carls2004

Poop.. Got a email from supervette's and they refunded me my money on the sub enclosure as they said manufacture out of business... Stinks..

racebum

vettenuts is a good place. see if they still make them. last i knew they were made on demand

02BlownZ06

I think they still do. You can talk to Mark and tell him what you are looking to do and he should be able to build the boxes to your liking and tailored to the type of sub you are using. He was a very good dude to deal with and was willing to work with you on price if you are buying a package of items.

carls2004

Just as my place i bought my Alpine 960HDMI said,,, that there will be big price drop on the alpine because of issues... Amazon has them for under a 500.00..
Mine has been ok i guess besides Buggy bluetooth, and my ipod issue working... And NO there was no improvement in audio compared to my pioneer AVH-5700 with both decks sound settings all set flat... Only thing i gained was NAV .

racebum

#1 why would you listen to both set to flat?

#2 if you don't hear a difference even there it goes back to what i have said earlier. some people lack the genetic ability to differentiate tone. they don't hear the differences i can or others can. i have a friend like this. i can play things that sound night and day different to me and he can't tell which is which. it's like many things. some people are more or less gifted than others. if you can't distinguish tone audio is probably not your pursuit. you'll literally be happy without having to try and chase perfection. you're not alone. a sizable percentage of the population is this way. you see it on AV forums when people say "receivers sound the same" while i hear very obvious differences between brands preferring marantz, hating low end yamaha. being okay with higher end yamaha, somewhat disliking modern denon {yes they sound different than marantz} and having no opinion or experience with pioneer or onkyo. they all sound different to me and the range of being able to tune varies greatly

there are also no bluetooth issues i have came across with any phone, s5 or newer. they auto tether on start up. this is myself and others with this deck. if it drops connectivity you have a weak signal or interference from something and or a defective deck

carls2004

I tried flat only for comparison that no diff in sound.. And no i do not use deck with all audio settings flat.. Was just pointing out what i was told way before i bought it, that there would be no audio improvement. And i do have a pretty good ear.... And i here ya on that home A/V, as ive tried newer unit's and didnt like .So im using my Trusted Yamaha RX-V1800..

And i dont use a iphone i use a android ...
Also there is known issues with the bluetooth being buggy and the ipod issue also ..
The place i bought it from is willing to sell to me for 400.00 now... as to many returned...and price drop for them to get and stock.

02BlownZ06

I have a little more experience here, having owned most of these brands of receivers and pre amps. I have went through mid level Yamaha, High end Onkyo, High end Harmon Kardon, and finally settled on Marantz. My current home preamp is a Marantz AV8801, ($3800 original retail I believe) and it demolishes all of the aforementioned brands, with the Harmon Kardon a distant 2nd. The Onkyo was brutally harsh, and the Yamaha very average. The difference in sound between all of these brands is huge. The Marantz, by far is the smoothest, cleanest, sounding preamp of the bunch I have owned. All preamps were tested using multiple high end Sony ES line main amps so it was a good apples to apples comparison.

I can't emphasize enough the difference in sound quality I experienced between the Alpine and Pioneer. The instant I powered it up and put a CD in, the SQ made my 7200 sound like a Sparkomatic. My emphasis is that that was how it sounded to me. People definitely hear differently. People used to come in the store all the time and I would demo cheap speakers compared to good speakers and many customers liked the cheapos better cause they were more efficient and played louder and sounded good to them. More power to ya if that's the case.
There has been a general consensus by quite a few though that think the Alpine 960, 957 etc. sound pretty damn good and I am definitely in that camp.

02BlownZ06

I haven't had that experience it all. It controls my Ipod, Iphone perfectly and the unit itself is working like a Singer Sewing Machine. I couldn't be more pleased, although I would like to move up to a 957 or 967 mechless at some point.

racebum

and i hear it. older HK was great sounding. they aren't really making much anymore though. i have 3 marantz receivers here. sr5011 in my bedroom. sr5006 in my office and sr5007 in the living room.

another bang for the buck buy. also have an adcom 555ii pre amp and 5300 amplifier in the mess room i probably should sell since it hasn't been used in a year. it was another bargain buy

some people just don't seem to hear the difference, can't express it, don't care? i have no idea. the one friend i have says he literally can't hear a difference between things that are obvious to you and i

carls2004

Well im thinking you 2 are just stuck on Alpine...And it's most likely the reason other's dont reply in this thread as it be useless... Sorry but the 960HDMI is no better sound S.Q. than say the pioneer..And 02Blown you said a few times you noticed better S.Q. immediately after swap..So maybe ya didnt have it tweeked good.. It's all in your head's..
I only gained when i swapped out my amp....

racebum

it isn't alpine. the sony rsx-gs9 is even better.

i'm not sure how old you are or if you have been exposed to loud sounds and lost hearing but the difference between the brands is obvious to me. pioneer is the worst of the bunch

there are certain tones and sounds that some people literally can't differentiate. you may be one of those people

i had the same result as blownZ. i had a completely tuned 4200nex i was toying with. popped in the 960 and was like wow. obviously it wasn't perfect as it just turned on but my god. the vocal clarity. i could hear a breath. all the subtle details that were missing came back. the 2-3khz range didn't make me want to strangle someone.

