Alpine CDA-9805 Car CD / MP3 Player
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- MP3 / WMA Playback: MP3 Playback
- Player Type: CD
- Controlled Devices: CD Changer XM Ready
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Amazing Sound For The Price
Pros
Awesome sound quality, simple layout, quality construction.
Cons
Display difficult to read in bright sunlight. Deck runs pretty hot. Nothing hated.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
An upper range HU at an entry level price. Alpine put the money in sound quality, not gimicky features. Nothing in it's price range compares.
I bought this to replace the factory sound in my 87 Volvo, which was still hanging in there well, but I wanted CD.
Looked at a few different brands and actually had decided on a Premier (Pioneer)unit, until a friend urged me to look at the Alpine. It was a bit more money, but well worth the extra expense, in my opinion.
Since I didn't intend on running any outboard amps, the power of the HU was important, and from the specs both the Alpine and the Premier HUs looked pretty similar. That changed dramatically when the audition began. The richness and complexity of the Alpine's sound just stood out, and simply overshadowed the Premier in A/B testing. The Premier had a few more features, but for pure sound quality it just couldn't hang. I also figured those fancy features would quickly become unused gimmicks.
The CDA9805 is a very basic straightforward HU, but make no mistake, it is an upscale piece of equipment. From the heatsink and cooling fan to the superb feel of the controls, this HU screams quality. The menus are a little awkward to navigate at first, but that quickly became second nature, and once dialed in I don't do much tweaking.
The "Center Frequency" control allows you to fine tune the bass and treble response to get the most out of your system's components. I upgraded my car's four stock 5.25" speakers to Eclipse 8353s, but kept the stock door mountings and grills. These speakers are excellent, however at their size, they just aren't going to produce larger than life bass. By adjusting the bass center frequency to 200hz and boosting it 2-3, the sound coming out of this simple system is rich and full.There's no substitute for real estate when it comes to reproducing bass, however I wanted to keep my car's appearance stock, and this setup is doing a remarkable job. I'm very satisfied.
Radio sensitivity is good. Not great, but certainly acceptable. The power antenna retracts when source is switched to CD player, some like this, some don't, no big deal to me.
The CD player tracks perfectly and never skips. It has not had any problems with CDRs. I would like to have gotten MP3 capability, but in my budget this is the best sound I could afford. No regrets.
The layout of the HU is very driver oriented with all of the important and frequently used controls arranged on the left side of the faceplate. This is the standard Alpine design, and a very good idea IMHO. Some have complained about the lack of a dimmer for the display, which would be nice, but I don't find it a real shortcoming. Where mine mounts in the Volvo, the display nearly unreadable in bright sunlight, but it is not a distraction at night.
Looked at a few different brands and actually had decided on a Premier (Pioneer)unit, until a friend urged me to look at the Alpine. It was a bit more money, but well worth the extra expense, in my opinion.
Since I didn't intend on running any outboard amps, the power of the HU was important, and from the specs both the Alpine and the Premier HUs looked pretty similar. That changed dramatically when the audition began. The richness and complexity of the Alpine's sound just stood out, and simply overshadowed the Premier in A/B testing. The Premier had a few more features, but for pure sound quality it just couldn't hang. I also figured those fancy features would quickly become unused gimmicks.
The CDA9805 is a very basic straightforward HU, but make no mistake, it is an upscale piece of equipment. From the heatsink and cooling fan to the superb feel of the controls, this HU screams quality. The menus are a little awkward to navigate at first, but that quickly became second nature, and once dialed in I don't do much tweaking.
The "Center Frequency" control allows you to fine tune the bass and treble response to get the most out of your system's components. I upgraded my car's four stock 5.25" speakers to Eclipse 8353s, but kept the stock door mountings and grills. These speakers are excellent, however at their size, they just aren't going to produce larger than life bass. By adjusting the bass center frequency to 200hz and boosting it 2-3, the sound coming out of this simple system is rich and full.There's no substitute for real estate when it comes to reproducing bass, however I wanted to keep my car's appearance stock, and this setup is doing a remarkable job. I'm very satisfied.
Radio sensitivity is good. Not great, but certainly acceptable. The power antenna retracts when source is switched to CD player, some like this, some don't, no big deal to me.
The CD player tracks perfectly and never skips. It has not had any problems with CDRs. I would like to have gotten MP3 capability, but in my budget this is the best sound I could afford. No regrets.
The layout of the HU is very driver oriented with all of the important and frequently used controls arranged on the left side of the faceplate. This is the standard Alpine design, and a very good idea IMHO. Some have complained about the lack of a dimmer for the display, which would be nice, but I don't find it a real shortcoming. Where mine mounts in the Volvo, the display nearly unreadable in bright sunlight, but it is not a distraction at night.
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