Motor Vehicle Tips

Alpine CDA 9857 Radio CD MP3 player Full DIN in dash 50 Watts x 4

The all-new CDA-9857 goes beyond traditional radio, with Full Speed Connection for iPod, SAT Radio ready, HD Radio, BlueTooth, and Windows PlaysForSure compatibility. Make room for plenty of music. In addition, this head unit is specially designed with Full Dot-Matrix Biolite for a sleek, easy to read display. Start off your sound system with this essential head unit, and expand is within your reach. Remote Control included.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Great CD player
I have this in my Scion tC and it’s been a great upgrade. It’s waaaaay louder than my factory stereo and has some pretty awesome features, too many to list. Controls are easy to use, and the iPod connectivity is great.

The screen doesn’t have any fancy animation, which is great cuz that stuff is distracting anyway. The display is very simple and straight to the point.

Very high quality item. It’s a great addition to any car.

5 Stars Good Head Unit!
I’ve been installing Alpine Head Units in my cars since the late 80’s and this Receiver is the best yet. Currently I’m using the internal amp, and the sound is really good considering it’s only 18 watts a channel. Eventually I’m going to wire in an external amp and I like the fact that I have front and rear outputs, as well as a pair of bass outputs. The controls are very complex, but it only took me a short time to memorize the ones I use on a regular basis. I installed this same Head Unit in my Son’s Kenworth truck with the optional Sirius radio box and an Ipod cable and both worked flawlessly. This is a great Unit!

5 Stars great product best for ipod
having looked and tried a number of headunits i found the ipod integration on this to be by far the best lighting fast… only gripe is that controls aren’t laid out logically… minor though different buttons do differnt things depending on artist, song or playlist but still not a deal breaker… had mine since may 2006 still luvin it oh and another small gripe the sirius tuner could show more info… not really a problem with the 9857 though but with the siralp1 tuner.

4 Stars Nice Radio
I really enjoy it. The menu buttons are a little confusing trying to figure the “enter” button. Lots of features and the display is cool. Good luck.

5 Stars Great stereo for the price
Great product. The ipod interface is great. My only warning is during the installation. This stereo was installed in a 2007 Subaru Imreza. Apparently there is a power antenna cable that is supposed to be spliced with the 12 volt power cable and wasn’t during the initial installation. Had to go back and it was fixed in 10 minutes. I am now in the market for 2 10″ subs and a single channel amp. I feel as though this head unit is not getting the justice it deserves with only 4 stock speakers…The stereo was packaged in a “Panasonic” cordless phone box which prevents someone from knowing what is actually in the box. Highly recommend!

Buy/More Info

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Alpine KCA SC100 Ai Net Sirius satellite radio adapter

Plug and play in your car! If you haven’t heard yet, satellite radio is the new way to listen to your favorite music, sports, news, talk – commercial free, clear-digital quality, and wide range of programming. With your SIRIUS plug and play device, you can get access to all this and more on the road. Hook up your SIRIUS plug and play device to your Alpine system with the KCA-SC100.

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars Warning no audia alerts for Starmate/Sportster users
If you plan to use this in conjunction with a sirius starmate or sportster you will only get visual artist/song/team alerts. Audio alerts are not available according to Alpine.

Buy/More Info

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Sirius SV2 TK1 InV Satellite Radio with Car Kit

SIRIUS SV2TK1 SIRIUS(TM) SATELLITE RADIO WITH CAR KIT Sirius(TM) complete in-car solution with all connections on the side of unit; Designed to fit easily into smaller vehicles and tighter in-car mounting locations; 10 channel prestes; Easy-to-read 3-line display shows artist, title and channel information simultaneously with push-button controls; 1-touch to Sirius(TM) traffic and weather in national top 20 markets or tune to favorite Sirius(TM) channel SIRIUS(TM) SATELLITE RADIO WITH CAR KIT

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars No Complaints Here; I like It!
This was a Christmas gift for the wife. I purchased this to see how things would go (service, installation and pricing of Sirius), well, I’m pleased. They have won me over.

I like the SV2 for it’s simplicity and ease of use. My wife has no complaints; she spends more time in her car than I do, so it is worth it. I’m thinking of taking this SV2 & upgrading her to a different model. Folks, you can’t go wrong here.

