Good sound quality. Great build. Pre amp only

Ease of use sucks, display is way to busy. To many features combined into one unit.

Bought this unit and immediately started having problems. Changing a CD is to time consuming, had a hard time playing CDR's. Trying to change radio stations is a distraction. I praise the unit for it's ability to play crystal clear. I've returned the unit for a 7863, and it sucks too, but that's another story

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Alpine 7941... the 7941 blows this unit away big time

This in an excellent head unit with lots of features, and very clean sound. I now have it hooked up to an Alpine PXA H600 digital phase processor via the fiber-optic output, superb sound quality. I am very pleased with this head unit.

Wish it had a rotary volume control.

I paid $540 dollars for it at the Good Guys. If sound quality is what you are after, then I highly recommend this head unit.

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Eclipse, Kenwood Excelon, Pioneer, the Alpine is a better head unit. Has not skipped on me once, even on dirt roads.

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The unit is a very good buy. The sound is absolutely spectacular, and it has ample range to challenge most speakers. For the money, it really can't be beat.
I'm a little disappointed with the display. It seems a bit muddled, and is almost impossible to see when the sun is shining in through the rear window.
All in all, I highly recommend it to anyone who can afford it. Blows similar models by Sony and Pioneer out of the water.

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Exelent quality sounding system, even better with a signal processor connected via optical cable. A must if u are serious about Car Audio.

After a year of use , started to skip in some potholes, nothing exagerated, but theres anything more anoying than a CD that skipps.
The remote control is a joke, difficult to use and has a weak signal.

I paid about US$750 in Peru, and I will recommend it if used with a signal processor connected to the AInet and by optical cable. This is an unbeatable match for sound quality.

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Ive used Sony's cdx910, I think this 2 units are at the same rank,and at In this level its very difficult to difference these products only by llistening..everything depends on ways of upgrading and compatibility with the other parts of the system.

Ok...if your going to buy a headunit for over 500, 600, or even 700 dollars, a range between 500 to 1000. I would take a look at the Eclipse 5506 or the 5504, or the Nakamichi MB100 or the Clarion DRX-9255. These units have better Sound Quality and higher Voltage for a cleaner signal than the Alpine 7949.

The 7949, Alpines top headunit is not something to brag about for the amount of $$$ one puts in. Sound Quality is good. Display is abit much on this unit. Price is a bit ridiculous since there being better units on the market at a little lesser price.

I have had this unit for little over a year, overall it is nice, but for the price, i should of done my homework, there are much better units in my opinion for the price.

Excellent - the definitive head unit. Amp-less design sounds awesome when set up properly. More unnessesary bits on this model when compared to the CDA 7939 but still has the sound quality and future proof features in common. AI Net options are cool but bloody expensive and largely just toys. Optic cable helps sound quality noticably though. V Good.

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I beg to differ with others saying there are better units for the price. I sell them and some of their stiffest competition also. This deck was designed to be a competition sound quality unit. No other unit on the market, except the F1 coming out, has as flat an output. This deck has no sound whatsoever. That means it does not color the music as it plays. What the CD holds is what comes out, no intrinsic bass enhancement or any other bull-crap. This IS documented. I can't remember which magazine reviewed it, but it was tested against the C90 and a high end Eclipse and it tested with the best signal of the three by a lot. Yes skip protection sucks, yes the display sucks, yes it is like operating and ancient MS-DOS computer sometimes, and yes I hate the damn flip-down face, but this deck was made to be good at one thing, and that's output, and it is the best available for that. If you want better, wait for the new Alpine F-1 status headunit and processor coming out and save about $5000 for the pair.

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