Alpine CDA-9830 Car CD / MP3 Player

First things first: The Display would suck depending on what car you put it in. My Protege has the radio right under the A/C vents, so even at high noon the display is only a few degrees off eye level (and I'm not slouching in my seat).

I was actually choosing between this and the Pioneer 7650MP and later the 7750MP(7600MP and 7700MP in North America). For some incomprehensible marketing strategy, the 7550MP was available here in the Philippines with 4 volt Pre-outs, but the 7750 only has 2.2 volts - the Premier version has the 4 Volts.

I decided to weigh the pros and cons of the Alpine versus the Pioneers. the Pioneer has great OEL display, while the Alpine had a bad rep (which proved to be not much of a problem later). The Alpine, however, had a 4 band parametric equalizer (vs. the Pioneer's 3-band), which worked great for tweaking mid-bass and drums in Metal/Hard Rock tracks. The Alpine also had +/-12dB adjustments in the EQ curve,which would be great if you're gonna build a competition system. I am planning to use a Rockford Fosgate 250a2 in the future, though, and try to pair this with the Punch Bass EQ (up to +18db at 45hz).

First impression: Just after installing the unit, without any tweaking done as of yet, and the EQ was set at flat, I increased the volume to level 10, and my license plate started rattling - something my 2-volt preout Sony HU never did, though I never played it over 60% volume (embarrassingly, I don't know what level the Alpine maxes out at, but its so loud at level 10 I can't hear anything with the windows up).

To wrap it all up: A HIGHLY RECOMMENDED upgrade from factory stereos. I'm never going back to Sony, and just for the 4-band EQ and 3 pairs of pre-outs, price-wise, no way Im getting Pioneers (Id give that some thought when they upgrade to 5-bands and give people here in the ASEAN region the 4-volt versions).