Hello there, I need some advise please

I purchased the alpine 9857 the ipod cable and the dci2, Polk MMC 6500 component speakers. I now what to buy an amp but I dont want to more than I need. I want to buy Alpine. Which Alpine AMP should I purchase. Your help is greatly appreciated. Oh where should I go to have all of this installed. Best buy?

 

Hell no. Do it yourself...

 

Let me start like this:

1.) PLEASE for the love of God DO NOT take your car to Best Buy or Circuit City. If you have to find a custom car stereo shop and have them do it, than go that route.

2.) Why alpine? Get a Pheonix Gold OCTANE-R 4.0:2 AMP to power your components. It's $84.99 on etronics.com. Anyone on here should vouch for Pheonix gold being an awesome brand.

3.) Sorry but with my ALL my friends(and I do mean ALL) my friends expiriences with alpine they suck. Some may have had other expiriences and that's awesome, more power to you, but I personally would stay far FAR away from crappy Best Buy products. Not only does Best Buy over charge by DOUBLE what you can buy it on etronics but they couldn't even pull a fuse out of the fuse box if their life depended on it. They don't care about you or your service because even if you never come back some idiot will and they'll still get paid.

4.) $349.99 for your reciever at Best Buy (where you probably bought it) and it's $269.99 at etronics.com. You most likely got ripped.


BTW, I'll say it again. Alpine is the biggest waist of money personally. And sorry if you took this as me bashing but I just hate when people walk into a store and buy stuff for WAY to much and get WAY to little in return.




EDIT: Sorry, I was upset with girlfriend when we hung up and I read this and decided to vent... my appologize. although everything I said was true

 

I completely agree with you that Best Buy is not the best place to shop for car stereos. Their sales people lack in-depth product knowledge and their installers are not what I would call highly skilled.

I would disagree with you on two statements you made.

First, Alpine products are not crap IMO and I'm sure a large number of people who post to this forum would agree with me. Alpine HUs are wildly popular in this forum and for good reason. I've owned several Alpine products myself in the past and had nothing but great experiences with them.

Second, it's debatable whether or not it's better to buy Alpine products from etronics.com. As far as I know, they're not an authorized dealer. So, that means no manufacturer's warranty. In the short term, you save $80 by buying from etronics, but if the unit breaks then it's your responsibility to repair or replace it. I once had an amp break on me and was very happy to pay shipping back to the manufacturer for a replacement instead of paying hundreds of dollars for a new unit. The best place IMHO to buy Alpine products is from your local stereo shop. A lot of these guys will cut you a better deal than you'd get from Best Buy and chances are they know what they're talking about. Plus, you get the manufacturer's warranty.

 

1.) That's your opinion and by all means if you like Alpine they keep on buying. Hell, I LOVE pioneer and don't care what anyone else says. So if Alpine is you than please stay with them. You'll regret changing if you don't like the new company.

2.) You can get a warranty on etronics if you'd like and THEY'LL fix it or send it to the manufacturer and pay.

 

Anyways....

back on topic - do you have a sub? Do you plan to have a sub? If not, or not soon, you don't even need an amp - just use the stock wires and everything is essentially plug and play. The additional power the HU puts out and the higher quality speakers will make you happy without overdoing things. Once you want an amp, you really have to rewire the whole car, and thats a more involved process.

If you do want an amp though, I'd look at something like a MRV-F345 - you can get them around $250 on eBay - more than enough power for your and enough for a sub down the road if you add one.

I love Alpine products because they work and work well - I'm waiting for my 8 yr old amp to die so I can justify buying a newer more powerful one, but I may just have to give up waiting, since it doesn't look like its going to quit anytime soon.. Maybe you can buy my old MRV-F301 for cheap.

 

Thanks for the help. I dont have a sub. So I guess I dont need an amp. I just want to be able to hear going down the road with the top down. I did buy the alpine 9857 on ebay with a squaretrade warranty. for $287. thaks also for the heads up on the best buy info. I figured they were not that good hiring anybody that can spell HU. I am afraid to try and install myself as I dont want to mess up my baby.
Thanks again

 

The nice thing about a stereo system is that you can do it in stages. Spend the money on a good HU and speakers, and see what benefits you get. If you're not happy, you can spend more money, but the HU and speakers will still work.

You bought the HU and speakers, so go buy a Modifry DCI and wiring harness for your HU, and take four hours out of your Saturday to wire the HU in. Once you have that squared away, tackle the speakers. If you stretch it out into managable pieces, after no time at all you'll be amazed at what great sound you have. The stock set up really is terrible.

 

[QUOTE=S2K:-),May 14 2006, 10:27 PM] Let me start like this:

1.) PLEASE for the love of God DO NOT take your car to Best Buy or Circuit City. If you have to find a custom car stereo shop and have them do it, than go that route.

2.) Why alpine? Get a Pheonix Gold OCTANE-R 4.0:2 AMP to power your components. It's $84.99 on etronics.com. Anyone on here should vouch for Pheonix gold being an awesome brand.

3.) Sorry but with my ALL my friends(and I do mean ALL) my friends expiriences with alpine they suck. Some may have had other expiriences and that's awesome, more power to you, but I personally would stay far FAR away from crappy Best Buy products. Not only does Best Buy over charge by DOUBLE what you can buy it on etronics but they couldn't even pull a fuse out of the fuse box if their life depended on it. They don't care about you or your service because even if you never come back some idiot will and they'll still get paid.

4.) $349.99 for your reciever at Best Buy (where you probably bought it) and it's $269.99 at etronics.com. You most likely got ripped.

 

Wasn't trying to start a battle but ok...




Again, that is an OPINION. And lets dicifer this here. I'm talking about amps now. I would buy a PG amp before an Alpine amp. I would buy nothing else from either company, no speakers or HU's.

And just FYI. NONE and I mean NONE, of my friends bought their alpine stuff from etronics. They bought other things from etronics afterwards but they sure didn't buy any Alpine again.
Well that's your personally preferance and I respect that. So if you'd like to spend more money for a piece of mind, than by all means please do so.

ok, etronics does not repair it, they send you a new one. So I'd wait maybe 2-3 days. Yes I've had something break and sent it to them. Yes they have the best prices I've seen. And yes I've delt with them WAY more than once, twice, ever 5 times.

HA! lol, I wish I worked for etronics cause I'd get even better deals! They're located in New York, it says so on their home page. I live in Florida.




[b]And this whole damn thing just needs to be DROPPED. You like Alpine, I don't. So lets agree to disagree ok? This wasn't supposed to be a flame war. Drop it.