Help me choose, Alpine or Sony ??

ttocs · May 4, 2012

sony lost its touch for a while and I agree that it was not worth the time/trouble to look into but everyone that is commenting on them I doubt has done much with the new line. They did some homework on the new units and they are well above the quality of the old units.

Panasonic does actually have a good track record in 12v just not much of a selection and I have a JVC in my truck actually. It has a couple of small bugs with it here/there but still plays.

white95 · May 4, 2012

I went to alpine's sit and yeh, the new line is pretty fugly!

jumbowolfe · May 15, 2012

If Sony's have improved, then you can go that route, but back in the 90's, I went through about 4 Sony CD head units because utlimately they would all fail within about 2 years of use. I've had my Alpine for about 5 years, and its been nothing but solid. It even had auxillary inputs 5 years ago which is nice for the ipod. I'd like to upgrade to something with more of an actual ipod interface, but its hard to abandon a reliable unit.

(Heck I'm still using Alphasonic amps I had back in 89, and they still work!)
New Alpines are ugly though.

RichV · May 15, 2012

I was a big Kenwood fan back in the day, how do they compare in today's market? I gotta upgrade the head unit in my truck and the Wife's Excursion. I'm not a big fan of the dancing lights and bling, just something that works well and can do HD radio and iPod.

I'd probably go with Alpine as well for car audio from the 2 original choices, now home electronics is a different deal. Sony is the shizzle.

ttocs · May 15, 2012

kenwood still makes a nice deck as they always have but I find navigating their menus a little difficult sometimes. There is a bit of a learning curve to go with it.

If you will notice everyones experience that was bad with sony was what, 10+yrs ago? After the ES line died and the explode came they di fall but again they have put some time and money into thier mobil line again and I would give it a look today if I were looking for a new deck. With that being said I am still running my alpine 9887 from 6 yrs ago but that deck with its internal cross-overs and auto-adjusting EQ option was made more for the SQ arena which you have to pay to play in.

Venomized · May 15, 2012

Id say go with Alpine if your stuck between the 2. Sonys new lin is still crap just upgraded crap. Alpines line is non eye pleasing but their technology is superior to most. Id also look into Kenwood. I'm still rocking a kenwood deck from quite a few years ago because of the EQ and cross
over functions along with the aux and usb/ipod interface. They're clean decks as well but not up there with Alpine. The technology is pretty close though but as ttocs said they have a learning curve to go with the

DropTopPony · May 19, 2012

jumbowolfe said:
If Sony's have improved, then you can go that route, but back in the 90's, I went through about 4 Sony CD head units because utlimately they would all fail within about 2 years of use. I've had my Alpine for about 5 years, and its been nothing but solid. It even had auxillary inputs 5 years ago which is nice for the ipod. I'd like to upgrade to something with more of an actual ipod interface, but its hard to abandon a reliable unit.

(Heck I'm still using Alphasonic amps I had back in 89, and they still work!)
New Alpines are ugly though.

Those Alphasonic Amps are rock solid and are as good as anything out today. Made in USA and Zed designed.

DropTopPony · May 19, 2012

Oh on topic...

I've been using Alpine units for over 20 years and they are my first choice, but in todays market just about everything is made in China so I don't expect the quality to be there with any brand so buy whatever has the most features and best deal.

Never had good luck with Sony head units or car audio in general, even the nice ones that were made in Japan.