KTX-100EQ - Alpine Sound Tuning Kit for CDA-9887 CD receiver

by Alpine

Product Details

• Item Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds
• ASIN: B000XPM3P2
• Item model number: KTX-100EQ
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,389 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 22, 2007

Product Description

* IMPRINT sound processor for use with the Alpine CDA-9887 CD receiver * rental kit minimizes your expense for creating the perfect listening space on the road * automatic or manually adjustable 3-band parametric EQ, high- and low-pass filters, and time correction * included microphone lets the IMPRINT measure the acoustics in your vehicle * sound settings are stored in your Alpine stereo's internal memory

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Game Changer, September 26, 2010

By 

Sharkman (Abbotsford, Canada) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: KTX-100EQ - Alpine Sound Tuning Kit for CDA-9887 CD receiver (Electronics)

I had owned my head unit, an Alpine 9887, for 3 years until I tried the KTX100EQ. Sound quality had been acceptible but when I ran it at higher volumes it seemed harsh in upper frequencies, a common occurrence with car environments. I should say I have Focal Polyglass components, the 130v2, for front speakers, stock rears, a PPI amp with 75watts x 4 and a basic 12" MMats sub all installed in a Honda civic, 2003.

I had toyed with the idea of replacing the front speakers or moving them to the kick panel in an attempt to get away from the harshness, and replacing the amp. I bought this kit as a last chance before replacing everything, as I had come to appreciate the Auddysey system in my theater receiver (which is what this product is, Auddysey for your car). I thought I might have to rip open my dash to hook things up, but it wasn't necessary, I just plugged in the laptop, the mic and the 9887 to the KTX100. You run the program, moving the mic to up to 6 locations, but I was happy with three, and it took maybe 20 minutes.

The results were stunning. The harshness was gone. The soundstage spread out over my dash with the vocals somewhere in the center(Previously, the vocals so obviously come from the left and right speakers, but now they are above my dash in the center). The speakers disappeared and this wall of sound engulfed me. I toggled back to the pre-imprint settings, and the vocals, instruments and sound dropped to my knees where the speakers were obviously unable to recreate the sound properly. I turned on the imprint settings and marveled.

One more thing about the sound. The car environment was tamed. The frequency response was very flat, not adding or taking away anything from the music, something that is impossible to achieve with a mere head unit. One possible shortcoming for those who love bass. The program seems to reduce the bass level for some reason. So I simply set my amp's gain down several dbs before running the program and turned it back up after.

So now I don't need to replace a thing. My car sounds better than my old school home stereo system. I wish I had done it 3 years ago. If you are looking for sound quality in your vehicle I don't hesitate to say get an Alpine deck with this feature, buy the software kit, and prepare to be blown away.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It does the job you CAN'T do., August 11, 2010

By 

Pyrethrin - See all my reviews

This review is from: KTX-100EQ - Alpine Sound Tuning Kit for CDA-9887 CD receiver (Electronics)

I'm an audio purist and really relished the idea of using a signal processor, let alone God forbid eq'ing anything. After one session of using this product, I have changed my mind because the results were so fantastic. I had owned the Alpine 9887 head unit for about one month. I had tuned it as well as I thought I could with the time alignment and the crossovers. The unit itself is in three-way mode so that the tweeters, mids and lows all receive separate signals. It is a sweet setup with Vifa ring radiator tweeters, Polk Audio mids and a JL Audio sub. These are all flat drivers, so I expected that I would not have to eq anything. I did find that even though I had a great soundstage and an excellent overall sonic experience(using a 4 channel vacuum tube Butler TBD amp), I could tell that something was lacking.

I tune with my ears so I couldn't tell you what exactly the problem was, but there was an issue. I liked what I was hearing, but uh uhh, not enough cowbell or something. My standards are high. I have the pleasure to enjoy ruler-flat loudspeakers in my home and in my friend's home driven by classic tube and solid state gear. I know what kind of sound I am after. I want big and puffy with lots of syrup and plenty of crunchy. I want to be able to see my sounds and I need it to sound airy, open and natural, otherwise it hurts my teeth to listen to a less-than-perfect stereo system.

So when I couldn't possibly take it anymore that mobile audio system sounded imperfect, I felt the need to take it to the next level and that meant trying out this product. With a laptop running Windows XP, it was very, very easy to setup. I aligned it for the driver's seat and carefully moved the microphone for all of the measurements. It took less than one hour and was about as fun as watching a progress bar over and over again could be. I don't really know what this thing was doing. Anyways the results were unmistakably remarkable. It really clarified that low frequency problem I was having and gave me even more attack on everything. The soundstage widened a bit and it didn't sound harsh or unnatural.
Because I need my frequencies equally represented and I am not a bass fanatic, this unit delivered on giving me quality bass response. Nice and tight and it sounds like it's all up front. I would suppose that the average listener who enjoys their "bumps" would be disappointed, but for an audiophile, it was like as if a magician had fixed the frequencies of my system. Almost every disk in my collection is completely listenable now and I don't have to avoid putting in certain ones because my system's flaws would show up.

My system isn't flawless. There are a few things I would like to upgrade and I know that some interior enhancements would make a difference to dampen vibrations. Anyways there's nothing I can do about the shape of the interior, the glass, ect. This product took what I got and made it quite listenable. That's what I wanted out of it and I knew that my head unit doesn't have nearly as many tuning parameters to do what this thing can do and some of those tuning parameters like tuning the phase in conjunction with the time alignment would not have been possible if I did not use this magic microphone system. All in all, if you are a serious sound nut like me, then you have no alternative but to try this out. For some people I imagine it will make a night and day difference to their sound systems. I'm really glad it tamed my system so easily.

3 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Alpine Junk, April 12, 2009

By 

Joe Darooky "Average Joe" (Forest Hill, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: KTX-100EQ - Alpine Sound Tuning Kit for CDA-9887 CD receiver (Electronics)

This was a monumental waste of money and time! I bought this for the
sole purpose of using it with the Imprint software. After 6 hours of tuning
and re-tuning, I'm giving up. This is the last piece of Alpine junk I'll ever
buy. I've had to dig deep into many audio forums to learn how this over-
priced piece of hardware (and companion software) is supposed to work.
Why? Because the instructions give you nothing but a brief overview of
each new function in the dizzying array added to the already poorly laid
out options on the head unit (in my case a iDA-x100).

I've re-tuned about 15 times and each time I get different results (none
have been great). The staging does improve but there's a huge loss of
bass and the extreme highs (ride cymbals, hi hats, etc).

In a few years, we'll all look back on these ripoffs and know why no one
buys Alpine audio any more.