Alpine CDM-9823 Car CD Player

After the stock head unit died in my Pontiac Bonneville, I decided I would look for a good aftermarket HU. This route was cheaper than going to the dealership for a factory head unit, and the options on the market are way cooler.

I checked around on other review websites (since this is the first review for this product), and the Alpine CDM-9823 was well liked.

I have had this HU for a year now, and I have come to love it very much. Why?

Controls are straight forward. I'll admit, I am very glad the guy that installed it showed me how to use the controls. I am also very happy that it came with an owners manual (which I don't admit to most people that I read it). After the demonstration and reading the manual though, all of the controls make a lot of sense and the HU is very adjustable. You can fine tune everything from fade and balance to bass and treble wave lengths.

BBE is the best thing since the invention of speakers. BBE was designed for people who download music. When the media is compressed and downloaded, you lose bass. BBE is there to replace it. I don't download music, but I keep the BBE on and I have to admit, it adds a nice thump to my otherwise stock sound system.

Looks. I love the way it looks in my car. At night, it is even better. It emits a nice green glow. And this is what I like most about it. At night, it is so easy on your eyes. You can go from looking at the HU, to looking at the road without that annoying ache in your eyes. But even when the car is turned off, it still looks stylish.

Sound. Sounds pretty clear to me. Maybe a bit better than the stock HU, but I am not that into my music that I hear that big of a difference. Sounds good to me though.

The aftermarket. This HU is compatible with the Alpine CD changer for those who like to keep multiple CD's at their finger tips. There is also a cord that you can buy for $15-20 that you can plug any MP3 player with a mini-jack (headphone jack) into (KCM-123B). I found this to be particularly handy.

With the good, there is always THE BAD.

There really aren't many things wrong with this HU, but they are issues that are consistent across the board with Alpine. They have slow loading CD players and dim displays.

The CD player takes anywhere from 4-10 seconds to load. To me this isn't that big of a deal, but to others I know this is an excruciating wait.

The dim display is what makes this HU so friendly to the eyes at night. Unfortunately, if it is sunny out, it makes it hard to read.

Only other issue is actually not Alpine's fault, but I know a lot of people have had problems with this. On hard bass hits, the display and backlit buttons fade. Believe it or not, this is your own cars fault. The stock wiring for the HU is not large enough, the stock HU didn't need much power. For some reason, aftermarket HU's need this extra power. Solution, run 14 or heavier gauge wire from the battery, to the power wire on the HU. This will solve your problem. On my car they used 20 gauge wire, which is far to small.


In conclusion, I love this head unit and I would suggest it to anyone. I think it may have been discontinued though as it is no longer on the Alpine website :(.