Alpine CDA-9820XM Car CD Player

I don't know how much you like listening to local radio stations but if you are like me and have weeks where you put 1500 miles on you get tired of trying to find local FM stations with good music or finding a strong AM station with a talk show you care for. If this is you then XM is the way to go and the Alpine CDA-9820XM is a good choice.

I purchased this from a local Audio/Video shop and got a great price. They installed it in about 1.5 hours, including hooking it up to my factory installed Infinity amp in my 2003 Mitsubishi Diamante.
The antenna takes up the space of a small laptop mouse on my truck. The only place I can't get reception so far is in the covered basement garage of my office. No big deal there.

The controls, after learning them (like anything) are easy to use. Some of the advanced features may take some time to learn but that is life.

The rotary knob has many functions depending on which button you push. It can search through categories, channel numbers, adjust the bass, treble and subwoofer levels.

The 9820 can also link to certain Nokia mobile phones (with additional equipment) that will allow you to hear your call and mute the music through the head unit.

The 9820 can also (with an additional cord) hook up to your iPod and allow you to control the functions of the iPod through the head unit allowing you to stash your iPod under your seat or in the glove box so it is out of sight. This cord is the type that plugs into the dock connector rather than just a headphone plug (that is an option also with this unit)

One other nice feature that is available from Alpine is an interface with your steering wheel controls. With the add on you can connect your existing steering wheel controls to the 9820 and not lose the convenience of volume control, search, seek and mode changes right from your steering wheel.
FM reception is above average, it does a good job of pulling in weak, distant stations my factory radio would skip right by on search.

CD's sounded very good compared to the factory Infinity system.

Some users complained about brightness of the display being weak but I haven't experienced this.

All in all I would recommend this unit.