i think the reason you're having such a time with this is because to you, there is no difference. like my friend shawn, you can't hear it. like eyesight hearing is largely genetic. would be curious to see if your parents or siblings could hear the difference

carls2004

Naa wrong....
As i stated i can here. So i guess the amp i put in, that is a improvement and i can here that wow in the improvement was all in my head. With the deck swap nope.. And just like other's have stated outside of this thread..There will be no improvement.

racebum

if you just want to argue find another person. it's not helpful

you have also never really stated what improved? amps can create a different impact. spl changes. the force felt changes. again, my buddy shawn notices this but like you can't hear subtle tone difference

so either behave like an adult and contribute or don't

there are a couple of facts to cover

1. you don't hear a difference {fact by what you have said}
2. myself and blownz hear an obvious difference. {fact by our own ears]

consider we are all correct for a moment

carls2004

I'am behaving... Just stating the fact's.. No improvement with the deck as othere's off this thread have noted..
I orig was sent to this thread from other that everyone said no improvement. And i have to agree.

TheProsecutor

My experience is that Alpine is far superior to Pioneer. The new Kenwood is getting close in sound quality to the Alpine. I spent an extra $300 and it is well worth it. The Sony RSX-GS9 plays DSD but I still have not found enough songs in that format to make it worth it. There are plenty of .flac files to keep me busy.

02BlownZ06

Carl's, sorry you aren't happy with the Alpine and don't be hatin on us bro. I gave my personal experience and opinion to hopefully be helpful and insightful to others and it is my opinion, only. I thank Racebum for the suggestion of the Alpine as it resurrected my system to a level of sound quality that is pleasing to my ears and frankly I just love to talk car audio and relish the input and the debate to continually learn. I certainly am not an Alpine homer as I bought a Pioneer! I do prefer the SQ of the Alpine by a large margin. The two sound so different it's kind of like comparing an Audi to an Oldsmobile.

Do you want to sell the Alpine? I bet there are some guys on here that would jump on it. It's a blue collar deck with caviar sound quality.

Speaking of learning, Racebum you should start a tutorial thread on the fundamentals of speaker and enclosure design, explaining all the different measurements like Qts, Vas, etc.. and how they are used and play into the design of an enclosure and as a predictor of performance. There are so many misconceptions in car and home audio about specs, features, performance and you read some stuff that people post, and no disrespect to anyone but many reveal their ignorance with what is said.

Here is a classic: Customer walks in and looks at a pair of speakers. First question he asks is how many watts do those put out. LOL, I don't know how many times I heard that question. Then you get the modestly educated customer who asks how many watts are those speakers rated for? That provides further education and then once in a blue moon you get the customer that asks the right questions like how efficient are those speakers? What is the composition of the cones and surrounds? What type of tweeter design is it, soft dome, piezo, ribbon, etc..? Is that a ported or sealed enclosure? Are they bi-ampable? There are only about million things more important than "How many watts?"

This relates back to the Alpine, Pioneer comparison or comparisons between amplifiers and comparisons between speakers. How can a spec sheet for a JL Audio amp be not all that much different looking than a spec sheet for a Lanzar amplifier, yet the the actual sound and performance is as different as night and day? Specs never tell the whole story. The Pioneer 7200 specs out wonderfully and looks to be as good or better than Alpine in every category. It sure doesn't sound as good to me though. Once you gain the experience of listening to to different brands of gear, you can start to identify trends and in often cases predict what you will be getting. Don't just look at spec sheets though. Do your research! Try and hear what you are buying if you can. Just my .02.

racebum

mentioning of which there's a free flac download set if you want to mix up what you listen to

https://alldj.org/2017/10/21/paul-oa...7/#more-132924

02BlownZ06

Yeah the 2 to 3k range was not tolerable. I sooooo wanted the Pioneer to be the savior. It looked good, had a great feature set and convinced me to buy as a result, but I just couldn't take the sound.

racebum

pretty much. if you perceive tone rather than just impact it's the worst of the current choices

some people who feel sound as impact don't seem to mind them.

i used a friend of mine as a guinea pig recently with various sounds and speakers. he really can't hear tonal change. it's all impact. he can hear distortion well enough but some of the details and just overall tone he's basically deaf to and he's only 35. he can pick up on power, impact, force and major changes in db level of various frequencies but how they are reproduced......nope.

02BlownZ06

That's crazy to consider. Just switching from one artist or album to the next I have to constantly adjust tone to sound right to me, even from one song to the next on the same album. Mild tweaks to several areas on the EQ are constantly done to shape the tone the way I want. The fact that some people maybe can't hear that is mind boggling to me. I never thought of it that way where someone can hear the change in db or the change in impact or force or pickup distortion but cannot distinguish tone. Interesting. I always knew we hear differently, but didn't think someone could be deaf to tone.