5 Stars Commercial-free radio rocks!
I initially had no interest in this product but I received it “free” with my sign-up for DirecTV just before Christmas 2007. After using it for two weeks, I really like its programming and the quality of the signal and NO COMMERCIALS! I look forward to football season and getting numerous game broadcasts from all over the nation!

I installed it in my car using its built-in FM-transmitter function (I tune both my FM-radio and the Sirius FM-transmiiter to an unused station.) I initially mounted the Sirius antenna on the car roof with the antenna cable hanging down through my sunroof. I later moved the antenna to inside the car at the foward-most part of the dash just under the front windshield. After using it like this (with wires everywhere!), I am very pleased and have decided to sign-up for long-term Sirius service. I am now paying to have it professionally installed using a direct line-in to my factory radio (i.e. no more FM radio broadcasts). I never thought I’d pay for radio but I’m convinced it’s worth it if you can afford it.

5 Stars Great product
Both other reviewers didn’t rate the product. They rated amazon’s service. The product is great for it’s price. It’s can be hooked up with it’s built in fm transmitter or directly with it’s headphone jack (which does not include the wire and requires you to have an aux in for your vehicle). Both work well and the sound is crystal clear. The missing features are easy indoor hookup (no compatible boom box) and lack of rewind/fast forward but neither are needed for car only use.

1 Star Lie About Shipping Time — Buy From Someone Else
Seller mislead/lied to me regarding the shipping time. My order has taken over 2 weeks to process and I still haven’t received the product. Pay no attention to their “delivery estimate” because it means nothing.

Do yourself a favor and take you business elsewhere.

3 Stars Wires or Not?
The Amazon Product Review for theis radio states both that “you’ll have to connect it to your stereo console via wires” and that it “includes a built-in FM transmitter that sends Sirius radio programming to your vehicle’s FM tuner, so you don’t have to make a direct connection”. Which is it?

Buy/More Info

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Alpine CDA 9884 In Dash Radio CD MP3 Player Black

If you want a great-sounding head unit, with flexibility to add on and control multiple sources – the CDA-9884 is it. The CDA-9884 is an Ai-NET head unit, so you can connect to various media sources and formats – including HD Radio, XM or SIRIUS satellite radio, Bluetooth connectivity for hands free calling, CD changers, and other auxiliary sources. Whatever your choice the CDA-9884 will make all your sources sound great using its high quality 24-Bit DSP to make sure you get every musical detail from all your favorite digital media. This unit also offers blue-red selectable illumination and a crisp dot matrix LCD display to show off all your song info.

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars Looks like a childs toy.
I installed this radio in my 2000 Celica. When i purchased it i thought the lights would change from red to blue. Only the main 6 buttons do.

The built in amp is not that great and the sound quality for some reason dose not sound as good as the bottom of the line 9872 or the next model up the 9886.

I did not like this radio. My be she is so ugly i did not get a chance to know here. Unless you have a Pontiac or a porch the red lights are horrible i could not get pass them. They are not amber they are red like Christmas lights. It looks like a childs toy. I returned this 2 days later.

If you use an external amp and you have red dash lights this may be the radio for you. I believe Alpine made compromises on sound quality to get all the features they wanted at this price point.

I hated it

Franklin

2 Stars TERRIBLE DISPLAY!!!
HAS A TERRIBLE DISPLAY!!!

Uses a display with little dots which cannot be seen on a bright day, and ESPECIALLY if you are wearing sunglasses. These dots are set to SEEM bright enough in a indoor display area, but get it outside on anything except a perfectly straight angle (who has a radio at eye level?) and forget it! The display cannot be seen!

Also avoid Al and Ed’s as they will sell you this knowing it cannot be seen, then charge you a second install fee to replace it!

5 Stars good but needs ad ons
It’s a great unit but, all the features are ad ons. It’s set to except only apple ipods and I know there are fifty other brands. I had to use an fm transmitter.Sound quality is good . A little tricky setting a station.

3 Stars Nice unit, good sound, poor display, limited ipod connectivity
I bought this unit because I had another Alpine unit in my other vehicle and really liked it (CDA9857). Although the sound is what you would expect from an Alpine it still needs some work to make it an excellent product.

My complaints are 1) The display only shows one line for the song or artist or album, you cannot get artist/title which my other unit does.

2) It does not shut off the iPod when you turn the ignition off on the car. I drained the ipod twice before realizing this. I have a 4th generation iPod, so it may work correctly with newer ones. My understanding is that there may be a special cable that fixes this problem.

Buy/More Info

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