Car Tech : Alpine CDA-9856

This is the best stereo I've ever had. The sound quality is excellent (even with the factory speakers in my Civic). The best feature is that I had a wire run into my glove compartent so my iPod hooks directly to the stereo...much better than the awkward fm transmitter dock I was using. I was worried about the speed of the iPod controls on the deck. I had read several bad reviews of the Pioneer iPod interface adapter. The common complaint was that controlling the iPod from the cd deck was painfully slow. Since I have 45 GB of music in my iPod, I didn't want scrolling through music to be a problem. The sales associate at the store assured me that scrolling through tunes would be fast and easy. I am sooo glad I listened to him. Easy to use, great sound, happy customer! Hide Full Review

I just recently purchased and installed one of these bad boyz. The quality is top notch, but it's a little too much power for my Infinity Refference speakers. This unit is best for someone who is planning on or already has a subwoofer. It is a powerful deck! Hide Full Review

This was the first time i actually bought a CD player for my truck. I always have had some way to get around paying full price, but i went ahead and got the 9856 after a kenwood, and Dual fiasco. The alpine beat them all, hands down. It was so nice that someone broke into my truck and stole it 2 MONTHS after i got it. Fortunately thats what we have insurance for, so i will have my Alpine back in no time. Definitely worth the money, you wont be disappointed. Hide Full Review

- I have two of these head units in my cars and boought them specifically for the ability to connect and navigate through an iPod.

Worked just super . . . for a few months. Then the oddest, unpredictable glitches started to arise. Then two iPods in a row go down. The only commonality between the iPods is the use of the Alpine cable and interface.

So, I search the web and find there are more and more of these issues popping up. The navigation glitches, then the changing of your iPod settings by the Alpine, then the frying of your iPod.

Beware, we are at the front end of something bigger. Hide Full Review