My Alpine 9855 blew up during the install. I checked out the 9857 and was shocked - It was stripped of features! I can't imagine why anyone would buy alpine anymore. Once the feature leader, now Alpine is just a joke.

So, I picked up the Pioneer 7800, and Pioneer ipod/xm etc stuff.

A few thoughts:

It has a lot of nice display options. I really like the twin meters. for some reason, the display inverts, which is really annoying, especially at night. Havent found a way to turn that off yet.

RCA cables... Connected to a small connector, then they can drop directly down. It was easy putting this head unit in without the spacer ring in the Metra faceplate. +1 for Pioneer.

A 16 band graphic equalizer isn't half as nice as a 5 band paramentric EQ. There are some nasty sound problems I can't fix with this head unit, that I could have with my old Alpine.

iPOD control is a little on the slow side, but other than that is brilliant. Its nice being able to use a similar control to the ipod, vs glide touch.

The volume control is not great. It goes up to 60, and requires a lot of cranking to change the volume. It also has sharp burred edges.

As far as the other stuff... Reused Focal Utopias, reused ARC 2100. No sub yet. And my amp is starting to crackle when the gains are changed.

Pioneer IPbus... I kept plugging it in backward, heheh. But... Its major drawback is each device requiring its own power and ground. Alpine's AiNET with built in power was much more convenient.

Deadening...
I used an entire gallon bucket in the hatch area of the car. It claims 50 feet of coverage, so its thick. That's backed up in most places with edead sheet damper.

The front of the car uses 3/4 of a bucket, and has at least 1 layer of sheet everywhere but the floor, which is only painted.

The outer door skin has 2 layers of sheet, with one layer of liquid on top behind the speaker. The back of the door panel has 2 layers of sheet where I could get it. The front has a very thick coat of liquid, with as much sheet damper as I could squeeze in.

All that said, the car is not any quieter, though I didnt really expect it to be. The door still resonates terribly. Lets put it this way - WITH all this damper, it sounds SIGNIFICANTLY worse than the speakers did in my Subaru with NO damping.


Put the tweeters in the interior door latch area, slightly angled.

Now as far as XM...

It's bad. Really, really bad.

I don't mean the policies. the line up. The price... I mean the most important factor to me - The way it sounds.

This is how I rank it:

<- XM * FM * * * * * * CD ->

For anyone considering it: If a 96 or 128kbps Mp3 sounds OK to you, you will be OK with XM Radio.

If the sound of overly compressed music drives you nuts, you'll hate it very much. Lets put it this way: It renders Focal Utopia Speakers, ARC Amp driven... to the likeness of a clock radio. I'm very disappointed.

Pics later.

 

Kale, when you post pictures, could you take a picture of how you have the fan laid out in the amp rack? I might add 2 small squirrel fans from PE for each of my ED amps..

THANKS!

As for the sound you are getting, could it be the Head unit? or is it just the nature of the beast in a C5? although if you amp is crackling when moving the gain maybe that is were some of the sound issue is as well

 

Congrats on the setup, should sound great.. with CD of course. I look forward to the pics.

XM and Sirius both sound like heavily compressed MP3 and unfortunately it's in the source, not the device. I had my old original SkyFi modified with an optical output (way back in the day b4 they stepped on the service) and I run a Soundstream DAC plugged into the AUX input. It is *maybe* a hair better than what it sounded like straight out of the 1/8" jack.

Congrats again and enoy!

 

hmmm.... that is an honest review, sorry to hear things aren't turning out as well as we all hoped. i agree with the sound deadening thing, my car isn't really 'quieter' but it feels more solid to me and the squeeks are gone. i have yet to hook up my amps so i can't comment on the audio portion.

as far as the doors, did you keep that rubber cover or did you replace it? I'm hoping that replacing it with a piece of wood will improve the sound from my speakers. i wonder if that may help with the way your system sounds too?

overall; say with a cd or ipod connected, are you at all happy with the system?

 

I will agree with your assesment on Alpine. IMO they have gone downhill since the 7998. I looked at them when I needed a deck for my Rover but decided to go with Clarion and so far I am happy with it.

 

overall, yes. it sounds about 85% as good as it did in my Subaru. I think some EQ work, and it will sound great.

Also, I see the need to isolate the speaker from the door panel. It osunds much better without the door panel on. Ill have to build a ring in front of it.

 

how about some non hardening sculpting clay?

 

actually, I have some of those old closed cell foam XTC baffles... Im going to cut the bottom off, and "inverse mount" them. Hopefully this will keep the speakers from distorting with the door panels, and not kill my off axis response.

Or maybe ill tilt the speakers with a spacer, and use expanding foam like I'd done in the last car, to aim them.

