I was on Crutchfield’s website looking at the differences between both decks, this is what I found.

Alpine CDA-7893

- 2-volt front and rear preamp outputs, 4-volt subwoofer preamp outputs

Alpine CDA-7894

- switchable green/amber button illumination
- blackout display mode — turns off display, reduces power consumption, and enhances sound quality
- plays MP3 files
- 4-volt front, rear and sub preamp outputs

Does the preamp output voltage really matter? The 7893’s output is 2v and 4v, while the 7894’s is 4v all around. To the front Im going to be running some CDT HD-62EF’s off my MMATS LM2075 amp.

[ June 30, 2003, 04:09 PM: Message edited by: The Professor ]

 

I suggest the 7894...all I ever play are MP3s, and if you have a large music library, you will find this to be an excellent feature. As for pre out voltage, the 7894 wins too with 4v all around...though these newer alpines in general are known to have weaker pre outs than some of the rival brands (pioneer, eclipse, etc).

 

I'd suggest the 7894 for appearance alone, I used to have the same car (EL) and had a green-illuminated 7930 in the dash, looked like isht with the amber dash lights. I now have a 7894 in the wife's protegé (with amber lights) I insisted on
- a volume ****
- 4V pre-outs
- amber illumination
- had to be an Alpine...

so the choice was easy...

 

I find with the 7894 I am still runing a PG line driver for the sub preout, helps keep my amp gain at minimum. Nice deck, I would take either one, depends on your personal taste.

 

Hmm interesting thought about running a line driver even with the 7894 4v preouts. I always thoguht the gain should be right down and when i ran an alpine MRD-M300 as my amp for my sub, i shouldve technically had the gain at it's lowest setting, which was equal to 4V....but you could barely heard it at all.

Anywho, back to the head unit, when i bought my 7894 way long ago, it cost me around $500cdn and that was a good deal, doh. That head unit is probably the best purchase i've ever made. Then again i'm pretty big on mp3's. The fact that i only need like 1 and a half cd's for a 10 hour drive is fairly nice.

If mp3's interest you (which they should lol) i'd definitely say get the 7894, i do kinda like the blue/silver color and looks of hte 93, but i don't mind the black green, and mp3 thats just the winner right there.

 

So I take it that there is a big diff between 2 volts and 4 volts?

 

Well I got a good deal on the PLD1, and by using it at max gain, I keep the sub level on the deck nearly off, depending on the music I am listening to, and the gain on the amp at a minimum. As I am running it 2 ohm mono to my sub, I want to help out the amp as much as I can. The amp I had before could not push the sub into over-excursion, but the RF I am running now does.

 

There is absolutely no way in hell the sub out on the 7894 is 4V! The 7893 uses pretty much the same internals I would immagine, so similar results with its sub channel could be expected.

It is more like a 2V output. I had mine hooked up to an Audio Control Matrix. The LED's showing signal strength were about half on the sub channel compared to the front and rear channels. I ended up boosting the sub rca's quite a bit compared to the front and rears.

The issue has been well discussed on the www.sounddomain.com Head Unit forum.

Its still a great deck! I love the thing. Its the best deck I've ever had SQ wise. And I've owned a ton of decks. Its just that their 4V claim is only true for front and rear channels. If you need more voltage, you're looking at a line driver.

Lardass.

[ June 30, 2003, 06:57 PM: Message edited by: Lardass ]

 

I still run line drivers on my Decks too, There's a CL80 on my wife's 7894 and a CL180 on my 7930, even with the (supposed) 4 volts, there's a big difference.

 

Oh yeah, I've had the 7894 for well over a year and still have never, ever listened to a MP3. I prefer to just buy my cd's.