Alpine CDE-7870 Car CD Player

This unit replaces an old (1991-vintage) Pioneer DEH-760 which was beyond its last legs.

I'm generally pleased with this Alpine so far, and for the money it's a great unit. Installation and was very easy; no tools were required at all, and Circuit City's wiring harness kit made for a splice-free installation in my '87 Integra. This was a good thing, as the manual's installation instructions (and accompanying illustrations) are horrible.

The sound quality is excellent (with over twice the amp power of my old unit), signal to noise is excellent (sound is crisp and clean, with no background hiss or hum). The main controls (volume, track up/down, source control) are easy to find and use without taking your eyes off the road. The secondary controls are a bit more problematic, however. The Mute button looks and feels the same as the station presets. (It's beyond me why they put the AM/FM band in so prominent a place, and the Mute button in so obscure a place.) The secondary functions of the station preset buttons (random/repeat disk play, time adjustment, etc.) are impossible to see without leaning down and peering at the thing.

It's difficult to figure out the different bass settings. This unit has two bass controls I've never seen before: center frequency (whatever that is) and bass spread (whatever that is), in addition to the usual bass level control. Unfortunately the manual doesn't explain what these different controls do; it only describes how to control them. (I'm a tech writer, so maybe the manual is more important to me than it is to other people.)

The overall design is generally attractive and user-friendly, and has Alpine's family look. The LCD is well laid out and informative (and easily toggles between time, track number and track playing time), and most controls are fairly intuitive. (For example, it was very easy to figure out how to set the clock.) However, the display is a little too bright at night, and a little too washed-out during the day. It's unfortunate that there aren't more display settings (like my old Pioneer had), because I'd love to dim the display a bit.

Some other annoyances: you can't eject a disk after you've removed your keys from the ignition, like I could with my old Pioneer. And this unit seems very, very sensitive to less-than-perfect disks--perhaps the most sensitive CD player I've ever encountered. I never knew some of my CDs were scratched or dirty until I tried to play them in this unit.

Overall, I'm happy, and kicking myself for not replacing my old head unit two years ago. It's great sound for $150 (especially when you consider that the old Pioneer--with half the amp, none of the skip control, and generally poorer ergonomics--sold for over $500 ten years ago). You probably can't go wrong with any aftermarket head unit these days, especially with such a strong dollar and such strong competition. (One thing, though: I didn't feel as if I'd been raped until I went back to Circuit City for their wiring harness kit: $30 for a couple of 50-cent connectors! Absolutely outrageous! Now I know where they make their money. On the other hand, it probably saved me two hours of playing Spaghetti with the connector supplied with the head unit.)

I've never owned another Alpine product, so overall reliability (and cold-weather performance) remain to be seen. So far so good.