From the manual:

"DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) offers excellent sound quality even in a moving vehicle, enabling you to receive various types of information, including weather and traffic information, and it also displays informationsent from the broadcasting stations. You can also let urgent broadcasts or announcements interrupt a current broadcast.

* If you connect the DAB Receiver Box TUA-T100DAB (sold separately), you can control DAB for the reception of broadcast.
* CD quality sound can be obtained from DAB broadcasts, although quality may differ on some services.
* Some broadcasting stations may perform test broadcasts
* When DAB reception is poor, metallic noise may occur. This is not a malfunction."

I don't think it's a satellite-based transmission, though. As far as MX is concerned, it's not available in Europe so I don't think it would be a standard feature of this model. Not sure if you could connect an MX receiver to the unit and control it through the 7893R. It's not an issue for me; I don't spend enough time in the car to justify a $10 subscription rate every month.

Warranty... Not sure, to be honest. I bought the unit in Germany from an Alpine dealer in Hamburg; it was pretty much a cash-and-carry transactions and we did not talk about it. If the unit broke down, I guess I'd just take it back the next time I was over there. But I have full faith in Japanese (well, in ths case: Chinese) workmanship.

List price for the 7893R is

 

Alpine Europe has different policies than the US. I would make sure the dealer you bought from will be willing to service the unit should it fail (even if its at your cost and no warranty).

In any case you WILL pay a premium over the US counterpart to have this kind of controller.

 

Very nice.
How do you like the sound from the 7893R when you crank it up. My CDA-7876 is also powered directly from the battery. When I get the sound much above "25" out of "35" on the volume control, I get gobs of distortion. I'm not sure whether it is the deck or the Kenwood xr600 speakers, but I think the deck is more likely.
Someday I might upgrade to an mp3 capable amp-less deck and an amp.

 

The sound is quite good, especially with the Media Xpander switched on -- no comparison to the stock unit. I just spent an hour familiarizing myself with the controls and settings; all in all it is quite intuitive (except for one thing in the MP3 mode: the root directory on the CD is considered folder #1, so the disc really starts with folder #2. I couldn't figure out at first why the player seemed to skip one whole album ).

I turned the volume up to about 23, and it was pretty clear, no distortion. I wouldn't want the neighbours to complain, so I guess I'll have to go for a quick drive into the wilderness, uhm, corn country, to see what it does when I really crank it up.

 

Where about does the KCE 865B connect to the dash control?? Is this connection in the radio compartment or near the dash controller??

 

Well, I did not see that part of the installation myself, but if you look at the picture, I would imagine that it's either the white or the brown plug plug that hook into the dashboard control. The long black cable has a small pin plug (almost like the end of a walkman head-set) which connects into the head unit.

Does that answer your question?

 

I labeled this picture of my KCE-865B to show where all the wires go...



After a year and a half of having this adapter connect my dash controls to my Alpine IVA-C800, I haven't used my dash controls once... I guess I just wanted the challenge.

 

Can this work with a US spec CDA 7995??

 

No, it can't. Something that does work, however, is Modifry's DCI (sold at lucid's sight). I'm using one w/ my 7995, and it's better than stock, e.g., I can go BACK a CD track.

gil