Turboready

Hi Guys, I am an electronic techie and used to be an audio addict but have lost touch of the scene.
I loved Alpine HU since the old days and built many systems using them.
I have been researching a bit and was sad to see Alpine loosing ground because of a declination in quality and performance, this is hear say.

I was looking at the CDA-9886 for a couple of reasons, USB, IMPRINT, crisp sound, being Alpine of course and lastly the color options since I am installing it into one of my BMW's and would like to maintain the dash color. I know a guy who has the CDA-9887 for $300 bucks, a few months old with warranty, but I preferred the USB feature.

Though there seem to be some negative comments about it, most had good to say so I am leaning towards it. Where would you guys recommend purchasing it from. Best Buys have it but not on sale.

Thanks.

godzilla1978

I have the 9886 and it's a very good deck the only differance between the 9886 and 9887 is the 9886 is imprint ready and the 9887 has imprint already in it. I'm pretty sure the 9887 has USB input as well. I would say go with the 9887 because you don't have to buy the imprint box and it will save more than one imprint setting I belive. If you imprint the 9886 you have to get the box or find someone who has one but once it has been imprinted you have to keep that eq cause changing the bass or trebel will erase the imprint setting and you would have to get it imprinted again. Hope that was of some help

Turboready

Thanks for the reply godzilla1978, but it does not support USB. Thats the only lacking feature. I might consider the 9887 still. Thanks for the reply.

godzilla1978

The usb module is about $120 so you might want the 9886 cause as far as I know the imprint box is about the same as the USB module.

Turboready

Ya, I did see the cost for the USB module, that really sucks, cant believe they would make such a nice high end unit with out USB. I guess the decision would be to either buy the 9886 with USB and no imprint or the 9887 with imprint and no USB. It might be wiser to get the 9887 with imprint and do without the USB feature for now or wait to see what Alpine comes out with next.

The waiting sucks since I just installed a high end alarm system and wanted to install the HU before bolting up back everything.

Thanks again.

godzilla1978

I'd just get the 86 cause the USB is very handy. I myself have a 4Gb memory stick and no longer use cd's. The alpines already sound so nice do you really need the Imprint to set your eq and stuff. I'd prefer t have the USB and spend some quality time tuning my system myself. It's a car do we really need time correction in a car?

Turboready

True

Very true especially since I am an electronic techie and can custom tune the HU to my liking. The new technology is always nice to have though especially when we can hear the difference. I have not been able to hear it but would like to.

Best Buy told me that the 9886 was on sale before for $ 249.99 will either wait on the sale or shop around.

Thanks for the replies, will be in touch when I make the purchase.

Turboready

I was looking at this thread as well

http://www.canadiancaraudio.com/onli...vs-9886-a.html

Turboready

godzilla1978 I will go with the 9886, lowest price I could get it for from a dealer here is CDN $ 289.99. I am not a penny pincher but Best Buy told me they had it for CDN $ 249.99 and that it might go on sale again.
Unlike Future Shop, Best Buy would not tell you exactly when it will go on sale nor sale price. Future Shop always do and would even give you the sale price using their discretion if it's not on sale, too bad they don't carry Alpine.

The guy who is a dealer told me he is a die hard fan of the Alpine but told me to look at the Eclipse CD-3200 which he said had a lot more features and blue tooth connectivity, cost was lower than the 9886. He said he hated the look of it though, I looked it up online and don't like it.

So I will get the 9886 hopefully soon, thanks for all you replies godzilla1978

Father Yuli

iTrader: (17)

sick deck, the only downer is that none of these alpines have low pass filters or crossovers.