Customer Reviews

Alpine CD-R/-RW/MP3/AAC/WMA Receiver, CDA-9886

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just installed a CDA-9886 in my car. I have always used Alpine products and loved them and this one is the best I have had so far. It plays everything, MP3, WMA, ZUNE, IPOD, AUX and best of all USB. I connected my 3rd Gen Ipod nano and it worked just fine. I have heard people have switched back to 9885 because 9886 does not turn off the ipod when you switch the car off. It may be fixed in the future but this is no issue for me. 9885 does not have USB capability and this is important as far as I am concerned. USB flash drives have no power concerns, lots of storage for cheap and so convenient. Why would you want to leave your ipod connected to the deck anyways? Thieves would break into your car for less than that. Anyways, if you need a nice looking HU that plays all types of media and offers some of the best features available today( bluetooth, voice dial..) I really recommend this unit.

I have been using Alpine for years and was looking forward to another upgrade to this unit. Initially I was fairly happy about the results until the next morning. I was searching a song on the ipod and got a "error 01", this has never stopped. Alpine blames ipod and ipod blames Alpine. I can use my ipod with everything else, including my Alpine in my truck with no issues(truck has CDA-9883). Upon further digging, I have since found numerous others with the exact same issue on the CDA-9886. So, if you're planning on this being exclusive to your ipod, be prepared to send it back a few times before getting one that works. FYI

The Alpine CDA-9886 is just about everything I expected. I installed in my Toyota Corolla 2005 with Panasonic 6 ½" front speakers & 6"x 9" rear speakers. I use an iPod Nano 4GB 1st gen. version 1.3 & USB San Disk cruzer micro 4GB.
After the settings its sound great, the display is easy to read. The controls are very easy to use. The iPod & USB controls are fast and easy to use. Don't purchase the Full Speed Connection Cable (KCE-22i), you could found this cable inside the unit box :( Now I have two KCE-22i :(

Fundamentally, the sound quality is great. I like the 4 volt pre-outs because I'm using a separate crossover and two amps. Overall the sound is excellent. But the menus--ugh, not at all intuitive. I have three major gripes: 1)No mid EQ--WTF? Both of my former Blaupunkts had treble, bass, AND mid EQ and for less money. With this thing, you need to buy the extra "imprint" system for lots more $ just to have a mid tweak. I always prefer a slight cut in certain harsh mid frequencies and now I can't. 2)Ipod navigation can be brutal on a big collection--for instance if you know the name of the song but not anything else, you can go to percentage search with the numbered (radio station preset) buttons and narrow it down to a section of the alphabet, which can be a pretty broad section, say A-G. But now you have to scroll through all the A to G titles one at a time with the dial, which seems endless. Who has that much patience? Couldn't they find a way to let you go to a LETTER? Also if you're down the hierarchy of folders, say, from artist to album but want to go back up to artist, you have to start all over again from the beginning of search mode--no way to just "go up one level" (left) as on ipod navigation itself and as on my last blaupunkt. 3)Most frustrating: If you are navigating and hesitate a bit too long, it times out and you have to go BACK to the beginning of the whole process. Grrrrgh! In short, I didn't buy another blaupunkt because I had two of them die an early death but they definitely had the more intuitive and functional menu nav. All things considered, I'd rather just have an aux in (which this lacks--it just offers the high speed ipod connect and a USB cable, no aux jack) and just use the ipod itself to navigate.

MP3/Hard Drive issue :

I have always been an owner/user of Alpine recievers. Before I purchased this model, I wanted to make sure that the reciever I purchased had a usb input and had the ability to play mps's straight from a hard drive. It plays them just fine; the problem lies with how the unit navigates the file structure you have set up on your hard drive. I have a hard drive with about 80GBs of mp3's with standard Group/Album/Song structure, and instead of displaying only the base files, it disays every single one all at once, in a chaotic order. While connected to a hard drive full of mps3's, trying to find a particular album or song using this reciever is painstakingly annoying, and in some cases it won't even display certain folders.

For mp3 purposes, I think it's time to say goodbye to the hard drive idea and say hello to an ipod; at least with this reciever.

Overall I like this player. I replaced my 7894 with this unit so the install was seamless and even the wire harness was identical. The sound quality is good and I love the USB interface. I subtracted 1 star for lack of some features my 7894 had. Being the same price range as my original I expected comparable features The two particular features is the output power is lower and Media Xpander is missing, although the Media Xpander is available via an add-on module (For $150 list). I subtracted a second star for what I feel is pure laziness on Alpines part, although I have seen this same attitude used on other MP3 Players.

From the manual:

"Files are played back in the order that the writing software writes them to the disc. Therefore the playback order may not be what is expected. Verify the writing order in the software's documentation"

Now for a CD this is somewhat acceptable dues to the fact most software will show you the order before you burn this disc, BUT for the USB interface this is just annoying. There is no OS "manual" that says how the files will be arranged on the USB stick, and short of dropping one file at a time on the stick. Alphabetical sort has been around for 20+ years in software.

I don't use the iPod very much but it seems slow and unresponsive compared to the USB and CD interface.

I do like the interface and ease of use and navigation through large file and directory structures via the search.

Over all it is a good solid player but leaves me wanting just a little more effort on Alpines part.

I purchased this head unit to replace my failing Clarion head unit that I've had for roughly 5 years. I am glad I picked this one. This thing is AWESOME. It was an easy install and it came with a wiring harness. I like the display. There are 4 screen savers you can pick, but that's not really my style. The display is bright and clear. I have a 80 GB Classic Ipod and it works great. I was impressed with the search function and the head unit's ability to pick through all of my songs. This head unit is worth its price.

I bought this unit to replace the stock bose in a Maxima. The receiver plays my mp3's beautifully from a 4GB flash drive as advertised with no noticible lag. The USB drive cababilities is why I chose this one, and I haven't been disappointed in that. I am however disappointed in the lack of sound adjustments that can be made without shelling out the additional $150 for the compatible EQ system. For this type of deck, I expected more than a bass and treble control. Even a short list of cheesy pre-sets like rock, jazz, etc. would help out. Ultimately I ended up buying a sub because the bass couldn't be adjusted to an acceptable level, without loosing the highs. If you buy this unit, plan to invest in an EQ and possible a sub and you'll be happy - I am!

I purchased this deck because of other positive reviews elsewhere on iPod functionality and speed. I tried all of the Pioneer/Premier decks and they refused to work with my 4th-generation 30G iPod Photo, whereas all Alpines worked fine with it. So, Alpine it is. I can navigate playlists, artists, whatever, and the performance is great. It also looks better than the drab monotone blue on the Pioneer decks. It's still too new to get a sense of the sound quality, but I find it hard to believe it would be an issue considering I was upgrading the factory deck on our 1999 Subaru Outback Wagon.

I did not purchase from this seller but this is an amazing head unit. I've owned Sony, JVC, and Pioneer; this Alpine is by far the best of all of them.