Last car stereo question for awhile... Alpine Vs Pioneer

[scottmandue]

I want cheap simple radio with blue tooth...

Narrowed it down to these two:

Amazon.com: PIONEER DEH-X6600BT CD RECEIVER WITH MIXTRAX(TM): Car Electronics

Pros: Five band EQ, selectable color of back lighting, on screen music Info.
Cons: None that I know

Amazon.com: Alpine CDE-143BT Advanced Bluetooth CD Receiver: Car Electronics

Pros: Alpine reputation for great sound, large(r) buttons (I'm kinda ham fisted), sound canceling on the bluetooth microphone.
Cons: Three band EQ, no music info (not a deal breaker), no adjustable faceplate color.

Either is the simple radio I want/need and both are under $120

[look 171]

What ever happened to those green glowing square buttons of the old on Alpines? Sorry, I am no help.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by look 171

What ever happened to those green glowing square buttons of the old on Alpines? Sorry, I am no help.

Funny thing is, my dash lights (Miata) are green so the old Alpine would have matched and that is one cool thing about the Pioneer is you can adjust the back-light... Music info thing is cool but 90% of the time I know what/who I am listening to anyway.

[lendaddy]

I have a similar Alpine in my boat, it's fine. They are all fine these days best I can tell.

[RANDY P]

Alpine. Pioneer display in daylight will be a PITA.

Check the reviews.

[Nevergrowup]

I love my brand new CDE-177BT.

[lendaddy]

The Alpines have a more upscale look, the Pioneers look like something a High School kid would design. That's just me...

[onewhippedpuppy]

Alpine is still milking a reputation built 10 years ago. Their modern stuff is mediocre. I would go Pioneer.

[lendaddy]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Alpine is still milking a reputation built 10 years ago. Their modern stuff is mediocre. I would go Pioneer.

I agree, but it was more like 20 years ago or more... Pioneer is department store fodder to me though. The Supertuner days are long long gone.

[drleah]

I got the Alpine CDE 133BT for the 911. Was reasonable easy to install. I swapped the factory head unit out of my work truck for a pioneer that was more expensive than the Alpine. Pros and cons of the alpine:
Pro: Bt much more reliable and streams music. Microphone performs better when using the hands free options (kind of a must when driving a stick)
Cons: wish the faceplate was black but not a deal breaker. Underpowered a little but planning to fix this with a powered sub.
HTH
Leah


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[imcarthur]

Buy the one that has the FEATURES that you want. At that price level, sound quality would be very comparable. And you always have the EQ to balance it if used judiciously.

Ian

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by imcarthur

Buy the one that has the FEATURES that you want. At that price level, sound quality would be very comparable. And you always have the EQ to balance it if used judiciously.

Ian

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Alpine is still milking a reputation built 10 years ago. Their modern stuff is mediocre. I would go Pioneer.

This is the thing, ten years ago Alpine was top of the line... but now... I just don't know.

The Pioneer does have a few nice features that the Alpine does not... but they are all negligible, five brand EQ Vs three band but do you really need five band in a car? And changeable back-light colors.

The pioneer gets bad reviews for it's shiny face (making it had to read in sunlight) but frankly once I get the head unit set up (EQ'ed and stations programed) I honestly don't look at the radio (been listening to the same ten or so radio stations for years and program them in order so I can select a station by feel.

Alpine does get better reviews on bluetooth.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by drleah

I got the Alpine CDE 133BT for the 911. Was reasonable easy to install. I swapped the factory head unit out of my work truck for a pioneer that was more expensive than the Alpine. Pros and cons of the alpine:
Pro: Bt much more reliable and streams music. Microphone performs better when using the hands free options (kind of a must when driving a stick)
Cons: wish the faceplate was black but not a deal breaker. Underpowered a little but planning to fix this with a powered sub.
HTH
Leah

Just to clarify, are you say Alpine BT is much more reliable than the Pioneer BT?

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

1. Alpine is still milking a reputation built 10 years ago.
2. Their modern stuff is mediocre.
'3. I would go Pioneer.

1. True.

2. maybe. - some is more mediocre than other models - the single bit models are higher quality than the others (CDE-147 and up)

3. why? Does it have better sound quality?

- Maybe there are still high sound quality car stereo head units being built - like Nakamichi and Fujitsu 10, etc., but i can't find any of them (I mean stuff that you can plug a USB key into and have it decode D>A and serve as a pre-amp, AND costs less than $1,000).

If anybody knows of something like the above, let me know. I'll buy 3 of them (one for each opposed engined car I own)

[drleah]

The Bluetooth on my alpine works much much better than the Pioneer (AVH-P3300BT). Reliably picks up the music stream, calls are quicker and cleaner. Easier to use, and set up. And frankly, the display is easier to use than the pioneer. YMMV.


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[legion]

Originally Posted by imcarthur

Buy the one that has the FEATURES that you want.

The dirty little secret about all electronics is they are all built at the same factories in China. Quality is no longer a function of manufacturing process or components used--everyone uses the same stuff. The only difference between brands anymore is design.

[86 ssinit]

For what it's worth I just installed the Alpine CDE SXM145T and it installed easy and sounds great.

[willtel]

Originally Posted by legion

The dirty little secret about all electronics is they are all built at the same factories in China. Quality is no longer a function of manufacturing process or components used--everyone uses the same stuff. The only difference between brands anymore is design.

This simply isn't true. My Pioneer was built in Japan, they are not all the same.


photo by willtel, on Flickr

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by willtel

This simply isn't true. My Pioneer was built in Japan, they are not all the same.


photo by willtel, on Flickr

That ain't your average Pioneer. Nice HU.

rjp