Product Description

The all-new CDA-9857 goes beyond traditional radio, with Full Speed Connection for iPod, SAT Radio ready, HD Radio, BlueTooth, and Windows PlaysForSure compatibility. Make room for plenty of music. In addition, this head unit is specially designed with Full Dot-Matrix Biolite for a sleek, easy to read display. Start off your sound system with this essential head unit, and expand is within your reach. Remote Control included.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48944 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Alpine
• Model: 9857
• Dimensions: 6.00 pounds

Features

• Tuning Range: 530-1, 710kHz
• Usable Sensitivity (IEC Standard): 22.5/27.0 (V/dBf)
• Peak Power (Maximum): 50W x 4 High Power Amplifier (Micro Dynamics )
• CD Changer Control Function
• Fold Down Face: Flip Down Face

Customer Reviews

IPod to Go!
I originally bought the CDA-9856 and exchanged it for this CDA-9857 model. Why? I have a 30 Gig IPod and it's difficult to dial through all of my 100's of albums/artists/playlists, let alone songs, with the slow rotary dial while I'm driving. The 9857's "Percentage Search" skip ahead feature makes selecting/playing music from the IPod a real pleasure. The 9856 doesn't have this feature. Also when searching albums, the 9857 displays 3 albums at a time, whereas the 9856 only displays 1. Both head units, however, only display 13 characters of the album/song title. This makes it very difficult to select the correct album if you have several with the same name for the first 13 characters, or perhaps multiple discs of the same album, but easier with the 9857 because it shows 3 albums at once. The 9857 is also a digital display, rather than analog as with the 9856, and the digital interface really speeds up the menu item selection and seems to make the IPod interface more "stable" (I had a problem with the MIX feature alternately refusing to turn on and then randomly turning on by itself with the 9856). Is it worth the extra $100? Well, I plan on keeping this car and this head unit for 5-8 years, so the ease of use that the 9857 offers makes listening to my IPod a pleasure that I'll enjoy for years to come, and to me that's worth the extra money. This is a darn good unit.

Nothing better for me right now - but not 'perfect'
I use this with an iPod interface cable and an XM-direct receiver, both do just about exactly what you would want them to. They should implement the iPod fast scroll interface rather than using the station buttons to move through the lists 1/6th at a time. But that's a small gripe, it is still reasonably easy to find any artist or album out of my 8,000 or so tracks split over more than 400 albums and 200 artists. One thing most people won't care about, the RCA pre-out pigtails have been replaced with sockets on the unit, for my VW installation this considerably reduced the amount of wiring I had to find somewhere to conceal. The display is very clear but they removed the motorized tilt that was often useful for improving visibility on the older model.

I seldom use the FM or AM radio though when I do it seems to work about as well as any outdated technology, sensitivity is probably better than the older unit, either thar or they improved the local FM transmitters.

The XM controls are also well integrated, you can search by group or channel and the control usage is similar to that for the iPod.

I had an Alpine 9815 before this, it was very hard to scroll through the albums, I seldom listened to the tracks in the middle of the album or artist list. They have reduced some functionality though, but it's nothing I miss. I trade the vastly improved iPod interface and display for the esoteric sound controls that I never used.

A miracle in every way
After looking for months for a head unit that would handle satellite radio (XM or Sirius) as well as AM/FM, CDs, and iPod, I finally located this remarkable little device. The iPod link is everything you could expect short of a clickwheel (or multi-touch, as on the iPhone announced a few days ago): you can search by artist, album, song, and playlist, as well as do second-order searches (songs within albums, etc.). Or you can use the Direct Search function, in which each of the six preset buttons takes you through 1/6 of your music library -- push 1 and you go 17% of the way through, 2 = 34%, etc. Very convenient. The display software is sensible and flexible, so you can customize the readout for all functions. Hint: if you want whole titles of songs instead of a limited-character readout, redefault the song-title display to scrolling right to left. The sound, even with factory speakers, is just great, again for all functions including the iPod. You can't do half as well with anything else.