alpine 9885 no sound?

I recently purchased an Alpine 9885 from Best Buy on clearance. I got an insane deal and only paid $60 for the display unit. At the time I did not have time to listen to it before I bought it. I just saw the price and had the sales rep take it out so I could make it to an appointment on time. I installed it last night in my girlfriends Mercury Cougar. The display comes on and all seems well but there is no sound. I installed the stereo with my cousin-in-law who has a BS in electrical engineering and has done promotional vehicles for Pepsi as well as others. The two of us have no clue why the unit doesn't produce sound. I even plugged in a spare 9855 to the harness and it sounded great! I looked through the owners manual and can not find anything. I reset the unit each after install, is there anything else I am missing?

I have no clue what to do. I know it is wired correctly and I do not believe the head unit was damaged. Should I try to take it back to Best Buy or should I send it to Alpine USA? Can I even send it to Alpine since it is a display unit (I would hope so but you never know). Is there something I could have done prior to install that might have caused damage? Could Best Buy have damaged it while it was on display? I really wish I would have listened to it before I bought it but I was really running late.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated. It is a pleasure to join this community.




BTW, that 9855 is for sale for $150 if anyone is interested. It looks and sounds great. I still have the original box, I believe it retailed for close to $300. It came out of my Uncles Dodge Dakota he traded-in. I ripped it out and put the stock back in since the dealer preferred the stock system. He gave me the head unit for my troubles.

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Chris Suskovich
2004 Chrysler Crossfire
-Pioneer AVIC N2
-Stock Infinity Speakers/Amp
2003 Dodge SRT-4 Mopar S2
-Alpine iDA-X001
-Alpine Type-R 12"/M800
-Kenwood Speakers

Try just hooking up a random speaker to one of the speaker leads and see what happens. if you get nothing then there's something more than likely up with the unit. but if you get sound hooking up a speaker directly to the back of the unit then you might need either a different harness or a factory amp bypass. I'm not positive because i haven't worked on one of these yet but that's usually the way i troubleshoot a no sound issue.

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A DMM is a beautiful thing.

MECP Advanced Installer Certified.

I hooked up a spare speaker and got the same result. I know the harness is correct because my other Alpine works fine.

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Chris Suskovich
2004 Chrysler Crossfire
-Pioneer AVIC N2
-Stock Infinity Speakers/Amp
2003 Dodge SRT-4 Mopar S2
-Alpine iDA-X001
-Alpine Type-R 12"/M800
-Kenwood Speakers

what year is that cougar>????? if it is one of the older ones u mite have to power up the factory amp...ususally a blue/white wire if u are using a aftermarket harness.... when i say older cougar... i mean one of the rear wheel drive ones from the 90's.... it may even possibly be amplified if its a newer one too... i have seen a handful that were..... but like the other guy said... plug up a test speaker and see if u got sound..... OTHERWISE U NOW KNOW WHY THE RADIO WAS ONLY $60 BUCK!!!!!!

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there can be only one.......

Sounds like the internals are bad. You have 1 alpine plug wire to the car. 2 9855's, 1 works, 1 doesn't? If that is the case, one is obviously broken. Send it to alpine, you have 1 year from purchase at an authorized dealer, it doesn't matter that it was a display.

I have a 9855 that works great with the Alpine wiring harness hooked up to a 2000 Mercury Cougar.

I bought a 9885 and it does not work when plugged into the SAME harness.

I do not believe there is an amp that powers the speakers in this cougar. The only power comes from the head unit.

I did try connecting a random speaker to the 9885 and it still does not produce sound.

I know the wiring is correct because I can plug the 9855 in and it works fine. When I plug the 9885 in and reset the unit it will turn on but no sound. I honestly think the unit is blown but I can't believe Best Buy would sell me a stereo that doesn't work! Should I take it back and insist on a replacement or send it to Alpine. I got too good of a deal to just return it and forget about it (on top of the fact that I gave it to my gf for her BIRTHDAY!).


Thank you to all who have already posted advice.

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Chris Suskovich
2004 Chrysler Crossfire
-Pioneer AVIC N2
-Stock Infinity Speakers/Amp
2003 Dodge SRT-4 Mopar S2
-Alpine iDA-X001
-Alpine Type-R 12"/M800
-Kenwood Speakers

Well if you hooked up a spare speaker and it didn't work then take it back to best buy and have them replace it for you. If the 9855 works and that one doesn't then the internals are loved up on it. go back to them and see what they can do for you. i work at best buy and at the very least we usually swap them out or send them for servicing depending on the situation.

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A DMM is a beautiful thing.

MECP Advanced Installer Certified.

The HU may have the option to turn-off the internal amp. This is for use with pre-amp output systems only. It increases SQ to the pre-amps.

Check to see if you can turn the internal amp on and off.

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2013 Kia Rio -90a alternator
DDX470HD GTO14001 GTO1014D (x3)
Big3 in 1/0G
1/0G to GTO14001

JMelton hit it on the head. Is the deck wired directly to speakers or an amp? Based on what you have described to us.... sounds like no amp.

idiot has the link, use it.  turn the internal amp on, good to go.

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One thing I like about this feature is that if you have the internal amp turned off and reset the HU, the amp will still be off -even though all other settings are reset. If the amp is on when you reset the HU, it'll be on when you power it back on. Best-Buy must've been using the deck with external amps and had the amp turned off before they removed it from the display.

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2013 Kia Rio -90a alternator
DDX470HD GTO14001 GTO1014D (x3)
Big3 in 1/0G
1/0G to GTO14001