Alpine CDA-9820XM Car CD Player

I bought this unit at Crutchfield's because of Alpine's reputation for excellence in sound quality and because the XM tuner is built-in to the head unit. The XM selection of stations is everything you could ever hope for. The XM sound is good, but may take a little fiddling with the sound controls to get just right. It is compressed satellite music, after all, but still light years ahead of FM radio. Played some CDs and instantly noticed a wonderful improvement in the audio clarity over my factory unit (installed on a 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid). But, and here's the big problem, the display is extremely dim. The day I had the unit installed was a very rainy day, and the display was dim. Some may attribute this to the way that that the display has to slope slightly upward in a Honda (as I was advised by Alpine customer service), but even on a rainy very overcast day, the display was faded/dim. The unit does not have a power lead to connect to the headlights (confirmed this with Alpine customer service), so turning on/off your headlights does not dim/brighten the display. The first sunny day after the install, I quickly found out that the display was nearly invisible, even if I cupped my hand over the display to try to read it (thereby defeating the possibility that it was just attributed to the slope/angle of the installed head unit on a Honda). This unit's display appears to be unable to handle any type of brightness or glare that would normally be part of driving out and about, in my opinion and in my own personal experience. The display is visible at night time, however. So, if you are a night time driver, you will be pleased. Otherwise, if you are a daytime driver, please pay careful attention and make sure your installer is a great, reputable place like Crutchfield.

As for the XM information displayed when you can read the display, you either get the time, the channel number, the track or the artist. The display appears to be character limited, so you may not get the full song title. Not sure if this is an XM limitation or a limitation of the Alpine unit. I found myself wishing that there was a way to see both the artist and title simultaneously on a two line display, or have it automatically switch back and forth between artist and title. Maybe I didn't catch this in the directions.

Also, there are only 18 presets. I say only 18 because with XM the choices are nearly limitless. You will find yourself wanting to preset about 30 channels if you are a music lover / talk radio lover. So make your choices carefully! The Alpine presets are easily changed, so experiment with your musical tastes.

Alpine's build quality is outstanding. The unit looked very smart in my dash. I really love the way the unit looks.

The antenna that is used with this unit is a micro antenna that was installed right beside my antenna on the roof of the car. It looks like a miniature laptop mouse. Very small and very sleek looking. Reception with this antenna is awesome. I had no XM reception problems even in a parking deck with a covered roof.

I am trying to find a resolution to the dimness of the display through Alpine customer service otherwise I will have to go to a unit with a brighter display with the external XM tuner that goes under the seat. My Crutchfield representative is also doing his best to try to find a better route for me, so we shall see.

Update: 05/08/04 Decided to return the unit to Crutchfield after unsuccessful attempts by both myself and my Crutchfield salesperson to resolve the issue with Alpine customer service. The salesperson told me he spoke to his Alpine representative and was given no resolution, either. I've decided to try the Pioneer P6600 instead as it has a different type of display that has adjustable brightness levels. This means I'll need an external XM tuner module, though.