anyone know what kind of D/A converter in Alpine CDA-9835?
 

would like to find out if it's 1bit or 24bit. Looked at the manual and many web sites and couldn't find that info. :dunno:

either way its not going to make an audible difference (despite what some ppl seem to think)

In reality the 1bit version actually has at least one advantage over the 24 bit.

I think it is a 1 bit DAC: http://www.carstereo.com/forum/showthread.cfm?tid=13726&fid=5

I looked in the manual on the Alpine site, does not even mention it in the specs.

1 bit dac.

I don't know about you Haunz but I for sure can hear a difference in a single bit dac to a multi bit dac. This was a favorite thing to compare for our customers actually. We took two Denon home units, fired them into the same amp and same speakers and using the same cd in both units compared the two. For most people the difference was immediate, they heard things in the music that the single bit just could not offer, for others they just wanted a cd and would not pay the extra $100 to go to the multi bit unit. I guess it depends on what the customer wants and is willing to pay for.

I have heard some pathetic multi bit units over the years as well. Now that I stock the multi bit Premiere units as I did not have a basis to judge them on, the Eclipse in my opinion still clean their clock.

If you listen to your car parked in the garage or compete in sq, then sure, go for the ungodly 24bit units.
But if you are daily driver, I'm not really suuuure.

I find that if you listen to alot of mp3's that a 1 bit DAC is more apealing than the 24 bit. When I went from my old Kenwood HDC-x859 to the Pioneer 7800, I could hear a difference as well in the audio. But the pioneer clearly showed every little flaw that the mp3 compression has. Those flaws arent neraly as evident on a 1 bit DAC.

As far as I can recall that unit has 6x1 bit DACs as does the 9833, I think all the other units except for the F#1, had single 1 bit DACs, though it is not listed in the manual. I remember seeing it listed on the Alpine site, and "Defro" had mentioned it in a few posts years back when I queried as to the difference between the 9827 and 9835 in terms of circuitry. Excellent units by the way, I've had my 9833 for 1.5 years now with nothing but great sound!

is this in fact true?

I just called Alpine of America and they said it's 1 1-bit DAC

^ maybe what he meant was 1/ 5 channel 1 bit DAC.