Not happy w/new Alpine headunit

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Txsvtlightning

Member - Posts: 13

Joined: December 30, 2002

Location: United States

Posted: June 04, 2004 at 8:20 AM / IP Logged

I previously had an Alpine CDA-7832 and made the switch to a CDA-9830. The previous one was aged, face plate contacts wearing out, was hard to get CD/Rs to play, bewteen the trim ring & face plate it rattled a lot.

This new Alpines sound quality sucks. Both are 4volt pre amp. My stock headunit actually sounds a lot better than this new Alpine. Anything I'm missing with this new one? I've played with the built in EQ, crossover etc etc.

I'm actually thinking of getting some knock-downs and using the stock radio, I'll loose MP3 ability, but that's not a big loss for me.

Anythoughts? Alpine gone down hill in the past few years? I've had my CDA-7832 for 7 years and it sounded great, just a little worn.

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12voltfan

Member - Posts: 25

Joined: June 01, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: June 04, 2004 at 9:41 AM / IP Logged

Are you installing this head unit on the same vehicle that you had the 7832, if not maybe the speakers are different. I just bought a 9830 10 days ago but haven't had time to play with it yet, I did notice that my other vehicle sounds better and I have a 2 year old Alpine in that one too but different speakers and subs so I don't know what to blame. I'm also having trouble with the faceplate shutting off on any little bump.

DYohn

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Joined: April 22, 2003

Location: Arizona, United States

Posted: June 04, 2004 at 10:00 AM / IP Logged

Do you use external amps? Did you re-adjust the gains for the new head?

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12voltfan

Member - Posts: 25

Joined: June 01, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: June 04, 2004 at 10:05 AM / IP Logged

Is that question for me or for Txsvtlightning

DYohn

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Joined: April 22, 2003

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Posted: June 04, 2004 at 10:20 AM / IP Logged

Txsvtlightning, actually. In your case, you can't blame the head for different sound if all the other components are differnt. It's the entire system that creates the sound.

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Txsvtlightning

Member - Posts: 13

Joined: December 30, 2002

Location: United States

Posted: June 04, 2004 at 11:42 AM / IP Logged

It's just a headunit swap, everything else the same still. I'm still not sure about the x-over setup, 4 bands, 3-5 freq. within each band, Q settings (what is this?). And the MX feature I can get something dialed in pretty good, switch Discs or turn on the tuner and it's sounds awful.

I like simplicity, this thing seems to have a lot of bells & whistles!

DYohn

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Joined: April 22, 2003

Location: Arizona, United States

Posted: June 04, 2004 at 11:56 AM / IP Logged

Yes, it is a very complex head unit. Not a simple head at all. The parametric EQ can be very difficult to set up, and can serevely affect the quality of the sound - since that's what it is for! I recomend you set all the frequency band controls to their center settings, all the Q controls to 1.0, and all the level controls to zero. Then slowly adjust the level controls until you like the sound. Most people like bass and treble at +2 to +4 and midrange at 0 to -2.

Are you using external amps?

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Txsvtlightning

Member - Posts: 13

Joined: December 30, 2002

Location: United States

Posted: June 04, 2004 at 12:24 PM / IP Logged

Yeah, I have all of this to play with for the EQ-

Equalizer Presetings:

Rock, Pops, Jazz, Electric, HipHop, Easy, Country, Classic, News & Flat

Adjustable frequency bands:

BAND1 : 40Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz

BAND2 : 100Hz, 150Hz, 200Hz

BAND3 : 500Hz, 700Hz, 1kHz, 2kHz, 4kHz, 6kHz

BAND4 : 10kHz, 12.5kHz, 15kHz

P-EQ for adjustable band width:

BAND1 : 1.0, 2.0, 3.0,

BAND2 : 1.0, 1.5, 2.0

BAND3 : 1.0, 2.0, 3.0

BAND4 : 1.0 (fixed band width)

Not really sure what the above is for (1.0, 1.5, 2.0 etc)

DYohn

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Posted: June 04, 2004 at 12:57 PM / IP Logged

The "P-EQ" settings control the bandwidth of the equalizer envelope. Meaning, if the "Band" is set to a specific frequency, how wide an area on either side of that frequency will be adjusted by the level vontrol. Set them all to 1.0 as a default. Also, your deck has very sophisticated crossover and time alignment circuitry in it. If you do not understand how to use these functions, I suggest you defeat them (turn them off.)

It sounds like you'd be much happier with a simpler head unit. Look at the Nakamichi CD-400 (or the older model - and one of my favorites - the CD-45z.) The sound quality of a Nak is noticably superior to an Alpine, IMO.

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customsuburb

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Joined: January 17, 2004

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Posted: June 04, 2004 at 12:59 PM / IP Logged

Or you could go with an Eclipse deck.....

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