Question Of The Day:

ironmanerz

OK...I AM GOING TO BUY A NEW DECK, AND AM DECIDING BETWEEN THE SONY CDX-MP70 WHICH HAS G-PROTECTION AND PLAYS MP3S OR AN ALPINE OF SAME VALUE THAT WILL NOT HAVE G-FORCE OR MP3 PLAYBACK. I SEE THE PREAMP OUTPUT IS DIFFERENT BETWEEN THE TWO. THE SONY IS AT 2 V AND THE ALPINE IS AT 4 V...JUST WONDERING IF THIS IS SOMETHING TO BE WORRIED ABOUT. I PLAN ON USING ALL AMPS (NONE OF THEM ARE ALPINE) TO RUN MY SYSTEM...ANY COMMENTS WOULD BE GREAT.

PoweredByDodge

well -- fact is, dollar for dollar, alpine decks are vastly better than sony decks -- the sony mobile ES series is quite nice but that is sony's "Creme de le creme" line and is very expensive (one deck is 2 grand i belive).

the sony xplode line is not very good though.

even though it has mp3 playback, i'd still take the alpine (which i think the new alpines all are mp3 capable -- look into it).

as far as preamp voltage -- 2 volts max is actually 1.1 volts usually... and 4 v max is usually 2.2 v rms.

if you plan to run more than one amplifier (or a 4 channel amp) per output, you will want to have that extra voltage --- it will let your amps run cleaner --- also, higher voltage running through the preamp RCA wire will mean you have less of a chance of picking up interference (also called 'noise') in the line, which means your music sounds better.

Thus, you can see why i strongly reccomend the alpine -- and alpine also has a reputation for being "rock solid" and some of the best / most reliable / most sturdy and good sounding decks under 500 bucks. ((if you've got money gorwing on trees, then get a Nakamachi or a McIntosh -- but for us poor people, alpine and pioneer are usually the decks of choice -- eclipse also makes a good product at a reasonable price))

you might want to look on ebay -- sometimes you can find the older discontinued alpines for half of their retail price -- my CDA-7863/7864 was only 179 dollars new in box as compared to its 400 dollar retail price.

sntnsupermen131

alpine dude...alpine
-Cody

djsSHO

Alpine is vastly superior.

I've got a alpine head unit and 3 alpine amps...

great combo with polk speakers and subs..:)