Or cork.

also, Focal's STRIPED wire is positive, so m ytweeters are out of phase with my mids. Oi.

 

That's a good tip. I'll keep that in mind as I build my custom lower door panels.

 

I have the 7800 in my truck. I thought about Alpine and passed as well. I like the Pioneer- it's got some funky controls. But once you learn them,... it has a lot of bang for the buck. I also picked up a Garmin 550 mobile NAV. It saved me from taking the big $$$$ plung of the AVIC. And I like it even better.

 

i just got a 7998 (have yet to install it but i'm very excited). I currently have a similar Pioneer in my coupe, but i don't particularly care for it....probably because both the door speakers were disconnected when it was installed (this was before i owned it)
Alpine does seem to have gone downhill in recent times....they're more focused on Ipod compatability and pretty lights than actual quality.

i'm sure if i tried i could give the pioneer a chance, but i like the design of the 7998 so much better....not to mention it's easier on my eyes at night.

 

The 7998 is still a better unit than the Pioneer 7800 for sure.

I wish I still had mine.

Funny thing about alpine, is they are losing the pretty lights too. Display features and quality are getting worse and worse.

The 7998 has the best display.

The 9857 is pretty much a joke as a head unit in general.

It'd be OK at no more than $100 though.

 

I spaced the speakers out another half inch, which fixed that strange low frequency distortion. This puts them at about 3/8" from the factory speaker grill. Some thick foam will finish the job. I also applied a thick foam to the rear of the spacer ring. I added a little more deadening to the back side of the panel. Now, I can hit the speaker ring fairly hard, and feel little to no vibration in the door panel. This is very good.

 

 

Holy crap Kale I just glanced at your profile and your 38k posts .. dude thats insane

As for the install I hope you are getting a little more satisfied with the sound ... as soon as I figure out my rear amp mounting over the carpet I am going to tackle my A pillar tweet aiming ... always seems to be something to fix/change/replace heh

Fej

 

Getting better every day, the more I mess with it.

Here we go!


Starting at the source.


This is how the power is connected. Notice how I added the stud to the factory terminal.


This is how it looks now. Pretty stock looking eh?


View with the edead liquid applied. Dont have a shot after I added the sheets.


This ended up in here because I was 8" short on cable, and the stereo shop wanted $3.50 a foot for 4 gauge. In the speaker housing it goes!

Guts:


Pushed in, angled (though now I wish I didn't) tie strapped, siliconed.

btw, when a 2" hole cutter snaps and fires a red hot bit of shrapnel at you (because you ignored the max rpm markings) -- well, that really sucks. I clamed the drill onto the stump, and continued. The second one was easier to cut, i ran the drill in reverse which worked MUCH better than forward. Go fig.



Pic does not show the 3/4" ring I just added, which greatly helped sound. 1/2" mdf mounting. damper on both sides. Several layers of damper on door interior, and outer door skin. Also liquid all around.


Doesnt look bad.





Very happy with this HU so far, especially the ipod control.

Ipod is in glove box, mounted to the metal support bracked under the airbag. Eaasy to get to, hard to find to steal.

 

Sweet
Now what did you wind up doing with the sub and amps? Your running the IDMAX 12 right? What did you decide on for an enclosure and where did you place the amps? Pics?

 

The amps are just in a box on the rear shelf, standard amp rack location. It will be carpeted eventually.


IDMAX isn't mounted yet, I'm still working on that. I'm doing hte volcano, with 1 change - The sub will be tilted toward the REAR... You normally see the volcano with the sub aimed forward, but I've always found a rear facing sub has slightly more volume.

The ring will be 5.5" raised rear, and 0" front, to give you an idea of the incline.


I just need to glass the box.



as far as the 9855 I fried goes, alpine will fix it for $100, so I might have that done, and put it in my other car




Future changes:

* Changing interior footwell illumination to blue
-Changing door switch assembly illumination to blue
-Undecided on climate control, because of warranty concerns.

* Further isolate mid from door panel using closed cell foam, or cork, cut to shape.

* better integration of tweeter and door handle assembly - bondo + paint?

* Rounded top on amp rack box, with carpet that spills over the wall of the car and behind the seats, for seamless and invisible appearance.

* HUMount or VRUMVRUM mount.

 

lookin good man... especially after all the problems in the beginning

 

Can't wait to see final pics.


Now that's a small statement that if you're painting the surface takes a ton of time.

I bought all of my stereo components ~18 months ago . . . custom flares, stereo fiberglass fabrication time and a new baby have set me WAAAAY behind schedule. Hopefully I'll be back on my stereo project in full force by middle February.