Hey guys, currently I have this installed in my deck:

Kenwood

It's a great deck, but scrolling through songs using the Ipod controls are way to tedious.

Ever since I saw this deck, I fell in love with the looks and the ease of use:

Alpine

My question is: Should I toss the Kenwood and get the Alpine? How do these decks compete for sound quality and features?

Thanks!

 

These days, any quality deck you have is going to have Ipod capability.

Pioneer tends to have a warmer sound
Eclipse is a medium sound
Alpine is known for it's bright sound


I've run Alpine myself and most people I know that have Alpine and have listened to my current setup agree (one even has the same door speakers I have): Alpine has this harshness/brightness that just can't be tuned out. If you're ok with your ears bleeding after a long drive, go Alpine. Otherwise, go Pioneer Premier or Eclipse.

 

I like both alpine and kenwood,

I think kenwood needs to fire their menu desinger though.. it just sucks..

I went with kenwood with front USB port. I have Ipod with a passion. It's much easier to carry around a thumdrive for music. for me anyways

 

I've never heard an Alpine before to be honest. My Kenwood seems to be very good but the controls are a piss off. I'm debating whether to keep mine or just get the Alpine.

 

I have a pioneer premier deck due to liking the warmer sound versus the latter. Its based on your listening preference though.

 

I've got a question about speakers, my current Kenwood outputs 22Wx4 RMS and I'm looking at 70W RMS JL Audio tweeters. Should they run without issues?

 

1st, the deck isn't putting out a true 22Wx4... Think about this: take the size of a typical 4 channel amplifier that puts out that much power, compare that to the size of the HU, and remember that the HU also has to perform sound processing and CD reading functions


Those speakers will work well. However, for the price, you can find better sounding speakers.

 

Which alpine deck do most people here prefer? I'm hoping to pick up a new one tomorrow during black friday. My oldiee pioneer from 2004 is pretty outdated.

 

I have the CDA-9886 but if I was buying now I'd get one of the iDA-X's as I haven't used the CD player.

 

aahh... I still can't decide. The ida-x's are really nice but the ONLY set back for me is that they don't use CDS! ..I just keep thinking in the back of my head there will be a situation where I really would like to play a CD.

the ida-x's have everything I want:
-nice display
-bluetooth
-ipod/usb

decisions, decisions..