I have a 93 camry with...

Front:Alpine type R 6.5 (2 way)

Back: Alpine type S 6x9 (3 way)

No subs, no amps and I am not going to be getting any.

I used to have an Alpine 9833 until it got stolen! I was very happy with the proformance/sound/eq controls etc.

I just bought an alpine 9851 and I do like it quite a bit, but I have never heard the Pioneer deck on my alpine speakers so I don't really have anything to compare it to other than my 9833.

Should I take back the 9851 and get the pioneer deck? I ask this because I heard a lot of bad stuff about the newer line of Alpine decks.

Thanks for any input!

thats the exact decision i had.

i went with the 7700mp from pioneer. great unit. kinda dont like the analog button for changing tracks, but quality wise its perfect for my needs.

but i also went with it because my sister gave me staff price from futureshop since she works in car audio [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

Oh ya, I could get staff price on that as well. I forgot about that.

Any other Comments?

I've never had an alpine deck so don't know how they are, but i've only ever owned pioneer decks (have had 2) first was a cd player and the one now is mp3 premier p740MP and I have no complaints. Pioneer decks put out good sound, and have some nice features.
What voltage preouts does you alpine have?

2v for alpine

2.2 for pioneer

oops sorry didn't read everything you wrote, I guess pre-outs aren't a big concern of yours if you aren't getting any amps.
Looking at the specs of the decks alpine puts out 18wrms x4 and the pioneer puts out 22wrmsx4 so the pioneer has more power(not necessarily sounding better) all the other features are basically the same, Pioneer has a nicer display in my opinion, honestly as much as i like pioneer I dont think that you will really notice a difference in the sound