Alpine CDA-9887 CD/MP3/WMA/AAC Receiver
Saturday, September 12th, 2009 at
5:15 pm
Features:
- SIRIUS or XM, Alpine brings your choice of satellite radio inside your car.
- Alpine has combined their in-vehicle sound system expertise with Audyssey¿s acoustical technology to deliver a sound system hardware
- The CDA-9887 uses a 24-Bit Burr-Brown D/A converter and other leading-edge technologies to provide wide dynamic range and high precision
- The CDA-9887 is equipped with a Biolite Display for a wider viewing angle, and ensured high visibility in all lighting condition, even bright daylight
- The CDA-9887 is Bluetooth ready
Product Description
Alpine CD/MP3/WMA/AAC Receiver – CDA9887/ 50W x 4 High Power Amplifier/ 24-Bit DAC/ Detachable Face Plate/ Bluetooth Ready/ Rotary Encoder Knob/ 2 Line Biolite Display/ Steering Wheel Control Ready/ IMPRINT Technology/ Full Speed Connection For iPod/ iPhone Compatible
Average rating: 4.0
Price: $259.50
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Alpine CDA-9887 CD/MP3/WMA/AAC Receiver
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Tagged with: Alpine • CD/MP3/WMA/AAC • CDA9887 • Receiver
Filed under: Alpine
I have owned a few Alpine units and each new one gets more complicated then the next. The CDA-9887 is by far the most annoying of them all. I mean the sound quality is ok but they nickel and dine you to death with all the extra things to have to buy in order to have basic functional EQ! Buy the time you finish getting all the things you need to run this system properly, you’ve spent $750.00 and that dosen’t include amps speakers wiring installation fees. Lets face it, if you don’t have that stuff, this system sounds just plain dull. Now for my major gripe… If you’re driving along and find the EQ needs ajustment, you’ll have to pull over to do anything. The display is confusing and the menu is buried inside other menus. Let’s not forget this is a unit for the car… Need I say more? ..Okay I will. ipod stays on when you turn the unit off. This is 2009. I just think Alpine cut a lot of corners on this one and the ones they didn’t cut they expect you to buy as extras when they should be included like basic EQ functions. Bass, Treble, Midrange!!!
Rating: 3 / 5
I am posting this so other will not spend the time I have. There is a “feature” on the Alpine CDA-9887 that I do not believe Alpine has done a good job communicating. I know I am not the only one confused as I have seen similar questions posted on the internet.
Once you connect and set up the unit there is something glaringly missing. The unit does not display or allow you to change the bass or treble. It skips over those settings. So… I referred to the manual trying to find how you enable the bass and treble controls. After much research I find a footnote that says “When the MultEQ is set to off its level (bass and treble) cannot be adjusted”. No problem. There is a MultEQ button on the front display. I press the button and nothing happens. So I consult the manual again to find out how to enable the MultEQ. There is a small section titled “Turning MultEQ on/off”. It says to “Press MultEQ to select ON/OFF mode”. Then I read also in this section “For details on the set up procedure, consult your authorized Alpine dealer. After consulting the on-line forums, I discover that to set up the MultEQ feature, you need a $250 KTX-100EQ kit which is not available until September. Therefore there is no bass and treble controls unless you buy a $250 kit and set up the MultEQ. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they had just done a better job communicating this. However I probably would not have purchased this particular unit.
The work around is to use the built in equalizer but that is not convenient when you are driving down the road. The MultEQ is supposed to be better than sliced bread but you need to shell out some bread to find out. I also agree with the on-line forums that this unit is very cumbersome to configure. The buttons don’t make much sense. Other than that it sounds good.
Rating: 2 / 5
This is a great looking, powerfull head unit. I love how you can control your ipod from the head-unit itself, you can change the display color-scheme, text font, and text scrolling configuration.
However, there are two things I don’t like about this unit. First, that after shelling out so much money you can’t control basic operations such as changing treble and bass unless you upgrade the firware, which requires for me to pay over $200 for the upgrade kit. Second, I don’t like the fact that my ipod doesn’t shut off automatically after I shut my car down.
Overall, I like the head-unit, but I can’t help feeling cheated over the treble/bass issue. Should I known this was the case, I wouldn’t have purchased this item.
Rating: 3 / 5
It’s up to you to decide if you want to get the unit calibrated with the imprint kit or not (you can rent the kit — you will only use it once). If you choose to not use the imprint kit the headunit still gives better options than many others to tune a system without an external dsp. Built in EQ, crossovers and Time Alignment are enough for many.
I personally went with the imprint because I like what multeq does. Sounds smooth and full and just right. Besides, it’s something you can’t easily achieve yourself even with an external dsp.
And you don’t need any treble/bass when you have a 5-band EQ. If you do, then maybe you don’t want to tune it yourself which means you either 1) spend less and get a different headunit or 2) spend more and get the imprint.
Pros:
- Great sound quality, preamp output level and SNR.
- MultEQ XT -OR- great choice of tuning possibilities.
- Controls are on the friendly side.
- Easy to read display.
Cons:
- The available bluetooth kit is not so good. Other headunits have built-in bluetooth that works like a charm.
- MultEQ could have been integrated in the headunit itself to save everyone the hassle.
- Faceplate build quality is not the best compared to motorized fixed ones. I guess this is the case with all headunits with removable faceplates anyway. But it does stand out if compared to other removable ones.
Rating: 4 / 5
As I’ve only had this about a week, there are probably numerous things I don’t yet know about this head unit. That said, I think there are a few flaws with it. When scrolling through songs using the rotary knob, it just feels natural to click or push the knob to select something. This doesn’t work; you have to click the Enter button next to it. Also, I wish it was possible to customize the display more than what comes stock. Anyways, I would completely recommend this product and I would personally purchase it again. I love using the iPod with it; I never liked having 100 CDs in the car. A+ product!
Rating: 5 / 5