I've had Pioneer HUs and for the first year or two they're fine. I can get them really cheap, but I'll never own one again.
Why you ask?
They break.
Plain and simple all Pioneer products I have ever had break eventually. They are manufactured like shlt. Pioneer wants to sell thier new line more than they want to create something with longevity.
I've got an Alpine 9833 now, and so far so good. I like the control and the way it looks and sounds. But time will tell if I purchase another...

 

I like my Alpine 9833 but my next head unit will be a Eclipse.

 

The only thing I don't llike about Alpine head units in recent times is the face. The skewed buttons look extremely dated to me. Kind of 1980's style.

I have a Sony head unit with the Active Black Panel front. I'm not really sure what it is that everybody hates about Sony but I've never had a problem with this one.

 

I've had my Alpine 7894 now for almost 3 years now and I love it. The reason I bought it in the first place was because it offerred the best in audio quality at the time. Also, unlike a lot of the other companies like Sony, Pioneer, and Kenwood, Alpine deals only with car audio systems so I found it safe to assume that their research and development would reside more with car audio than other companies would, resulting in a better product for your automobile. The Alpine 7894 had the V-power internal amp that delivered 60 wattsX4 peak and required power wiring directly to the battery. Because I am an audiophile, sound quality performance outweighs looks. I first had it in my 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee where it was powering 4 Memphis 6 1/2" door speakers and sending a 4-volt preout to 2 12" Alpine Type E subwoofers. With this setup, I could turn up the music to high levels without distortion (in fact, my ears would begin distorting before the speakers would). Now it sits in my S2000 and performs just as it did when I first bought it. It also looks great and matches perfectly with my interior lights at night. Now as far as Alpine HUs are now, I'm not so sure. A lot of competitors are coming out with high sound quality units that produce equal or greater power.

 

the 7894 never offerred the best in sound quality at that time. i feel that no real radio with an internal amp can offer really great sq. im sure that the pioneer dex-p9 will blow that alpine out of the water.

do u really think that the alpine internal amp can put out 60 watts max? take a look at the fuse rating.

u can take any radio and add a pre line driver to get 8 or above volts.

its not about producing power, its about producing a clean signal. when u add an amp, the internal amp in the radio isnt even hooked up. even then, no radio at this moment can put out more than 25 watts max per channel. realistically your looking at about 13-19 watts rms.

 

Oh, in the past, I've had two Sony's, one Alpine, one Eclipse, two Pioneer's and a Clarion.

Of those, the old Alpine was great. Never had a problem with it, but they never seemed to make them like that again. Eclipse is nice, but they are always too expensive and have less features than other headunits. I had a nice Eclipse HU as part of my old system, and although it was nice, it cost too much money to upgrade to play MP3's or get some of the other features other HU's come with. My old Clarion worked for years with no problems other than a button or two coming off after a few years. My Sony and Pioneer HU's broke or messed up within a year or two. Thus, I won't buy Sony or Pioneer again.

So I'm sticking with Clarion and Alpine for now on.

 

Ever since I started owning my own cars I have had 1 Blaupunkt, 1 Jensen (Boat Radio for an off road Jeep), 5 Pioneers, and as of one week ago my first Alpine. I am still happy with every Pioneer I ever bought - I switched to Alpine because of the KCA-420i.

After one week of playing with the Alpine HU, I have to say that I am very happy with Alpine so far - despite starting off on a bad foot (read further to understand). I noticed an immediate difference in sound quality, and everything seems to work faster - plus my FM stations sound clearer now. I never realized how slow Pioneers are at reading discs - especially MP3's. I think I had the Pioneer 740P model before, so you super audiophiles can tell me whether or not there is a huge difference in the decks (I just compare price tags and the features I like when it comes to HU's).

My knock against Alpine comes in the 9830 I had for about 2 days. I don't know if I just happened to get a faulty one, but it had serious problems within 24 hours of install - and word is there was nothing wrong with that particular head unit . The 9831 has overcome the shotcomings of the 9830 in spades and I'm all s for Alpine now

But I would try something different down the road.....my soul is not sold to Alpine.

 

i noticed a lot of you dont use kenwood. im not sure if any of u have checked out kenwood lately, but i think the kenwood KDC-X679 is a pretty damn good radio for the normal listener. it offers 24bit burr brown D/A convertors and 5volt preouts. alpine doesnt even offer 24bit burr brown, unless u get the F#1 status CDA-7990.

i have installed a few of these and they blow my mind. i feel it offers great sq for such little money, retail price of $400.


KEY FEATURES
- Digital to Analog Converter: Burr-Brown 24-Bit Resolution
- Display Readout: Full Dot Matrix, 4-Tone
- Dual-Zone Audio Control
- High Voltage Preamp Output: 5.0V
- High-Pass and Low-Pass Electronic Crossovers
- Maximum Output Power: 50 Watts x 4
- Motorized Slide-Down Removable Faceplate with Carrying Case
- Plays MP3 and WMA-Encoded CD-R/RWs and Conventional CD, CD-R/RW Discs
- Preouts: Front, Rear, Non-Fading (Gold-Plated)
- System Q EX Sound Control
- LCD Display: High-Resolution Color, with Fluorescent Backlight

GENERAL FEATURES
- Clock
- Display Dimmer
- Display Readout: Full Dot Matrix, 8-Tone
- Finish: Ebony
- Iso-Mount Capability for Japanese Vehicles
- Motorized Slide-Down Removable Faceplate with Carrying Case
- Sub Illumination: Blue
- Illuminated Function Buttons: Red
- LCD Display: High-Resolution Color, with Fluorescent Backlight
- Touch-Tone Buttons: Defeatable

POWER RATINGS
- Full Bandwidth Power (less than 1%% THD): 22 Watts x 4
- Maximum Output Power: 50 Watts x 4

AUDIO FEATURES
- 0-Bit Mute: Independent Left & Right Channel
- A.M.S. Amplifier Management System: with Compatible Amplifier
- Attenuator with Smooth Volume Return
- Auxiliary Input
- Dual-Zone Audio Control
- Electronic Audio Control (Volume, Balance, Fader)
- Front/Rear Fader
- High Voltage Preamp Output: 5.0V
- High-Pass Electronic Crossover: 100/125/170Hz/Through, 12dB/oct
- Loudness Control
- Low-Pass Electronic Crossover: 50/80/120Hz/Through, 12dB/oct
- Preouts: Front, Rear
- Selectable Rear/Non-Fading Preout: with

 

[QUOTE]Will always be a die hard fan.

 

Wow, that's a pretty bad review!

Fortunately my Sony CDX-750M purchased from the US in 2000 is working perfectly.