Alpine or Pioneer and Why?
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=76197
Printed Date: May 01, 2024 at 11:56 PM
Topic: Alpine or Pioneer and Why?
Posted By: saturnsubohio
Subject: Alpine or Pioneer and Why?
Date Posted: April 13, 2006 at 9:56 PM
Hey all,
Question is as follows. 250 dollars or there abouts to spend on a new HU. i would be coming from a Pioneer DEH-3300 single DIN which is 50x4 pk and about 5 years old.
I have 2 ipods @ current and a bluetooth enabled cell phone. Now to the question, What have you got for me in terms of Sound Quality and Bells and Whistles.
I would love to be able to hook up my ipod using just a 3.5mm jack and use it through an AUX input, i noticed the bluetooth marketing by Alpine however i dont want to spend the 220 USDollars on another adapter.
so what do you guys think? also the front Speakers are going to be a component set built by my consisting of 6.5" woofer and Tweeter x-overed @ 2400Hz 12dB so the internal amp needs to put out atleast some power.
Thanks In advance,
Links are very much appreciated.
Cheers.
~James.
Replies:
Posted By: godblessdremil
Date Posted: April 13, 2006 at 11:57 PM
What ever you like more, bolth companies are good. What ever has the features you like take it. Only opinion that matters is yours.
Posted By: dfizzle
Date Posted: April 14, 2006 at 1:07 AM
Yeah that's pretty much it. You'll get arguments from both camps that one is better than the other, but the best you can do is figure out what you prefer. Honestly, in that price range you're not going to see any major differences in performance or features. As far as the iPod connection goes, I have a Pioneer deh-p5800mp that I hook my 3rd Gen. iPod to using the IP-Bus to RCA to 3.5, and it works just fine for me. The new Alpine decks can all use the same method, or the dedicated Alpine cable that connects right from the HU to the dock on your iPod and the sound quality might be a bit better, but using the cable locks the iPod controls. So like I said, it's really up to you and what you're looking for in terms of appearance and such. Here's a comparisson link from crutchfield I set up real quick: https://www.crutchfield.com/S-LDNZY2TX...
Posted By: forbidden
Date Posted: April 14, 2006 at 1:37 AM
I side with Eclipse and the CD3000 + the Eclipse Ipod interface and Aux input interface. An alternative and a real cool alternative that most people have not explored are the new Blaupunkt head units with built in bluetooth. The new units are not out to market yet and are not on their website. Let me tell you though, they are built real good, priced good, will perform great and have some cool darn features to go with what I think is a real good look.
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Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.
Posted By: saturnsubohio
Date Posted: April 14, 2006 at 10:43 AM
hmm so one reference to Fujitsu10 and i had that exact same IPBUS thing for my old Pioneer.
Well i have owned a pioneer forever since i was 16, but Alpine is the brand recommended by my local shop guys.
i was trying to broaden my horizons. im pretty comfortable and familiar with Pioneers tuning options. but Alpine's seem to have more to offer in that area. and with my addition of a component set for once i thought that may be valuable to have.
THanks guys keep em coming,
Forbidden: i'll check out that Eclipse and Blaupunkt if i can find them
Posted By: doibuy
Date Posted: April 14, 2006 at 10:20 PM
If your choice is between Pioneer and Alpine, go with Alpine. Think about this for a second.....you can go just about anywhere (including Wal-mart) to get a Pioneer deck, which means that they are mass produced (not that Alpine isn't) and they really don't care who they sell to. Alpine on the other hand, you can only get at certain places, they are "brand protected". This means that they care about who they sell to, and would rather sell quality, not quanity. I've use Alpine forever, with no complaints and have had friends who swore by Pioneer, and there always seemed to be something wrong with their deck. I've also been installing for over 8 years and have seen more comebacks due to product failure with Pioneer than with Alpine and this is a fact (unless you are buying the $99 special, then they are probably pretty compareable). Sound quality is also much better with Alpine than Pioneer, by far. So to sum up buy Alpine, you will be much happier in the long run. It may be a bit more expensive, but remember when buying electronics, you get what you pay for!!! As for Eclipse, they kinda fell off the face of the Earth there for a while, but are making a strong comeback. There stuff is great too, and like Alpine "brand protected"
Posted By: Ravendarat
Date Posted: April 14, 2006 at 10:50 PM
I would say that to say a alpine deck has much better sound quality than a pioneer deck at the same price level is mabye a little bit rash and I would also say that its probally more in the ear of the beholder as opposed to written in stone. I have personally owned both and HATE alpine decks from a sound point of view. I find them to sound very harsh and far prefer the sound of the pioneer decks. As for reliability goes, I sell pioneer and have many friends who sell alpine, and while I wont say pioneers are bullet proof, I find them to be far better than say a JVC deck or a panasonic deck, and from what I have been told by my friends who deal alpine it sounds as though they have a similar track record with that product.
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double-secret reverse-osmosis speaker-cone-induced high-level interference distortion, Its a killer
Posted By: godblessdremil
Date Posted: April 14, 2006 at 10:52 PM
See told ya all opinion. I personally perfer panasonic. But i may try an eclipse soon.
