with some pix sometime in the enar future. once again, thanks a ton

[user1101]

That's fine, but I hope you read that post by T-punk up there:

He's wrong. The Monsoon system only runs the front tweeters off the stock head unit. The rest of the system is run from an external amplifier that is behind your passenger-side rear side panel. I believe it is advertised at 500w. You will get nowhere near that kind of power from an aftermarket head unit alone.

[nda0602v6]

If you can only do things in stages, I would start out by replacing the head unit like you mentioned. Regardless if the new head unit will make the stock Monsoon system sound better or not, it's still a good starting point. A decent/quality aftermarket head unit "may" make the factory Monsoon system sound a "little" better; however, don't expect to be thrown back in your seat in total amazement. What's nice about starting out with a new HU as your first stage is that you won't have to make any modifications to your factory Monsoon system.

Your second stage of the system could be to add a subwoofer along with an amp to drive it. This could be added fairly easily as well because your new head unit will have the plugs (RCA jacks) needed to send signals to the sub amp. Again, you still won't have to do any modifications to the factory Monsoon system at this point in time. Just run your RCA wires from the new head unit to the sub amp and run some power wire to power the amp. Everyone here can give you some tips on how to do this on your own when the time comes, it's very easy. Note: Plan for the future when you run the power wire, use at least 4-awg or thicker. If you ever plan on running more than one amp someday, you won't have to reinstall new wire. Just saves you time and money. (some good advice 96firebird311 gave a while back I do believe.)

Your last stage could be to replace the stock Monsoon speakers and use a separate amp to power them. At this point in time you'll have to bypass the Monsoon amp due to the Ohm issues aftermarket speakers present to it. There's really no need to pay hundreds of dollars for an installer to "bypass" the factory Monsoon amp because all that's really involved is simply running new wires from your new amp to the new speakers you'll be installing. In fact, you don't even have to touch/disconnect the factory Monsoon amp or even mess the factory wiring, just leave it all there. Running the new speaker wire isn't brain surgery, its just a matter of removing some plastic trim here and there and tucking it neatly under the trim or the carpeting. Just my 2cents.....have fun.