Alpine quality in the dumps??
 

Went looking for a deck with nav and backup camera capability etc for the wife's Xterra, and to my surprise the local shop I have dealt with for a long time stopped selling Alpine products.

He said they are now built in China (I thought almost all of them were by now??) and the quality has went downhill, and they had enough of returns. They have sold Apline since at least the early 80's..very interesting as this is all I used to buy.

Any audio fans shed a light on this? Has Alpine become a Wal Mart brand?

Re: Alpine quality in the dumps??
 

None of them make stuff like they did 15 years ago, but people dont buy the stuff like they used to back then either.

I've been looking at head units and have been pretty disappointed in how cheap most of them seem now. I'm going with a Pioneer.

Re: Alpine quality in the dumps??
 

I honestly think most headunits are garbage anymore. Car audio definitely isn’t what it was 15-25 years ago. I used to be a HUGE Kenwood guy and now not much of a fan. I think most mainstream companies are good in their amps and speakers but no so much on HU.

Re: Alpine quality in the dumps??
 

Pioneer NEX series for my last one. So far, it has been good. Pioneer has fairly decent tuning capability, really like the apple carplay. Just wish it did carplay w/bluetooth instead of cable.

Re: Alpine quality in the dumps??
 

Call Cruchfield and see what the representive would recommend.

Re: Alpine quality in the dumps??
 

It will still handle the play and basic control functions, just not full integration. I have an NEX unit with the Android Auto and Apple Carplay functions. I can plug my android in for full nav/display/audio control. If I only use bluetooth, I still get track, skip, volume control and it will still display artist, time etc...It just won't do the nav etc through bluetooth.

Actually, this discussion is a great time to plug Ronnies C10 talk podcast. They just did an episode with Kicker on modern car audio and addressed some of the quality discussions we're having.

Re: Alpine quality in the dumps??
 

I thought I would bump this back up with some of my recent experience. I ordered a Pioneer as I mentioned above, got it and it had a small scratch or crack in the face plate. Figured it was a one off defect so I had Crutchfield send me another, only to get it and it have the same issue. So I talked to Crutchfield about the problem and they said they would check my replacement before they sent another. After a week of not hearing anything I contacted them only to find out all of their remaining stock had the same mark.

Pretty disappointing, not sure what to get now.

Re: Alpine quality in the dumps??
 

I used to be a huge Alpine guy as well. Last fall, I decided to replace the factory nav/DVD head unit in my Silverado, because I wanted CarPlay. My requirement was that I retain all of my factory options (back up camera, nav, factory rear seat entertainment, Satellite radio, etc). I was on the fence between the top end Alpine ILX and a Pioneer NEX 8100. Ended up going with the Pioneer, and couldn’t be happier. When the time comes to do audio in the 64 C10, I’m going to give it a hard look again. My son has already been asking if he can have a backup camera, and subs like my truck... I think I’ve created a little monster!