I can't decide between the Alpine 9857 and Pioneer Premier DEH-P880PRS. Which one gives out better sound quality. It seems like Premier has more feature but I have no experience in terms of sound clarity.

I am just going to use the stock speakers for a while until I saved up enough for a nice 4 channel amp and speakers. It seems like the pioneer might be a better choice with 5V preouts and stuff....

 

I have the 9857 with just the stock speakers. Its awesome love it! I mainly bought for the easy IPOD interface.

 

i was contemplating between the 880prs and the 7800mp pioneer decks and i bought the 7800 mp

 

What's the reason for picking the 7800 over the 880?

 

I liked the 880, but it seems the features of 2 are very similar and the 7800 is more aesthetically applealing. I felt like the 880 was kind of plain, but in a way its also a clean subtle deck which is why i looked at it in the first place. They are close in price but i just didnt see the need to spend any extra $ on it. I just feel like between those 2 decks, its a question of what you think looks better because they seem to perform identical to each other

-Steve

 

Ive always been a fan of Alpine, but that Pioneer has those Burr Brown DAC. Thats huge as far as sound quality goes. DAC=Digital to Analog Converter. It takes the 1 and 0 's from the CD and changes to the analog wave form that your speakers produce. Thats the like heart of the processing. If you look at really high end home audio products, you will see that they have the Burr Brown DAC's. It might not seem like much, but thats really going to make a huge differnce in the sound quality.

 

Woah, I didn't know Pioneer used Burr Brown DACs! Mmmm... Burr Brown...

I used to use Sony's CDX-C910 and then the C90, along w/ a CDX-C91 changer. All had Burr Brown DACs. I also used a MP3 Sony changer for convenience and if you played the same CD each changer, you could easily hear the difference between the two.

I've always been a fan of Pioneer decks. I've never used one in my own car, but my roommate was a die hard fan of them, and they were really solid decks. Great sound and he never had a single problem with them. Sony decks, on the other hand, are crap. Even the two ones I mentioned above. They sound great, but the ergonomics, engineering, and build quality are crap for decks that retail for $1200.

So I guess I'm saying I'd vote for the Pioneer

 

Yeah, back in the day when Sony made thier ES line it was acutally really good stuff. Thier high end ES decks where some of the best you could get. But now a days Pioneer and Alpine are pretty much going to give the best features/sound quality. Specialy Pionner stepin up to the plate with the Burr Brown action.