Posted By: darthness
Date Posted: April 14, 2006 at 11:49 PM
thats such BS.... walmart sells xbox 360, does that make it crap because its not exclusive? walmart sells the lower end pioneer stuff...
i've had 2 pioneer decks and both have worked perfectly for me. No complaints at all with either.. although if you're looking to power something, you'll need an external amp. don't expect more than 25 watts out RMS out of just about any deck.
Posted By: austincustoms
Date Posted: April 15, 2006 at 12:46 AM
Personally, Prefer Alpine. I've had 3 Pioneers self combust on me, all within a year of buying them new. The pre amp went out in the first one, The second one had an internal short, causing it to randomly turn itself off, and I don't know what happened to the third one, but after about 6 months of using it, and making no changes to anything, it stopped working. I took it out, and it was too hot to touch. Never worked after that. I've got an alpine now, and I love it.
Posted By: Velocity Motors
Date Posted: April 15, 2006 at 8:38 AM
doibuy wrote:
If your choice is between Pioneer and Alpine, go with Alpine. Think about this for a second.....you can go just about anywhere (including Wal-mart) to get a Pioneer deck, which means that they are mass produced (not that Alpine isn't) and they really don't care who they sell to. Alpine on the other hand, you can only get at certain places, they are "brand protected". This means that they care about who they sell to, and would rather sell quality, not quanity. I've use Alpine forever, with no complaints and have had friends who swore by Pioneer, and there always seemed to be something wrong with their deck. I've also been installing for over 8 years and have seen more comebacks due to product failure with Pioneer than with Alpine and this is a fact (unless you are buying the $99 special, then they are probably pretty compareable). Sound quality is also much better with Alpine than Pioneer, by far. So to sum up buy Alpine, you will be much happier in the long run. It may be a bit more expensive, but remember when buying electronics, you get what you pay for!!! As for Eclipse, they kinda fell off the face of the Earth there for a while, but are making a strong comeback. There stuff is great too, and like Alpine "brand protected"
Better make sure you get your facts straight next time you post cause Alpine's been in box stores for almost a decade and as stated before, Wal-Mart isn't necessarily ONLY cheap electronics as you will see alot ( not all ) of the top brand name companies sell their products. One of the main reasons that some of the independant companies don't deal with Wal-Mart is not necessarily that they don't want to sell their products there ( which corporation doesn't want to make more money to please their stock holders? ), but because the company can't produce what Wal-Mart wants and also they can't give Wal-Mart the 100% delivery times and 5 % price reduction per year they sell their products to them. I'm not taking the side of Wal-Mart here, but the statement that you made above is not true at all. Also, the situtation that you have is the total opposite of what we have in our area. Alpine has been the warranty king in my area while I personally have only sent in 4 deck in the past 10 years for Pioneer. I use to be a huge Alpine fan ( and I still have an Alpine deck in our chow car ) but it's been a totally flip story out in our neck of the woods. ------------- Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA
Posted By: xtremej
Date Posted: April 15, 2006 at 9:09 AM
I've sold Alpine in previuos stores I owned got very tiring dealing with warranty claims so we dropped them after a year. On the other hand we only sent 1 pioneer head unit in for repair as it was not installed right, not the fault of manu. In other words I prefer Pioneer. my .02 on this topic.
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Posted By: MrSuperStar
Date Posted: April 16, 2006 at 11:48 AM
When I first started working at best buy 2 years ago, I didn't care much for Pioneer. We had a lot of returns and I've seen a few blow smoke. But then I noticed it was almost always the same model that did it so it could have just been a bad batch that year.
When we launched Alpine I was thrilled cause I heard so much about it, but when they finally came in I wasn't impressed. The only good thing about the Alpine was it had good bass response at high volume compared to other brands, and had a brighter display.
Alpine rep told me they are more about quality than frills, but seriously for all that money I'd spend I would like a built in EQ or some graphic options, and not have to buy a $200 adapter just to get my $150 adapter to work with my $175 adapter.
The Alpine mobile video I saved all my money for look like they run on Windows 3.1
Alpine might have good sound quality but you will get more for your money with Pioneer.
Posted By: supradude
Date Posted: April 16, 2006 at 12:17 PM
I've owned both brands. I only had 1 Alpine and I had to send it off for repairs. I've owned several Pioneer's and I only remember 1 of them giving me a problem. I prefer Pioneer.
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'85 Toy
Posted By: mysticsvt
Date Posted: April 16, 2006 at 9:19 PM
Alpine
Posted By: saturnsubohio
Date Posted: April 16, 2006 at 9:32 PM
lol, great so all of 12volt is split.
Im leaning towards Alpine, but still towards Pioneer because of familiarity,
the 9857 would most certainly fit my needs nicely,
but the Pioneer seems so "like that ol' pal you know"
i must be honest i dont like the Pioneer "tilt wheel" thinga ma bob.
anyone else with suggestions?
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